[Discuss] ugly problem

[slitt at troubleshooters.com (Steve Litt)]

On Sun, 22 Jul 2018 17:47:11 -0400
dan moylan <jdm at moylan.us> wrote:

> steve litt writes:
> > On Sun, 22 Jul 2018 12:35:00 -0400
> > dan moylan <jdm at moylan.us wrote:  
> 
> >> since yesterday i have been having irregular freezeups on my
> >> computer.  for instance, today i was reading the nytimes via
> >> chrome, and suddenly the mouse ceased to function, nor would
> >> the touchpad on my keyboard.  the screen content remained
> >> unchanged, the mouse pointer visible but stationary.
> >> neither ctl-alt-del nor ctl-alt-f2 had any effect.  i
> >> attempted to ssh in from another computer and got "no route
> >> to host", nor could i ping.  a hard reset restores apparent
> >> normalcy -- at least for a while.  times vary.  i have yet
> >> to experience a freeze w/o the browser running (which of
> >> course is seldom the case).
> >>
> >> the computer is an intel nuc-10 running fc27.
> >>
> >> any suggestions would be appreciated.  
> 
> > By definition you have an intermittent problem here. Although it's
> > always nice to find the exact root cause, time constraints might not
> > permit that. In that case, you might do prophylactic things to
> > possibly lessen the chance of it happening.  
> 
> > If you're using the Chrome (or for that matter Chromium) browser,
> > you're using a pig. Not as piggy as Firefox, but piggy enough to add
> > instability to your system. Consider switching to Surf, vimb,
> > Midori, or qupzilla.  
> 
> > The fact that you're using Fedora makes me suspect that you're not
> > using a lightweight window manager. I don't think Fedora offers
> > lightweights, but you can build them yourself. I've used both LXDE
> > and Openbox, and recommend them highly. I also highly recommend
> > IceWM, except that its menu system is so worthless that you'll need
> > to provide an additional menu system (dmenu comes to mind). At this
> > time in history, Xfce is NOT a lightweight, and in the past I've
> > had it get intermittent on me.  
> 
> > My guess would be that with a lighter weight browser and a
> > lightweight window manager or desktop environment (wm/de), there's
> > a 50% chance of your eliminating this symptom or relegating it to
> > "too rare to care" status.  
> 
> moylan 2018[1022] sudo dnf install surf.x86_64
> 
>    .
>    .
>    .
>    .
> 
> Installed:
>   surf.x86_64 2.0-3.fc27  xorg-x11-fonts-misc.noarch 7.5-18.fc27
> dmenu.x86_64 4.8-1.fc27 st.x86_64 0.8.1-2.fc27 xterm.x86_64
> 330-3.fc27 xterm-resize.x86_64 330-3.fc27
> 
> Complete!
> moylan 2018[1023] which surf
> /bin/surf
> moylan 2018[1024] surf&
> [3] 4451
> moylan 2018[1025] xkbcommon: ERROR: Key "<CAPS>" added to modifier
> map for multiple modifiers; Using Control, ignoring Lock
> 
> (surf:4451): Gdk-WARNING **: gdkwindow-x11.c:5573 drawable is not a
> native X11 window X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid
> Window parameter) Major opcode of failed request:  18
> (X_ChangeProperty) Resource id in failed request:  0x0
>   Serial number of failed request:  11
>   Current serial number in output stream:  12
> 
> [3]+  Exit 1                  surf
> 
> i tried chrome to search for a little info on surf and
> froze-up immediately.  firefox is running at the moment and
> i did find a manual of sorts at:
> http://troubleshooters.com/linux/surf.htm
> 
> i just need to get it running and then play with it a bit.
> have i missed something essential?  what do i need to do
> to get started and try it out?

Hi Dan,

I'd try Daniel Barrett's Transparent Hugepage workaround. That's just
too easy not to try before devoting a lot of time to Surf.

Assuming that doesn't fix it, I didn't exactly understand your error
messages. If your Surf was produced by a Fedora package, I'd compile
from scratch, because Fedora doesn't prioritize "small" and "do one
thing and do it well." Do it according to the instructions on that site
you mentioned above.

SteveT
 
Steve Litt
Author: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt