This morning I launched Firefox to start my workday, but when trying to browse a website the page just kept loading. Wondering if it was my network connection I switched to my mobile hotspot. Still no website. Then I fired up Chrome, and yes the websites loaded just fine. So the problem seemed to be Firefox.

Firefox safe mode

After a quick search on the web I picked up the advice to start firefox in safe mode. This way I could check if one of the extensions was causing the problem. So I quit my Firefox application. Strangely enough there appeared an errornotice with a bugreport. Something with Intel. I ignored it and booted Firefox in safe mode through the commandline: firefox -safe-mode.

Unfortunately, still no pages loaded.

Firmware update

I picked on the thread of the Intel message. I have an Intel processor and I know it was already too long ago since I last updated my BIOS. I believed it to be a troublesome proces in Ubuntu by setting up a flashdrive. But it seems it’s pretty easy now. I opened the Ubuntu Software updater and saw a couple of firmware updates waiting for me. After updating them through rebooting my laptop twice I tried Firefox again. And the websites loaded just fine again 🙂