[SOLVED] All browsers crash with "Illegal instruction"

[Spearmint2]

This is the fastest socket A /462 processor made.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-At ... DKV4E.html

Maybe give you a bit more kick if you can find a used one cheap. None of them though have SSE2.

I'm surprised that 18.2 mint had drivers for VIA in it, but none of them seem for video.

If the video is working for everything else, just not for the browsers, again, xenopeek must be right about that SSE2 requirement. You may have to go to mozilla's archive section and get an earlier Firefox to run. If you do, be sure in about:config to set it to use TLS only. That's a security flaw in the SSL in the older FF versions.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/yo ... -supported

Looks like you are limited to version 52, the last one that didn't require sse2.

http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/ ... 52.5.0esr/

http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/ ... 686/en-US/

[lonelyislands]

Thanks SpearMint2; I was trying to give this old beast another kiss of life; but what the heck it only goes so far.

I will try FF 52 and let you know. Thanks again.

[lonelyislands]

Just for the record, in my case the real problem behind the "Illegal instruction" crash, even with an SSE1-only browser, was due to the adobe flash plugin.

when removed by the following steps, the latest version of Palemoon (SSE1-only) and Firefox 48 (SSE1-only version) started working without problem

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get remove adobe-flash-properties-gtk

sudo apt-get purge adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get purge adobe-flash-properties-gtk

[Spearmint2]

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2191493

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-64- ... SwIFtaEfb3

Maybe get cheap on bid.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-P5G41-M-L ... SwsFpaD6rn

This would be my pick for cheap upgrade. CPU has SSE2 , 4 GB of Crucial Ram, It's a drop in combo. Current bid is $28 and free shipping and only 11 hours left on it. If you can get it for under $40, it's a steal. Time to retire that Socket A.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-M68M- ... SwJtdaDRVD

[lonelyislands]

Spearmint thanks for all the links but;

I have identified the problem as the Adobe Flash and removed it. Since then I can use latest version of Pale Moon - which is a great browser. So from my point view, the problem is solved.

[peviem28]

This was a long journey.

AMD K7 Athlon XP 1900+ 768 MB RAM while one ram is a bit buggy and very slowly. no sse2 ofcourse

Linux Mint Cinnamon, Mate uses a lot of ram. ram quickly filled
stretch not tested but debian needs a lot of configuration and i don't have that time
linux lite 3.8, firefox won't start (maybe flash problem too?)
antix 17.4 no ps2-port support o_O
tiny core linux plus, can find wifi but can't connect, youtube doesn't work on firefox, needs a lot customizing
linux mint 9 fluxbox (as you can see i tried to use very old software as i hoped to find sse1 optimized software and browser) firefox so old it can't be updated
bodhi linux 6 io charset ascii not found?
bodhi linux 4.5 initramfs alert root?
lubuntu 14.04 NICE but firefox crashes on startup, always disturbs with "update to 16.04, then...
fresh install lubuntu 16.04. NICE but firefox crashes on startup.

i remember since on this pc windows xp (win 10 is not allowed because of missing sse2) can handle adobe flash until version 10.x.x.x.x.x https://msfn.org/board/topic/174480-bro ... nt=1161584
maybe up to 11.x.x.x.x so i looked in synaptic and saw adobe flash THIRTY TWO!?!?!?

adobe flash doesn't support sse1 cpu's from 12x.x.x.x and younger and however flash is dead, lubuntu developers should know that.maybe i can install 10x.x.x.x on lubuntu 16.04 to see if it's worthy.

so i've deinstalled it (synaptic flash-plugin-installer a few kilobytes) and not only palemoon build works also THE NEWEST FIREFOX 66! i mean, if it does work on the live system, why not on the stationary system?

no need for 48 or 52.2. lubuntu is awesome. when i start it and don't open program except task manager i see only 87 mb are used! i hope it will be forever like this. it can rescue a lot of pc's with sse1 cpu's

[breversa]

Thanks for this detailed reply !

I myself have an ancient laptop that I'm struggling to find a proper OS for. I'll give Lubuntu a try !