Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

Matilde · 2025-12-29 06:58:59

Hi all,

I’m running Arch Linux on my laptop and recently noticed an issue where the browser becomes slow or briefly unresponsive when opening certain secure websites. This doesn’t happen on normal pages, but it’s consistent on sites that use extra security checks.

I first noticed it while trying to check my FAB bank account balance online, where the page either hangs or partially loads. I’m using a fully updated system with Wayland and Firefox. Has anyone seen similar behavior on laptops with Arch and found a fix related to graphics drivers, sandboxing, or browser settings?

Succulent of your garden · 2025-12-29 09:17:39

Matilde wrote:

and Firefox

Had you ever tried to get access to the website but using chromium based browser ? Maybe it's not the operative system as you are suggesting, because now days you can find some web developers that doesn't want to add support for firefox in some contexts. Try checking that first to know if it is a web browser thing or OS.

seth · 2025-12-29 10:08:55

opening certain secure websites … the page either hangs or partially loads

Referencing the page(s) might help and your browser has also a debugging tool (ctrl+shift+i) that will allow you to see what's going on there.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-12-29 11:17:18

Another post by OP indicates sites of UAE based banks are an example.

seth · 2025-12-29 15:10:10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Abu_Dhabi_Bank is indicated by the post but we need to know the actual url causing this, the bank uses localized versions etc et pp.

Banjo536 · 2026-01-01 06:17:49

This usually turns out to be a browser side issue rather than Arch or the laptop itself. Some banking sites rely on heavier JS, TLS handshakes and fingerprinting scripts that can briefly stall Firefox on Wayland, especially if hardware acceleration or WebRender is not behaving well with your GPU driver. I have seen similar hangs on UAE bank sites where the page looks half loaded and then recovers after a few seconds.

A quick way to narrow it down is to temporarily disable hardware acceleration in Firefox, then test again. Also check the console in dev tools while loading the page to see if there are repeated security or CSP errors. If Chromium works fine on the same system, that strongly points to Firefox specific handling rather than Arch. In my case the issue showed up consistently when trying to access FAB balance pages and even reproduces on simple balance check pages like FAB Bank Balance page which suggests it is the security layer and scripts rather than the account backend itself.

Updating mesa, verifying the correct GPU driver is in use and testing with a clean Firefox profile usually resolves it.

Last edited by Banjo536 (2026-01-01 06:18:06)

Succulent of your garden · 2026-01-01 12:13:59

I'm also thinking that is more possible to be a browser issue than Arch one. Because of the fingerprinting of the system by the browser. If you recently switched from chromium based browser to firefox, then the bank probably notice that and could complaining in some way. Also the unsupported web features that the browser can have and the willing of not have support of firefox from the developers of the web page bank account.

So a good idea is to check that. Chromium web browser can let you change the user agent to another one. In Vivaldi works pretty well, you can put that are working in a windows machine with chrome browser in the user agent, but not sure if the bank web page would notice that and fetch in some other way with java script the real OS.

So I highly recommend to test first with the browser change to see if it's really an Arch Linux issue or not. Then if not we can also help you Matilde.

EDIT:

Also for a joke: Sorry guys, this cobol backend doesn't support Firefox :C. Said the bank while saving earnings by not taking the decision to re write the backend

Last edited by Succulent of your garden (2026-01-01 12:17:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-29 06:58:59

Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#2 2025-12-29 09:17:39

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#3 2025-12-29 10:08:55

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#4 2025-12-29 11:17:18

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#5 2025-12-29 15:10:10

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#6 2026-01-01 06:17:49

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

#7 2026-01-01 12:13:59

Re: Browser freezes on Arch Linux laptop when opening secure sites?

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