Chromium – annoying problem with dropdown menus

[Member madibi]

dear all,
I noticed a strange issue with chromium.

When I install the program, both from the antiX native app «installa programmi» or using synaptic, and after the install is completed I start the program from the menu, always it appears a great white square (see photo below). The with ALT F4 or «app killer» I close it.
When restarted, the program opens apparently normal.

BUT

If I go to the antiX forum home page, and I choose the drop down menu, for example: Forum -> recent posts ==> the output is that I don’t go to the desired page. Instead I am redirected to the “Register” page
(https://www.antixforum.com/register/).

The same applies on other sites that I usually surf.

The first time I encountered the above mentioned issue, I thought that something was wrong in my installation, so I did a new fresh install, unfortunately with no avail.
Than I started to make some tries using the live:
– install from synaptic,
– install from the chromium download page.

The sequence of problems persists.

I have to point out that I choose chromium on this pc after a long search, because it is complete and light.
With it all my needs should be perfectly satisfied (in this specific case for me it is better than FFox.

On the same computer, using Q4OS the same version of chromium simply works with no issues.

Any ideas?

Many thx in advance for your help
m

Please find enclosed my detailed info:

Chromium: Versione 104.0.5112.79 (Build ufficiale) built on Debian 11.4, running on Debian 11.4 (a 32 bit)

$ inxi -Fzx
System:
Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp arch: i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc
v: 10.2.1 Desktop: Fluxbox v: 1.3.7
Distro: antiX-21_386-base Grup Yorum 31 October 2021
base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: Satellite A110 v: PSAB0E-007002IT
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: TOSHIBA model: HTW20 v: Null serial: <superuser required>
BIOS: TOSHIBA v: 1.30 date: 07/20/2006
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 0% condition: 44.4/44.4 Wh (100.0%) volts: 11.1
min: 11.1 model: TOSHIBA PA3465U status: N/A
CPU:
Info: dual core model: Intel T2250 bits: 32 type: MCP arch: M Yonah rev: 8
cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 2 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1200 high: 1333 min/max: 800/1733 cores: 1: 1067
2: 1333 bogomips: 6915
Flags: ht pae sse sse2 sse3
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics
vendor: Toshiba driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen3.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.11 driver: X: loaded: intel
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1280×800~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2 v: 1.4 Mesa 20.3.5
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: no
Network:
Device-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network driver: iwl3945
v: in-tree:s bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 4000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 96.85 GiB used: 43.91 GiB (45.3%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HTS541010G9SA00 size: 93.16 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: Mass Storage Device size: 3.69 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 74.75 GiB used: 43.9 GiB (58.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 1.5 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 157 Uptime: 40m Memory: 2.95 GiB used: 651.3 MiB (21.6%)
Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 Packages: 1344
Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 inxi: 3.3.19

• This topic was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by madibi.
• This topic was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by madibi.
• This topic was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by madibi.

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[Member olsztyn]

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madibi wrote:

On the same computer, using Q4OS the same version of chromium simply works with no issues.
Any ideas?

You are using Fluxbox as WM.
Switch to JWM (Other Desktops –> JWM) and see if drop down menus (such as Recent Posts) on antiX Forum works on JWM.
I reported such drop-down menu behavior observation for Chrome and Chromium about two years ago for IceWM and Fluxbox WMs. Drop down menus always worked fine for me on JWM.
Tested most recently it appears to work fine now on IceWM but not on Fluxbox (including MX Fluxbox). This issue was annoying me for some time so at some point I switched to JWM for permanent solution.
Q4OS uses Trinity desktop. Works fine it seems.
However if you find that drop down menus (such as antiX Forum ‘Recent Posts) do not work on JWM then your case is different.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by olsztyn.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member calciumsodium]

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There was a post from olsztyn about a similar issue with drop down menu using chrome

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-21-release-by-end-of-october-2021/#post-68447

@skidoo had mentioned that it could be a specific gtk theme issue.

Hope this helps.

[Member olsztyn]

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Referenced post was on resurfacing of this issue on antiX 21 B2. Quoted the same on antiX 19 much older one:
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-19-assessment-summary/#post-29145
Skidoo is showing there as ‘Anonymous’ now, for some reason…

My experience was that this issue was happening regardless of gtk theme I was using though.
Issue similarly reported recently on MX Forum (Fluxbox).

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member madibi]

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the funny thing is that I normally use JWM (with my MacOS look like).
This time I wanted to change and I had this hitch. 🙂
Mine is a weak pc and I didn’t want to add plank + compton.

