Gnome Sometimes Freezes When Using Chrome and YouTube

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 6:54am

Hello,

I’m using an Nvidia GPU (RTX 4090) and an Intel Core CPU. However, I’ve noticed that when using Google Chrome and opening a YouTube video, the mouse sometimes freezes for a second before resuming. Occasionally, the background turns black and stays that way until I reboot the system (as it is the background, I don’t care too much).

The most frustrating issue is that sometimes, while I’m working across multiple desktops, the system randomly freezes completely. I can’t open TTY or do anything, and I’m forced to restart the computer by pressing the power button. I suspect the problem is related to the Nvidia GPU, but I’m not certain.

Do you know how I can resolve these issues? Also, sometimes the YouTube video glitches or behaves abnormally.

Could you help with this? Thank you!

Bink · October 18, 2024, 7:08am

A couple of thoughts.

You might try disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, even if just temporarily and see if the issue persists (Chrome > Settings > System).
Try watching a YouTube video in a Private/Incognito window and see if you can replicate the issue (to check if extension related).
Try a different non-Chromium browser, like Firefox / LibreWolf, and try to replicate the issue.

You might provide some details about your system too:

inxi -Fxxc0z | eos-sendlog

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 1:11pm

Hello,

I’ve disabled hardware acceleration in Chrome, but the issue is also happening in Firefox, Chromium, and Opera.

At first, I thought extensions were causing the problem, so I disabled and deleted all of them. I usually browse in incognito mode, but the issue persists.

Even when I don’t have YouTube open, my mouse occasionally freezes for a second before resuming.

inxi -Fxxc0z | eos-sendlog

https://0x0.st/XIEd.txt

Edit: Below, you can see how my background turns black. However, when I press the Windows key, the background shows up correctly. I can still open apps and everything functions normally, but it’s a bit odd.

Now, pressing the windows key:

winnyace · October 18, 2024, 1:55pm

Through what method have you installed the Nvidia drivers? Do you use the open source kernel modules or not?

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 1:58pm

I installed those with sudo pacman -S nvidia. I’m not sure if those are the proprietary or the open source kernel modules

winnyace · October 18, 2024, 2:04pm

That installs the closed sourced modules. It seems that Nvidia recommends that you use the open source kernel modules.

You could try to use nvidia-inst to install the drivers, since it does other things alongside just installing the drivers. You can install and use nvidia-inst with the following commands:

$ sudo pacman -S nvidia-inst
$ nvidia-inst --open --32

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 2:05pm

So, firstly I need to uninstall the nvidia with pacman -Rns nvidia, right?

winnyace · October 18, 2024, 2:06pm

From the looks of it, nvidia-inst takes care of that itself. No need to do that.

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 2:18pm

Okay, I did that and rebooted my system, however, it is stuck in this part:

I can open ttys tho. Should I keep the normal nvidia? @winnyace

winnyace · October 18, 2024, 3:43pm

Yeah. Try to go back.
$ nvidia-inst --32

Lucho · October 18, 2024, 4:15pm

I just installed nvidia again with sudo pacman nvidia to get normal the desktop. I don’t know what to do with the freeze problem

straycat · October 19, 2024, 3:43am

Does the issue happen logging in with xorg as well as wayland.

Lucho · October 19, 2024, 5:59am

I just tried with wayland. I prefer wayland over xorg by security reasons. But wdyt? Should I just accept and use xorg on my day instead wayland?

straycat · October 19, 2024, 11:11am

I have been using wayland for awhile now with no issue’s.There are several posts on the forum here that shows how to set nvidia to use wayland.As far as xorg goes it is getting old but I have not heard of anyone having there system hacked when using it.

Lucho · October 19, 2024, 1:45pm

Do you also have an Nvidia GPU? Do you know why it failed when I installed the open kernel modules for Nvidia, as Winnyace recommended?

Just to clarify, I’m using GNOME because I installed KDE, but it was quite laggy at times, which was strange. GNOME, however, wasn’t laggy.

Lucho · October 19, 2024, 4:49pm

Look what happened now with a youtube video:

ddnn · October 19, 2024, 4:50pm

I’ve got an Nvidia GPU, but I’ve only ever used nvidia and nvidia-dkms. Neither gives this level of trouble — only gaming issues.

Close to a year ago I couldn’t log into Hyprland, but now I can.

That said, I use X11/Xorg 99.99% of the time, and I don’t use KDE or Gnome because I know that both are getting a lot more updates since Wayland started getting updated more frequently. I use my laptop for work, so dealing with bugs is not something I want to dedicate time to. This is why I use Cinnamon, i3, and Openbox — steady and stable.

My only real issues are with gaming or theming. Both non-essential for my system to work.

Lucho · October 19, 2024, 4:54pm

I was using Hyprland for almost two years but recently switched to GNOME due to some issues like flickering in certain apps and unexpected crashes. I have three monitors, and I’m now considering trying i3 or Sway. However, I’ve heard that these window managers may struggle with detecting multiple monitors. Is that true? Also, how does i3 perform with an Nvidia GPU? Are there any notable issues, aside from gaming and theming challenges?

ddnn · October 19, 2024, 4:58pm

Unfortunately, I can’t answer this. I’ve never had an external monitor nor multi-monitor setup since I’ve started using Linux.

It’s a window manager rather than a full DE, so it performs better than or equally to a DE.

winnyace · October 19, 2024, 5:06pm

Very much depends on a lot of things, from what I’m seeing around, especially for Wayland.

OP, have you tried Plasma? Maybe that works better.