FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed it?

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Potatofox
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FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed it?

Post by Potatofox »

Hello everyone!

I have a problem with Firefox which is very slow, under Lubuntu 18.04 32 bits.
Opening a simple Wikipedia page takes 15 seconds, switching between 2 tabs takes 3 seconds even if they're already loaded and open. In the beginning I thought "well it's 32b it's normal", until I tried Chromium, oops it's 3 times faster!!

I tested several 32b browsers, speed is between FF and Chromium usually, they have each one their qualities but also flaws or lacks for my use, so I can't find a good one for me. A solution could be making FF faster, but is it possible?
I tried a few things but my informatics level is low. Avoiding too much addons, taking addons which are told to make pages load faster (e.g. Decentraleyes), but still very slow.

Are there solutions?
One thing came to my mind when I saw that (but maybe I haven't understood) some 32b FF-based or FF cousins browsers which are faster seem to be so partially by removing FF code parts, like SeaMonkey, IceCat, or Pale Moon.
So could I do it in FF installation? Removing certains folders for example, could it work?

First list of thing I could remove (but there are other ones for sure):
-Pocket
-Reader View
-PDF Reader (is very slow, so I could use Evince which is fast).
-Sync.
Last edited by Potatofox on September 27th, 2021, 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ubuntu user (but looking for better).
Sorry for my bad english I'm french.
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DanRaisch
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by DanRaisch »

Firefox is not normally that slow. Have you tried running (temporarily) in Mozilla Troubleshooting Mode? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/di ... shoot-mode
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therube
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by therube »

And/or test with a new, clean Profile (not even sync).
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
Potatofox
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by Potatofox »

Thank you for answers.

Troubleshooting mode test worked! There is a big difference, FF becomes not as fast as Chromium, but maybe 2/3, I would say.
Which surprised me because I already had tested disabling most or all addons and there was no difference, but I'm not sure I did that in fact, I don't remenber very well. And maybe disabling doesn't lighten in fact? I must remove them if I want to test with/without?

Maybe certain addons, or 1, are the responsibles. I couldn't remove NoScript, but 1 could test replacing uBlock Origin by AdGuard maybe, or other tests on this and this addon...
I just disabled secondary ones, and left only 7:
-NoScript
-uBO. (I added some lists, maybe too much?)
-AdGuard. (I took care not to create duplicates lists with uBO.)
-ClearURLs.
-Decentraleyes.
-SingleFileZ (saving zipped pages).
-Kiwix (consulting offline archives of Wikipedia or else).
And I even restarted FF. but still same slowness.

I can add that even the "interface" (is it the right word?) is slow, if I hover a tab, it takes 2 seconds to display the title (but I also just noticed that it is so on my 364 tabs window, but not or much less in my 213 window). And even before loading a page, clicking on the suspended/hibernated tab takes 2 seconds to show it's clicked on and begin to load the page.

Fortunately the test shows that the big number of tabs isn't the problem (or "not directly"?), for I can't use a browser without tab hoarding, so in troubleshooting mode there was still 577 tabs opened and speed was OK.

For the new clean profile, I tried something near I think, that is installing FF ESR (78). If I don't make a mistake and if I remember well, in the beginning it had seemed fast to me, which I thought was because being ESR, I thought I had solved with using ESR, and I spent a few hours customising it with settings modifications and addons, but quickly enough and with only 100 tabs or so it became slow too, like non-ESR FF 92, maybe because it doesn't bear these addons etc. But I can't do without these, and well Chromium bears it, and even IceCat or SeaMonkey or Pale Moon do (or at least seem to? as I didn't use them for days, and not all these addons are available on some browsers).
Not syncing a new install is OK as I don't touch it, I never used it in my all life.

I can make tests on my own and maybe I will find the problem, but I feel that it's gonna take hours (precious hours I don't really have) and not sure that I will find, so thanks if one can avoid that to me.

