firefox gives "Segmentation fault" after running & working for awhile

Hello,
Its been about two weeks since I reported this bug, yet there is no response here. Please take steps to identify and resolve this bug. I am happy to provide more information if that will help.

Thanks,
Greg

Hello,

Could someone please reply to let me know what is being done about this bug?

Thank you,
Greg

Could you please generate an apport crash report for this? A crash report will help in resolving your problem.
You can enable apport for one instance like this in the terminal:
sudo service apport start force_start=1

I am marking this invalid as apport will open a new bug when the crash
is generated. Please include any relevant information from this report
in the new bug report. If you cannot generate a crash report, you can
reset the status of this one to new and we will try something else. Feel
free to subscribe me to the new bug report so I can assist you further.

I will try to figure out how to file a bug report with apport (never used it before), or add the info to this bug report. If and when a new bug report is generated I will mark this one as invalid. Until then I want it marked as new/valid, so as not to discourage other developers from looking at it and making suggestions.

Thanks,
Greg

An apport crash report is basically a report that is submitted by apport after you enable it and reproduce the crash. You execute the command that drew212 gave you, then reproduce the crash, and file the bug report.

As Micah said, Apport is a program that uploads a crash report and will help the devs pinpoint your problem. Without a proper crash report there isn't much a developer can do to fix your problem. So I strongly encourage you to read: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport. It is pretty automated, but some people do have problems, so if you need assistance let Micah and I know and we'll be glad to help you. Thanks in advance!

Recently a new version of firefox came out and I've upgraded to that. I'm also running apport, which seems to be working.
"aptitude show firefox" says:
Version: 3.6.7+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1

Firefox itself has not yet seg-faulted again (it takes a while sometimes to do this), but it has locked up twice. By "locked up" I mean that the on-screen image of the firefox windows dims (as it occasionally does when accessing the disk for an extended period), and all the firefox-specific controls do not seem to work - but the X control menu, window control and other application controls seem to work fine. For example, I can raise, lower, iconify and move the firefox windows, between desktops, but the "home" button does not respond. I'm not sure how to get firefox to recover from this state, so I have to just kill & restart it. Here is the output to stderr & stdout from firefox:

(firefox:21154): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
** (evolution:27183): DEBUG: mailto URL command: evolution %s
** (evolution:27183): DEBUG: mailto URL program: evolution

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_buffer_get_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TEXT_BUFFER (buffer)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_buffer_get_iter_at_mark: assertion `GTK_IS_TEXT_MARK (mark)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: _gtk_text_layout_get_block_cursor: assertion `layout != NULL' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_layout_get_cursor_locations: assertion `layout != NULL' failed

(firefox:21154): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_invalidate_rect: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_invalidate_rect: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_buffer_get_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TEXT_BUFFER (buffer)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_buffer_get_iter_at_mark: assertion `GTK_IS_TEXT_MARK (mark)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: _gtk_text_layout_get_block_cursor: assertion `layout != NULL' failed

(firefox:21154): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_layout_get_cursor_locations: assertion `layout != NULL' failed

(firefox:21154): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_invalidate_rect: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

(firefox:21154): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_invalidate_rect: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, one firefox-related item does crash and is caught by apport - but apport says it can not retrieve the error message, and it does not support filing reports in such a case. For example, if I go to youtube and try to watch a video, this usually happens. I have an app installed that blocks the playing of the flash video until I click on it. I installed this because I was sick of animated/video adds on sites I visit. This is probably is or is related to this process:
   /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/plugin-container /home/ggh/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so 2651 plugin
 Anyway, I get a first popup from apport saying:

Sorry, the program "plugin-container" closed unexpectedly
If you were not doing anything conf...

Ok - so firefox just segfaulted again. Apport did catch it, but once again had a reason to not make a report (!). A popup says:

The problem cannot be reported:

You have some obsolete package versions installed. Please
upgrade the following packages and check if the problem
still occurs:

firefox, firefox, firefox-branding
[close]

I had just installed firefox 3.6.7+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1, but another update came out while I was waiting for this to segfault: 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1. I have now updated to this 3.6.8 version and restarted firefox running.

