apps crash after opening firefox / thunderbird

[kalimerox]

Hi there, I have a weird problem that is hard to pin down for me, so I hope I can find some help here


I run linux mint 17.1 Rebecca installed + the kxstudio repos, but same problem appeared on other distros too:

Whenever I open Firefox or thunderbird, it will crash after a while. when this happens, also synaptic and other programs will start to crash and i have to reboot. When I dont open any browser my machine works stable and nice.

I dont get any special error messages in the commandline..

If synaptic crashes, I ll get

(synaptic:3287): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

edit: I use the proprietary nvidia drivers


I could imagine this has something to do with flash, or the graphics drivers, etc. But I have no idea where to start. I know it s a very "general" description Also a lot of google searches and workarounds i tried didnt help.. Thanks for your patience!

[Cosmo.]

... also synaptic and other programs will start to crash and i have to reboot. When I dont open any browser my machine works stable and nice.

That is a contradiction in itself. Please describe better.

If other programs like synaptic are affected, than it is not likely that Flash is the culprit.

There is another point, that sounds strange:

but same problem appeared on other distros too

You want to say, that not only with your LM 17.1, but also on other systems (which one?) does exactly the same problem occur?
Does it also occur with a live system on the same physical machine?

[kalimerox]

kalimerox wrote:
... also synaptic and other programs will start to crash and i have to reboot. When I dont open any browser my machine works stable and nice.

That is a contradiction in itself. Please describe better.

sorry, but means: when i start a browser and the browser crashed, from then on other programs are affected and will crash. If i dnt start a browser and just work with other programs, everything is fine

You want to say, that not only with your LM 17.1, but also on other systems (which one?) does exactly the same problem occur?
Does it also occur with a live system on the same physical machine?

It happens for me on any distro I install, I used Linux LMDE , AVLinux, manjaro.. it is always the same weird behaviour.. basically any browser will start crashing and then makes to crash other programs. I know this description is so vague, but I dont know how to describe better, like there are no error messages etc.

On A live distro I havent had the issue, though I havent used the browser there extensively, like the error is hard to reproduce, because it doesnt always crash, sometimes when i boot it s fine for a while...

[richyrich]

In firefox Preferences > Advanced > General tab , is the Use Hardware Accelleration box un-checked ?

[Mute Ant]

''on any distro I install...LMDE...like the error is hard to reproduce because it doesnt always crash'' It sounds like your hardware needs checking...will your machine run the Live Session memory test all the way through to 100% pass? No Linux there, just '86 machine code.

[Cosmo.]

This is an addition to the question of richyrich, not an alternative:

Assuming, that FF would on the live system not crash after the time, when it does on your installed system it sounds, as if the problem would be in your profile.

To test this, go into the menu of FF: help -> restart with deactivated add-ons -> confirm this and browse for the time, that you know as crucial.

After relaunch of FF your add-ons are active again.

If FF should still crash with deactivated add-ons, you should follow your idea, that Flash may be the culprit. Disable the flash plugin in FF, restart FF and browse for the same time.

Report back.

P.S. I assume, that you use the same settings and add-ons in all systems more or less identically, therefor the same problem in all systems.

[messo8080]

Just in future

Try run

Code: Select all

firefox -safe-mode

This switch disabled all addon before FF started. TB has safemod too.

[kalimerox]

Thank you all for your kind help!!

It seems that disabling hardware acceleration on both firefox and chrome did the trick, and it was enabled by default on all the distros. I have to test more, but it looks already very stable..!! sometimes it s a simple click in the preferences, but someone had to point me to that , so thanks again!

[kalimerox]

ah too bad this was false "alarm",

right the next day firefox behaves as strange as before, with all the acceleration turned off and also in safe mode it will just crash with no infos in the console, sometimes sais "segmentation fault" but usually nothing ;(


@ cosmo I ll restart and follow your instructions now...

edit: I did a full RAM check and it seems to be fine.

this is the message i get from the crash handler:

Code: Select all

dd-ons: mint-search-enhancer%40linuxmint.com:1.0,%7B46551EC9-40F0-4e47-8E18-8E5CF550CFB8%7D:1.0.7,%7B972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd%7D:35.0,langpack-en-ZA%40firefox.mozilla.org:35.0,langpack-en-GB%40firefox.mozilla.org:35.0
BuildID: 20150112203352
CrashTime: 1421414960
EMCheckCompatibility: true
FramePoisonBase: 7ffffffff0dea000
FramePoisonSize: 4096
InstallTime: 1421330169
IsGarbageCollecting: 1
Notes: OpenGL: nouveau -- Gallium 0.4 on NVA8 -- 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 -- texture_from_pixmap

