Bug#719689: iceweasel completely froze X when typing a URL

[Mike Hommey]

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 12:11:49PM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Package: iceweasel
> Version: 23.0-2
> Severity: grave
> Justification: causes non-serious data loss
> 
> I did the following:
>   * From a blank window, opened 20 tabs from the bookmarks.
>   * While loading wasn't finished, I started to type a URL in the
>     address bar. A pane appeared with a list of proposed URL's as
>     usual, and remained open.
> 
> At this time, Firefox was no longer reacting, and I couldn't have
> the focus on any other window. I couldn't close the Firefox window.
> The only thing I could do is to switch the desktop via FvwmPager.
> 
> I tried to open a virtual text terminal, but everything froze.
> 
> Then I connected by SSH via my phone. I noticed that the iceweasel
> process had a "sh" zombie child (it looks like bug 703472).
> 
> I killed iceweasel with kill -9, but the X system was still frozen.
> I had to kill my window manager (fvwm). Then I could log in again.
> 
> So, the cause may be bug 703472 (not sure because I don't know why
> mailcap would be involved), but this is even worse, as it took the
> whole X system with it.
> 
> What I lost:
>   * All the shell sessions.
>   * The Firefox session when I restarted it (only a few tabs were
>     retrieved). Not much a problem since this came from bookmarks
>     here, but it could have been worse.
> 
> Fortunately, I didn't have unsaved data from other X applications,
> but again, it could have been worse.

Is it reproducible?

You have a lot of addons. Try disabling them.

Mike