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Firefox crashes upon trying to play flash videos even in safe mode

  • 14 replies
  • 10 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by oceanic

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Firefox crashes on websites with flash media content. This does not always happen on youtube, but I was able to consistently reproduce a crash upon visiting www.dailymotion.com. The crash also occurred repeatedly in safe mode.

Firefox also consistently crashes when accessing videos on www.spiegel.de

Firefox crashes on websites with flash media content. This does not always happen on youtube, but I was able to consistently reproduce a crash upon visiting www.dailymotion.com. The crash also occurred repeatedly in safe mode. Firefox also consistently crashes when accessing videos on www.spiegel.de

Modified by oceanic

All Replies (14)

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hello, according to the associated bug from the crash-id that you've provided it seems that those crashes are specific to firefox 12 & won't occur in firefox 13 any longer. do you have the ability to upgrade to the beta version of firefox 13 in ubuntu and see if that solves the issue? the release for the final version 13 is scheduled for june 5th...

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thanks for your reply, madperson. i upgrade firefox via synaptic. are there repositories for beta versions of firefox or do i have to install it manually? and if i do it manually, will my upgrade manager still remind me when the final version is released?

also, i see that i have firefox-3.0 transitional package installed at present, while firefox-3.5 is available via synaptic. will it help to install the latter?

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i'm sorry, but my knowledge on the distribution system for firefox on linux & how to install it is very limited (tending to non-existent). maybe someone else could step in and shed some light on it....

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Hi cor-el,

Yes I disabled hardware acceleration on a video on youtube. However, there are still flash videos where the "settings" option is grayed out. I can still watch youtube videos, as I could previously, but videos on spiegel.de or dailymotion crash my browser even before I can right-click and try to see the flash settings there.

This also happens in safe mode.

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Perform the suggestions mentioned in the following articles:

Check and tell if its working.

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Hi mha007,

Yesterday I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Firefox 14.0.1 came as a part of the OS upgrade. The problem with Firefox has in fact gone worse. I can absolutely view no videos, no youtube, no anything.

I went over the three links that you suggested:

  1. Flash: My flash version is the latest available 11.2.202.238
  2. Troubleshoot: I followed the link to 'crashes', my Firefox, plugins, and Linux are up to date. The only thing is, I could not figure out how to upgrade my Intel graphics driver (or whether an upgrade is even required). The system scan applet on Intel's website just doesn't terminate. Just for info, I have Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2 version 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2.
  3. I only have 4 plugins on my Firefox: Adobe reader 9.1, IcedTea-Web plugin 1.2-2ubuntu1.1, Shockwave Flash, and VLC multimedia compatible Totem 3.0.1.

As previously, Firefox crashes even in safe mode. Now, what shall I do?

Thanks a lot in advace.

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You can try to clear the Flash LSO folder (~/.macromedia/Flash_Player).

Did you try to disable hardware acceleration in the Flash player?

See also:

Flash "Display settings" window:

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Hi cor-el,

It seems more and more likely to me that the problem is with my device driver(s). I followed your instructions:

  1. Removed .macromedia/Flash_Player directory. Crashes continue.
  2. I have disabled hardware acceleration in my browser. On the first link you posted, when I right-click on the flash player logo, the "settings" option is grayed out. I can't click it. And my browser still crashes on both HTML5 and non HTML5 videos, and all of the flash stage videos.
  3. I checked the keep-flash-up-to-date link. My flash is up to date, macromedia autodetects the latest version, and does not complain.
  4. I believe that flash "display settings" window appears by right clicking "settings" on flash player. That doesn't work (see 2 above). On my Gnome I couldn't find: System > Preferences > Adobe Flash Player as recommended here http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

Queries about device drivers may not belong to this forum, but could you tell me how I can check if my graphics drivers are up to date?

Thanks a lot!

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Regarding as to how you can check updates for your graphics driver, see this article:
-> Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

Modified by Hasan

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Are there any messages in the Graphics section on the Help > Troubleshooting Information page?

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Hi,

It seems that my device drivers are actually quite alright. I face no problems with videos on Chromium browser.

Help -> Troubleshooting Information page doesn't suggest anything wrong in the graphics section.

Graphics

  • Adapter Description Tungsten Graphics, Inc -- Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2
  • Vendor ID Tungsten Graphics, Inc
  • Device ID Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2
  • Driver Version 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2
  • WebGL Renderer false
  • GPU Accelerated Windows 0
  • AzureBackend skia

Although, after I reset my browser with "Reset Firefox" button, crashes have reduced. Now I also get "The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed" message. Still no video.

On the Flash Player Help / Video playback issues page, HTML 5 and non HTML 5 videos continue to crash my browser. Stage videos only crash the plugin.

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Hi cor-rel,

Yes, all of these videos crash the browser. Although, the last two videos start buffering before they bring down Firefox. Based on the most recent crash, I have updated the crash-ID and other relevant information of in this post.

I have now started to believe that I can save everyone time by simply switching to Chromium.

Modified by oceanic