Firefox freezes when I switch networks

[jckdnk111]

Hi,

I'm having a weird issue with Firefox 3 (and all GTK apps for that matter).
I typically use the wired eth0 connection at work on my laptop - it works great, no issues.
When I need to switch to the guest WIFI network Firefox becomes unusable. I noticed that the only other GTK app. I use (gSTM) also freezes. Any QT apps continue to work great (opera, kate, etc...). Also java apps continue to work (netbeans, jedit, ...).

If I kill all my FF processes and restart FF it still freezes. Same problem even after I switch back to my regular wired network. I eventually have to reboot to fix the issue.

I use wpa_supplicant to configure / connect to the WIFI network, but I haven't been able to find anything connecting the problem.

I've tried launching FF and gSTM from the command line with every siwtch they support but niether never gives any error.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

Thanks!

[jckdnk111]

Re: Firefox freezes when I switch networks

no takers eh?
not even a wag?

[Detonate]

Re: Firefox freezes when I switch networks

I suspect that it is a problem with DHCP. The first connection is establishing your IP. but when you try to switch networks to the second connection, that IP is not being changed to the IP supplied by the new connection. You have to completely kill the old connection first, including the configuration. I don't have a computer booted up right now that is capable of doing this as I don't have wireless on this computer and I only have one network available, but I remember having similar problems when like you, I tried to switch from the wired connection, to the wireless connection where I worked, so I can't duplicate your problem, but I remember that I had to release and renew the IP to get it working.

[jckdnk111]

Re: Firefox freezes when I switch networks

Hi Detonate,

Before I connect to the wireless I do an "ifdown eth0".
I think this would release my IP, except on the wired network I have a static IP.

I'll try with a dynamic IP on the wired network and see if this solves any issues.

Thanks for the reply!

[jckdnk111]

Re: Firefox freezes when I switch networks

got it ... I was using wpa_supplicant to manage my wireless networks at work, but not my wireless networks at home.
So when I come in to work, I boot up, siwtch to wpa_supplicant and my gtk apps break (still not sure why).
By letting wpa_supplicant manage my home network connection, I know boot up with wpa_supplicant enabled and the problem is gone.

[Detonate]

Re: Firefox freezes when I switch networks

Glad you got it figured out. So I was wrong about it being a DHCP issue, but I suspected that the setting at one location was causing the problem at the other location. Turns out it was the WPA. I'll file that somewhere in all those neurons zipping around between my ears for future reference.