Kernel Panics With Firefox 63.x

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 18:28:53 +0000, B J wrote:
> On 11/13/18, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> > On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 16:44:04 +0000, B J wrote:
> >> I recently upgraded my system and that included Firefox.  It's been
> >> troublesome ever since.  Often, it would crash for no apparent reason
> >> and this morning, it started taking down my entire system.  The result
> >> was that my machine would have to reboot.
> >>
> >> Now I can't use Firefox at all without having my machine going into a
> >> kernel panic.
> >
> > Could you get any useful information from the kernel dump?
> 
> I haven't looked at it in detail.  From the info file in /var/crash:
> 
> Panic String:  ufs_dirbad:  /:  bad dir ino 719 at offset 512:  mangled entry
> 
> The core.txt file gives a lot more information in detail.

Oh! This looks like a file system problem! Even though
it sounds strange, file system inconsistencies can cause
lots of problems, up to a complete system crash.

I've been experiencing this kind of problem in the past,
so allow me to share my experience and solution:

First, boot your system into single-user mode ("boot -s"
at the boot prompt). Then perform a fsck of all your
file systems, especially /:

	# fsck /

YOu can use the form "fsck -yf /" when you are familiar
with the implications of the -y and -f flag; to achieve
this, read "man fsck" carefully.

If all file systems have been returned to a consistent
state, mount them and proceed normal startup:

	# mount -a
	# exit

Afterwards, check /etc/rc.conf, and make sure you have
the following setting:

	background_fsck="NO"

This entry is essential! It will force a successful
fsck run at system startup. Background fsck has often
shown to be a problem, as the system boots into a
somewhat inconsistent state, and this can lead to all
kinds of errors...



> >> Any suggestions?  Thanks.
> >
> > Others than replacing Firefox with a better browser? ;-)
> >
> > What you could do: Re-install Firefox (most recent version).
> > Also make sure all of its dependencies are up to date. In
> > worst case, it's "just" a memory leak.
> 
> I re-installed it using pkg but that didn't do any good.

Maybe it's not Firefox, but one of its dependencies...



> > Check if the Firefox + system crashes happen when visiting
> > "complicated pages" (i. e., those involving lots of JS, or
> > those containing FLV, MP4 or WebM media content).
> 
> For some reason, the last few versions I've been running on that
> machine have had problems with YouTube videos.  Most of the crashes
> after my last system upgrade have occurred when I'm viewing one.

This looks like a codec / dependency error. YouTube has made
the transition to "HTML 5 video" and does no longer need "Flash".
The codecs and general player functionality has to be in the
web browser now.



> This morning, I couldn't even start FF without it crashing my machine.
> I'm thinking that some configuration file might be corrupted but I
> haven't the foggiest as to where to look for it.

This really looks like you should investigate for a possible
file system problem as explained above.



> Right now, I'm building FF from ports.  Maybe that'll help.

Make sure you also rebuild all ports it depends on.



> As for
> Opera, I've never really liked it and the version I installed using
> pkg (Opera 12) is reaching the end of its service life.  I can't even
> view YouTube videos with it.

Interestingly, Opera was the only browser where everything
worked for me. Sure, it requires some time to configure it
into a state where it becomes usable, but that is true for
Firefox and Chrome, too. The out-of-the-box experience is
just plain terrible.



> As an aside, I've got almost the identical system installed on another
> hard drive on my machine.  I launched it with no problem.  I also have
> another machine set up the same way:  2 FreeBSD systems on separate
> HDs.  I tried FF with one of them and it launched without  problem.
> 
> This is a bit of a head-scratcher.....

Again, from my experience: It _could_ be a defective GPU.
As the GPU is involved in media decode operations, a faulty
GPU can cause the system to hang or to surprisingly reboot.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...