firefox android 133.0.2 blank out when installed ublock origin

[ghajini]

Prerequisites

• I verified that this is not a filter list issue. Report any issues with filter lists or broken website functionality in the uAssets issue tracker.
• This is NOT a YouTube, Facebook or Twitch report. These sites MUST be reported by clicking their respective links.
• This is not a support issue or a question. For support, questions, or help, visit /r/uBlockOrigin.
• I performed a cursory search of the issue tracker to avoid opening a duplicate issue.
• The issue is not present after disabling uBO in the browser.
• I checked the documentation to understand that the issue I am reporting is not normal behavior.

I tried to reproduce the issue when...

• uBO is the only extension.
• uBO uses default lists and settings.
• using a new, unmodified browser profile.

Description

firefox android blanks out or even ublock when extension installed

A specific URL where the issue occurs.

everywhere

Steps to Reproduce

on fresh firefox android 133.0.2
STR=
1)install ublock origin
2)tick next to prevent leaking webrtc from leaking local ip addresses
3)click iam advanced user => change value of filter author mode to true=> close that tab
4)toggle between ublock settings
5) now access firefox android, in my case i accessed firefox synchronise & save data.even without this menu when i access ublock origin popup menu, it still blank out
Firefox 2024-12-06 23.47 profile.json.gz

6. firefox blank out
7. minimize firefox app then come back, its working again with all menus visible

Firefox 2024-12-06 23.41 profile.json.gz

Expected behavior

firefox android menu or ublock popup interface remain accessible

Actual behavior

firefox android menu or ublock popup interface remain accessible

uBO version

1.61.2

Browser name and version

firefox android 133.0.2

Operating System and version

android 12

Notes

• i made sure that i reinstalled firefox for android to rule out possibility of corrupt browser profile

[gorhill]

Since this is a new installation, uBO needs to load all the default filter lists, parsing/compiling them, saving their raw & compiled version locally, then loading them into memory; then launching an update session immediately for a full update of all lists given that they are considered severely out of date, parsing/compiling them, saving their raw & compiled version locally, then loading them into memory. In short uBO is always very busy the first time it is launched after installation, this is expected.

[ghajini]

• i reinstalled browser to rule out browser issue

• earlier it is reproduced even when ubo installation is very old particularly when ubo logger and/or ubo dashboard is open & surfing the site

it is common that due to this firefox becomes unresponsive so that i can't see even firefox settings/menus, firefox does not crash...
this was not present when i use other addons eg say adguard.
i guess this needs to be fixed for fenix browser on mobile devices

[gorhill]

I am just describing what is happening in the profiling sessions you shared.

I have an older 2017 4-core SD821 phone and I don't see unexpected performance issues when using the logger + loading pages, uBO settings, etc., so I would expect your 2021 8-core SD730 to perform even better.

Maybe check if you have enough free storage on your phone -- if uBO is unable to persist the result of parsing/compilation, it would need to repeat these every time it want to reload the filter lists.

[ghajini]

sorry if iam too bold, i never had problem with ublock origin with low memory phones since 8 years
i have this new phone upto 9GB storage free, i think that's enough storage

[gwarser]

I have Redmi Note 10 Pro (6GB RAM, Android 13) which appears to have the same specification as Motorola Moto G40 Fusion and I don't see any issue.

---

~20GB free on internal storage.

[gwarser]

Maybe create issue on Firefox Bugzilla and ask them what can be the issue? They should be better in deciphering the profiling data.

[ghajini]

i get issue only when ublock origin is enabled
i have made 31GB free ,still issue
when other adblocker is enabled, i see no issue
still i'll try to inform bugzilla

[gorhill]

still i'll try to inform bugzilla

Why? You say you do not have any issue with other blockers, no point bothering them with a uBO-specific issue.

I just don't know why this happens on your side. Whoever is welcome to contribute investigation.

[gorhill]

In your second profiling session, you installed uBO, un-installed it, then re-install again. As already pointed out, there is a lot of work to do at install time, and doing this repeatedly is not a realistic scenario.

The work done at install time is for the sake of loading fast all the subsequent times uBO will be launched -- so it's not something that will change, the priority is for uBO to load efficiently every time it will be launched once its installed.

