All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

pendor · 2014-08-23 22:38:11

Hi everyone.
I'm back with this (for me) very serious thing. I'm an archer since several years ago and installed it in quite a few pcs. I came from Slack and Gentoo. I love Arch but....
Since about 4 months I'm having constant system freezes when using Firefox, Chromium or even Dwb browsing Facebook, Youtube or Slate, to mention a few. It's not just X but the whole system because I can't ssh into it after the freeze.
RAM (3 GB) passes all checks.
Video card: old Nvidia 7300 pci-e with propietary drivers (using nouveau happens the same thing). Amd athlon x2 64.
I tried disabling hw acceleration in all browsers to no avail (it improves slightly tho). Also tried linux-lts kernel and it's even worse.
It's browser related, I know because I tried launching all the apps that have installed to fill up the ram, including LibreOffice, Gimp, Cinelerra and a lot more, and everything works until I open a couple of tabs in Firefox or Chromium. And then, suddenly, it freezes.

Important: I've got latest LinuxMint installed in the same PC (propietary drivers) and it works flawlessly (I'm writing this from Firefox in Mint, by the way).

I don't know what else to try. Any comments are welcome.
Thanx!

Last edited by pendor (2014-11-05 22:49:08)

ewaller · 2014-08-24 00:18:50

Can you provide an example link?

pendor · 2014-08-24 13:57:27

Sorry but I don't get what you ask for...
If you mean which sites, usually when moving pictures or long scrolls in Facebook (this is the usual suspect). Or just opening youtube. The same with Slate. Simple sites work fine, tho.

grandtheftjiujitsu · 2014-08-24 15:23:20

I had a similar issue with chromium freezing when visiting media pages (YouTube). Unfortunately I don't remember exactly how I remedied the situation, but I think it had something to do with java (iced-tea) and flash (chromium-pepper) updates. However, that doesn't really explain your system-wide freeze. Have you tried a hybrid graphics driver like Catalyst or ATI instead of the dedicated graphics?

ewaller · 2014-08-24 16:25:26

pendor wrote:

Sorry but I don't get what you ask for...
If you mean which sites, usually when moving pictures or long scrolls in Facebook (this is the usual suspect). Or just opening youtube. The same with Slate. Simple sites work fine, tho.

That is pretty much it The title had said "...certain pages", I was just asking for an example -- a business, or organization site that might have been using some unusual technology, or trying to do something nasty. OTOH, youtube is generally pretty mainstream, if not benign. I think I can safely say that not everyone using Nvidia is having issue with Facebook or Youtube. Otherwise, these forums might have a comment or two more about the issue.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with specifics with Nvidia or Facebook as I use neither.

edit: Did you see this thread fragment that talks about HTML5 issue in dwb? Might it be applicable?
edit2: Or this?

Last edited by ewaller (2014-08-24 17:59:54)

pendor · 2014-08-24 20:54:32

Hmmm....
As far as I know one can't use Catalyst or ATI drivers on Nvidia. Correct me if I'm wrong.
In regard to the threads ewaller mentions, when Dwb killed the system I was at Facebook, so I guess the problem is not html5 video related.
It's a real PITA.
Thanx anyway, doods.

pendor · 2014-08-30 19:41:43

Last night I went back to nouveau (just out of sheer desperation).... and I'm getting kernel oops 50% of the times I turn on the system. So, as usual nowadays I'm posting this from LinuxMint on the same machine.... I'm done.

pendor · 2014-09-05 23:40:42

Well, finally I solved this by brute force alone (always a good last resort).
As I luckily had two partitions for Arch ( root and home) I proceeded to format root partition and reinstall the base system and go up from there. And to try something new, I changed the root partition filesystem from ext4 to btrfs with compression enabled (so far, so good)
Up to now, everything works (using nouveau as driver), Facebook, YouTube, etc, on Opera and Firefox.
It's certainly not an elegant solution, but it works, and it only took a couple of hours. Now I'm back on Arch and it usual speed and quick responses.
Maybe I'll change home partition filesystem to btrfs when sure everything is ok.
Cheers!

Last edited by pendor (2014-09-06 00:44:20)

pendor · 2014-09-06 16:47:56

Still working like a charm. This is the lightning fast and stable Arch that made me fall in love... :-D

nomorewindows · 2014-09-06 17:57:25

That would be strange to have to use a different filesystem to get the video card to work.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2014-09-06 17:58:11)

pendor · 2014-09-06 23:12:28

:-D :-D Most certainly!!!
But I suppose the real thing behind the freezes was some corrupted file or deeply hidden wrong configuration and those things went away with the format/reinstall (IIRC, the original installation was from 2008... I think). The filesystem change was just to quench my curiosity (and up to now I'm really satisfied).
On a totally different matter, installing infinality font packages was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise, by the way. Fonts looks now (under Windowmaker) as nice as under WinXP.
If something of what I wrote is not very comprehensible please excuse my broken english.
Cheers!