@olsztyn and @calciumsodium
many thanks for your prompt answers.
I apologize for not having done my homework well, but with google I arrived at a chrome forum without answers, and with antiX forum-search I probably did a search with not proper keywords

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi madibi,
as fluxbox is an official antiX desktop I think it might be better not to mark the issue as solved.
Very busy with fruit harvesting at present, maybe you could see if the cache move fixes the issue
in flux.

Seen on ungoogled chromium recently with a fresh install and Icewm.
Some hours of browsing had produced a huge image cache and made my desktop play up.

Since adding

#Moves chromium cache to temp, thanks to xecure 
#First line only needed if chromium cache exists in home
[ -d "$HOME/.cache/chromium" ] && rm -rf $HOME/.cache/chromium
mkdir -p /tmp/username/.cache/chromium && ln -sf /tmp/username/.cache/chromium /home/username/.cache/chromium
mkdir -p /tmp/username/.cache/chromium/Default && ln -sf /tmp/username/.cache/chromium/Default /home/username/.cache/chromium/Default

Change all username entrys to your user and place code in your desktop session startup file.

Modern browsers not just chromium cache everyting, especialy the image cache can quickly grow to huge proportions and give weird effects.
Can not garantee above will fix your issue, I do think it will. If you have 64 bit hardware give UngoogledChromium a try. It is excellent,
first time around you might need help finding and installing extensions without google store, It is easy,
the browser excellent privacy and usage wise as well as lighter on rescources. Nothing busy spying and tracking in the background….
Chromium is described by some security researchers as nsa spyware. google mother alphabet was founded by cia so the circle is complete.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by ModdIt.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi madibi, short test, unable to replicate the issue with UngoogledChromium and rox flux desktop,
been using the combo to surf, read news and now to post.

Please do try the cache relocation and see if it helps you.

[Member madibi]

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@moddit
thanks for your help
1. I removed the SOLVED mark
2. I wrote the code that you gave me, with no success. Do you want me to send you the cache folders?
3. during my tries, I used almost every browser proposed by antiX and in my case I can state that UngoogledChromium doesn’t give me the issue described in the title. (Par contre compared to chromium it is slower as far as lightning chess games are concerned,
so I removed it and re-installed chromium)
m

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi madibi, which version of ungoogled chromium did you try,
I use a portable version 104.0.5112.81 from
https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/

Only caveat with latest versions is there have been libC library mismatches
on several occasions. @ present I do not have a non testing antiX 21 to
allow me to check.
If ungoogled latest will not start, using terminal will show any errors.

UngoogledChromium is decrappified chrome so seems very strange if it would
be slower, maybe if you had removed or relocated the cache and the image cache
for the chess game had not regenerated/refilled.
Image cache does have a major effect on rapid load of pre visited sites especialy
on slower machines and/or with slower internet connections.

[Member madibi]

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@Moddit

Chromium version:

madibi wrote:

Chromium: Versione 104.0.5112.79 (Build ufficiale) built on Debian 11.4, running on Debian 11.4 (a 32 bit)

The try with UngoogledChromium was done last week, where I wasn’t able to relocate the cache

m

[Member olsztyn]

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madibi wrote:

the funny thing is that I normally use JWM (with my MacOS look like).
This time I wanted to change and I had this hitch.

Funny indeed…
In the past (antiX 17) I started with Fluxbox then IceWM (multiple issues in those times) and ended up with JWM (rock solid, never such issues).
I also custom configured JWM to look very elegant but not as much customization as you did. I like these things to be simple and elegant, but might try your Mac look for my daughter…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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What’s “funny” for me is that I have used MANY different window managers (and desktop environments) for that matter.
At this point, while I certainly know how to configure them, something as easy as IceWM, whether it works for everyone or not, is certainly sufficient for me.

All of the window managers under discussion have text configuration files, which make it easy to modify or configure them for anyone willing to read and learn what the various settings actually mean, and what they do.

As far as Web browsers go, on some systems (but not all), I’ve seen the behavior observed with Chromium, and I think it was an Ungoogled instance of Chromium. I’ve not done any research into looking at the solution to the menu navigation (drop down) issues; StackOverflow has discussed similar issues in the past; in case anything here could be helpful, here’s a link to a similar discussion (dated), but who knows, maybe something here will be helpful; if it isn’t, sorry, this was the first thing that popped up in a quick search:
drop down scrollbar issue

--
Brian Masinick

[Member ModdIt]

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localy
ICEWM instability/ freezing menu problems both reported by local users and first hand experience were found to be caused by the local
cache reaching gigabytes size and resulting in a no mem free situation. Older experience also came from a version of Libreoffice with debian java on system
Workaround has been posted several times.

