X screen crashes while visiting facebook and some regional news(paper) website.

kingston · 08-26-2010, 04:33 AM

hi all,
i am running RHEL 5.1 with mozilla firefox 3.6.8 and default runlevel is 5. The problem is whenever i am visiting facebook.com or some regional websites (www.dinamalar.com) my X server crashes and its taking me to the login screen. while visiting, its displaying some unwanted images across the screen. please look at the attachment
VGA controller is

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

the log details are as follows

Code:

Aug 26 14:07:58 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:08:08 ongc last message repeated 2 times
Aug 26 14:09:19 ongc xlock[7188]: Stop: root, root, :0.0, 35m 55s
Aug 26 14:24:10 ongc smartd[2742]: Device: /dev/hda, 1 Offline uncorrectable sectors 
Aug 26 14:26:40 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:27:36 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:28:51 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:29:28 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:29:58 ongc gconfd (root-2985): Received signal 15, shutting down cleanly
Aug 26 14:30:00 ongc gconfd (root-2985): Exiting
Aug 26 14:30:14 ongc gconfd (root-8270): starting (version 2.14.0), pid 8270 user 'root'
Aug 26 14:30:14 ongc gconfd (root-8270): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0
Aug 26 14:30:14 ongc gconfd (root-8270): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/root/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 1
Aug 26 14:30:14 ongc gconfd (root-8270): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 2
Aug 26 14:30:17 ongc gconfd (root-8270): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/root/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 0
Aug 26 14:30:18 ongc hcid[2225]: Default passkey agent (:1.15, /org/bluez/applet) registered
Aug 26 14:30:18 ongc pcscd: winscard.c:219:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Aug 26 14:30:19 ongc last message repeated 4 times
Aug 26 14:30:26 ongc setroubleshoot: 2010-08-26 14:30:26,164 [rpc.ERROR] attempt to open server connection failed: (2, 'No such file or directory')
Aug 26 14:30:54 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:32:54 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:34:15 ongc last message repeated 2 times
Aug 26 14:35:33 ongc last message repeated 2 times
Aug 26 14:36:53 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Aug 26 14:38:45 ongc last message repeated 2 times
Aug 26 14:41:23 ongc kernel: usb 5-8: reset high speed U

xeleema · 08-26-2010, 03:42 PM

Greetingz!

How strange. From my experience video "anomolies" (crazyness on the screen similar to what you have in your attached screenshot) are typically due to the video driver ("module") mishandling something (usually just mishandling bad data).

The weird thing is that your logs seem to just show the standard noise when a user logs out and the login screen reappears.
I'd check a few minutes (hours?) back and see if the USB errors are prevalent.

The first thing we will have to do is determine the following;

1) is this a problem with the application? (the browser, or a plugin for the browser)
2) does this trigger a hardware-related problem (like a video driver), or a Windows Manager problem (like Gnome).
3) Is it causing X to stumble and crash or reset itself? (The "Windows Manager" runs on top of "X". All "X" does is give you a cursor, and that nice little black-and-white dotted screen).

I'm not sure where you obtained that version of FireFox. Have you added any non-RHEL yum repos to your distribution?

How to determine if it's an X problem:
You should have two log files; /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old. These are from the current X session, and the previous X session (respectivly). It's a text file, so just run "less /var/log/Xorg.0.log" to see the current one.
If you find any lines that contain (EE), or at least (WW), go ahead and post them into a reply.

How to determine if it's a drive ("module") problem:
Check your syslog log file (/var/adm/messages) for anything to do with the video driver, the kernel itself, or a segmentation fault (the driver for the video card might be crashing).

How to determine if it's a FireFox problem:
Fire up different web browser (KDE's Konquror perhaps), and see if you can reproduce the problem.
If you're unable to cause the same problem with a different browser, there may be an incompatible plugin/extention installed in FireFox.

What to do if it's an X problem:
This will depend on the error(s) you see in Xorg.0.log (if any)

What to do if it's a Video Driver problem:
If your syslog log files show the driver crashing, perhaps it's time to upgrade the kernel? If you don't want to go to the extreme of replacing the existing kernel and drivers, then perhaps you can upgrade/replace the video driver. Though I'm not sure if Intel has a Linux-based driver.

What to do if it's a FireFox problem:
The long road would be to disable all plugins and extentions (except for things like Flash, which may be required for facebook.com).
The medium road would be to create a whole new user on your system, then attempt to get FireFox to crash.
The short road is to simply start FireFox from the command line ("firefox -safe-mode")

kingston · 08-27-2010, 03:41 AM

thanks for your reply...you have pointed me to the right direction...still i did not execute the ways you suggested. Once, i find, i will inform you.

kingston · 09-02-2010, 11:57 PM

Hi Xeleema

i confirmed that the problem is lying with firefox. I have installed opera and its working fine. But i will try to make firefox to work as per by requirements why because i am facing some font issues with opera.

Thanks for your valuable points and time.

xeleema · 09-03-2010, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingston

i confirmed that the problem is lying with firefox...

Try FireFox's "SAFE MODE".
It will disable most plugins/extensions.

Code:

[user@server ~]$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox

[user@server ~]$ firefox --help
Usage: /usr/lib64/firefox-3.6/firefox [ options ... ] [URL]
       where options include:

X11 options
        --display=DISPLAY               X display to use
        --sync          Make X calls synchronous
        --no-xshm               Don't use X shared memory extension
        --xim-preedit=STYLE
        --xim-status=STYLE
        --g-fatal-warnings              Make all warnings fatal

Firefox options
        -h or -help             Print this message.
        -v or -version          Print Firefox version.
        -P <profile>            Start with <profile>.
        -migration              Start with migration wizard.
        -ProfileManager         Start with ProfileManager.
        -no-remote              Open new instance, not a new window in running instance.
        -UILocale <locale>      Start with <locale> resources as UI Locale.
        -safe-mode              Disables extensions and themes for this session.
  -jsconsole           Open the Error console.
  -browser            Open a browser window.
  -private            Enable private browsing mode.
  -setDefaultBrowser   Set this app as the default browser.
Usage: firefox [-flags] [<url>]
[user@server ~]$
[user@server ~]$ firefox -safe-mode

However, this may stop FaceBook from working. So you may need a FireFox Update that would help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingston

Thanks for your valuable points and time.

You are most welcome! Good luck!

alar · 09-17-2010, 01:28 PM

<code>firefox -safe-mode</code>
fixed the problem.
Many thx!

xeleema · 09-17-2010, 01:36 PM

Awesome!
Can you mark this thread as "[SOLVED]", so anyone else that finds this will know the fix?
Thanks!

EDIT: Wait-a-minute, you're not kingston. Nevermind.

alar · 09-17-2010, 01:42 PM

Ooops. Broke again....
Will look a little deeper...