Chromium aborts on SIGBUS every minute with vm.overcommit_memory=2

[max ulidtko]

The Linux kernel has a knob, vm.overcommit_memory, which switches how memory allocation requests are handled. What I'm reporting is that Chromium is basically unusable with a non-standard setting of that knob (which makes sense as a better default to me on my system).

So, steps to reproduce:

1) install chromium-browser
2) sysctl vm.overcommit_memory=2
3) run chromium-browser

Expected behavior: works normally.

Actual behavior: crashes every minute or two. Console output:

[1] 7449 bus error (core dumped) chromium-browser

I believe this is either a misconfigured build, or an upstream bug.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: chromium-browser 55.0.2883.87-0ubuntu0.16.04.1263
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-57.78-generic 4.4.35
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DRM.card0-DP-1:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
DRM.card0-HDMI-A-1:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
DRM.card0-LVDS-1:
 edid-base64: AP///////wAw5IIDAAAAAAAWAQOAHxF4CrqFo1hUoScMUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBMCpARGGEJDAwIDUANa4QAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/gBMRyBEaXNwbGF5CiAgAAAA/gBMUDE0MFdEMi1UTEUyAFI=
 dpms: On
 modes: 1600x900
 enabled: enabled
 status: connected
DRM.card0-VGA-1:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
Date: Wed Jan 11 09:30:28 2017
Desktop-Session:
 'ubuntu'
 '/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg'
 '/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop'
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
Env:
 'None'
 'None'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-07-12 (1278 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
Load-Avg-1min: 10.00
Load-Processes-Running-Percent: 0.5%
MachineType: LENOVO 3444FHG
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-57-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=0c3285b7-5de5-405d-8524-8396272551d7 ro quiet splash iwlwifi.power_save=1 iwlwifi.led_mode=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=7 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-06-24 (200 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/04/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: G6ET93WW (2.53 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 3444FHG
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Win8 Pro DPK TPG
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrG6ET93WW(2.53):bd02/04/2013:svnLENOVO:pn3444FHG:pvrThinkPadX1Carbon:rvnLENOVO:rn3444FHG:rvrWin8ProDPKTPG:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 3444FHG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
gconf-keys: /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec = b'firefox\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager = b''/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager = b''/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme = b'gnome\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme = b'Clearlooks\n'
modified.conffile..etc.default.chromium-browser: [deleted]

[Brian (crbcwhite)]

We see a lot of SIGBUS crashes with Chrome on Linux 4.4.0.*

Does the problem go away with a more recent release?

-- Brian

[kalebris (kalebris)]

Hi,

No, this does not go away. This problem still exists:
Chromium 74.0.3729.169 Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 19.04 running kernel 5.0.0-16-generic.