Almost Fatal Problems

[John Liebson]

Moved extension and .rdf to a new Firefox profile yesterday, with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5) Gecko/20070713 Firefox/2.0.0.5 - Build ID: 2007071317.

PWM works fine if I just let it insert log-on information.

However, when I press Ctrl-' to bring up the program, it sometimes takes two or three tries, and a relatively long wait to get PWM to show up.

Then, as soon as I edit anything, it is almost impossible to get PWM to close: Click on the "X", Firefox goes inactive and there is a long wait. Eventually, PWM will drop to the task bar rather than closing, or it may even cause FF to close. If PWM does go to the task bar, then if I bring it back up, it will then close with a click to the "X".

I just found these problems when trying to edit an existing account; they even happened when I tried to delete that account so that I could start a new one. I have no idea whatsoever of where to even begin to figure out what is causing these "almost fatal problems," so advice is solicited.

[Eric H. Jung]

That is indeed strange. I can't recall ever hearing this problem (or anything related) with PasswordMaker before. The typical advice in this situation is to try PasswordMaker in a new firefox profile with no other extensions present. Do not use your custom passwordmaker.rdf. Allow passwordmaker to create its default. Make sure you can open and close PasswordMaker options in this scenario.

Now close all Firefox browsers and copy over your passwordmaker.rdf. Start FF and try opening/closing PasswordMaker. If you encounter the problems as before, then something is wrong with your passwordmaker.rdf.

Let us know your results,
Eric

[tanstaafl]

Weird one for sure...

Maybe somehow your RDF got corrupted when you copied it over? Did you copy it while PWM was open?

First thing I'd try is copying it from the prior location (hopefully you still have the original)...

[John Liebson]

Thanks for the replies.

1. Yes, I copied the .rdf from the older profile to the newer, but no, FF was not in use at the time.

2. I've tried PWM in a profile that has only a few other extensions installed. It took PWM perhaps three or four seconds to open after pressing Ctrl-`.

a. With PWM creating a new .rdf, and editing that, it takes PWM perhaps four seconds to close.

b. After replacing the new .rdf with the old one, and then editing that old one briefly, it takes some twently seconds to close.

3. Now, to confuse the issue still further, I started FF using the new profile, had no particular problem in getting PWM to show up after Ctrl-`, although it did take a few seconds. I then edited the same forum settings that were causing so many problems yesterday; other than it taking perhaps twenty seconds again for PWM to close after clicking on the "X", I did not encounter any of the problems I ran into yesterday.

This all seems to mean that we are faced with the proverbial "I don't know." I do wonder why it takes such a relatively long time for PWM to open now, but I have no recollection of how long it might have taken with, say, FF 2.0.0.4. In addition, I wonder why it is still taking so long for it to close using my older .rdf file.

(I will refrain from discussing the complete and utter disaster I encountered when updating FF from 2.0.0.4 to 2.0.0.5, wherein, among other things, FF would only recognize that some five or six of my sixty-one installed extensions were even installed. It was that disaster that finally forced me to create a new profile, a project I'd been putting off for too long. During the creation of a new profile, I found that suddenly that profile was totally unusable; I don't recall now what specific thing I had done that changed the profile from a working one to an unusable one. Groan.)

[Eric H. Jung]

John,

It does sound like an "I don't know" situation, but there are still things you can do to resolve it.

1. Your FF installation might be wacky since you had upgrade problems. Try uninstalled/reinstalling FF.
2. For kicks, install SeaMonkey with PasswordMaker on the same PC. Does PasswordMaker still take 4 seconds to close? If it does, perhaps it's a machine-wide problem.

Maybe tanstaafl has other ideas...

[tanstaafl]

Nothing I can think of... reinstalling FF is definitely worth a shot, but for some reason, I thought John siad he had already done that, but re-reading this thread I see that he didn't...

