Buggy Browser Graphics Issues?

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, for months now, I've been experiencing weird graphics lockup of my system. It seems to ONLY happen when I view certain pages/images within the newest Firefox that I've been running for the past couple years in Slackware. I can duplicate this every time by just attempting to view a Google Map, specifically when I try to use "Street View" within that map page.

 

I just now reverted to the standard ESR version of FF that is in the Slackware repos. I'm hoping this will eliminate the video bugaboos.

 

OK... I just went to Google Maps and used Google Street View with no issues whatsoever, so my questions/suspicions have been answered. YAY!

 

My now current Firefox version is: 68.12.0 ESR (64-bit)... far cry from FF 118.x, but that's fine. This ESR version works okely-dokely for me.

[securitybreach]

Nice that you figure out a solution

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Oh, the old box has other issues, but that graphics lockup carp had been really annoying me lately. A lesson to learn, though, for ALL LInux users of any distribution;

 

It's NOT a good idea to go outside of your repos for software.

[crp]

problem though is that version 68  is not really not safe to use on the internet.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, shucks. I'll just have to live with it because my version of Slackware is still 14.2 and it doesn't utilize the newer ESR version (115.x, I think).

[sunrat]

Wow. firefox-esr v.115 was just pushed as a security update in Debian Bullseye (oldstable). If the always conservative Debian security team consider the original v.102 to need an essential security upgrade, I'd hate to imagine their verdict on v.68.

[securitybreach]

Ha, I am at 117.0.1 on Arch

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

No one ever accused Slackware of being on the bleeding edge.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

"Version 68.12.0, first offered to ESR channel users on August 25, 2020"

 

It's so old, the hackers probably aren't even aware of or targeting it any longer. They figure no one in their right mind could possibly still be using a browser from 2020.

 

Security by Decrepitude.

 

 

 

 

 

.

[sunrat]

2 hours ago, securitybreach said:

Ha, I am at 117.0.1 on Arch

 

Arch users wouldn't understand what ESR means.

[securitybreach]

9 minutes ago, sunrat said:

 

Arch users wouldn't understand what ESR means.

Better look again  

 

 

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0&K=firefox-esr

[securitybreach]

1 hour ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

"Version 68.12.0, first offered to ESR channel users on August 25, 2020"

 

It's so old, the hackers probably aren't even aware of or targeting it any longer. They figure no one in their right mind could possibly still be using a browser from 2020.

 

Security by Decrepitude.

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

Haha

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, phoooey!

 

The reversion to the older Firefox did NOT resolve the intermittent graphics issue on my system. It just crashed and burned on me a few minutes ago... requiring a complete power-down/power-up cycle to get the system to boot again.

 

OK, well. I'm done troubleshooting this mess. The issue is too intermittent to track, anyway. I guess I'll just live with it till lose my patience and have to bring out the serious troubleshooting tools.

 

 

 

[sunrat]

10 hours ago, securitybreach said:

Better look again  

 

 

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0&K=firefox-esr

 

Still doesn't prove you know what it means.

[securitybreach]

Long term support, sort of like the LTS kernel

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, shucks and fiddle-diddle... I had to revert to the newest bleeding edge Firefox because I was having too many issues on some websites with the old dinosaur ESR version.

 

I'll just have to deal with this carp as it comes, I guess.

[abarbarian]

58 minutes ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Well, shucks and fiddle-diddle.

 

You can run you can hide but progress will get you in the end

[ebrke]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:02 PM, V.T. Eric Layton said:

I guess I'll just live with it till lose my patience and have to bring out the serious troubleshooting tools.

 

Don't dance on it, Eric!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

That thought occasionally comes to mind, @ebrke.

 

 

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, YAY!