I also thought it could be because of Lubuntu, so I could also test Debian or else, but well it's on the big list of things I could try for hours.
I must change OS one day anyway because it is in 18.04 and not supported anymore after 2023, but I'm not ready yet for migration. But if you tell me odds are good that this could fix, I would try for sure.
Last edited by Potatofox on September 29th, 2021, 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ubuntu user (but looking for better).
Sorry for my bad english I'm french.
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xanthon
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by xanthon »

I have seen a post by a user who changed his/her proxy settings to great advantage. They are at the bottom of the General page of Settings.
Potatofox
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by Potatofox »

I don't know what to do with proxies, never used it in my life, but I think I understand the principle.
I searched for the user's post, to see what were his modifications and apply it, but didn't find it yet.
But I guess it wouldn't slow local files opening (i.e. saved web pages) so I checked opening ones from my file manager, and well, it seems a bit faster but slowness still here. And anyway this proxy problem can't explain "interface" and "loaded tab switching" slowness, I guess?

I will try again maybe, and search for this proxy topic, but after almost every day since 3 weeks maybe, hours and hours testing browsers or searching informations, and having so many things to do, I'm a bit fed up, I fear I'm gonna give up a bit fast (fast on this topic I openend myself, but not fast after 3 weeks of time lost).
(I'll probably take another less slow browser, despite all of them having their lacks for my use as I said.)

I tested a 30 tabs window, to see if it was faster, as the 213 tabs was less slow than the 364 tabs. So I feel that it was a bit less slow than the 213 tabs, which would follow a certain logic.
Ubuntu user (but looking for better).
Sorry for my bad english I'm french.
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xanthon
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by xanthon »

The post wasn't on this forum. I can't provide a link to it but there is this support article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/co ... gs-firefox
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malliz
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by malliz »

The OP's problem is all the stuff he is installing into it and the changes he is making to it he does not need to mess around with proxies at this stage
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Potatofox
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Re: FF very slow (32 bits Lubuntu). Removing parts to speed

Post by Potatofox »

OK I think then my impression is confirmed, it can be a good tweak to speed page loading, that I could try someday, but yet it is different.


*
Back to Chromium.
For the moment I sadly go back to Chromium. I don't tell all my small and low-level opinions about tested browsers, but among main flaws that make me not choose some others:
-IceCat: needs an update for .deb package from FF ESR 60.7 to 78.X if I understood.
-Pale Moon: NoScript and SingleFile not available. One only/main dev? (who can die next week).
-SeaMonkey: wait for next update to see if big modifications make it OK for me.
-Vivaldi: they've got currently a 32 bits update problem. And it has created a overheating issue on my computer, and from fast became as slow as FF, maybe for same reason than overheating.

Chromium:
-Tab hoarding very difficult: monoline tab bar, and vertical tabs could replace but no open source satisfying addon (I tested almost all of them).
-A hundred vulnerabilities currently (just 18 left today?), read on this Debian page which advises to use FF instead.
-Googl€ Services.
BUT fast, and most important addons available.


*
Half give up.
I feel that what I should do is start new install, with 500 tabs, and load 40 to see when slowness comes.
Then do the same with only settings modifications.
Then with adding uBO.
Them with adding lists to uBO.
Then with adding 1 or 2 security addons.
Then with adding yet 1 or 2 other security addons.
Then with adding 2 non-security addons.
Then 2 other ones.
Then 2 other ones.
Then 2 other ones.
(Each time with 500 tabs and opening 40.)
And maybe at step 2 or 5 I will see a big difference in speed, and then find the culprit. But not even sure, maybe it happens progressively! And maybe it will be more complicated, this test wouldn't work for some reason.
But like I said I'm a bit fed up, and missing time, so I rather searched for a miracle solution. So I go back to Chromium but still wanting to fix this with help from this thread if not too long, thanks anyway!

One new thing noticed: even writing/editing a post here is slow, speed is normal in my text editor for draft, but in FF tab for Mozillazine, characters display not instantaneously, same if I erase or if I move the cursor.
Ubuntu user (but looking for better).
Sorry for my bad english I'm french.
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