Youtube completely locking up linux PC
Hi there,
Had this problem for a few months now (since I've had this machine). Watching youtube on firefox often completely locks up my computer. Not usually straight away but after a random amount of time.
It happened on linux mint 18.3, now I am using linux mint 19 and it's the same. It happened with the linux mint 19 live environment (run from USB drive) and on the Manjaro live environment (Hakoila 17.1.11).
Due to the problem occurring on the linux live environments as well, it obviously is not related to any firefox add-ons I have or any other software I have installed, nor a specific version of firefox or linux.
When the problem occurs the video freezes and the computer locks up and no key presses will work or enable me to do anything. The sound will repeatedly loop from whatever was playing at the time of the crash (maybe 0.5 second loop) and the only way I can find to get out of it is to power down the PC with the power button.
I mainly stream from youtube so that's where I'm most aware of the problem, but it did once happen whilst streaming a radio station as well.
I have resorted to using the Brave browser for youtube (Linux Mint 19 still) and that is completely fine with youtube. I also have no problems using Kodi and the youtube add-on.
I have tried with both hardware acceleration on and off (Use recommended performance settings) and it did seem to be slightly better with hardware acceleration off but the problem still occurred.
The machine in question is a Lenovo 10157 (H500s family).
Would appreciate any advice or how to file a bug report?
Thanks
Todas as respostas (4)
Hello,
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- Click the menu button
, click Help 
and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
Does it make a difference if you use the Firefox version from the Mozilla server instead of the version from the repositories of your Linux distribution?
Do you notice memory issues like Firefox is using a lot of memory?
Hi, thanks to you both for the suggestions.
I tried firefox safe mode this morning, and in my test with youtube it was ok, no crashes, so that's something.
Can't understand why it helps as I've done those 3 steps separately or they don't apply, but I'll come back to that.
Anyway, will do some more testing and come back to the thread
Cor-el - Not noticed anything unusual regarding firefox memory usage, I just looked, with just this one tab open (and a few other programs) It was at 50% (of 4gb), I started playing a random yt video briefly in another tab (can't afford a crash right now), it jumped to 59%, closed the yt tab, now it's been at 54% for a few minutes. I'm running firefox is normal mode right now with hardware acceleration off.
Thanks again.
Hi again,
I did some more testing, the system crash still occurs in Firefox safe mode.
The problem also occurs on the linux firefox downloaded from the mozilla website (61.0.2)
Any ideas where to go from here please?
Thanks
ETA: I made sure I was running the mozilla 61.0.2 firefox and created a new profile for it, I also did not change any settings whatsoever from the default ones.
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