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Idea #371: Fix Flash Crash In Firefox And Other Web Browsers

bug This entry was marked as not being an idea the 11 August 08. If this is a bug report, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.
Written by tdrusk the 29 Feb 08 at 01:14. Category: Multimedia. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: Not an idea
Rationale
If Ubuntu wants to be a serious operating system they need to fix video playing on sites like Youtube and such. My browser always crashes and it is very annoying having to force quit all the time.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #371
Written by tdrusk the 29 Feb 08 at 01:14.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #371 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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big_mac126@hotmail.com wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:22
i've never had a problem with that

Estesark wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:33
I had a problem with this all the time when using Firefox in openSUSE, but since moving to Ubuntu Firefox hasn't crashed once.

Considering Flash is essentially a proprietary format and it is Flash, not Ubuntu, that is causing these crashes, I don't feel it is an issue for here.

unit3 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:55
File a bug report, as this isn't normal or expected behaviour. Brainstorm is not the proper place to report bugs.

erlehmann wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 05:49
Flash is a proprietary format and the cancer of the web.

Narf wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:48
Latest bug report I've submitted:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/193982

facundocorradini wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 11:49
Go and ask Adobe.

Flash is propietary software and we cannot do anything about that.

And if you want your ideas to be taken seriously, don't start your description with "If Ubuntu wants to be a serious operating system", idiot.

tdrusk wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 12:06
facundocarradini:
I have installed Ubuntu on many computers and I have ALWAYS had that problem. What's wrong with saying that? I hate using Linux on Youtube when it crashes, especially when I am trying to show somebody how great it is...

derspankster wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 13:00
Well, it may be Adobe's problem, I don't really know but something is going on with Firefox,Flash and Ubuntu. While it generally works for me, the browser often goes gray and stalls. Never see this behavior in Windows or on a Mac.

bigdufstuff wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:24
If you are using swfdec, then something can be done to fix the crash, if you are using Abode Flash, then you are at the mercy of Adobe.

tdrusk wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 17:11
I made this thread for proof that it's not just me.

wolfwitch wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 17:22
Amen!

Unfortunately it is Adobe's crap proprietary software, and not really something Ubuntu can do anything about.

I personally hate Flash and feel it is a pox on the Internet, and prefer to avoid sites that use it. Unfortunately- that is hard to do.

I've gotten all-to used to frequently having to kill Firefox.

ubunteando wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 17:54
I dont know whats going on but for me FIREFOX (dint try other browsers) crashes A LOT in Ubuntu and it seems also a problem with flash.

I dont know if its a linux problem also, but in some webpages I have a lot of problems with interactive menus not displaying or displaying underneath flash banners... And it really sucks!

rally25rs wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:09
As much as I know that the issue probably won't be fixed, as its outside Ubuntu's hands, I have to vouch of the experience. I noticed that on my laptop, if I enable 3D graphics acceleration, my vid card only has enough RAM to support 16bit color (its only a 32MB card on an old Dell C610). In 16 bit color, Flash will imediately crash Firefox if you go to any site that has flash on it. In 32 bit color with 3D acceleration off, it works fine. It was really an annoying choice to have to make... Enable 3D accel in 16bit and be able to play some basic 3D games, or have a working web browser...

Linuxratty wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:53
Of all the distros I've used,Ubuntu is the crashiest when it comes to flash..There is no excuse for this,none at all.
When it comes to flash stability,Linspire can mop the floor with Ubuntu,as can Klikit,to offer but two examples.

happy_tux wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 21:18
yup: crashes quite often on flash video sites. need to kill a npviewer.bin file all the time to get back up working.

another note: its probably the website but www.softpedia.com in the Linux section seems to hard crash my browser(firefox) when i scroll down??...needless to say I don't visit that site now :-) Maybe its just me though :)

elias1884 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 22:44
If you want Flash fixed, this probably would appeal to you too:

"I would donate a Dollar for a FREE fully-featured FLASH plugin" http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1895/

"Let's count how many people want Adobe to fix Flash" http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1869/

"I would donate a dollar for getting Flash fixed" http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1869/

rawsausage wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 23:32
It is also Firefox's fault. It doesn't isolate bad behaving plugins from the core like for instance Konqueror does. Crashing plugin can not take down Konqueror because it has an actual architecture. Firefox does not. Open bug reports or comment/vote on the existing ones at bugzilla.mozilla.org I guess...

