While using Chrome 100 in Mint 19.3 (kernel 5.4.0.107), the screen suddenly went black, the monitor reported no signal, then the DVI message appeared and the last operating window of Chrome reappeared. BUT the keyboard did nothing, clicking the mouse did nothing, and I had to hit the power button to invoke a hard reboot.
This has now happened 3 times. It only happened when using Chrome, in one case ONLY chrome was open, and only using the newest kernel version of Mint 19.3. It did not happen (yet) using new Chrome 100 in Ubuntu Mate, same kernel (but it might).
There are so many variables, I do not know where to go to diagnose, let alone repair. It is easy for me to use Chromium and Firefox instead, and it is easy to boot to the older kernel, but that avoids knowing what happened.
What additional information would help y’all figure this out?
I’m just poking sticks into the dark, hoping I accidentally hit something.
I would guess, the reason for that happening is that Chrome is trying to use some type of codec or whatever special technology, which requires low level driver usage in the OS, most likely related to the hardware.
If such a low level driver would crash due to whatever reason, then this could easily explain your issue.
Please, try to reproduce the issue and precisely log what you did moments before it happened. Then we can find the trigger causing the symptoms you are experiencing.
Here is one out of three.
I downloaded some podcasts to a folder on the hard drive.
I opened them in VLC to edit the MP3 tags.
While VLC was open, I opened Chrome to search for a title of one of the podcasts.
Before I could hit enter in the search window, the screen went dark.
Only those two programs were open.
I can try the exact same procedure and see if it reproduces the event.
I need a bit of guidance here.
I have systemd and the normal Mint.
Which logs should I access if I am doing a hard reboot (i.e., holding down the power button for 5 seconds) after the fact?
Should I open them without re-opening Chrome?
Sorry - glossed over most of the posts here - one thing I’ve had to do in the past occasionally, in Chrome (google chrome - and - Chromium) is chrome://settings and find advanced, and uncheck “hardware acceleration” - have you tried that?
They seem to have obfuscated it now - I had to search for it :
Would it be worth my effort to uninstall Chrome 100 and install (in this case, from .deb) an older version? I found this site: http://170.210.201.179/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/
The only reason I hesitate is that I have three other browsers working just fine in Mint (FF, Chromium 99 and Edge).
I would just go with one browser that works, as long as it does all you want.
Browsers are huge… they make for big update downloads. You dont want too many of them. Firefox is something like 100Mb every time you download an update.
well, it happened again! This time, it was Chromium that crashed (100.0.4896.60), and in Ubuntu Mate.
I uploaded 3,500 lines of syslog here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1srPu1V33q-Ef2_P_A-98WWTNu8J9eVdJ/view?usp=sharing
I started with a fully initialized kernel at 19:42, but the good stuff starts far later, at 19:47. This is where all the failures with radeon get noted.
Also, there was an update for Chrome in Mint. I installed it (100.0.4896.75) and now it crashes as soon as I open Chrome.
Looks like I have to use other browsers and/or install an older version of Chrome.
So, it happens in Ubuntu and Mint
it happens in more than ine browser
the log messages are about Radeon
If it was Debian , I would be looking at
/etc/apt/sources .list
to see if non-free is present
this allows it to install proprietary packages
Then I would be searching thru the package repository looking for relevant packages that have not been installed. In cases like this I have always managed to find a package that fixed the issue. Look for stuff that mentions drivers or radeon .
I just dont have Ubuntu or Mint experience and I dont know your hardware, so I cant be specific
It happens in Chrome version 100+ and Chromium version 100+. Not version 99 or less.
It never happened before this week, and never happens in Firefox, Edge, Brave.
It also does not happen in Windows 10, any browser.
This Radeon thing is not a separate video card, but part of the mainboard.
BTW, when I say “never”, it is more accurate to say “not so far.”
It happens in Chrome version 100+ and Chromium version 100+. Not version 99 or less.
It never happened before this week, and never happens in Firefox, Edge, Brave.
It also does not happen in Windows 10, any browser.
OK that changes things.
It seems like a browser version issue, doesnt it.
You are not going to fix that yourself … need a workaround, like use an earlier version or use Firefox which works.
Or there might be some browser setting you can fiddle to suppress it.
These intermittant things are not easy. The log doesnt tell us much other than that the graphics board/chip is unhappy.
