lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

[Phill Whiteside <PhillW@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Micah and Chad,

We are seeing an issue with Chromium on low RAM systems where we get "It's
dead Jim" issues. At first I believed this to be a Chromium memory leak,
but it does not affect all web pages [1]. I have tried to report this via
[2] which errorred out with 'mal formed request', trying to use the 'learn
more' and trying to report an error in the failed window also resulted in
the same. Even more odd (to me) was that leaving the tabs open ended up in
them giving the "It's dead Jim" error on the tab. Just as a check in my own
logic, I opened up a launchpad bug tab for a bug. This tab, over several
days & resets of other tabs that had to be reset never once failed.

Apologies for the long introduction. Is there anything I can add to the
system to try and get some details for you guys to work off? gdb I have
been intimated at, is not really suited for a memory leak; but as I don't
think it is a memory leak and Chromium still runs with the tabs still
'alive' would it be of use to use gdb to trace back an PiD?

Assuming you don't have a machine that you can pull memory chips out of,
until you have 512Mb of RAM (The guys with these machines are the ones who
1st reported it)..

1. Create a VM with 512 Mb RAM
2. Install Lubuntu (I suggest using alternate at such low RAM) [3] - I've
also tried this with Raring
3. Open a couple of tabs, e.g. BBC News [4] and a bug report [5] - Well, it
was a chromium bug :)
4. Open a couple of other tabs for sites you know to be stable - Remember,
you are on a low-RAM system, nothing too exotic!
5. Wait.
6. Tabs will report "It's dead Jim".. - This may take several hours - Tab
opened with [5] will stay working.

Us testers are stuck to try to progress and any help you can give to help
log the bug correctly in order that it can be progressed is needed. I've
tried installing the dev chromium instead of the 'new' chromium in the
repos, the effect is the same.

Regards,

Phill.
1. http://imagebin.org/241095
2. https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list
3. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Alternate_ISO
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
5. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1084852
On 30 December 2012 20:22, Lars Noodén <lars.nooden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 12/30/2012 06:31 PM, Phill Whiteside wrote:
> > Hi Lars,
> >
> > just checked the VM...
> >
> > http://imagebin.org/241095
> >
> > I think that says it all!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Phill.
>
> Yep.  I get that too, but it's probably a separate.  When I have a lot
> of tabs open it is not uncommon for most to be dead.  What does top (or
> anything else) say about system resources and swap?
>
> Regards,
> /Lars
>
>


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