Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless
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Hi all - - -
I have been using Vivaldi almost from its first release and have liked it so much that it has been my default browser for about two years. However, over the recent months, we have had numerous new versions offering trivial enhancements. The developers obviously know that these are unstable (despite being notionally "Stable Channel" versions). Recently, we had three releases on three consecutive days in one week.Unfortunately, this affair has progressed so far that this browser can no longer be relied upon. Examples of instability are :-
Browser fails to load Speed Dial. This can sometimes be rectified by selecting a new tab but, sometimes this action crashes both the browser and computer.
Browser crashes during loading, crashing the computer.
Browser crashes when moving to a new page on a site, sometimes also crashing the computer.
When the browser crashes the computer, everything is locked up so that the only way to regain control is to power-off at the mains supply. This is definitely NOT the way to regain control of a computer.I always install the Stable Channel version within a few hours of is release -- Current Version: 3.3.2022.47 (Stable channel) (64-bit)
System: Dell Optiplex 980 with 8GB memory and >200 GB disc space, running Linux Mint Ver: 18.3 (64-bit).
Vivaldi is the only application running on this computer when this unstable behaviour happens and it is completely unpredictable. Sometimes, Vivaldi will run satisfactorily for an hour or more before crashing for no apparent reason. Both Opera and Firefox run correctly on this computer and have never exhibited any problems whatsoever.
I don't wish to delete Vivaldi but I cannot continue to use an unstable browser which crashes the computer several times a day. If I keep regaining control of the machine by switching the power supply, I fear I will lose the SSD H/D - - - and that will be a real catastrophe !
Has anyone any first comments ?
Best regards to all - - - -
Hi, I can't see any reports by you about your specific issues, if you have them handy please post them again. Otherwise what you write is of no real use and importance other than being a flamebait.
If you have reported them as bugs/crashes you can ask for their status here: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/27450/what-is-the-status-of-vb-already-reported-bug-issue
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@hatrack Have you ever reset your profile? These aren’t ordinary issues. Would you think anyone would use Vivaldi, if they had an experience like yours? Give that a thought. Something is simply wrong with your setup. What that is no one can tell you unless you do some troubleshooting and can provide more information.
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@npro and luetage - -
I thank you both for reading my post and for commenting upon it and I now feel that I owe you both (and other readers) something of an apology for my writing style. I was having a rather bad day - - annoyed and very frustrated at the way this hitherto excellent browser is now malfunctioning.@npro - I have not yet submitted a bug report - - - everything I know about this malfunction is presented in my original post. The crashes are totally unpredictable. The longest period without malfunction has been about four hours of continuous browsing. At other times, the browser crashes during the initial loading. This is usually manifest as a partial loading, failing to display the Speed Dial. This then may (or may not ! ) turn into a complete computer crash when I attempt to select a new tab. All crashes are absolutely total - - - the mouse and keyboard appear to no longer be connected to the machine so that there is no way to recover control of this, except by switching off the power supply and then rebooting.
@luetage - I have not changed my profile. I presume that to do this, I would need to de-install and re-install Vivaldi and I have never done this. This is a Linux system so all upgrades come via the Upgrade Manager. I apply upgrades by selecting the version offered and then invoking the operation via the "Apply Changes".
As a general comment, Vivaldi was stable and worked perfectly up until about six months ago. It has become progressively less stable as this slew of irrelevant "enhancements" have been introduced. The current level of severe instability has appeared since the latest upgrade to Ver: 3.3.2022.47 (Stable channel) (64-bit) which happened a few days ago. A possible solution would be to revert to a version current about six months ago but I have no idea how to go about this course.
Best regards to all - - -
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I have never seen any of the issues you list. If you have a crash, please see this page on how to report a crash.
BTW, you don't need to power off hung computers by killing the mains, just hold the power button down for awhile. 10 seconds should probably be all that is needed, and the machine will shut itself down. This shouldn't damage your SSD/HDD, the absolute worst, and unlikely, scenario would be some potential data loss -- but you keep backups, right? Every SSD & HDD will fail on you at some point, and it doesn't take killing the power to the machine for that to happen.
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@BoneTone This is one of the scenarios i feared and one of the reasons why i chose puppy linux as my os as it can be installed anywhere and with no hard drive installed what so ever.I can run it from a bootable dvd or usb flash drive.
