browser troubles with 16.1 berta caceres

roland · posted: 2017-06-22 15:17

I have Chromium, Firefox and Google Chrome installed via metapackage-installer. All these browsers seem to misbehave at times mainly slow response and locking up after maybe an hours work. Process viewer shows higher than usual memory usage at 12%-ish but not surprisingly high. This PC is very old and slow but under 13.2 luddite ran very well. I have a 4gb swap partition, it it enough? All linux partitions are logical/extended in nature, is this a bad idea? My boot partition is only 34% used but is not large at 62g. telephone is cabled with copper back to the exchange but is adequate and with an adequate ADSL adapter. Any suggestions? Leading PC details foillow below. I use Space-IceWM and did so under 13.2 also. I recently was advised an updated version from Sourceforge of 16.2, should I move up to this?

Thanks in advance, Roland

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Disk /dev/sda: 163 GB, 163921605120 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sda1               1       16446   132102463    5  Extended
/dev/sda5               1         511     4096575   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda6             511        8160    61440592   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            8160       16446    66557295   83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *       16446       19930    27985230    7  HPFS/NTFS

Model: ATA Maxtor 6L160P0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 164GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  135GB   135GB   extended
 5      2097kB  4196MB  4194MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
 6      4197MB  67.1GB  62.9GB  logical   ext4
 7      67.1GB  135GB   68.2GB  logical   ext4
 2      135GB   164GB   28.7GB  primary   ntfs            boot

Partition: ID-1: / size: 58G used: 19G (34%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
           label: N/A uuid: cff1b590-4fe6-4ffc-923c-b92099fdcef0
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: / dev /  sda5
           label: antiXswap uuid: 5af8dc63-cb1e-414a-9f43-476cbc3847a0

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System:    Host: hennebique Kernel: 4.4.10-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.9.3)
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8 Distro: antiX-16.1_x64-full Berta Cáceres 16 January 2017
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: MICRO-STAR model: MS-7312 v: 1.00 BIOS: Phoenix v: 6.00 PG date: 09 / 12 / 2006
CPU:       Dual core AMD model unknown (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 svm) bmips: 3999
           clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 1000 MHz 2: 1000 MHz
Graphics:  Card: VIA K8M800/K8N800/K8N800A [S3 UniChrome Pro] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: vesa Resolution: 1280x1024@0.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card VIA VT8233 / A / 8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_via82xx port: d800 bus-ID: 00:11.5
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.10-antix.1-amd64-smp
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
           driver: 8139too v: 0.9.28 port: d000 bus-ID: 00:08.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: VIA VT6102 [Rhine-II] driver: via-rhine port: e000 bus-ID: 00:12.0
           IF: eth1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 163.9GB (14.4% used)
           ID-1: / dev / sda model: Maxtor_6L160P0 size: 163.9GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 58G used: 19G (34%) fs: ext4 dev: / dev / sda6
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: / dev / sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 153 Uptime: 36 min Memory: 176.3 / 930.6MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell wrapper inxi: 2.3.8

anticapitalista · posted: 2017-06-22 15:33

Unfortunately ALL modern browsers are RAM hogs and older kit will struggle. The web itself demands more RAM and user expectations on the Net are often well beyond what an old box can give. eg Neflix, youtube videos, interactive web sites

rokytnji · posted: 2017-06-22 16:15

Opening multiple tabs in chromium and google-chrome are known resource hogs for some time now.

So only use them with one tab open on older kits. Especially on yours since you only have 1 gig of ram according to your inxi report.

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skidoo · posted: 2017-06-22 17:13

Any suggestions?

You might trying installing the"bluehell firewall" addon, described here:

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(I use RequestPolicy and/or uBlock addon, but can't"recommend" those b/c they involve fidgety setup)

If you care to invest time in learning about which optimizations are available, this is a good starting point:

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(FWIW, I disagree with a few of the tweaks recommended by"Pants". Said differently: I agree with most of 'em)

roland · posted: 2017-06-22 22:26

I realise lack of resources is a problem, but I have to soldier on with what I have for now.

