How to debug FF startup, not using the profiler? After reboot, FF always takes 14 minutes to start the first time.
I run the latest Firefox (v122.0.1) on Windows 11.
Since last week, FF takes 14 minutes to start the first time after a boot. :-( Usually FF starts in ~3 seconds.
I reboot the laptop. I wait a minute. I start FF. Nothing happens for 14 minutes. Finally the browser window suddenly appear and everything is working normally. I exit FF (no remaining firefox.exe processes are running). I start FF again. Now it starts immediately as usual. :-) But: I reboot and start FF. Again, it takes 14 minutes to start. This is reproduceable every time.
I haven't tried to *solve* this by refreshing FF or simillar. Right now I'm more interested in debugging this and finding out what is wrong.
I found https://profiler.firefox.com/docs/#/./guide-startup-shutdown which states how to automatically start the profiler at startup.
12:40 I boot the computer, login and wait a minute. 12:43 I start CMD.EXE and run:
cd c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox set MOZ_PROFILER_STARTUP=1 set MOZ_PROFILER_STARTUP_ENTRIES=20000000 set MOZ_PROFILER_STARTUP_INTERVAL=100
12:44 I run:
firefox.exe
No GUI appear. (it won't appear until 14 minutes later) I open the Task Manager and see one (1) firefox.exe process, taking 0% cpu. (pid 17668) 12:48 One more process running for a few seconds. Commandline is just "c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", no more options. 0% CPU. 12:50 One more process running for a few seconds. Commandline is just "c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", no more options. 0% CPU. 12:52 One more process running for a few seconds. Commandline is just "c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", no more options. 0% CPU. 12:54 One more process running for a few seconds. Commandline is just "c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", no more options. 0% CPU. 12:56 One more process running for a few seconds. Commandline is just "c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe", no more options. 0% CPU. 12:58 The browser GUI finally appear. Everything is now normal. It is showing one (1) tab with my start-page (google) just as it should. (my Task Manager now show 12 FF processes running, with various options) 12:59 I click the icon to stop the profiling.
I open the profile. [Profile Info] says:
Recording started: Sat 17 Feb 2024 12:58 Recording length: 1m12s
So my profiling data don't show what happens between 12:44 to 12:58 :-(
Just for the sake of it, I'm attaching a pic of the first 10 seconds of the profile (at 12:58).
PS: Between 12:44 and 12:58 no FF window exists at all. Alt+Tab show no FF and in Task Manager I can't do any "Window" management, it is greyed out. I.e. no FF window exists for this process.
Question 1) What should I do to debug what happens between 12:44 and 12:58?
Question 2) How can it be that it takes 14 minutes to start FF from scratch (boot) while it starts quickly (~3 seconds) if it has been started once? I mean, all firefox.exe processes are gone when I exit FF, so starting FF again should be like starting from scratch, but apparently something is different.
Question 3) Is it normal that a FF, with only one tab (https://google.com/), run 12 processes in Task Manager?
Okulungisiwe
All Replies (3)
No one have any suggestions on how to debug this? ...to see what is happening after the start of firefox.exe and during the 14 minutes of nothingness...
Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.
Does it still happen with Developer Edition? Make sure you stay signed out of your sync account when testing.