Here is the output that was sent to stderr & stdout:

(firefox-bin:2651): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

(firefox-bin:2651): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

(firefox-bin:2651): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x457451c unexpectedly destroyed

(<unknown>:2835): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x4600177 unexpectedly destroyed
###!!! ABORT: X_ChangeProperty: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter); 26 requests ago: file nsX11ErrorHandler.cpp, line 182
_XError+0x000000F4 [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x00043414]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x0004989C]
_XEventsQueued+0x00000037 [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x0004A257]
XPending+0x0000005D [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x00032F9D]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 +0x00059878]
g_main_context_check+0x0000027A [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003EAAA]
UNKNOWN [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003F290]
g_main_context_iteration+0x00000080 [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003F6C0]
_ZN4base16MessagePumpForUI17RunWithDispatcherEPNS_11MessagePump8DelegateEPNS0_10DispatcherE+0x00000056 [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00DA7E24]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00D8265C]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00D8E0AA]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00D9E426]
UNKNOWN [/lib/libpthread.so.0 +0x00006A04]
clone+0x0000006D [/lib/libc.so.6 +0x000DFD4D]
WARNING: pipe error (84): Connection reset by peer: file ./src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 404

###!!! [Parent][RPCChannel] Error: Channel error: cannot send/recv

###!!! [Parent][RPCChannel] Error: Channel error: cannot send/recv

(firefox-bin:2651): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x457459e unexpectedly destroyed

(<unknown>:3950): Gdk-WARNING **: GdkWindow 0x1612777 unexpectedly destroyed
###!!! ABORT: X_ChangeProperty: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter); 26 requests ago: file nsX11ErrorHandler.cpp, line 182
_XError+0x000000F4 [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x00043414]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x0004989C]
_XEventsQueued+0x00000037 [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x0004A257]
XPending+0x0000005D [/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 +0x00032F9D]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 +0x00059878]
g_main_context_check+0x0000027A [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003EAAA]
UNKNOWN [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003F290]
g_main_context_iteration+0x00000080 [/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 +0x0003F6C0]
_ZN4base16MessagePumpForUI17RunWithDispatcherEPNS_11MessagePump8DelegateEPNS0_10DispatcherE+0x00000056 [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00DA7E24]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00D8265C]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7/libxul.so +0x00D8E0AA]
UNKNOWN [/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.7...

Please try again with Firefox 3.6.8 as the reason for the quick release was a crash regression.

I am trying again, but with 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
We shall see.

BTW, if firefox locks up - becoming unresponsive and the windows dimming in brightness as described above (and the HDD activity led is not lit) - but does not segfault - what can I do? What causes this?

BTW,
with the new Firefox I lost the bookmarks/links I put on the toolbar. How did that happen ?

Well, I've been trying for months now to get apport to file a report when firefox crashes (or locks up). Here is a list of things that happen:

1) firefox crashes (or pulseaudio, or plugin container, etc) and apport asks if I want to file a report. Apport then responds saying it can not retrieve the error message, and does not support reporting in this situation

2) firefox crashes (or pulseaudio, or plugin container, etc) and apport asks if I want to file a report. Apport then responds saying my system is not up-to-date, and will not file a report. This is a real problem, because invariably there is some new system update that has come out in the [1,few] days since the last restart of firefox. 99% of the time the update looks completely unrelated to firefox crashing. This really, really needs to be able to be disabled.

3) Some insidious bug causes firefox to lock up and become unresponsive instead of outright segfaulting/etc. The firefox windows dim to show its hanging, the drive may be accessed for a while. But, eventually the drive access ceases, and firefox remains unresponsive with its windows dimmed apparently forever (I once waited more than 24hrs).

Its sad, but my system seems to be getting less stable with ubuntu updates, not more so.

And, damn it, I've lost the system beep. Yes, I know, I'll file a separate bug report.

Lately the favorite firefox failure mode seems to be simply locking up. There is no apparent crash - the firefox windows dim and become unresponsive.

Why does this happen? If its not something you can fix immediately, and ideas on what I can do to get firefox out of the locked-up state?

Thanks,
Greg

Here is a new excuse from apport as to why it can not file a crash report:

Sorry, the program "firefox-bin" closed unexpectedly

Your computer does not have enough free memory to automatically analyze the problem and send a report to the developers.

Oh, and here is another of this:

The problem cannot be reported:

The program crashed on an assertion failure, but the message could not be retrieved. Apport does not support reporting these crashes.