How to Fix Firefox when it freezes completely after open it?

Question

First time ever today Firefox Version 3.6.13 freezed for me on Ubuntu 10.10 64bit.

I open Firefox normally but then nothing respond on the GUI.The only thing I can do is close it.
When Closed I try to re-open but the application still runs on the background
So I have to kill it manually along with Firefox-bin from the System monitor or kill pid command ..
I don´t know what caused this..I suspect Addons or maybe a proxy setting with polipo.
I also installed DockbarX this morning but it seems ok with Chromium now.

Same story after rebooting,
So I left it as it is to find a solution from AskUbuntu
What can I do now? Where do I check the Logs to locate the problem?
How do I get back my working Firefox without Re-installation ?
Any Suggestion is welcome.

Solution 1

It sounds possible you have a problem with an Add-On causing an issue.

I would suggest attempting to start firefox in safe mode with all your addons etc disabled and see if that stops the application freezing on startup. You can do so by running the following command.

firefox -safe-mode

You should then get a dialog box with several options make sure that Disabled all add-ons is checked and click on Continue in Safe Mode. There are other options there to reset certain settings and features that you can also try if it turns out not to be an Add-On conflict. If that resolves the issue remember safe mode only applies for this session so you will now want to resolve which add-on is causing firefox to freeze.

First while in safe mode go to Tools > Add-Ons and disable all installed Add-Ons there that will make firefox run with no Add-Ons next time it is started in normal mode. At that point close firefox down and start it in normal mode to ensure it still runs without freezing and that all Add-Ons are indeed disabled.

Your next course of action if this is all working still is to attempt to enable each Add-On you have in turn, restarting firefox in between each to identify the Add-On which is causing firefox to freeze note it could also be a combination of Add-Ons so in the event that enabling only one at a time does not cause the symptoms next try these steps.

After running through every Add-On singly start enabling all your Add-Ons again restarting with each you enable until you produce the freeze, at that point you know that the last one you activated is conflicting with one of the others enabled prior. You can then use the safe mode trick to disable the others and try each of those candiates combined with just the last suspect Add-On you enabled to find the responsible pair of Add-Ons.

Solution 2

The cause was indeed a specific add-on. In my case it was an add-on called MEGA which supported downloads from the MEGA cloud drive service. I suspect the reason is the change of the URL.

Comments

[Admin]

I also discuss some other useful firefox troubleshooting techniques in relation to a different question

[Denja]

Yes it works! I input the safe mode command disable some supsected addons and Firefox was back and running.I accept this as the solution cause the way was faster.thanks

[Fabby]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Could you please improve this answer and include the exact steps you took for the reputation 1 newbies out there? (Not you obviously) Look at some high-ranked answers to get a fell what a good answer is like... :-)