[CentOS] annoying random Firefox crash - how to debug?

Wed Feb 17 12:36:11 UTC 2010
Timo Schoeler <timo.schoeler at riscworks.net>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

thus Timo Schoeler spake:
> thus Rudi Ahlers spake:
>> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Paul Bijnens
>> <Paul.Bijnens at xplanation.com>wrote:
> 
>>> On 2010-02-17 10:23, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
>>>> IS it the graphics card? Other programs, like Bluefish, Eclipse, Open
>>>> Office, etc doesn't crash.
>>> I also have the problem, also using an nvidia card (currently using
>>> their proprietary driver now, version NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.42-pkg2.run).
>>>
>>> My thunderbird used to be rock stable (uptimes several weeks), but
>>> recently it started to crash as well (about once a week or so).
>>>
>>> Even more disturbing is that now gnome-terminal also starts crashing.
>>> I usually have many (30+) gnome terminal windows open on several virtual
>>> screens
>>> and on a crash, they all disappear (except maybe one or two, which were
>>> started by another launcher).
>>>
>>> What I also noticed is that "suddenly" the focus changes, and many (all?)
>>> minimized windows suddenly get unminimized again.
>>> I also have lots of yellow sticky notes, usually hidden, and they also
>>> suddenly get unhiden as well (that's usually how I notice the focus
>>> change).
>>>
>>> Maybe window manager related (I'm using the standard gnome in centos5
>>> latest)?
>>>
>>> Sometimes, it even happens when I'm not at my keyboard at all...
>>> And, indeed, it gets more frequent recently. (Firefox crashing several
>>> times a day,
>>> gnome-terminal 1-2 times a week. Windows unminimizing without any action on
>>> my part several times a day as well.)
>>>
>>> --
>>> Paul Bijnens, Xplanation Technology Services        Tel  +32 16 397.525
>>> Interleuvenlaan 86, B-3001 Leuven, BELGIUM          Fax  +32 16 397.552
>>> ***********************************************************************
>>>
> 
> 
>> Ok, so it isn't just me :)
> 
>> But, what is causing the problem? I changed from the default naveou driver
>> to the nvidia driver (via yum install nvidia) but that's didn't fix the
>> problem either. So I doubt if it actually is the nVidia card / driver that's
>> causing the problem.
> 
> Same here; I'm tracking nVidia's driver (on CentOS 5.3/5.4 x86_64,
> GeForce 8600 GT) for more than a year now. Compared with my home boxen
> (same OS, but ATI based) I have the same issue and frequency of WM
> disappearing/FF crashing.

I'd like to add that occasional (and that is what I would rate this
behaviour of Firefox or a part of GNOME, at least on my machines)
crashing of an application happened to me on almost any system, be it a
standard PeeCee or a high end UNIX workstation (like an IBM Power, SGI
MIPS or Sun SPARC).

> Timo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFLe+K7fg746kcGBOwRAnzRAJ9vZg169QDZ/vhYPJQ3PtKq4n9wSQCeNdaa
6tqWU3Ehk4Y6znCx6svEKvQ=
=W1RB
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----