Firefox problems redrawing tabs-hardware acceleration

[entropyfoe]

Especially on my wife's machine. Often clicking on a different tab shows only blank. If I shake the window it will redraw. (Firefox 113.0.1) This is accompanied by other strange stalls and she does get occasional lock-ups needing a reboot. Restarting firefox usually fixes it, but then it returns. I have an almost identical machine, and I get up times of >80 days. Hers, struggles to get 20 days without a lock up. [The only difference is that I have noscript extension which limits the garbage that runs in the browser]

Here is the system:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-20-amd64 [5.10.158-2] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-20-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower January 15  2023 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> 
           UEFI-[Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 2901 date: 10/16/2019 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 family: 17 (23) 
           model-id: 71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 8701013 cache: L2: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 91200 
           Speed: 2200 MHz min/max: 2200/4809 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2200 
           2: 2200 3: 2199 4: 2200 5: 2199 6: 2200 7: 2199 8: 2199 9: 2199 10: 2199 11: 2199 
           12: 2200 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP protection 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: always-on, RSB 
           filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 340.108 
           bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0a65 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: compton v: 1 driver: loaded: nvidia 
           display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3") 
           s-diag: 583mm (23") 
           Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 509x286mm (20.0x11.3") 
           diag: 584mm (23") 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce 210/PCIe/SSE2 v: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.108 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 09:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0be3 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 0b:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-20-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igb v: kernel port: e000 
           bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 508.73 GiB (43.7%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 960 EVO 250GB 
           size: 232.89 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 
           type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B7QCXE7 temp: 34.9 C scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 103 GiB size: 100.82 GiB (97.88%) used: 8.88 GiB (8.8%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 
Swap:      Alert: No swap data was found. 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 52.9 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2079 lib: 1031 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 365 Uptime: 1d 15h 16m wakeups: 12 Memory: 31.34 GiB used: 7.87 GiB (25.1%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

I have been trouble shooting this for a while, so I thought what about a clean install? So I installed on the same machine in my testing partition (grub to root) the latest MX 21.3. I still had the problem, as you see I do have the nvidia driver installed. [Stupid me...on the new install I forgot to use the existing swap partition, so no swap , but I have 32G of RAM so I am OK.]

So some googling brought up the issue of hardware acceleration. In MX it is disabled by default, if you read the forums here it is because of some memory leak leading to crashes. But as a test I enabled hardware acceleration, and now tabs re-draw instantly, and so far all browsing seems normal, though only a day. So far, if anything, memory usage seems lower.

So why is it disabled by default? Is it just a precaution, and depends on which graphics card you have?
Any downsides? My nvidia card is rather modest and old.
So far this is looking good, and I will report later on longer term stability.

[CharlesV]

I dont believe there is one answer here. Some machines do FAR better with acceleration off. Some reverse. Then there is how you use your machine - what all is running on it, started, stopped etc..

And then you have some sites that are way different than others. Exp: can watch netflix all day long and it might increase ram usage a little bit after a long time. However, if I watch the Roku channel - 3 hrs later it will have used a whopping 20gb of ram on me ;-/ and be eating into swap (and I run 32gb of ram!) And I run nvidia and acceleration off, but it doesnt seem to matter on my machine either.

I do know that some applications will really act up if no swap. You can easily add a swap file which might help that issue. Also, some machines will run far better on the 6.1 kernel. (Or 6.2 - mine runs WAY better on the 6.2.)

As they say ... your mileage may vary ;-/