Slow init load of firefox home page after update from 31.7.0esr to 38.5.2 or newer version. What changed?
This is only at one remote location (all users there). This school is connected to our main site via a 100MB fiber line. Our home page is at the main location and users do not have the issue here. I assume it is a networking problem at that site, but don't know where to look. If I can find the difference between 31.7 to 38.5 it will point me in the right direction.
Thanks for your help. Gene
All Replies (5)
There will be thousands of differences between versions. The mainstream Releases will be updating from Fx48.0.2 to Fx49 before the end of the month. Your ESR should already be on Fx45 not Fx31 or Fx38.
Release notes here
From the release notes you can drill down for details of changes, and even bugs lists searches showing the thousands of changes.
The various built in Firefox tools may help in identifying problems especially if you install a Developer Edition version on one of the machines at the remote site.
Thanks for your quick reply. I've downloaded the developer copy on a test machine that has the "problem". I've pointed it to the same profile. When I load 45.3esr it is slow, when I load the developer version it is fast. I've never used the developer before but I like the look of it :-) Do you have any suggestions for me to do further research as to why the 2 different versions load so differently? They come up to the same home page. Thanks again.
You mention there is no problem at the main site. Presumably if you have a local copy of the homepage on the problem machine that loads ok on all versions.
Do the tools such as the Network Console give any clues.
Even the older ESR versions of the console have the request list and timeline details. It seems odd it should work in an old Fx31.7 and then again in the Current Fx50.0a2 I suppose any security software is set up identically for all the versions.
Sorry I do not know an answer but maybe someone else will make suggestions. Alternatively you could try the EWG mailing list see if they are able to help you.
- See the email form on https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/organizations/faq/
I think I may have figured out a fix. I ran a refresh before (about:support, click refresh) and it made no difference. I just tried it again on a different users computer and it the process was different (a few steps). The first time I ran the refresh it didn't look like it did much (I think the screen only changed once). This time several other screens came up. Also, after running that the slow init load problem was gone. I will test on other systems to verify this resolved the issue. Thanks to everyone for their input.
Ok Gene, that is good news and it sounds like the problem is solved. Some background information:
The Refresh is a user friendly method of changing some of the profile. The method may have changed slightly in different Firefox versions. Sometimes the Refresh does not complete properly. A more useful method is creating new profiles. The current user friendly method of that uses the profile manager from the command line
(There is also a new profile picker about:profiles but that is apparently work in progress and may not work as expected. ) As a Developer or Admin you are probably more interested in how Firefox behaves in its default setup, and then what changes you need to make; or have been made. If preferences are being changed look at the troubleshooting information page
Note however that censors some things for Privacy reasons. What you really need to look at is the content of the file prefs js file because that holds all the changes
That file may be edited directly (but only try while Firefox is closed) & whilst there are often better methods of making changes it is a good method of checking the current status, as is looking at about:config whilst Firefox is open