ProductID: {ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
ProductName: Firefox
ReleaseChannel: release
SecondsSinceLastCrash: 21
StartupTime: 1421414949
Theme: classic/1.0
Throttleable: 1
URL: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=test+firefox
Vendor: Mozilla
Version: 35.0
useragent_locale: chrome://global/locale/intl.properties

some additional info: I use a dual screen setup , and usually use cadence for routing all sound through jack...

any suggestions? thanks!!!

[kalimerox]

any idea how i could test the hardware/ graphic card to combatibility issues? that was just another thought i had....

and this is the crash message i get from other programs when the problem ocurrs, for example starting synaptic gives me

Code: Select all

(synaptic:4485): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

but i think this is a common output / bug and not crash related?

[Cosmo.]

Several ideas:
You should take some time to test it in the live system.

I cannot find, if you have disabled the flash-plugin. If not done alread, do it now.

Install a proprietary display driver via driver management.

Send the crash report to Mozilla, Menu help -> Information about bugs (wording may differ).

[kalimerox]

thanks cosmo, will do that tomorrow in the studio and will let you know!

[kalimerox]

Hi guys, so some updates here. I m testing now on a live system running firefox.....

It doesnt seem to crash. I can run vimeo, etc open a lot of tabs and its really stable..

on my installed distros however, firefox on a fresh install first works fine, and then starts to crash. and when it starts crashing, it doesnt make a difference if i am in failsafe mode, disable hardware acceleration, disable all the plugins , flash, etc. it just crashes and sais something like

core dumped

or

segmentation fault

. after that, also deleting the .mozilla file doesnt change anything , it will just keep crashing ...
Also then i m unable to send the crash reports to firefox because the crash report box also crashes....

Because i use my computer mostly for audio / sound editing i usually run the sound through jack (with the cadence or qjackctl gui) via the aloop deamon. i do that as well on my laptop and there with no flaws....


any suggestions ? thanks so much for your help in this cryptic case....

[Cosmo.]

Taking this

... also deleting the .mozilla file doesnt change anything

- I think, you mean the .mozilla folder -

and that

when i start a browser and the browser crashed, from then on other programs are affected and will crash.

together I would guess (I do not have anything to offer than guesses), that you have made some changes in the system, which are responsible for that.

And adding this info

It happens for me on any distro I install, I used Linux LMDE , AVLinux, manjaro.. it is always the same weird behaviour.. basically any browser will start crashing and then makes to crash other programs. I know this description is so vague, but I dont know how to describe better, like there are no error messages etc.

it means for me, that you do this change(s) regularly. You alone can tell, what you do. The last quote also tells me, that this is not a Firefox-problem. So your attention must go to the system and your changes.

And this

I m testing now on a live system running firefox.....

It doesnt seem to crash.

tells me, that it is no hardware-related problem. Maybe another kernel, another video-driver - you still did not say anything about that.

Most likely the best way to judge the problem might be to make a quite new installation of Mint - e.g. a second installation on one of your machines - and do absolutely no changes except updating level 1 & 2 updates. This should - taking the above quoted information - be stable. Than add level 3 updates. After some testing make the changes you normally do, but make those changes in single steps, only one by one.

[Spearmint2]

bad install from bad burn to media. Double check the media you used by booting to the LIVE media and run the integrity check. If that fails, then run md5sum on the ISO file you downloaded.

[kalimerox]

@cosmo

yes I meant the .mozilla folder

yeah thanks for your hints, i ll run a fresh installation next to it and will update level 1 & 2 ...

as mentioned before i tried with a variety of distros / drivers already ...;(

i ll let you know on the weekend!

[SpookyWatcher]

For me I was getting random "crashes". Screen was completely unresponsive (or so it seemed) CTRL-ALT-Backspace would get me out and re-login and back up and running.

But it always seem like it happened while browsing on Firefox. Turns out it was touchpad causing freezes.

I don't know if this is your problem, but the quickest test is to connect USB mouse and use it instead of touchpad. If problem goes away then you can go to settings to turn your touchpad into straight mouse. You'll lose two finger scrolling etc. But the touchpad will quit crashing your sys.

Hope it helps

Spooky