Web browser makes system hang (apparently)

[Marco_Ros]

After a time of use of any browser (Firefox and Chromium), system resources are hoarded by it and it is virtually impossible to recover, except for a "hard reboot" (energy disconnection) or maybe waiting more that one hour.
Is there a way to diagnose this problem and/or solve it?



Firefox Quantum ver.63.0.3 (64-bits)
Chromium Ver 70.0.3538.77 (Build official) Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 18.04 (64 bits)


Acer Aspire 2920 Laptop

UBUNTU 18.04 LTS
OS TYPE: 64 bits
RAM: 4GB
Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz × 2
GRAPHICS:Intel® 965GM

[kc1di]

please install inxi with this command
sudo apt install inxi
once installed run this command and post the output back here, use code tags please. #

inxi -Fxzd

[freemedia2018]

I've had a possibly related problem lately where the "Web Content" sometimes refuses to close when the browser does, and when it does, it also prevents "ps aux" from giving the console back. Then the reboot and poweroff commands don't work, kill -9 doesn't work, I have to Alt+Sysrq REISUB if this happens. Note this isn't all the time.

Only some websites trigger it. Youtube is particularly bad, I do not have Adobe anything installed. Avoiding Youtube seems to help a lot.

Very interested in where this thread is going. I suspect a bug in Mozilla web browsers, or the kernel. I haven't experienced a bug this bad in years, I doubt it is specific to Ubuntu. Apart from running Youtube it is not easy to reproduce. And if Youtube can hijack the system that badly, it is fair to call it a bug in some software we are running. A bug this severe is rare in my experience, and just to reiterate-- I do not think this is Ubuntu-specific. I note that you are having the same problem with different browsers, I guess we can rule out the JS engine. I just started having these problems in the past week or two, and only on one machine (the one I watch the most video on.)

[Marco_Ros]

since some time, and several UBUNTU generations, I've had a problem with Firefox, apparently, there is a bug in a CHROME library, or something like that, that makes some scripts take possession of all the resources, until Firefox ask if you want to continue with script.

[Marco_Ros]

please install inxi with this command
sudo apt install inxi
once installed run this command and post the output back here, use code tags please. #

inxi -Fxzd
thanks!

Here is the output:


System: Host: linuxhost Kernel: 4.15.0-42-generic x86_64
bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
Desktop: Gnome 3.28.3 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Machine: Device: laptop System: Acer product: Aspire 2920 v: 0100 serial: N/A
Mobo: Acer model: Calado v: Rev serial: N/A
BIOS: Phoenix v: V1.03 date: 10/18/2007
Battery BAT0:charge: 1.1 Wh 100.0% condition: 1.1/53.3 Wh (2%)
model: SANYO GARDA32 status: Full
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T7300 (-MCP-)
arch: Conroe rev.10 cache: 4096 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7980
clock speeds:max: 2001 MHz 1: 1220 MHz 2: 1088 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary)
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) driver: i915
Resolution: 1280x800@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM
version: 2.1 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-42-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom Limited NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCIE
driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (75.2% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABD1 size: 1000.2GB temp: 42C
Optical-1: /dev/sr0 model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T20N
rev: WP03 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:ID-1: / size: 158G used: 28G (19%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 62.0C mobo: 58.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 265 Uptime: 25 min Memory: 2311.6/3936.2MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56

[kc1di]

I would suggest that you would be better off with that machine using xubuntu or may even mate instead of Gnome. Though dual core is listed as a minimum requirement. it would most likely run much better with a lighter desktop-- Good Luck.

[Marco_Ros]

I would suggest that you would be better off with that machine using xubuntu or may even mate instead of Gnome. Though dual core is listed as a minimum requirement. it would most likely run much better with a lighter desktop-- Good Luck.

Thanks Dave,
I switched desktop to Unity Desktop (sorry if this data does not appear in the information I pasted)

[kc1di]

Unity is still quite heavy on resources it's based on gnome and is actually some times more resource intensive than gnome. still think you'd be better off with mate or xfce on that machine.
good luck.