This is how profiling looks like when launching AdGuard:

This is how profiling looks like when launching uBO, using same scale as above:

I didn't test the scenario of installing and trying to immediately access the logger etc. I tested doing those things with an already installed uBO.

If for you install time performance has priority over everything else, then your only solution is to use a blocker which you say perform better at install time if it's what matters the most to you.

[ghajini]

• issue has occured in already installed ubo with logger open+dashboard(clearly those are open for firefox android specific ads issues fixes)

• only the case now was i fresh up more memory from 9GB to 31GB & reinstalled firefox android browser plus ublock origin, to my surprise issue has surfaced on clean installation & then on whenever i open logger + dashboard + surf some websites

• issue not only occurs at install time but also at other times(scenario- ubo logger+dashboard open) so its not install time, i have used ubo for many years with this scenario & it didn't bothered me much

• why iam reporting=> because when this occurs i can't access even firefox menus, i have to exit browser, force stop & reenter, so if i have active download running with no resume support, that file can't be downloaded from where you left

[gwarser]

https://share.firefox.dev/3VsCSNl

The blank page you see in the first row of the screenshots actually has a loading bar on top. Even if it looks like resources are used even more than in OP profiling, I have no issue accessing any menus or uBO popups - they may load progressively, but it's fast. The first time I tried to open uBO popup for opened Carrefour page, the uBO icon was yellow.

The SHMEM_ IPC is shorter on my side - no idea what it means.
GPU Process Renderer is pretty much empty on my side.

[stephenhawk8054]

My uBO dev build (current on 1.61.3b11) on android recently got blank settings page quite frequently (and makes the whole extension not working on the websites too, websites load normally though). It goes away if I clear Firefox' cache via android's app settings, although the cache is usually quite small (300-400 KB).

Not sure how to debug it.

[gorhill]

Did you wait to see if the blank setting page eventually get filled? When such page opens, it queries for data from uBO's background page, and maybe sometimes it may have to wait longer than usual before the background page sends the data to be used to fill the page.

[ghajini]

workaround to get it work is to click back key so it comes to homescreen then reenter the firefox

this happens several times when (ubo logger+settings) is open

[stephenhawk8054]

Did you wait to see if the blank setting page eventually get filled?

I did see that after clearing the cache, but I remembered I waited quite long time before clearing the cache but nothing happened. I'll check if I encounter it again. I'm setting Firefox to "Delete browsing data on quit" btw so I could only reproduce it when opening the browser from start.

[gorhill]

I can only reproduced it when opening the browser from start.

Is it with a uBO's dashboard page already opened as part of the session? I suppose it's possible the dashboard page is loaded way before the uBO's background page is launched, in which case the query is lost and no answer is ever received.

[stephenhawk8054]

Is it with a uBO's dashboard page already opened as part of the session?

No it's not. Actually I just remember that it happened when the page opened is private mode, i.e I browsed websites using private mode then quit Firefox (all tabs and data were cleared) and later when I opened Firefox again, it opened as private mode page first.

I rarely used normal mode so I haven't reproduced with normal mode yet. The 2 times I saw the blank page, it's when Firefox being in private mode.

[gorhill]

The particularity with private mode is that uBO will be unable to fetch data from its indexedDB storage, and should fall back to using its extension storage -- everything persisted into the indexedDB is also mirrored into the extension storage to account for such cases. I supposed the fallback code is not a code path often tested, maybe there is something unforeseen with it, though I am pretty sure I tested all this with Chromium in a private window.

[stephenhawk8054]

I'm setting Firefox to delete all data when quitting. Not sure if it affects extensions' storages (I doubt that though)? These are what I checked when setting to delete the data:

[gorhill]

Extension storage is excluded from this.

[ghajini]

newest profiling when this ocured
https://profiler.firefox.com/public/98gncsp529xf5mjgq4hj9ya4shtewmz5q67pcp8/calltree/?globalTrackOrder=4w80w3&hiddenLocalTracksByPid=13482-0145~13577-0w68we~13779-0w3568we~13685-2w8&thread=4&v=10