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@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
running Linux Mint Ver: 18.3 (64-bit).
If it makes you feel better (or worse :face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye: ); I have both stable and Snapshot running on Mint 18.3 (and long before) and have NEVER had any of the crashes you report.
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@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
Has anyone any first comments ?
Yep, sure.
- I've used V since Feb 2015, TP1.
- It's been my default browser since 2015.
- Specifically, though i always keep both Stable & Snapshot installed, unlike you my default is Snapshot.
- I am not [necessarily :face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye: ] a masochist; if V for me misbehaved as you described, my preceding statement would have to be false.
- Afaik none of the problems you listed, have beset me.
- It's true to say that the current Snapshot bugs of lost tab thumbnail pop-ups, & broken middle-click paste, are a hassle for me, but i am cognisant of it being my deliberate & considered choice to use Snapshot.
- Is your DE in
Mint 18.3
KDE, Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce? - Have you been inspecting your systemd journal for salient error messages?
- Maybe for the next week or so, stop launching your V from the App Menu & instead launch from terminal, then keep reviewing all the lines there each time it misbehaves for you.
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@Priest72 or you could just create backups, not worry about it, and run whatever OS you like. There are plenty of distros you can use besides Puppy if you do want a live boot disk though... I keep Kali on one, but you don't really want to run Kali as your daily driver. My current preferred distro, Arch, would work as a live boot disk as well; that's actually how you install it.
Regardless, I prefer the speed offered by using internal connections and really fast drives for my OS, and couldn't really fit what I need on a DVD or flash drive.
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@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
I have not changed my profile. I presume that to do this, I would need to de-install and re-install Vivaldi and I have never done this. This is a Linux system so all upgrades come via the Upgrade Manager. I apply upgrades by selecting the version offered and then invoking the operation via the "Apply Changes".
No, your conception here is incorrect. Also, it is not ...
@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
changed my profile
... it is...
@luetage said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
reset your profile
The forum has 17 bazillion posts & references on how & why to do this. It has nothing to do with uninstalling V the program. Using mine as an example:
steffie@archlinuxTower[~/.config/vivaldi] 09:54:45 Sun Sep 27 $> ls | grep Default drwxr-xr-x 35 steffie 1000 4096 2020-09-26 00:16 Default
Find your
Default
, delete or much better, rename it [with V closed], then relaunch V ... it will create a virgin clean new profile for you. If you no longer experience any of your hassles thereafter, then the root cause was a corrupt profile. If the hassles continue, then the investigation must go on. -
@Steffie Or (when Vivaldi is running) just look at Vivaldi - Help/About for the profile path.
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@TbGbe Yes of course, but... thereafter the OP would still need to go to their file manager or their terminal to perform the actual delete/rename. I was cutting out the middle-humanoid.
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@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
@npro - I have not yet submitted a bug report - - - everything I know about this malfunction is presented in my original post. The crashes are totally unpredictable. The longest period without malfunction has been about four hours of continuous browsing. At other times, the browser crashes during the initial loading. This is usually manifest as a partial loading, failing to display the Speed Dial. This then may (or may not ! ) turn into a complete computer crash when I attempt to select a new tab. All crashes are absolutely total - - - the mouse and keyboard appear to no longer be connected to the machine so that there is no way to recover control of this, except by switching off the power supply and then rebooting.
So you have mentioned 4 problems (I would say it's just one, probably system/GPU driver related) and those are just the symptoms of it) but nothing was reported here and to the bug tracker. These are:
- Browser fails to load Speed Dial. This can sometimes be rectified by selecting a new tab but, sometimes this action crashes both the browser and computer.
- Browser crashes during loading, crashing the computer.
- Browser crashes when moving to a new page on a site, sometimes also crashing the computer.
- When the browser crashes the computer, everything is locked up so that the only way to regain control is to power-off at the mains supply.
