Mozilla has published an unscheduled update for its web browser Firefox, addressing various performance issues encountered by its users.
Firefox 80.0.1 delivers a fix for a bug that caused the browser to crash when a GPU was reset, as well as errors caused by initiating a download via a browser extension.
The update also fixes an issue that saw the browser render content improperly on websites using the WebGL API, which led to fragmented text being served to some Linux and Windows 10 users.
Lastly, Mozilla has remedied glitches with the zoom-in keyboard shortcut on Japanese builds and performance dips when the browser is confronted with new intermediate CA certificates.
Firefox 80.0.1 update
According to Mozilla’s bug report, the download error came about as a result of missing third-party cookies in download requests and was rectified by introducing appropriate cookies to all downloads triggered by the ‘Save as’ function or by a Firefox extension.
The company addressed crashes caused by GPU resets and out of memory (OOM) incidents, meanwhile, by introducing a null pointer check.
“The resulting rendering might not be completely correct, since the mask surface (inferred from crash report stack traces) is not available, but this should be preferable and recoverable as opposed to crash (sic),” wrote Miko Mynttinen, Senior Software Engineer at Mozilla.
The browser update lands during a turbulent period for Mozilla, which recently announced it will lay off 250 staff as part of a post-pandemic reshuffle.
The firm also rolled out Firefox 79 for Android devices, which proved unpopular among users, who flooded the browser’s Google Play Store page with complaints about crashes and frustrating UI alterations.
Mozilla will be hoping Firefox 80.0.1 enjoys a more positive reception. Users with automatic updates enabled need only restart their browser for the changes to take effect and others can download the new version via the Firefox website.
