Importing PDF causes firefox to hang in ubuntu

ohnoplus
Downloading pdf files to zotero is causing firefox to temporarely freeze, only in linux.
Long version:
When I download a pdf file with firefox, I have the option to save the file to zotero. Also for some journals, clicking the little symbol on the address bar downloads a pdf file into the zotero library. In either case, while this file is downloading, firefox grays out and doesn't let me do anything. This is only the case when I am running linux. In a virtual box running windows, firefox keeps letting me use it with no complaints. Also, clicking the paperclip icon and then attach stored copy of file does not seem to have this effect. This isn't a huge problem, but it is slowing down my work-flow some. Is there any to keep firefox from temporarily freezing?
  • adamsmith
    how long of a freeze are we talking about and on what type of computer - Zotero will freeze briefly while indexing a file, but that should really be quite fast---no longer than maybe a second or two for a larger PDF.
    It's possible that you don't have the indexing tools installed on your Windows/virtual box install, so that's not happening, but you're also not getting PDF full text search.

    One option would be to use Standalone together with the Firefox version - in that case Standalone would freeze, but you could still work in Firefox. Another option would, of course, be to reduce the amount of indexing in the search tab of the Zotero preferences, though of course that also give you less powerful full text search.
  • ohnoplus
    I'd say its about 15 seconds up to a couple of minutes in some cases. I'm working on a lenovo Z580, which I feel should be on par with what most people are using. Both versions are allegedly indexing, both using pdftotext and pdfinfo 3.02 with 0.5 million characters and 100 pages maximum to index.
  • dstillman
    What are your index stats from the bottom of that window?

    Also, is this for any PDF files, or just large ones?

    Try disabling any third-party Zotero-related extensions you have installed. (Don't bother with the official integration plugins.)

    If that doesn't help, provide a Debug ID for a save attempt that results in a freeze.
  • ohnoplus
    Sorry for the delay.
    This is for any PDF files. Seems it may also be the case for when I am translating any pages though it is slowest when downloading pdfs.

    Debugging IDs are as follows.
    Thanks.
    -Jacob

    PDF Download:D2074973779
    A wikipidia page (no pdf): D907400100
  • dstillman
    I'm not seeing much freezing there. Can you describe the freezing you were experiencing for those saves?

    And you didn't answer my question above about your index stats (or confirm that you tried disabling other extensions).
  • ohnoplus
    Thanks for your reply, and sorry about the missing information.

    When I save a reference with pdf to my zotero library, first a window with Saving to and the folder I am saving the file two comes up. This usually runs for about 40 seconds. Toward the end of the process, if I try to do other things while the import is happening, firefox greys out for about 10 seconds and I can't do anything. Then the window un-greys-out and I have control over my computer again.

    I did not have any third party zotero extensions installed.
    I tried again with all extensions disabled but the problem persists.

    Index statistics
    Indexed: 674
    Partial 9
    Unindexed 511
    Words 119206
  • dstillman
    This usually runs for about 40 seconds.
    OK, but I don't see a delay anywhere near that length in these Debug IDs. Maybe I missed something, but can you provide another and pay close attention to how long it's taking?

    It'd also help to temporarily disable auto-sync while you're doing this, since that adds some extra output that makes it harder to read.
  • ohnoplus
    As per your request I have disable auto-sync for these tests.
    These seem to be running a bit faster today, much as my car does when I take it into the repair shop. I swear I wasn't imagining the 40 second thing.

    Here is a log for a medium sized paper.
    15 seconds D1200478795

    It runs faster if I try to download the same file a second time
    8 seconds D482579203

    A paper in a different Journal
    20 seconds D1183936339

    I can slow the process so it takes 30 seconds if I try to do things in the background on tabs while it is downloading D1951519094

    All for now. Let me know if I can provide anything else.
  • dstillman
    So I don't think you're getting any real delays — it looks like this really is just file indexing. But unless you have a very large index and/or you've changed the default indexing settings, neither of which appears to be the case, I'm not sure why it'd be so slow. Is this a particularly underpowered computer? Indexing used to be fairly slow in Zotero, but in the latest versions even very large documents should be indexed very quickly.

    Re: Windows, I'd guess that maybe you just haven't installed the PDF tools there? If you set the max pages setting to 0 in the Search pane of the preferences in Linux, I assume this goes away?

    As a workaround, one thing you could do is install Zotero Standalone, which will share your existing data directory by default (so it's easy to try). There's no reason that should be faster, but 1) it's worth a try and 2) even if it's not, it at least wouldn't freeze Firefox while indexing.
  • Arvind
    I'm having a similar issue: on Mac OS X 10.x, with a 2.4GHz procesor and 8GB of RAM, there is at least a 10-15 second freeze while indexing happens. I once imported 25-30 files into Zotero standalone and it took nearly 10 minutes to respond (and many of those files were only partially indexed.)
  • dstillman
    Arvind: Can you provide a Debug ID for adding a single file that causes a freeze like this?
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