I would think reinstalling - then create a new profile and install *only* PWM - test, if works ok, start installing extensions one or two at a time (in order of importance to you), and restart FF and test again.

I'd be surprised if this didn't fix it.

[John Liebson]

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

1. I had reinstalled FF after the disaster a few days ago, but I had not (nor did it even occur to me) to first remove FF. So, I did that, restarted FF with my "regular" profile, brought up  PWM, edited one forum. That changed the time it took to close PWM from approximately twenty seconds to approximately ten seconds, so it is evident that the removal/re-installation of FF fixed at least some problem(s.)

It had been such a long time since I had removed FF before updating or reinstalling, going back to the beta-test period for FF 2.x (and rarely, if ever, even then) that the idea of removing FF first was not something that I thought of doing. Given the improvement in PWM's behavior after so doing, I do appreciate being reminded that that removal of FF was something that ought to have been done.

2. I then created a new profile, and installed PWM (and nothing else.) The time it took to close PWM after editing a new account was, as with my "regular" profile, approximately ten seconds. As the time to close PWM seems to be identical with both the test and regular profiles, I did not go any further in testing matters with the test profile.

If the ten-second time it takes for PWM to rewrite the .rdf file is about what it ought to be, then, given that I have had no recurrences of the difficulty in even getting PWM to start after Ctrl-`, then I  would conclude that the "almost fatal problems" have been fixed.

[tanstaafl]

It had been such a long time since I had removed FF before updating or reinstalling, going back to the beta-test period for FF 2.x (and rarely, if ever, even then) that the idea of removing FF first was not something that I thought of doing. Given the improvement in PWM's behavior after so doing, I do appreciate being reminded that that removal of FF was something that ought to have been done.

I *always* uninstall before doing an actual *reinstall*. This is even something I have gotten in the habit of doing about every 3 or 4 point releases - and *especially* when dealing with betas, and even the first one or two RCs...

If the ten-second time it takes for PWM to rewrite the .rdf file is about what it ought to be, then, given that I have had no recurrences of the difficulty in even getting PWM to start after Ctrl-`, then I  would conclude that the "almost fatal problems" have been fixed.

Well - mine opens (and closes) in less than a second, no matter what I do in between - I tested by opening PWM with ctrl-` (< 1 sec), creating a new account, then closing (< 1 sec), then tested again by opening (< 1 sec), editing an existing account, then closing (< 1 sec)...

I have about a hundred accounts in my RDF file - how many do you have? Maybe one of them got corrupted during a save? Have you tested with a new/blank RDF file? Maybe you could try exporting settings to an RDF file, then reimporting (or just copy the exported RDF to your profile?

As always, be sure FF is closed when you are moving/replacing the RDF file.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe FFox has a ghost process running - have you checked with Process Explorer or something similar to make sure FF is actually not running when you quit it?

[Eric H. Jung]

If the ten-second time it takes for PWM to rewrite the .rdf file is about what it ought to be

PasswordMaker does not write to the RDF file when its dialog is opened or closed. In general, the RDF file is only written to when you change settings. FF, however, may read the file when displaying the accounts tree in the main advanced options pane, but I don't think so. I think it's cached after the first time.

[John Liebson]

Free Lunch: PWM used to open/shut as quickly as your's does. The slowdown only started with the update to FF 2.0.0.5; as far as I know, I, too, got 1-second open/close operations with 2.0.0.4.

And, again, note that I saw the slow opening/closing after I removed and reinstalled FF, then created a new profile and installed PWM as the only add-on in that profile.

I'm somewhat tempted to reinstall 2.0.0.4 to test PWM, but at this point, I'm rather tired of testing: First the disastrous update to 2.0.0.5, then a problem between one Stylish style and an extension (kindly fixed by the style writer), then finding the horrid problems with PWM (most of which now seem to be gone.)

And, again the second: As far as I can tell at this point, the only problem is the slowness of PWM. It has nothing to do with the size of my regular .rdf, given that I see the slowness with that new profile with the only add-on being PWM.

