Firefox not working with video cards and NVIDIA drivers

mfoley · 08-20-2020, 03:29 PM

I am running Slackware 15 (current), kernel 5.4.58, and KDE 4.14.3x. I have two GeForce GT 730 video cards and 4 monitors. I am running the NVIDIA driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.132, and have a /etc/X11/xorg.conf created by the nvidia-settings program.

I have been having a problem with Firefox ESR since version 52.9.0. If I have Firefox open with multiple tabs, and I go to move one of those tabs, Firefox crashes all windows and sessions on all monitors, including VirtualBox sessions. All screens go dark and soon thereafter I get a KDE login screen.

I don't have to move a Firefox tab much at all. Simply grabbing it and moving a fraction of an inch causes the crash. This does not happen with version 52.9.0 and I am stuck at that revision. The problem with that is I get "no longer supported" messages from Firefox, my bank, etc.

I don't believe this is a Slackware-only problem as I upgraded to the 'current' version with a much newer kernel than 14.2. Somehow, I think this is a problem with the nvidia driver, KDE and the newer Firefox versions.

Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas on fixes? I've posted this issue several time to the Firefox bug site, but no response from them at all.

I like Firefox, but may have to move to a different browser so I don't keep getting these "not supported" messages.

camorri · 08-20-2020, 03:48 PM

Is there some reason you are running a legacy driver on your GT 730? The 450 series of drivers support your card. I have a GT 710, and with 450.57 I can move the tabs without any problem.

mfoley · 08-20-2020, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri

Is there some reason you are running a legacy driver on your GT 730? The 450 series of drivers support your card. I have a GT 710, and with 450.57 I can move the tabs without any problem.

Your comment got me excited so I downloaded and ran the installation script for NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-450.66.run. However, I got the message:

Quote:

WARNING: The NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 GPU installed in this system is supported through the NVIDIA 390.xx legacy Linux graphics drivers. Please visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more information. The 450.66 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver will ignore this GPU.

WARNING: You do not appear to have an NVIDIA GPU supported by the 450.66 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver installed in this system. For further details, please see the appendix SUPPORTED NVIDIA GRAPHICS CHIPS in the README available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

And installation was halted. Perhaps this GT730 has a different GPU than you have? 'lspci -v' gives:

Code:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 730] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. GF108 [GeForce GT 730]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 33
        Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at d8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at fe000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
        Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
        Kernel driver in use: nvidia
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 730] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. GF108 [GeForce GT 730]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 34
        Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at c8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        I/O ports at d000 [size=128]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at fc000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
        Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
        Kernel driver in use: nvidia
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

Yet when I enter my product info on https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/ it comes back with this very same driver?!

Maybe I need different cards? What does your 'lspci -v' say? Ideas?

cwizardone · 08-21-2020, 03:45 AM

The 390.1320 and 390.1380 are the recommanded drivers if one is running 32-bit Linux. If one is running Slackware64, then the 450.66 driver should do.

camorri · 08-21-2020, 05:55 AM

This is the output from my system with a GT 710.

Quote:

09:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208B [GeForce GT 710] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GT710-SL-1GD5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 102, IOMMU group 13
Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

I am running on 64 bit current. Looks like Nvidia is slowly moving away form 32 bit linux support.
I would think you might think about switching to a 64 bit system, assuming the rest of your hardware will run it.

mfoley · 08-21-2020, 02:09 PM

I am running 64bit only, so that's not the problem. What made you think I was running 32bit?

I would think, based on model numbering, that the GT 710 would be older than the GT 730, though that's not always true. Your NVIDIA internal model number is GK208B whereas mine is GF108.

The GK208 has a slightly lower performance rating than the GF108 (1449 versus 1482) and they have different architectures: Fermi for GF109 and Kepler 2.0 for GK208, which implies different chipsets to me. And, in fact the GF109 is older (2010 Fermi) than the GK208 (2013 Kepler 2.0) https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/nvidia-gk208.g572, So, maybe that's the problem.

I think I'll get one GT710 somewhere and see if I get different results.

camorri · 08-21-2020, 02:24 PM

Quote:

What made you think I was running 32bit?

Post #4 led me to believe you were running a 32 bit system. I stand corrected. What Nvidia post as "supported" seems incorrect. They do have your card listed as supported by the 450.66 driver.

mfoley · 08-21-2020, 08:56 PM

I can get locally a NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 VERTO 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card, model number VCGGT7102XPB-BB, PNY Brand. Does that seem to match yours?

The GT730 is in fact older than the GT710: 2014 vs 2016

camorri · 08-22-2020, 09:27 AM

My card is an Asus card. The lable on the card identifies it as GT710-SL-1GT5-BRK. I always have problems identifying the part number of the card. There is another lable with a bar code on it, I would have to remove the card from the machine to read that info.

