[SOLVED] Can't get any browser to work.

rblampain · 04-11-2016, 10:07 PM

I have done a fresh Debian 8 "netinstall" on a desktop, everything works fine except that I cannot get any browser to work (Iceweasel, Chromium or Epiphany).
Chromium and Epiphany were installed separately and successfully, "synaptic" shows them all as installed. At the right top corner of the screen there is a volume icon that shows a line and when I start a browser, either on its own or through an HTML document, the screen fills up with what looks like small sections of that line and the only option is to power down and reboot.

The internet connection works because "installs" are able to download and install packages (also installed successfully packages like "tree", "rsync" and others and rsync has been tested successfully locally)

This is tailor made desktop 6/7 years old used briefly under Debian 5:
asus MN... motherboard
8G ram
80G HDD /
2x500G HDD raid1 (working properly under /mnt/raid1/)
firewall from netinstall if any

I have no idea of what the problem could be, could anyone make a suggestion?

Thank you for your help.

ardvark71 · 04-11-2016, 10:21 PM

Hi...

Do any of your kernel or system logs show anything of interest?

Regards...

ondoho · 04-12-2016, 02:42 AM

isn't a netinstall a text interface only install (no gui)?
i think you left out a few steps of how you got to a graphical desktop; quite necessary to help you.

generally, the first thing i always do is open a terminal window and execute the command from there, maybe i can get some useful information.

frankbell · 04-12-2016, 08:15 PM

Ondoho, unless it's changed since I last used Debian, a netinstall is by default a full install that fetches packages from the internet, rather than requiring the full set of optical installation media.

What is the output of these commands?

Code:

ping google.com
ping 8.8.8.8
traceroute google.com
traceroute 8.8.8.8

Post their output, being sure to enclose it in "code" tags, which become available when to click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the compose post windows.

ondoho · 04-13-2016, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

Ondoho, unless it's changed since I last used Debian, a netinstall is by default a full install that fetches packages from the internet, rather than requiring the full set of optical installation media.

you are right.
i associated it so in my head, because a netinstall offers you a choice (tasksel iirc) to install a graphical environment and other things.

thus my request from my previous post is still valid.

rblampain · 04-13-2016, 08:42 AM

Thank you for the answers.
I cannot find anything wrong in the logs.
I selected the gui install. There was no hitch at all during the install, everything proceeded as expected. DPKG... log shows the browsers are installed and configured.

Code:

$ ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
$ ping 8.8.8.8
connect: Network is unreachable
$ traceroute google.com
google.com: Name or service not known
Cannot handle "host" cmdline arg `google.com' on position 1 (argc 1)
$ traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
connect: Network is unreachable
$

frankbell · 04-13-2016, 09:42 PM

The reason I asked you to ping both google.com and 8.8.8.8 is this: If you had successfully hit 8.8.8.8 but not google.com, the issue would likely be with your DNS configuration, rather than with connectivity itself. If you had hit one but not the other, traceroute provides information that helps indicate where the connection failed.

You seem to have a network configuration problem.

Are you using a wired or wireless connection? If you are using wireless, test with a wired connection. If you connect over a wired connection, the issue is likely the wireless driver or chipset.

If you do not connect over a wired connection, the issue is likely your network configuration itself. This article from the Debian website should help: https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration

What is the output of the command ifconfig -a and the content of your /etc/network/interfaces file? You can post the output here, again using code tags (by the way, thanks for using the code tags).

ondoho · 04-14-2016, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rblampain

Code:

$ ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
$ ping 8.8.8.8
connect: Network is unreachable
$ traceroute google.com
google.com: Name or service not known
Cannot handle "host" cmdline arg `google.com' on position 1 (argc 1)
$ traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
connect: Network is unreachable
$

this very clearly shows that your network is down; your original assessment (network up, only browsers don't work) is not valid anymore.
the previous post outlines how to proceed.

rblampain · 04-18-2016, 08:55 PM

Debian 8 is new to me, I do not like having to adapt to it and I thought I would install Debian 7 from DVDs since that's what I have on other machines and see if there is a difference. However, it seems since I had raid 1 configured and working the new "install" failed repeatedly to configure raid as it appears I had to select the option

Code:

"..erase data.."

first but erasing data on the first disk of an array of 2 disks has been running for 14 hours and is about 3/4 completed.

I will update this in the next few days and answer the questions.

rblampain · 05-06-2016, 07:53 AM

After a few days of erasing data, Debian 7 works normally although there is something I did not like: it looks like even though the install was fron DVDs, parts of Debian 8 were automatically fetched from the internet and installed "a la Windows" (behind your back and without asking if you want it or not). The result is that the screen display is generic Debian 8 although there is the option to revert to "classical" at booting time.