I just had a 'page unresponsive' panel from Chromium, looked on Process Viewer, it was a flash play using 72% memory and the other Chromium process using 12%, a few other minor bits, there wasn't much left. I killed the flash process and it all came to life again. But it does play some flash files without stalling.

I got another one later on, tried to kill it but ended up back at a login for my user, logged in and it all restarted normally.

I'll follow your suggestions of limiting tabs and keep things down to a minimum. On Luddite 13.2 with Iceweasel these flash files would not play so I never hit the problerm before. I will look for some more RAM if the mainboard will take it.

Thanks for all suggestions, I'm not very experienced yet, if I ever will be!

Roland

anticapitalista · posted: 2017-06-22 22:55

Try running the Adblock app in the control centre, under Network

fatmac · posted: 2017-06-23 07:43

I used to have several machines with just 1GB ram, but they were getting slower & slower for internet use, modern browsers needing more ram, I upgraded most to 2GB ram, & now I have reasonable speed again with them.

If at all possible, puts some more ram into yours too.

roland · posted: 2017-07-06 22:14

It certainly looks like memory shortage when these browsers begin to run jerky and eventually lock up. I have tried using only one tab and it helps, but also I think it is related to the number and size of files opened, especially PNG, JPG, PDF Flash MP4 and so on which all gobble memory, and I think this memory is never relinquished when the file is done with, because the browser maybe has no way of knowing if it's done with or not. I've got 4gb of DDR2 ordered for my 2 PCs which I expect will help some, but these browsers need to address the memory usage and reuse it if a strategy can be designed.

This problem in no way affects my use of 16.1 which I am finding well up to the AntiX usual high standard - thanks for a fine product.

Thanks again for all suggestions and best wishes

BitJam · posted: 2017-07-07 01:04

Maybe the
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would help a little. I seldom browse without it but many sites require you to enable JavaScript in order to use them. The good thing is you get to pick and choose which sites you enable JavaScript on so you only have to endure the extra overhead on the sites you select. NoScript certainly saves a lot of CPU cycles but I don't now how much memory it saves.

skidoo · posted: 2017-07-07 01:21

follow the link from this article to github, skim read the user.js file posted to github
(contains inline comments explaining what each of the various preferences is/does)

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network.prefetch-next = false

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browser.cache.*
^------- investigate how you can tweak the various settings

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roland · posted: 2017-07-10 21:24

Using 16.1 Space-IceWM and Chromium I have also noticed that comms traffic shown on Conky [eth1 UP] sometimes gets so heavy, [solid bar] it all comes to a standstill but down traffic [eth1 DOWN] is only very light, while memory usage is no more than about 15%. I have usually only tried to open a link and this fails to open but stalls my severely limited PC. My response is to select the menu then App Killer and kill Chromium, waiting a few seconds to allow the dust to settle then run a fresh Chomium startup which gets everything going again from where I left off.

Any comments gratefully received and best wishes.

figosdev · posted: 2017-07-10 21:57

thats probably just chromium bugging your home**

** im not sure. i will not personally trust it again. rick falkvinge is worth reading, whether or not hes right about this now very old news
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skidoo · posted: 2017-07-11 01:36

hosts-based adblocking can lead to the situation you described. A script embedded within a page you're viewing, it may not"fail gracefully" if unable to connect to a 3rd party (stats/advertiser) host. Instead it may aggressively/continually retry (every 10ms!) to connect.

[eth1 UP] sometimes gets so heavy, [solid bar]

You can install the"net-tools" package, then use netstat (man netstat) to help discover the cause (and destination) of all that traffic.

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Also, check the manpage for lsof; with its -i option you can check/monitor tcp connections

If you figure out the site, or specific page, causing the misbehavior... maybe disable javascript before revisiting that particular page (or use uBlock browser addon, or noScript or whatever)

roland · posted: 2017-07-30 21:46

Thanks for the suggestions about memory shortage. I have now upgraded the two PCs that were causing frequent trouble, from 1gb DDR2 to 2gb DDR2/800, with very good results. While there is still HD activity in the background from time to time it no longer overwhelms the PC and now with these two very outdated boxes I can still get on with things. Best wishes to all, from Roland