Re: I think Firefox is crashing my system

[Bret Busby <bret@busby.net>]

On 16/8/25 07:35, Van Snyder wrote:
> On Sat, 2025-08-16 at 07:21 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> > On 16/8/25 07:08, Van Snyder wrote:
> > > I have Debian 12 on one computer and Debian 12 and 13 on another. The
> > > first one is an old backup I rarely use. The new one was crashing in
> > > both Debian 12 and 13 so I sent the MB back to MSI. I started using the
> > > backup computer and it's crashing too, so MSI will probably send the MB
> > > back and ask "Why did you send this to us? There's nothing wrong with 
> > > it."
> > >
> > > I usually run with an XTerm window, Evolution, Firefox, and occasional
> > > NEdit or Okular windows. The entire system (not just one app) was
> > > crashing, usually when I was reading mail and then reading stuff
> > > linked in mail messages using Firefox 128.13.0esr. I think Evolution
> > > wasn't to blame because I started having it not running, opening it only
> > > occasionally, and I got a crash while Firefox was running.  By "crash" I
> > > mean that the mouse cursor stops working, the graphs in GKrellM stop
> > > moving, Alt-Ctrl-F12 doesn't switch, Alt-Ctrl-Del doesn't do anything,
> > > tapping the power button doesn't offer me a "what do you want to do"
> > > overlay, ….
> > >
> > > My window manager is KDE Plasma 5.27.5 on my backup computer, and
> > > version 6.something on the newer one.
> > >
> > > Does anybody else have this problem?
> > >
> > > I started running Konqueror and Chromium instead of Firefox, and it
> > > hasn't crashed so far.
> > >
> > > — Van Snyder
> >
> > If you included significant information, such as the CPU and RAM
> > specifications, it would be helpful, and, a more complete problem
> > description.
>
> The problem occurs on two computers so I doubt it's hardware related.
>
> One has Intel i7-890 and the other and the other has Intel i9-14000K.
>
> The MB on the backup computer is Gigabyte H55M-S2H. The MB I sent back 
> to MSI was Z790.
>
> dmidecode says the memory on the backup computer is of "Type: Unknown," 
>   two sticks, 4GB each. The newer computer had two Crucial DDR5 Pro 
> sticks, 16 GB each.
>
>
> > I believe that it is best not to run Firefox on a 386 with 2GB RAM and
> > no swap partition, for example.
> >
> > Also, regarding the crashes involving Firefox, did you encounter
> > Internet connection failures, when the crashes occurred? I have found,
> > by experience, that loss of Internet access, causes Firefox to wreak 
> > havoc.
> >
> > ..
> > Bret Busby
> > Armadale
> > West Australia
> > (UTC+0800)
> > ..............

I think that running an i7 with 8GB RAM, and, also, running an i9 with 
16GB RAM, are unwise, and, are hobbling the CPU's. I believe that an i9 
should have at least 64GB RAM, to be able to make good use of the CPU.

I suggest expanding the RAM on both, to at least 32GB.

Also, do you have a separate GPU, with dedicated RAM, thence avoiding 
using the CPU RAM for graphics?

Have you tried running a fork of Firefox, such as Librewolf or Midori?

I run Midori on an i7 all in one that is limited to 16GB RAM.

On an i5 laptop with 16GB RAM, I am running Epiphany.

On this computer, I am running Firefox and Librewolf, concurrently. This 
computer has 128GB RAM and a Xeon CPU - -it is an ex government (I 
believe that it is ex-government - it might not be) server, that I 
picked up, refurbished, for a price less than the cost of the RAM.

From fastfetch;

"
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2660 v4 (28) @ 3.20 GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER [Discrete]
Memory: 54.34 GiB / 125.71 GiB (43%)
"

The GPU apparently has 6GB DDR6 RAM.

..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............