nomorewindows · 2014-09-06 23:31:54

I was trying to get nvidia with gpu to work on a fresh install, and it kept locking up but worked fine on Windows XP. So I don't know what's going on there. I just have to keep chipping away at it. I think it has to do with activating the fan on the gpu. But I had filesystems for /,/home,/usr and some others that would be a real pain to redo all that.

pendor · 2014-09-08 00:12:15

My hard is a FX7300 (quite old card) and driver nouveau. Mplayer locks X11 if selected video output is not xv, by the way.

nomorewindows · 2014-09-08 12:47:41

I'm trying to get a nvidia C61 GeForce 6100 nForce 405 rev a2 to work on a machine. I tried nvidia-304xx and it seems like it works, but I think I need to use coolbits or something. Or see if FreeBSD does better with nvidia. Something like stellarium will lock it just as good as a browser.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2014-09-08 12:48:26)

pendor · 2014-09-09 01:18:31

I may be a heretic by saying this, but.... before going xBSD I'd try Mint or Ubuntu...

nomorewindows · 2014-09-09 04:45:45

I can find my way around *BSD, but it seems to be antiquated and not the bleeding edge like Arch. I've been the Ubuntu route, it's Arch or *BSD or nerf or nothing. Wonder if anyone is doing any [testing] on the nvidia/nouveau with the linux-3.17 kernel? Supposed to be better for some cards.

pendor · 2014-09-10 00:13:20

Well... the problems are back (sort of). If I open a Facebook tab and youtube tab in Firefox Xorg freezes, mouse cursor still moves for a while, and later it stops too. I can nevertheless access the PC via ssh and reboot it from the command line, so it's not the system, but Xorg who crashes. I "kill -9 xorg" but the screen doesn't change. Sigh...

nomorewindows · 2014-09-23 20:48:00

I tried a nvidia GeForce 6150SE on xfs and it doesn't seem to be giving me any hiccup. Using nvidia-304xx with it just like the one I used for 6100. I'm running at a lower resolution if that makes any difference. I wouldn't think that the filesystem would make any difference. In fact, I tried nouveau/nv over a PXE client connection and it locked up under that. Then I used nvidia-304xx and it didn't give me any trouble. So it is with the permanent installation.

pendor · 2014-09-26 01:19:15

Latest update:
Firefox is still unstable (but it crashes alone, not taking the system with it). Chromium behaves quite well, youtube used to crash system a couple of times, but... Apparently functional cures: add-on for HTML5 instead of flash for Chromium, right click and "disable hardware accel" in flash where it can't be avoided. Last but not least, I rearranged the RAM banks to make them same size/kind of ddr2 in each bank pair. I keep my fingers crossed. So far, so good.

nomorewindows · 2014-09-26 09:13:59

pendor wrote:

Last but not least, I rearranged the RAM banks to make them same size/kind of ddr2 in each bank pair. I keep my fingers crossed. So far, so good.

Kinda strange. They say mixed speeds will just run at the lowest speed, but I seem to think it actually has trouble doing that.

pendor · 2014-09-27 01:56:58

I had a crash using chromium after playing four or five videos in youtube.... Just for the LULz I affixed a tiny cooler on the Northbridge of the mobo (ECS A780, by the way)... and the problema seem to have diminished (don't dare to write gone)...
Still testing, but the system is a whole lot more stable than it was when I started this thread, it occurs to me that there was a mixture of hardware and software problems, one upon the other...

pendor · 2014-09-28 14:29:44

Another full Xorg crash; chromium, website with lots of flash contents.... As usual, flash is a PITA.

nomorewindows · 2014-09-28 16:06:49

If you're still using nouveau, I'd switch to the correct nvidia-xxxx package.

pendor · 2014-09-28 16:12:59

I've been thinking about doing that, actually.

nomorewindows · 2014-09-28 16:17:12

Be sure to read the wiki on Nvidia.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-08-23 22:38:11

All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#2 2014-08-24 00:18:50

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#3 2014-08-24 13:57:27

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#4 2014-08-24 15:23:20

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#5 2014-08-24 16:25:26

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#6 2014-08-24 20:54:32

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#7 2014-08-30 19:41:43

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#8 2014-09-05 23:40:42

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#9 2014-09-06 16:47:56

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#10 2014-09-06 17:57:25

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#11 2014-09-06 23:12:28

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#12 2014-09-06 23:31:54

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#13 2014-09-08 00:12:15

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#14 2014-09-08 12:47:41

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#15 2014-09-09 01:18:31

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#16 2014-09-09 04:45:45

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#17 2014-09-10 00:13:20

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#18 2014-09-23 20:48:00

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#19 2014-09-26 01:19:15

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#20 2014-09-26 09:13:59

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#21 2014-09-27 01:56:58

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#22 2014-09-28 14:29:44

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#23 2014-09-28 16:06:49

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#24 2014-09-28 16:12:59

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

#25 2014-09-28 16:17:12

Re: All browsers freeze system with some pages on x86_64+nvidia[SOLVED]

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