renderer process is killed on image-heavy pages on krillin

[Merlijn Sebrechts]

On the BQ ubuntu phone, while browsing image-heavy pages, the browser suddenly turns completely white and unresponsive. Closing the app and restarting it fixes the problem.

example: I can't watch this page to the end, because the browser crashes in the middle... https://imgur.com/gallery/NnGyq

I have this on a lot of websites, after browsing for 30 minutes, the browser crashes...

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I can reproduce on krillin, with the latest vivid-proposed image (#184).

Relevant output from /var/log/syslog:

Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958540]select 'unity8-dash' (2512), adj 50, size 14703, to kill
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958570]select 'webbrowser-app' (9421), adj 110, size 16248, to kill
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958590]select 'oxide-renderer' (16584), adj 300, size 150274, to kill
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958613]Killing 'oxide-renderer' (16584), adj 300,
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958617] to free 601096kB on behalf of 'CompositorTileW' (16593) because
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958622] cache 65364kB is below limit 65536kB for oom_score_adj 12
Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958627] Free memory is -3272kB above reserved [gfp(0x200da)]

So technically, the browser doesn’t crash, but the renderer process is being killed by the system to free up memory.
The browser should certainly display a user-friendly message when that happens, instead of just a blank page (tracked by bug #1375272). However I doubt you’ll ever be able to view that page in its entirety on this device, given the memory constraints.

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

Wouldn't it be possible to only load the first few images of the page? And
load/remove the images as you scroll the page... Doesn't other mobile
browsers do this kind of stuff?

2015-04-14 19:06 GMT+02:00 Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden>:

> I can reproduce on krillin, with the latest vivid-proposed image (#184).
>
> Relevant output from /var/log/syslog:
>
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958540]select 'unity8-dash'
> (2512), adj 50, size 14703, to kill
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958570]select
> 'webbrowser-app' (9421), adj 110, size 16248, to kill
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958590]select
> 'oxide-renderer' (16584), adj 300, size 150274, to kill
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958613]Killing
> 'oxide-renderer' (16584), adj 300,
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958617] to free 601096kB
> on behalf of 'CompositorTileW' (16593) because
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958622] cache 65364kB is
> below limit 65536kB for oom_score_adj 12
> Apr 14 19:01:49 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [ 6435.958627] Free memory is
> -3272kB above reserved [gfp(0x200da)]
>
> So technically, the browser doesn’t crash, but the renderer process is
> being killed by the system to free up memory.
> The browser should certainly display a user-friendly message when that
> happens, instead of just a blank page (tracked by bug #1375272). However I
> doubt you’ll ever be able to view that page in its entirety on this device,
> given the memory constraints.
>
> ** Changed in: webbrowser-app (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - browser crashes on image-heavy pages
> + renderer process is killed on image-heavy pages on krillin
>
> ** Also affects: webbrowser-app
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> ** Changed in: webbrowser-app
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1443019
>
> Title:
> renderer process is killed on image-heavy pages on krillin
>
> Status in Web Browser App:
> Confirmed
> Status in webbrowser-app package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> On the BQ ubuntu phone, while browsing image-heavy pages, the browser
> suddenly turns completely white and unresponsive. Closing the app and
> restarting it fixes the problem.
>
> example: I can't watch this page to the end, because the browser
> crashes in the middle... https://imgur.com/gallery/NnGyq
>
> I have this on a lot of websites, after browsing for 30 minutes, the
> browser crashes...
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/webbrowser-app/+bug/1443019/+subscriptions
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I don’t know what other mobile browsers do, there may be a way to tell the renderer to free up the memory used by areas of the page that are far out of view. Adding an oxide task to investigate this possibility.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Just tested on a nexus 10 (that’s the only working android device I have at hand right now), and the renderer is never killed, but it seems its available memory is capped (either by chromium itself or by android), so after a while it stops loading images, silently.

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

Thank you for your help!

I have a feeling there are two issues here.