UngoogledChromium is not unstable, it is our main browser and in heavy usage, second is LibreWolf.
As long as ensuring the cache does not get out of control I have not had any more signs of ICEWM instability.
The caching behaviour is common to all chrome based browsers and firefox is rapidly caching up.
Vivaldi also gave issues for several users.

The user thinks chrome is the fastest browser because it loads pre visited pages from cache whenever possible.
All chrome based browsers are slower on first page loads or with a fresh profile as all data must come from the network.
Unless set otherwise cache will be kept for about 1.5 years according to some google documentation.

Items missing from the menu after an update (rare), can be set to show using the tool from control center.
We have actualy set a lot to hide so the menu is less cluttered (our user preference).

[Member madibi]

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INFO UPDATE

thanks to everybody that answered so far,

the post from olsztyn made me to have an idea, so I did some tests.

The problem is expressed in my 1st post, the #87304.
When I install chromium under fluxbox I get 2 issues, may be related each other, may be not (I suppose yes)
Issue A: after the 1st start of chromium there opens a blank window, as per image shown in the 1st post;
Issue B: the problem of the drop down menus, already described.

I get the issue only with chromium and only with antiX 32 bit. With antiX 64 bit I didn’t noticed the issue, may be because I did the install using JWM (please read my note at the end of this post).

When I did my experiments the steps that I followed were:

1. start with my live 32 bit;
2. localize with Italian language;
3. connect wifi;
4. choose the desktop;
5. sudo apt update;
6. open package installer and install chromium.

My idea was that if I make the install under different desktops, the results changes.
My findings are that my idea is correct.

RESULTS
Install with zzz-fluxbox
issue A: yes
issue B: yes

Install with zzz-JWM
issue A: yes
issue B: no (*)

Install with zzz-IceWM
issue A: random !!!
issue B: no (*)

(*) issue B: no = (*); means that if I make the install using zzz-IceWM, the issue doesn’t appear, also if at that point I change to fluxbox

I hope that this little research may be of some help to someone

m

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by madibi.

[Member olsztyn]

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madibi wrote:

(*) issue B: no = (*); means that if I make the install using zzz-IceWM, the issue doesn’t appear, also if at that point I change to fluxbox

Yes. Similar behavior I also experienced in the past when I had these issues. At that time IceWM also had the same issue as Fluxbox but apparently has been fixed since IceWM no longer exhibits drop-down menu issues at this time.
I particular my experience was:
– When initially booted with with IceWM (This is fixed now) or Fluxbox: Experienced drop down issues.
– When after the above switched to JWM (Other Desktops —> JWM): No drop down menu issues – this was normal
– Now switched back to IceWM or Fluxbox (Other Desktops —> Fluxbox): Drop down menu issues were gone – all worked fine

The above appears to match your experience for Fluxbox, as IceWM no longer exhibits drop down menu issues in the first place…

However what I experienced at that time was also:
– Booted initially with Fluxbox (as installed with Fluxbox default desktop): Drop-down menu issue, as you experience currently
– After boot with default Fluxbox desktop switch briefly to JWM (other Desktops): No issues as expected.
– Switch back to Fluxbox: Drop-down issues gone. All works fine.

So if it still works now the same way, then you do not need to install with IceWM if your favorite desktop is Fluxbox and after boot switch to Fluxbox. You can install with Fluxbox as default desktop, the briefly switch to IceWM and back to Fluxbox for drop-down issues to be gone.

Having related my experience in the above, similar to yours, I think I remember one downside of such workaround though:
– After switching back to Fluxbox and so making drop-down menus work on Fluxbox: It worked for some time, even after restarting Chrome/Chromium browser but unfortunately after some time the drop-down menu issues came back (during the same session), and required me to again switch to working desktop (JWM) and back to restore working drop-down menus on Fluxbox. I would be curious if the same still happens…

At some point I just permanently moved on to JWM and never had such issues since…

P.S.:
This workaround to resolve drop-down menu issue by switching desktop to working one and back can be done only with antiX, thanks to antiX having multiple desktops to switch to. The system I like is also MX-Fluxbox, which also has the same drop-down menu issue in my experience. Unfortunately with MX-Fluxbox I cannot use the same workaround as with antiX as in MX there are no alternate desktops to switch to and back…

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

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