Firefox page first loading slow

[orbanp]

Hello Everyone,

Recently got a new machine and installed Kubuntu 20.04 along W10.

The first loading of a web page in Firefox is quite slow compared to the same behaviour in W10.

Internet speeds are roughly the same under both op systems.
Firefox is the latest version, 85.0.1 (64-bit).
The NIC is configured under Linux 100MB, full duplex.
Package 'backport-iwlwifi-dkms' is not installed.

This is the sysinfo:

Dual boot W10/Linux desktop system
Linux Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.4.0-65-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 6 Intel Core i5-8500 CPU @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 7.6 GiB of RAM
Display: UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop)
Storage: 256GB SSD, 1TB HD
Partitions: 200GB W10 on SSD, 35GB Linux root on SSD, 15GB Linux swap on HD, 500GB Linux home on HD

It would be nice to have the same browser performance under both systems!
Any clue what might cause this?
Differing domain name server performance?

Thanks, Peter

[claydoh]

Maybe this is at least partially a reason:

500GB Linux home on HD

versus

200GB W10 on SSD

?

[orbanp]

Any explanation for that?
The home partition on the rotational hard drive only contains user files, practically empty as of now, while the root partition with all the apps and system files is on the solid state drive.

Thanks, Peter

[claydoh]

Your $HOME is where your user files are stored - and that includes browser files and caches. While the executable and system libraries are on your much faster SSD, the downloaded web page files are written to the spinny disk.

[orbanp]

Thanks for the explanation!
Now I can see that there is a .mozilla hidden directory in /home
Can Mozilla or the system configured to put that directory on the SSD?

Thanks, Peter

[claydoh]

If you put your $HOME on the ssd it will go there
I am sure it is possible to move the folder elsewhere via Firefox's specific settings and configs, there are how tos on it out there. But it would be simple enough to create a new directory, give it ownership and permissions for your user, and symlink it to ~/.mozilla

Rename your ~/.mozilla dir temporsarily
in konsole:

cd /
sudo mkdir mozilla
sudo chown your-username.your-username /mozilla
ln -s /mozilla ~/.mozilla

copy the contents inside the renamed config dir to the new ~/.mozilla.
keep the backup in case of problems. Simple to restore back to normal if there are.

[ruthless]

my first load of Firefox is slow. after that it is much faster. possibly because shared objects have been loaded?

[woodsmoke]

This is a very interesting thread.

As a total side note, the college uses Canvas for "student inteaction stuff, like where a class is, where grades are stored for the student's individual classes, etc.

The college has opted for Chrome(tm) and really, supposedly, does not advocate the use of FF.

But, curiously, the "front load" of things like "grades" or "modules" has had a bunch of "comments" in the faculty FB(room) (tm) starting TODAY, literally TODAY, that Chrome(tm) is not loading very rapidly , or in some cases, AT ALL!! It sits there and "spins".

I, stupid me, commented that I never use Chrome at the college and try to use the loaded ( yes they provide it ) FF and that...and always use FF there at home, and at that , using Ubuntu, at my apartment I run FF on Ubuntu.

And, that i have expereienced no issues with Canvas "loading the first page" slow either at the college or at my apartment using FF.

An IT person popped into the thread and said that, yes... people using Chrome (tm) were the folks having LOADING PROBLEMS... and that FF people where not experiencing such...

So, there is , probably, much to be said about just how and where Chrome(tm) resides.

again, very nice thread.

woodsmoke