InformAction Forums

Frustrating: FF (which my OS calls Iceweasel) slows, slows, and then sinks into the mud. Yes, it could be that there is some incompatibility that is my fault: I insist on using Debian GNU/Linux Etch, which is not the very latest of the Stable Debian releases, and that means I have Iceweasel 2.0.0.19. (I'll get to Lenny, the current Stable, shortly, but I still won't have the newest version of FF.)

I disabled NoScript, and the problem immediately went away.

This may be a NoScript bug, and it might not. It's odd, IMHO, that things would work well for a long time, and then go sour. Maybe the latest update to NoScript??

Of course I could be dealing with some unknown problem -- such as a bad ISP that just by coincidence bogged me down repeatedly, and now is working fine. ISPs where I am (Bangkok) are horrible and utterly unpredictable. But maybe others have noticed this, so I'm posting. Meanwhile I'm leaving NoScript disabled and waiting to see whether the problem returns.

That is weird indeed. Have you tried the new dev build? It could be another addon not playing nice with NS, have you tried with a profile that has ONLY NS and see if it keeps happening? Do you have any additional scripts created to run? You gave alot of good info but a bit more environment info might help narrow it down.

Uh, sorry about posting in the wrong forum... No, I have not tried another build of FF/Iceweasel, and frankly, I really don't want to because it seems to me to be unlikely to accomplish anything. One of the major advantages of using Debian's Stable is that the apps are about as rock solid as they can get. I'm a computer user, not an IT pro or hobbyist, so I don't do builds from source unless it's absolutely necessary; I'd just uninstall and reinstall the same version from disc first, but again, I see no need even to do that. I don't think Iceweasel would go off the reservation without making a huge fuss, and I don't know how to explain the quagmire as the browser's fault. I also use Ad Block Plus, and have for a long time, but IIRC there have been no updates to that for months. For now I shall probably just surf with caution, as I don't do much exploring outside my neighborhood anyway, and when I can get Lenny I'll try again with Iceweasel 3.0.6. Too, sometimes things like this are ghosts in the machine: they haunt, they leave, you never figure anything out.

Well to each their own and if you end up figuring out what went wrong or like to share with us later how your update to Lenny went, we'll be here.