Hope this helps.

cwizardone · 08-22-2020, 12:32 PM

Will the utility that comes with the Nvidia driver tell you what you want to know?

mfoley · 08-24-2020, 01:55 PM

I bought two new GT710 cards at Best Buy and connected the four monitors to the VGA and HDMI ports on each. Good news is that now the NVIDIA 450.66 installs and runs! Bad new is that moving a tab with the Firefox 78.1.0 ESR browser still crashes the browser. On the up-side, it does not crash the whole KDE session and all windows, but I think it occasionally did not do the extensive crash every time before. Re-installing Firefox 52.9.0 still works OK moving tabs with the new graphics cards and drivers. This was all with Slackware 14.2.

I next tried with Slackware-current, however the NVIDIA installation script tries to disable the default nouveau driver by installing a modprobe blacklist. When rebooting after disabling nouveau, the computer did not come up; or if it did, none of the monitors displayed anything at all. This is a bit different behavior in that with the GT 730 cards installed I could disable the nouveau in this way -- so some difference here with how the GT730 and GT710 cards work with the kernel video hardware. This might be encouraging in that if I figure out how to disable nouveau by other than blacklisting, I might get a difference results. However, I'm beginning to think this is not graphics card or graphics driver related but is something to with changes to Firefox after 52.9 and other peculiar configs I have. I cycled power and restored 14.2.

Do you have more than two monitors? Do you use a custom xorg.conf?

Two monitors is supported without problem by Linux generally and doesn't even really require special drivers. To support 4 monitors I needed NVIDIA cards, but in particular the nvidia-settings program which lets me configure the monitor layouts and generates a custom xorg.conf (KDE System Settings > Display and Monitor, does not handle 4 monitors, nor, I believe, does it use xorg.conf). If you aren't using any of the above, then that might point to why you can move tabs and I cannot. It's somewhat foreboding that this problem began occurring with a change in versions of Firefox without any change to the underlying hardware or drivers.

My next step is to try to disable the Slackware-current nouveau driver by means other than blacklisting (I'm going to search for this, but if you know how off-hand, please post), and install NVIDIA driver on slackware-current with only one of the GT710 cards and, with one card and only two monitors, see if I can drag Firefox tabs.

camorri · 08-24-2020, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Do you have more than two monitors? Do you use a custom xorg.conf?

No to both questions.
Right now, I'm away from my home desktops. I'm on current, on my Acer laptop, pure Intel. No problems dragging tabs on Firefox 78.1 ( current 64 bit ).

mfoley · 08-24-2020, 06:16 PM

After spending most of the day experimenting here's what I found: I've installed/booted the latest/updated Slackware-current and am using the new GT 710 cards. With one card removed (only two monitors) and not using xorg.conf, dragging tabs in firefox is no problem. With the 2nd card installed (four monitors) and using the xorg.conf generated by nvidia-settings, dragging a firefox tab crashes firefox and sometimes causes additional issues in that my mouse moves, but mouse clicks no longer work. Sometime CTRL-ALT-DEL would be responsive, sometimes not. I this case I hit the power switch.

In particular, the firefox drag issue happens with xorg.conf, only if Xinerama was enabled. However, if not enabled I did not have 4 monitors. They all displayed the desktop background, but I couldn't move my mouse, or windows, to those monitors. That is the purpose as Xinerama (as I understand things).

So, this is apparently an interaction problem with firefox and xorg.conf/Xinerama. Probably nothing to be done about it. Firefox 52.9.0 did not and does not have this problem, which is why I still use it, but it no longer supports add-ons like ublock and my bank site gives me warnings that this browser is no longer supported. I may have to switch browsers on Linux if I want to keep my 4 monitors (which I do).

Probably, when Mozilla moved on from 52.9.0 they made some change that was incompatible with Xinerama and whatever mechanism/logic is used to detach tabs. I'm sure I have posted bug reports to Bugzilla@Mozilla on this several time in the past, but I don't find it listed. Perhaps it was removed. Now that I've identified a definite connection with Xinerama I might go ahead and post another report.

Meanwhile, I'm S.O.L.

Any last thoughts?

camorri · 08-24-2020, 06:30 PM

I wish I could help more. I suspect a report of the bug may be your only path to get help.

mfoley · 08-24-2020, 11:34 PM

Will do and I'll post it back here before closing. I guess I'll go ahead and keep the GT710s ($54 each) even though the GT730s work fine. There's the whole work/laziness factor: removing the cards, replacing the old ones, re-installing the 390x driver, driving back to BestBuy ... With the 710s I can at least get current drivers going forward. Plus they use half the power of the 730's (19W v. 38W, each) which could be good for my very compact/slim case with a small and anemic power supply.

Thanks for your help. It was invaluable knowing someone out there was using NVIDIA GT7x0 cards in a Slackware system without the firefox-tab-dragging issue.

Here is a link to the bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1661087