Gensigo wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 11:49
I am agree with you it's very important !

daretoeatapeach wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 22:36
Whether you like it or not, flash is everywhere. I am running kubuntu right now and because I have a newer processor, there is no linux-compatible version of flash for my processor. I have heard there are open-source versions of flash so Ubuntu _could_ come installed with those. It would certainly help as not having flash is annoying with just about every fifth website. And how I miss YouTube!

Also, folks, please let's not resort to name-calling (you know who you are. >=P ). Everyone is on this site to make Ubuntu better. Take your frustrations out on the code, lovely hackers!

tdrusk wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 14:19
I made this thread as proof that it does crash.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=711080

jonathan324 wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 12:40
I can watch only one flash video at a time. The next time I try to watch a video firefox always crashes.

Eldmannen wrote on the 7 Mar 08 at 01:29
Yes, I get crash many times.

I need it for porno.

madjr wrote on the 7 Mar 08 at 04:01
The slower the processor the easier it is for flash to crash FF.

i rarely have a crash on my intel dual-core, but i get multiple crashes a day on my older celeron/p4/amd single core.

sometimes a crash will even halt my system, because FF stays in memory after crashing... very bad experience.

this has to be fixed. Firefox can't stay in memory after a crash due to flash.

Loïc wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 02:18
Even though Flash is proprietary, Firefox shouldn't crash just because one of its plugins just crashed. If Firefox in Ubuntu was more robust, you'd get the flash animation stop, but not the browser.

rockprincess wrote on the 5 Apr 08 at 21:43
Ladies and Gentlemen,

vent your anger here
blogs.adobe.com

Trust me, everything else is just a waste of time.

because

ubuntu is not going to fix that problem

and firefox won't fix it either.

it's up to Adobe, and let's make it worthwhile and let's post a hurricane of complaints, so they won't forget about us linux users in the future.

Thanks for reading

Warbo wrote on the 11 Apr 08 at 23:18
This happens a lot since a) Linux systems are so varied and b) Adobe spend a lot less time testing for Linux than Windows.

KHTML (Konqueror) and Webkit (Konqueror, Epiphany, Midori, etc.) run plugins as separate processes, so reloading the page will reload the plugins, the entire browser doesn't need restarting like Gecko/Firefox. Perhaps there is a way to poll plugins and automatically reload on a crash?

Nazo wrote on the 14 Apr 08 at 08:34
flashplayer with debug symbols

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/9/flash_player_9_linux_ dev.tar.gz -> /flash_player_9_linux_dev/plugin/debugger/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz -> /install_flash_player_9_linux/libflashplayer.so

douqep wrote on the 16 Apr 08 at 14:44
I've got news for you all. This problem happens on my Ubuntu install, but Firefox and Thunderbird both crash when there's no Flash involved. In fact, today, I can't even use either application--using Opera today. I agree w/ the first post--Ubuntu has to do something about this. Firefox works on every other OS so why not Ubuntu?

kvaju wrote on the 24 Apr 08 at 23:20
Fix flash, please, I'm new in Ubuntu and I really liked it, and hope I'll stay on it, but please, fix flash, my CPU goes over 80 whenever I open a few tabs in Firefox, picture goes black and white sometimes - it sucks.

Please fix this

Bye

nsavage wrote on the 15 May 08 at 07:58
Flash would crash only occasionally with 7.10 for me, but now that I'm running Hardy it crashes non-stop. Sites like You Tube are completely unusable.


jasorn wrote on the 7 Jun 08 at 12:27
I'm afraid this is a Ubuntu issue, too. I know this because I've been using ubuntu exclusively since the 2nd release. And getting crashes on all my machines. I googled and believed it was a flash thing and all distros would have the same problem.

A few months ago I went distro shoppling looking for a lightweight distro for a p2 laptop. I landed on Arch linux. I was surprised when I noticed it didn't crash or freeze at all for a whole week. None of my ubuntu machines can go for a whole day of web 'media' viewing without crashing.