One issue is the case of a page that has clearly "too much" pictures.
Freeing memory of stuff far outside of view might and showing an error
message be a good solution.

However, I have the same issue after regular browsing for an extended
period of time(10 - 50 minutes). After some time, the page becomes white.
After a restart, I can browse again for about the same period, and then
again white. I don't think it is caused by the individual page. Maybe a
memory leak? What can I do to diagnose this issue?

2015-04-15 11:19 GMT+02:00 Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden>:

> Just tested on a nexus 10 (that’s the only working android device I have
> at hand right now), and the renderer is never killed, but it seems its
> available memory is capped (either by chromium itself or by android), so
> after a while it stops loading images, silently.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1443019
>
> Title:
> renderer process is killed on image-heavy pages on krillin
>
> Status in Oxide Webview:
> New
> Status in Web Browser App:
> Confirmed
> Status in webbrowser-app package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> On the BQ ubuntu phone, while browsing image-heavy pages, the browser
> suddenly turns completely white and unresponsive. Closing the app and
> restarting it fixes the problem.
>
> example: I can't watch this page to the end, because the browser
> crashes in the middle... https://imgur.com/gallery/NnGyq
>
> I have this on a lot of websites, after browsing for 30 minutes, the
> browser crashes...
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/oxide/+bug/1443019/+subscriptions
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

So when the page becomes blank, that means that the system killed the renderer process because it considered that it was using too much memory. When that happens, could you grep for 'oxide-renderer' in /var/log/syslog, and paste the relevant section (see comment #1 in this report for how it looks like).

Information about the pages you were browsing (if it’s not confidential) would be helpful, as well as whether you were running many apps (particularly webapps that use the oxide renderer process too).

Thanks!

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

This happened after browsing imgur for 10 minutes:

May 3 07:54:22 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [90155.559088]type=1400 audit(1430632462.017:437): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="com.ubuntu.developer.webapps.webapp-gmail_webapp-gmail_1.0.25//oxide_helper" name="/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq" pid=26240 comm="oxide-renderer" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=32011 ouid=0
May 3 07:54:22 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [90155.586972]type=1400 audit(1430632462.047:438): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="com.ubuntu.developer.webapps.webapp-gmail_webapp-gmail_1.0.25//oxide_helper" name="/sys/devices/system/cpu/" pid=26240 comm="oxide-renderer" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=32011 ouid=0
May 3 08:23:24 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [91154.806200] to free 49328kB on behalf of 'oxide-renderer' (31967) because
May 3 08:26:06 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [91316.813501]select 'oxide-renderer' (28193), adj 110, size 856, to kill
May 3 08:26:06 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [91316.813514]select 'oxide-renderer' (31967), adj 300, size 111770, to kill
May 3 08:26:06 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [91316.813536]Killing 'oxide-renderer' (31967), adj 300,

Only apps open were gmail and browser. Page when it got killed: http://m.imgur.com/gallery/BBjgJW3
When I open that page, and I continue browsing (by swiping right-to-left on imgur) It crashes again after about 10 minutes.. This happens like clockwork, so if you want more information, ask away...

May 3 08:46:35 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [92489.382741]select 'oxide-renderer' (8293), adj 110, size 801, to kill
May 3 08:46:35 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [92489.382754]select 'oxide-renderer' (8316), adj 300, size 117760, to kill
May 3 08:46:35 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [92489.382782]Killing 'oxide-renderer' (8316), adj 300,
May 3 08:46:35 ubuntu-phablet kernel: [92489.382788] to free 471040kB on behalf of 'oxide-renderer' (8316) because

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I can reproduce the issue: I’m browsing to http://m.imgur.com/gallery/BBjgJW3, then swiping right-to-left to browse through images in the collection (a good number of them are animated GIFs, if that matters), and observing top’s output while doing that. The memory used by the renderer process keeps growing and is never reclaimed, so it’s eventually killed by the OOM killer.

[Merlijn Sebrechts (merlijn-sebrechts)]

related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/webbrowser-app/+bug/1375272