Incidentally, and not at all conclusive, I have also seen a speed-up in the scrolling speed of the feeds I have installed in Brief, my Firefox news reader, since I removed and reinstalled FF. That speed-up is based on only one news-reading session--oh, hold on, I see that I have thirty-eight new items, and the scroll speed-up is quite noticeable there, too.

===
Nifty: There's a red notice at the top of the composition box stating that there's a new reply that was posted while I was typing. So, to Eric, thanks for the feedback--but what both "Free Lunch" and you are tellilng me is that there is still a problem with PWM, at least on my computer with Firefox 2.0.0.5.

Anyone with any further testing ideas? Just as a reminder to you helpful people: The problem seen yesterday of PWM being reluctant to even open, and the failure of PWM to close properly, have apparently both gone away. So, it is only the slowness of opening/closing that is, apparently, still of concern.

[tanstaafl]

I don't see where you specifically state whether or not you tried this with a new/fresh/blank RDF file...

That's the only other thing I can think of. If it is still slow opening after you move your RDF file out of your profile folder (you do know you have to do this with FF closed/not running, right?) - which means that PWM will automatically create a new/blank one the next time FF is launched - and still slow closing with the new/fresh/blank RDF file, then I'm out of ideas, but I'll let you know if I think of anything else to try.

All I know for sure is, if I had your problem, I would not be a happy camper and would *have* to find a solution...

[Eric H. Jung]

I'm somewhat tempted to reinstall 2.0.0.4 to test PWM, but at this point, I'm rather tired of testing: First the disastrous update to 2.0.0.5, then a problem between one Stylish style and an extension (kindly fixed by the style writer), then finding the horrid problems with PWM (most of which now seem to be gone.)

Might I suggest that you temporarily install SeaMonkey and try PasswordMaker with it. This prevents you from having to mess with your FF installation and profiles. SeaMonkey has its own profiles and won't touch your FF ones. Doing this test can rule out (or in) your PC hardware and OS.

[John Liebson]

Well, from where I am sitting, I can see a stuffed moose, a "Wee Coo" (the wonderful Scottish Highland Cow), a koala, a rabbit, a Fire Chief Bear, a picture of lots of teddy bears, a fantastic poster of a mother Panda and her cub, but I do not see any monkeys....

1. I needed to do some maintenance that required a reboot; after doing that, I had problems again in getting PWM to show up in FF.

2. I downloaded SeaMonkey, closed FF, installed SM.

3. I installed PWM in SeaMonkey, restarted PWM. Results: Perhaps two seconds to get PWM to show up with Ctrl+`. Created one account; it took perhaps three seconds for PWM to close. Restarted SM, played with PWM, not much to report. However, I did notice one thing which I'd not tried once I started having PWM problems: With PWM open, if I went into an account, if I hit "Cancel", PWM would close immediately. So, PWM is faster with PWM than with FF, although still not instantaneous.

4. Closed SM, restarted FF. Tried to bring up PWM; noticed the hour-glass cursor momentarily, then PWM appeared in perhaps three seconds.  Edited account, closed PWM; less than previous attempts, perhaps a second quicker.

While writing this, edited a PWM account; eight seconds to close. Restarted, removed spurious edit, eight seconds to close.

I am still suspicious about FF 2.0.0.5, with NO proof of any sort whatsoever that there is any such interference between FF and PWM>

I know of no problems with either my computer or the OS: Both have passed numerous tests recently, and no other FF extension, for example, is causing any problems, nor are any of my other regularly-used programs.

I think I'll post this and go looking for monkeys....

[tanstaafl]

Ahem...

Can you at least answer my question? Did you or did you not try PWM with a new/fresh/blank RDF file?

Also, I am using 2.0.0.5, so this is not a general problem with that version. Eric? You upgrade yet?

[Eric H. Jung]

Eric? You upgrade yet?

I did. No problems.