You have following options:
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a) you can try to troubleshoot them yourself with the help of https://help.vivaldi.com/article/troubleshooting-issues/
tl;dr the "Test in a different profile" section of it -
b) Report them here individually in case other users can reproduce them as well following these generic guidelines, https://help.vivaldi.com/article/reporting-a-bug-in-vivaldi/
tl;dr describe the issue in detail, provide system info for example if you have inxi by runninginxi -Fazy --no-host
in a terminal and the contents ofvivaldi://gpu
in the address bar using the forum's </> Code, possibly logs from Xorg/systemd at the time of the crash. -
c) like b) but directly to the Vivaldi bug-tracker following the guidelines https://help.vivaldi.com/article/reporting-a-bug-in-vivaldi/ & for crashes https://help.vivaldi.com/article/reporting-crashes-on-linux/
Since you have also acknowledged it you can edit your title to something more specific and appropriate.
How you like to proceed is your call.
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@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
I have not changed my profile. I presume that to do this, I would need to de-install and re-install Vivaldi
No, in fact uninstalling & reinstalling will not affect your profile at all.
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Hi all - -
I thank all forum members who have read my post and replied to it.I spent most of Sunday, experimenting and generally considering my problems. First off, I created a new profile (thanks Steffie). Initially, I thought that this had fixed the malfunctions but later on, the system started misbehaving again so clearly, something else is the cause. I went back to the original profile, which has all my configurations that it have created from "Settings". These are very important to me because as well as being elderly (87 !) I am also visually impaired.
With the original (faulty ? ) setup restored, I was considering my options when I had one of those flashes of brilliance for which I am noted.
I subscribe to a VPN, which is always enabled. Could it possibly be that the VPN is losing the connection due to overload ? After all, many people are now working from home and will be using VPNs. So, still with the original "faulty" profile, I simply disabled the VPN. I then vigorously exercised the system for several hours - - - switching to multiple pages on a site, opening numerous tabs, closing Vivaldi down and then restarting this to begin exercising all over again. I did not have one single crash.
I contacted "Support" for this VPN (PIA, which is usually very good) and they informed me that loss of connection to UK servers (which are the ones I use) is - - "a known problem, which is receiving their attention". So - - - the VPN looks as though it is the cause of my intermittent instability problems. As further supporting evidence, my problems began about six months ago - - - which is when large numbers of people began working from home, due to Covid-19.
I intend to run Vivaldi for a couple of days with the VPN disabled and then, if I get no more problems, I will mark this post as SOLVED. I repeat my thanks to all on this forum, unreservedly apologise for my stupidity and send my best regards to all.
hatrack.
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@hatrack I'm sorry to be a wet-blanket at you, but in all honesty i simply cannot see how a dodgy VPN, nor indeed a patchy internet connection in general, can possibly explain the dominant theme of your OP, which i selectively quote here:
crashing the computer
IMO the root-cause for the moment still remains undiscovered. Sorry again.
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seems to me like faulty RAM. Did you OC your processor or memory receently?
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@hatrack Thanks for reporting the results of all your testing, that's helpful for those trying to help you, and possibly others in the future. I have to agree auth @Steffie, however, as I also think it's unlikely that the VPN is causing your system to crash.
Have you taken a look at the link I provided above about reporting crashes on Linux? If Vivaldi crashes, you need to get the crash log to see what's going on. If your system crashes, you need to look into your system logs to see what's going on. I don't have a Linux Mint boot installed right now, and don't know its config off the top of my head, but a brief web search will yield numerous results on how to find & read your system logs when it crashes.
@hatrack said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
system started misbehaving again
What does this mean? How is it misbehaving? If it's just intermittently failing to load a page while your VPN is reconnecting, well that would be expected and should resolve itself once the VPN reconnects. I use PIA as well, and went through a brief period where the servers I used had connection reliability issues. The connection would drop, but reconnect rather quickly.
The most annoying part of that was the system notifications about the loss and then restoration of the connection.Sometimes it would annoy me enough that I would connect to another server. You can do that as well. You're not forced to use any specific servers, just pick a non-UK server, if those are the ones causing you trouble, and use that until PIA resolves the issue.
But I find it incredibly unlikely that this caused any of the crashes you have experienced. It's not impossible, but not likely either. If so, there is a deeper issue in your system.
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@lahirukins said in First Report - Vivaldi is now so unstable as to be virtually useless:
seems to me like faulty RAM. Did you OC your processor or memory receently?
Faulty RAM? What indicates that? That seems like a WAG. It's possible, but what caused you to guess that?