[SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

Martinsos · 2017-10-24 19:14:56

Hi all,

Few days ago I started experiencing this weird problem where new tabs in google-chrome load indefinitely: I open a new tab, google homepage opens, I type in search keywords in the url, press enter, and spinner just spins in place of the favicon forever. To be worse, this does not happen always, but in about 90% cases -> sometimes it just works. Still, 90% cases makes browsing impossible.
However, I do have pinned tabs that open when I open google chrome for the first time, and they load fine. Also, if I type url of the webpage directly, it also loads fine.

I thought ok, google search is not working for some weird reason. I went to firefox, and first few tabs work, but then at the fifth or sixth tab, again the same problem! Now that is weird I thought -> so it is not browser-specific problem, but again it seems to be related only to google search.

I tried doing search through yahoo, and that works fine.

I have dual boot with windows, so I tried them, and everything works fine there -> so it is related with my Archlinux.

I tried running chrome with no extensions, did not help.
I tried using wire instead of wifi, did not help.
If I ping google.com, works fine -> which is actually expected, but still worth mentioning I guess.
I tried inspecting networking in google-chrome in dev console, but nothing is logged when I type query in url bar and press enter.

I tried few other things, like setting dns servers to google dns server and turning off the firewall but none of that helped, and to be honest I would be weird if it helped because it makes no sense.
I also tried updating whole archlinux, did that successfully, and still nothing.

One interesting thing: problem dissappears if I open google-chrome in incognito mode!

I am not sure how to approach this and would appreciate any ideas. Is it possible that Google is blocking my searches? But then I would expect to see network request being sent and rejected, plus I wasn't doing anything that would give them any reason to block me.

Thank you!

Last edited by Martinsos (2017-10-27 22:47:51)

ewaller · 2017-10-24 19:31:52

First, is this Chrome, or Chromium?
Wired? Wireless? Virtual Machine?
Static IP? Dynamic IP?
What are you using to control your network? (networkmanager? systemd-network? wicd?)
Are you behind a corporate firewall?

When you ping Google, is it IPv4 or IPv6? How about Yahoo?

Martinsos · 2017-10-24 19:51:54

@ewaller thanks for quick reply!
It is chrome (google-chrome package).
It is not Virtual Machine, it is dual boot with windows. 4.12.14-1-ck kernel.
I tried both wired and wireless, makes no difference.
Dynamic IP - it changes daily.
I am using NetworkManager.
I am at home.
Both google and yahoo are resolved to IPv4.

ewaller · 2017-10-24 20:00:21

Okay, I little more information. What are the output of hostname and of ip route ?

seth · 2017-10-24 20:39:54

One interesting thing: problem dissappears if I open google-chrome in incognito mode!

Some extension? Tampermonkey, Stylish, var. Adblockers?

Martinsos · 2017-10-24 21:27:33

hostname is OmenArch (I doubt that helps?) and ip route returns

default via 192.168.1.254 dev enp0s20u2 proto static metric 100 
default via 192.168.1.254 dev wlo1 proto static metric 600 
192.168.1.0/24 dev enp0s20u2 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.69 metric 100 
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlo1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.67 metric 600

@seth I tried running it without extensions (flag --disable-extensions) and problem is still there. Also, pls notice that I get the same problem in firefox!

Martinsos · 2017-10-24 21:34:49

Also, I just tried following: I made my smartphone into hotspot, connected my archlinux to it (wireless), and then there are no problems!
From this, I am assuming problem comes only when I connect with archlinux to my specific router. I also just realized there is another important piece of info: I was connecting to this same router with this same laptop with archlinux for long time before, with no problems -> however I was away for few months and now when I got back home, this problems started.

So to recap: problem is in combination of my archlinux machine and my home router, when doing google search. Problem seems to not be caused by: browser (and therefore extensions also), type of connection (wired/wireless), firewall.

seth · 2017-10-24 21:43:57

The idea was that you're using the same (usually adblocker) extension in both browsers.
So the incognito mode was a false positive assumption?

Google blocks searches (for abuse) IP based, but you get a captcha in case.

Martinsos · 2017-10-24 21:56:55

Got it -> unfortunately, I don't think that is it. Incognito has no problems, --disable-extensions does have problems. I removed all extensions from firefox, does not help.
I thought it might be that google blocked me, but: I did not abuse, and IP is changed each day. I thought I maybe got somebody else's IP who abused Google, but multiple days passed.

cfr · 2017-10-24 22:23:11

Windows (and possibly even your phone) presumably gets the same IP as far as Google is concerned, anyway.

Do you have the same problem with a clean, default profile? In Firefox you can start from the command line and create a new profile. I assume there's some similar thing for Chrome, but I've never used it (only Chromium).

Last edited by cfr (2017-10-24 22:23:56)

Martinsos · 2017-10-25 08:51:44

@cfr thanks for suggestion!
Regarding the IP: Yes, but it could be that it is also combining it with user-agent and other info about the browser/os to create a fingerprint for a user.

I started firefox with clean, default profile and then it works fine in firefox!
I tried doing similar thing in google-chrome -> I logged out of it and let it delete all the cookies/history/... , then tried using it without it being logged in, but problem is still there. I logged back in, problem still there.
I might try purging google-chrome completely.

seth · 2017-10-25 11:31:24

Ensure there's no running chromium process left and

mv ~/.config/chromium ~/.config/chromium.bak

Google bans you temporarily (1-2h or so) per IP. You're explicitly informed about this when visiting their website.
I know that because I once wrote a script invoking google - and that maybe ran a bit wild during development ;-)

Martinsos · 2017-10-27 22:46:17

Thanks for help everybody! What at the end worked for me was purging google-chrome. I deleted the package, deleted custom data directories

~/.config/google-chrome ~/.cache/google-chrome

and reinstalled the package. That seems to fix it! Unfortunately, I am still not sure what was the cause, and am not even absolutely sure that my fix is what fixed it, but I have no way of testing it anymore.
Closing the issue, thanks!

ewaller · 2017-10-28 00:33:51

Yeah, but...

What about firefox? Or was that a red herring?

cfr · 2017-10-28 02:31:33

ewaller wrote:

Yeah, but...
What about firefox? Or was that a red herring?

Firefox got fixed further up with a new profile: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p1745028.

Last edited by cfr (2017-10-28 02:32:05)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-24 19:14:56

[SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#2 2017-10-24 19:31:52

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#3 2017-10-24 19:51:54

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#4 2017-10-24 20:00:21

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#5 2017-10-24 20:39:54

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#6 2017-10-24 21:27:33

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#7 2017-10-24 21:34:49

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#8 2017-10-24 21:43:57

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#9 2017-10-24 21:56:55

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#10 2017-10-24 22:23:11

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#11 2017-10-25 08:51:44

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#12 2017-10-25 11:31:24

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#13 2017-10-27 22:46:17

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#14 2017-10-28 00:33:51

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

#15 2017-10-28 02:31:33

Re: [SOLVED] Google search takes indefinite time

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