I have a relatively new dual core 64 bit dual install Win XP/10.04 system.

At first I was able to run quite a number of browser (Chrome and Firefox) windows simultaneously in different desktops without much in the way of problems save the occasional reboot every few days to let the machine clear it's head.

Lately when I reboot, it runs fine for a few (1-6) hours, but then one or more of a few of the tabs start "spinning" in the tab showing that they are refreshing and a popup comes up saying that the program isn't responding, and asking whether I want to wait or force close.

If I choose wait, and go to those tabs, and hit the stop button, it changes to a refresh button but the tab still shows that it is attempting to connect/refresh/whatever it is doing, and the popup returns every few seconds. I.e., it is ignoring the "Stop".

I am now only running a few browser windows which is a much lighter load than the multiple windows before. I have reinstalled both Firefox and Chrome without any improvement.

There doesn't appear to be any pattern to the ones that start doing this, but once started any new tab will often fall into the same problem.

(FWIW, when I boot up, just after selecting the OS I want, a message flashes up (white print on black)saying:

Have no idea if this is relevant, but the "FATAL" caught my attention.)

What is causing this behavior? What can I do to solve it? What information would be helpful to you?

Do I need to reinstall Ubuntu?

Greetingz!

Well, for starters, assuming it's your Ubuntu install that's having these issues, I would suggest the following;

1) Make a backup of your home directory.
2) Dump the contents of it (even the hidden files)
3) Login to X again and see if the Browser problems persist.

Note that this is going to have to be done purely on the command line (not by logging into X and opening a Terminal, actually hit Ctrl+Alt+F2 and login).
To backup your home directory, do the following

a) Find out how big it is;
du -sh ~

b) tar -jcvf /path/to/a/filesystem/with/enough/space/home_directory_backup.tar.bz2 -C ~ .
(Check the man page for what the command options do)

c) Empty out your home directory;
cd ~ ; rm -rf ~/*
(Make SURE you haven't created any symbolic links to anything important in there first).

d) Login thru X again, you'll lose all your settings/bookmarks/etc/etc.
e) Try out your browsers.


If that does work, great. Restore *most* of your home directory. If it doesn't; restore the whole thing.

To restore *most* of your home directory;
a) mkdir ~/restore && tar -jxvf /path/to/where/you/saved/the/home_directory_backup.tar.bz2 -C ~/restore .
b) cd ~/restore ; ls -la
Now move everything back to your home directory except the hidden files/directories (files and dirs that start with a dot)


To restore your whole home directory;
tar -jxvf /path/to/where/you/saved/the/home_directory_backup.tar.bz2 -C ~ .


However, if you're experiencing this problem on the Windows-side of your computer, there's a really simple fix;

dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/disk_with_windows_on_it
(Apologies, I couldn't resist being mean just once today. It's my day off.)

xeleema, thanks for yours.

I forgot to mention that I have a separate /home directory. Can I just reinstall 10.04 first, or do you think that the problem resides in the /home directory?

I ask (1) because it is a whole lot simpler, and (2) while you laid out the instructions very well, all of that makes my knees wobble. I have not had much experience at the command line. I'm not a new newbie, just a barely advanced one.

If you don't want to go thru the hassle of messing with your own personal home directory, just create a new user and login as them.
Then test the browsers. That will tell you right away if it's the OS or just your browser-preferences that are causing the problem.

No need to burn down the house just to roast a pig.

I wonder whether you are running out of memory? does the disk drive light stay on for extended periods? Could you try
vmstat 2 10
and post the result, please?

I set up a new user account and firefox is running, quick as lightening and so far no problems as I described above.

Here is vmstat:

Hopefully you can interpret that. I agree that it really does seem like a memory problem in the creeping way that it shows itself.

Do I need to go back into my usual account and run vmstat there and post?

if you are using ubuntu 10.04 with the gnome interface go to system > administration > system monitor , and , while having your browsers open , tell us , how much RAM is being used, and how much swap(if it uses it of course)

Here is the information from the new user account:

CPU1- 30-50%
CPU2-SAME
3 - 38-62%
4 - 37-50%

Memory 1.2GB of 3.7
Swap 0.0

But I expect that it is the data from the problem account that you want. I will restart in the normal account and see what it shows immediately after boot, then let it run for awhile with the browsers open and take a new reading, then post again.

good idea
go for it

When I rebooted the machine was using less than 10% of memory. I restarted the Chrome and the Firefox browsers and they have been running since my last post. The % of memory has climbed steadily and is now over 90% and this is without me opening any new tabs or refreshing any already opened tabs. Swap use is about 75 Mib (3.9%). Memory use just dropped to 75%, then bounced up to 85, then 91.

What does this look like to you?

post actual numbers in GB !

percent is relative to the amount of ram you have. just tell us how much physical ram you are using.

*man , you really have a bunch of tabs opened! how many tabs do u have in chrome and in firefox?*

memory is 3.3 Gb of 3.7 Gb
swap is 1.0 Gb of 1.7 Gb

edit: oops i thought i did't post . sorry. you really have a problem .

try closing a few tabs. you really use much memory. you only have the browsers open?? it's too much. look in the section of processes. see which one eats the ram. kill it.

Firefox was hoggin memory. It may be relevant that I opened Chrome first, so that FF was the last man trying to crowd into limited space. I killed FF and memory in use has dropped to 920 MiB of 3.7 GiB with swap about 919 out of 1.9 (for convenience in future I will use the convention .920/3.7 and .919/1.9 OK?)

I will let that run for a bit and use Chrome to see what happens to mem use, then restart it with FF first and Chrome next to see how this goes.

I want to stress that the current number of browser instances above, before quitting FF, was no more that 1/4 or 1/3 of the number I used to run prior to this problem developing, and the computer ran much faster (i.e., windows refreshed faster, etc.)

BTW, mem use has crept up to .928/3.7 while I typed the above. no change in swap, but isnt' the swap way too high?

I renamed .mozilla and restarted FF. Mem has climbed to 1.015/3.7 but swap has dropped to .880/1.9.

FWIW, gtk-gnash has several instances running with the top three running about 20% of CPU's each and the next several bout 4% each. Most of the time they are sleeping.Does this mean that they are not refreshing or otherwise communicating with the remote server/webpage they are logged onto?