All browsers freezing
 

Hello everyone,

I'm running Sparky Linux (Debian 8) with E19 WM. The problem is that whenever I'm using a browser, Opera, Iceweasel, Chrome or Chromium, every one of them eventually freezes up after a seemingly random period of time, forcing me to open a terminal and use xkill close the browser. Interestingly, a little unclickable textbox (like where you'd enter your address on a form) appears at the top of the screen just before it freezes up. This 'textbox' stays on every window of every desktop until I kill the browser.

I think, and I'm not sure about this, but it seems to happen when I'm clicking on browser tabs.

I ran Chromium from the terminal and these are the error messages I get when it freezes:

I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what the above messages mean, because I don't have the foggiest idea and my Internet search has turned up nothing.

I guess I could try switching to XFCE to see if it happens there, too. If it doesn't, it could be an e19 problem.

Thank you in advance.

a question and a guess
 

I am not familiar with your software and do not know much about those errors but i hope my answer can be of help
my question and guess is that :
Do you experience this problem just while connected to Internet? , if so ,then possibly there are some configuration problems in your Internet settings ...i think the message box appears to ask you a question and until it does not get the answer the browser will not work...but unfortunately the message is not shown to you due to some other reason or reasons
Check your browser and Internet settings again
Good luck

Hi irajjs,

Thanks for responding. I don't think there is any problem with my Internet settings.

I think it may have to do with libglx, which causes a crash when certain sites are loaded -- if that makes any sense. I've downloaded a package called driconf and will play around with the settings in that for a while.

Hopefully, I get to the bottom of it at some point.

Thanks again

Complaints about media streams when you're browsing. I'd say test various web locations as well as install some add ons like No Script and AdBlock Plus. Further, have you tried Firefox? I don't see that in your laundry list of browsers.

I'm thinking that the reasons for these lockups are because of what you're trying to view, the sites themselves. So firstly be in a position to disallow scripts and ads from popping up by installing add ons first, and then browse to those sites one at a time and slowly allow more content. But if you reach a point where content is visible and things no longer lock up, then stop there, because obviously if you allow all scripts or pop-ups to show then you're probably going to run into similar issues.

I had one case where scripts tried to run and failed where I eventually got a pop-up script error, this was with youtube. Once I installed NoScript on my Firefox, things got way better.

The GLX type errors are video driver related and the accelleration features there of. You're probably missing some packages that said browsers don't cope very well with not having them present. Make sure you have at least 3D accelleration features enabled, even if they aren't accellerated.

$ glxinfo
(part of the mesa-utils package in debian)

$ glxgears -info

And try to play a game that uses 3D stuffs.

$ armagetron

Or a GL based screen saver. The absence of a working and fully accellerated driver should be painfully obvious. At least if you have familiarity with what you should be getting on your system specifications.

Other possibilities exist as well. Bad RAM, Out of RAM, No SWAP, dying hardware, and other things. If you have java or flash enabled make sure that you have the most recent versions. Which could change tomorrow so check often.

Shadow_7,

Yes it is a graphics card problem it would seem, which is aggravated when a certain type of site is visited. I have the NVIDIA Optimus card. I've never had a problem using it (usually with bumblebee) but Bumblebee certainly wasn't required just to run a browser. Games, yes, but not browser. Incidentally, I tried running Chromium through Bumblebee for the heck of it, but I get this error:

I installed a GL-based screensaver and that worked without a problem.

Do you think the driconf package might be of use? The thing is, I don't know which settings to play with. Can you help?

rtmistler: Isn't Iceweasel just the Debian version of Firefox? I'll give NoScript and AdBlock Plus a shot in the way you suggested and see how that works out.

Thanks for your help.

Iceweasel is basically unbranded firefox. It doesn't enable GPU accelleration by default, so odds are probably better that it wont have the same issues. Until you put flash or other things into the mix. You might also check that your user is in the video group which can prevent the use of GPU features if the user is NOT in the video group, even with a functioning driver.

I didn't know that iceweasel is the same as firefox. Well, now I do. I also don't swap browsers much, if at all.

Sounds like Shadow_7's got the problem more in hand with the graphics card concerns.

You may try also midori/epiphany web browser.