So I thought I'd try Arch on a newer machine. Same results not one crash(4 months now with no crashes). This prompted me to check out some other distros. I have a month on slackware and sabayon, too with no crashes. I finally put unbuntu hardy back on a machine and it crashed within an hour on youtube. I'd like to recommend ubuntu to newbies because it's pretty user friendly but with these crashes, I can't do that.

Before you go blaming compiz, i installed compiz on arch, slackware, and sabayon. So it's not that.

I'm telling you, it's IS a Ubuntu problem.

Auzy wrote on the 7 Jun 08 at 13:00
Checked pulseaudio jasorn?

jasorn wrote on the 7 Jun 08 at 18:14
Auzy, that and a million other things. Other distros I've tried have pulse audio, too. The point I'm making is this is an issue for ubuntu and for whatever reason Arch, Slackware and Sabayon at least don't have crashy pants. If thouse distros don't crash with me installing the same basic apps then ubuntu shouldn't either. Ubuntu needs to sort this out before I recommend it to anyone else.

Auzy wrote on the 8 Jun 08 at 14:00
Maybe its fixed in 10beta.. Dunno though..

zelrikriando wrote on the 20 Jul 08 at 02:51
I feel the problem is partially ubuntu related, I had issues with mp3's/ubuntu(the stability of the whole system) after using some flash on Firefox. Then I followed some instructions somebody gave me on IRC and installed libflashsupport. The mp3's arent crashing anymore and ubuntu is steady again...but Firefox went to unstable-land. This might be better in a bug report, but pushing it on brainstorm might be a + . I know flash is bad, but do not blame everything on them. There is a difference between flash crashing by itself and ubuntu crashing because of flash. The later could be avoided with a tougher ubuntu.

Warbo wrote on the 22 Jul 08 at 21:16
zelrikriando: The reason Flash can crash Firefox is that Firefox is monolithic. Using Flash in Firefox requires adding it directly into the heart of Firefox. If Flash crashes when it's in there then the whole thing dies.

KHTML and WebKit are a bit more modular, so using Flash in those engines involves running it separately. Then if Flash crashes it doesn't take anything else down with it.

The libflashsupport is to do with PulseAudio, the new sound system Ubuntu uses. Sound on Linux has a history of programs conflicting for audio resources, but I think PulseAudio is well on the way to fixing that (there was OSS, which had ARTS and ESD running on top, then ALSA came along but ARTS and ESD didn't work well with it. PulseAudio can replace ESD in a compatible way yet uses ALSA, and ARTS has been phased out in favour of Phonon which can use Gstreamer, and therefore PulseAudio).

parry_mathur wrote on the 8 Aug 08 at 05:00
Who says only windows apps crash? Firefox always crashes multiple times in my sessions. I know i'm not supposed to "scream" or "complain" here, as this is not proprietary software, but it's a little irritating when an 86 MB file you were downloading, was 95% finished, and firefox crashed. I restarted it and it offered me NO RESUME OPTION. My download started from all over again, and is 5% done. It's irritating, please fix it.

droetker wrote on the 11 Aug 08 at 20:47
Noone has anything of "XZY crashed, please fix it."
Linux is a free system, you don't pay anything for it, everything is under free Licences which gives NO grants at all, just look at the GPL once as example.
If you want to have something fixed, please HELP fix it, don't complain.
A _good_ bug report is much help, you don't have to know how to code.

BTW, the problem, with high possibility, is with Adobe, not with firefox.

kvaju wrote on the 27 Nov 08 at 14:34
Today I've got Kbuntu CD (ship it) hoping that KDE version of Ubuntu will not have flash problems.
Unfortunaly it had, my CPU was ove 70% all the time, and surfing was too slow.
I really want to use Ubuntu disto, but this problem is stoping me, only this so I really hope that you are gonna fix this soon..
Till then I use Mandriva.


housiemousie2 wrote on the 27 Oct 09 at 09:42
Flash is causing full system crashes. Is that legitimate enough?

Flash media is everywhere, largely unavoidable, kind of like Windows. It feels like this is getting the head-in-the-sand approach.

I am coming at this from three angles, Ubuntu, Mozilla and Adobe, let's see who steps up first.

Please protect our system from crashes. Contain flash plug-ins as a default.

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