Firefox and the constant reboot of Gnome.

[chucklebutte]

Where do I even begin so I do not sound like an insane man?

I am running Mint 11 x64, I have not upgraded, and really do not wish to due to the Gnome/Mate/Cinnagarbage that is out now, I have installed 12 and 13 on other machines and to be honest they are hideous and not something that I can do work in. I need tools to do my work, not bells whistles and widgets. Yes I know there are other options but I like Gnome 2, I'm not a fan of the others. Why did Canonical and Gnome have to be so silly?

With that said on to the issue at hand.


While in Firefox and Firefox only, when I am typing something in a webpage, randomly Firefox will close and Gnome will reboot back to the login screen. This happens at least once a day, every day, since I installed Mint 11 back in May 2011... If I could put the menu from 11 into 13 I wouldn't be writing this post, but since that is not an option, I am stuck with 11 till updates are no longer coming in. So what can be done to fix this problem? I have tried to record it happening with desktop recording software but when the reboot happens the video, obviously is not saved. I could set up a camcorder to record it, but the reboot is so unpredictable I feel I would run out of charge before a reboot happened...


Has this happened to anyone else? Am I just crazy? Could there be some whacky combo of plugins, software installed, and updates to cause this fiasco?

[xenopeek]

After Firefox causes the problem, have a look in your /var/log/syslog file if you can find any errors on or just a few seconds before the time of the problem.

I stuck with Linux Mint 11 GNOME 2 for a long time also, but I'm happily migrated to Linux Mint 13 MATE now. MATE is a fork of Gnome 2, and with the MATE 1.4 release it's working better for me than Linux Mint 11 GNOME 2. A host of GNOME 2 bugs have been fixed by the MATE developers; they're doing awesome work. With Linux Mint 13 being supported till April 2017 and indeed Linux Mint 11 being out of support this month, I'd recommend giving Linux Mint 13 MATE a try (but upgrade to MATE 1.4 as per here: viewtopic.php?f=206&t=111533&p=624015#p624015).

[chucklebutte]

Thanks for the reply! And I will look in to Mint 13 MATE.

Here is my syslog. Logged in at 8:03am and Gnome reboot happened at 8:25am. I was in the middle of typing out an email and it rebooted on me... So frustrating...

Oct 20 08:03:57 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[2411]: pam_sm_authenticate: Called
Oct 20 08:03:57 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[2411]: pam_sm_authenticate: username = [chuck]
Oct 20 08:04:02 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 3968 of process 3968 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Oct 20 08:04:02 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 7 threads of 2 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:04:05 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4011 of process 3968 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:04:05 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 8 threads of 2 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:04:06 Chuck-PC nautilus: [N-A] Nautilus-Actions Tracker 3.0.5 initializing...
Oct 20 08:04:07 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4033 of process 4033 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Oct 20 08:04:07 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 9 threads of 3 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:04:07 Chuck-PC pulseaudio[4033]: pid.c: Daemon already running.
Oct 20 08:04:09 Chuck-PC nautilus: [N-A] Nautilus-Actions Menu Extender 3.0.5 initializing...
Oct 20 08:09:01 Chuck-PC CRON[4370]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) -delete)
Oct 20 08:09:11 Chuck-PC transmission-daemon[1613]: DHT Attempting bootstrap from dht.transmissionbt.com (tr-dht.c:247)
Oct 20 08:17:01 Chuck-PC CRON[4403]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 20 08:18:04 Chuck-PC init: tty1 main process ended, respawning
Oct 20 08:25:11 Chuck-PC gdm-simple-slave[4469]: WARNING: Unable to load file '/etc/gdm/custom.conf': No such file or directory
Oct 20 08:25:11 Chuck-PC acpid: client 1383[0:0] has disconnected
Oct 20 08:25:11 Chuck-PC acpid: client connected from 4471[0:0]
Oct 20 08:25:11 Chuck-PC acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Oct 20 08:25:12 Chuck-PC acpid: client connected from 4471[0:0]
Oct 20 08:25:12 Chuck-PC acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Oct 20 08:25:12 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[4517]: WARNING: Unable to load file '/etc/gdm/custom.conf': No such file or directory
Oct 20 08:25:13 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4522 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' high priority at nice level -11.
Oct 20 08:25:13 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 1 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:13 Chuck-PC gdm-simple-greeter[4514]: Gtk-WARNING: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.24.4/gtk/gtkwidget.c:5687: widget not within a GtkWindow
Oct 20 08:25:13 Chuck-PC gdm-simple-greeter[4514]: WARNING: Unable to load CK history: no seat-id found
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4533 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 2 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4534 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4535 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:14 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 4 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:15 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[4517]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_value_get_boolean: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_BOOLEAN (value)' failed
Oct 20 08:25:15 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4537 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:15 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 5 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:15 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4538 of process 4522 (n/a) owned by '106' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:15 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 6 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Oct 20 08:25:18 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[4517]: pam_sm_authenticate: Called
Oct 20 08:25:18 Chuck-PC gdm-session-worker[4517]: pam_sm_authenticate: username = [chuck]
Oct 20 08:25:19 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4643 of process 4643 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Oct 20 08:25:19 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 7 threads of 2 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:25:20 Chuck-PC pulseaudio[4643]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Oct 20 08:25:20 Chuck-PC nautilus: [N-A] Nautilus-Actions Tracker 3.0.5 initializing...
Oct 20 08:25:21 Chuck-PC nautilus: [N-A] Nautilus-Actions Menu Extender 3.0.5 initializing...
Oct 20 08:25:21 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4707 of process 4643 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Oct 20 08:25:21 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 8 threads of 2 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:25:22 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Successfully made thread 4824 of process 4824 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Oct 20 08:25:22 Chuck-PC rtkit-daemon[2436]: Supervising 9 threads of 3 processes of 2 users.
Oct 20 08:25:22 Chuck-PC pulseaudio[4824]: pid.c: Daemon already running.
Oct 20 08:25:24 Chuck-PC init: tty1 main process ended, respawning

[DrHu]

You say only with Firefox, but you don't say if you have tried another browser: obviously the simplest method to try before troubleshooting either Firefox, Gnome or the desktop/window manager in use..

I use Opera, but there are others such as chromium (or chrome)
http://www.bestinternetbrowser.com/review/linux
--you might want to try a smaller web browser, such as Epiphany..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_(web_browser)
--for a faster web browser, a textstyle such as lync is possible, but people who have gotten used to GUIfied interfaces might find it too sparse, even though it would be very efficient after some practice..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_4iah3UtHo

I can also note that it may be some Gnome+application problem, for example I installed Gnome commander onto Mint lmde 13 and while it does run, it seems to hang when doing a large file search interfering with the desktop (a stuck open window), if I leave it alone long enough, eventually it responds..
--usually I am too impatient to wait fro that..

[chucklebutte]

I've tried other browsers, applications, just a blank screen and it only ever happens when Firefox is running. I just had another reboot at 11:09am and now I know where to look to see the error I believe I have narrowed it down.

Oct 22 11:09:01 Chuck-PC CRON[7040]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) -delete)


What it means I have no clue...

[xenopeek]

That looks like something for PHP (a web server scripting language). Are you running a web server on your computer?

If not, please share the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

dpkg -S /usr/lib/php5

It will show which package installed this.

[chucklebutte]

No web server to my knowledge...

php5-cli, php5-common: /usr/lib/php5