 

I received an email notifying me of some critical Slackware security updates a little while ago. When I read up on what the issues were, I was pleasantly surprised to see that these are EXACTLY the warnings from the X11 log file that I've been getting every time my graphics go kerflooey and lock up my machine. Here's what the updates are for:

 

Quote

[slackware-security]  libXpm (SSA:2023-276-02)

New libXpm packages are available for Slackware 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 15.0,
and -current to fix security issues.

Here are the details from the Slackware 15.0 ChangeLog:
+--------------------------+
patches/packages/libXpm-3.5.17-i586-1_slack15.0.txz:  Upgraded.
  This update fixes security issues:
  libXpm: out of bounds read in XpmCreateXpmImageFromBuffer().
  libXpm: out of bounds read on XPM with corrupted colormap.

___

[slackware-security]  libX11 (SSA:2023-276-01)

New libX11 packages are available for Slackware 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 15.0,
and -current to fix security issues.

Here are the details from the Slackware 15.0 ChangeLog:
+--------------------------+
patches/packages/libX11-1.8.7-i586-1_slack15.0.txz:  Upgraded.
  This update fixes security issues:
  libX11: out-of-bounds memory access in _XkbReadKeySyms().
  libX11: stack exhaustion from infinite recursion in PutSubImage().
  libX11: integer overflow in XCreateImage() leading to a heap overflow.

 

 

How 'bout that. It wasn't anything on my machine after all. YAY! I had a sneaky suspicion it was FF related, but it was actually an X11 lib issues all along... at least I'm HOPING this is the fix. The "bolded" items in the security notices above are almost word-for-word the same as the error notices I've been getting in my X11 log file every time the crash occurs. I guess time will tell if this fixes it.

[securitybreach]

Good deal

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Ruh-Roh... just had a slight (2-3 seconds) freeze up a moment ago, but it released without having to reboot the computer.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

NOPE. Issue definitely NOT fixed. I did the acid test... Google Maps -> Streetview. The machine froze up like a ice cube. I had to hard restart it. Well, darn.

 

My only other option here is to uninstall Nvidia altogether and revert to Nouveau, but he main reason I never ran Nouveau is that I cannot get my monitor's native resolution (1680 x 1050) with it.

 

What to do... what to do.. what to do... ???

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Okely-dokely, then...

 

I uninstalled Nvidia (# sh NVIDIA* --uninistall), then I removed the Blacklisted Nouveau from /etc/modprobe.d. I did not bother to create a new xorg.conf because Nouveau doesn't seem to need it. Rebooted...

 

All is working well... I even have my full monitor resolution going. My only complaint is that boot up text is kinda' small, but I'll live with that. Also, tested on Google Maps -> Streetview and all is well. No freezes, no lockups, etc. YAY!

 

I don't really need Nvidia drivers in Slackware. I don't game in Linux. I do have Nvidia installed in MS Windows and it's OK over there.

 

Progress made! YAY! I can go take a nap now.

[crp]

maybe nVidia decided it was only going to go as low 1920x1280?

nice that Nouveaus supports your 1600*1050 now. I wonder if there was a game that required it.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Never had issues with Nvidia on Slackware until recently when I had to swap out my dead vid card for an older one I had out in the shop. I've never gamed in Linux; too much trouble to do it. That's the main reason I've kept an MS Win installation on all my systems since I started using Slackware back in '06. It's the ONLY reason I have Windows on my system. It doesn't even have Network access. It's never talked to the mothership.

[abarbarian]

16 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Never had issues with Nvidia on Slackware until recently

 

I never had an issue with Nvidia until recently either. Was always baffled as to all the posts slating Nvidia as awful and buggy. A Nvida update a while back has caused me all sorts of problems with my Steam set up which I have sort of cobbled a fix for. At least I think it is a Nvida problem. There is an outside chance it may be operator error but only an outside chance.

Glad you found a solution.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

4 hours ago, abarbarian said:

Glad you found a solution.

 

Me, too! Nouveau has come a long way since it first came out. It's working fine and dandy for me on Slackware right now. I'm HAPPY!