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BowPark
Asked: 2020-07-17 00:38:18 +0800 CST

Chromium not starting on Ubuntu 20.04

  • 772

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 x86_64 and using chromium installed with snap:

$ snap list 
Name               Version          Rev   Tracking       Publisher   Notes
chromium           84.0.4147.89     1229  latest/stable  canonical✓  -
core18             20200707         1880  latest/stable  canonical✓  base
gtk-common-themes  0.1-36-gc75f853  1506  latest/stable  canonical✓  -
snapd              2.45.2           8542  latest/stable  canonical✓  snapd

It all seems up-to-date, but chromium can not start. If I launch it, it aborts the execution. In both /var/log/syslog and /var/log/kern.log, the following line is generated:

kernel: [ 1590.847960] traps: chrome[5324] trap int3 ip:557cd4d7b152 sp:7fffde23a9c0 error:0 in chrome[557cd1a59000+7234000]

Also, in /var/log/apport.log, for each execution attempt, this line appears:

ERROR: apport (pid 5556) Thu Jul 16 10:32:47 2020: host pid 5324 crashed in a separate mount namespace, ignoring

What could it be the problem?

Note that the program is chromium, but despite this, the log lines automatically report the name chrome, for reasons I do not know (maybe because chromium is anyway based on chrome).

Update: when launched from a terminal, according to a suggestion in an answer, I get:

$ chromium-browser --disable-extensions
[11036:11036:0716/152514.953429:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(374)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
WARNING: Kernel has no file descriptor comparison support: Operation not permitted
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

With chromium --disable-extensions, the message is the same.

Update 2:

$ chromium-browser --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer
MESA-LOADER: failed to retrieve device information
MESA-LOADER: failed to open i915 (search paths /snap/chromium/1229/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri)
failed to load driver: i915
MESA-LOADER: failed to open kms_swrast (search paths /snap/chromium/1229/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri)
failed to load driver: kms_swrast
MESA-LOADER: failed to open swrast (search paths /snap/chromium/1229/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri)
failed to load swrast driver
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

and the same with chromium --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer. I did not intentionally install any graphic driver, so I guess I'm using the default ones shipped with Ubuntu 20.04. I use the CPU integrated graphic card, CPU is Intel Core i5 4670.

I also tried to run chromium-browser --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer after export MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE=true, but the error messages are the same as above.

chromium snap 20.04

6 Answers

  1. I just got this problem, seemingly out of the blue. Turns out I may be related to a problem I already reported about fonts not loading in the Chromium Snap.

    I found the following workaround :

    1. First, close all instances of chromium

    2. Empty global and local font cache. Erase all existing cache files and rescan. Rerun Chromium:

      sudo rm /var/cache/fontconfig/*
rm ~/.cache/fontconfig/*
sudo fc-cache -r -v
rm -rf ~/snap/chromium/common/.cache/fontconfig/
chromium-browser

    This set of commands is a workaround for a problem I already reported here:
    [chromium] File chooser is not displaying font

    • 19
  2. Best Answer

    Thanks to the fundamental observations from the Antoine Pintout answer, I recalled that I had installed several new fonts, not included in the Ubuntu base system.

    A first effect was that the "Save page" window in Chromium was no more able to use any font, displaying instead a vertical empty rectangle ▯ for each letter. It is exactly the same issue as in the Antoine Pintout linked report.

    However, Chromium was still working. Then, after some days, it presented the issue of my question.

    Yesterday and today, Ubuntu deployed several updates that I applied: between them, snapd and xorg-* (but not xserver-xorg-video-intel). After the updates, Chromium still didn't start.

    Instead of using the workaround suggested by Antoine Pintout, I simply removed the fonts I had installed, and the issue disappeared: Chromium was able again to start. I don't know if the recent updates contributed to this.

    It is worth noting that I then reinstalled all the fonts that I had just removed, and Chromium was not affected by them, this time: it works. Again, I don't know if the updates brought some fixes.

    By the way, the integration between Chromium, snap and Ubuntu still requires some improvements.

    • 3

  3. Sometimes its helpful when troubleshooting a crash if you launch the application directly from a terminal so you can see the app's output messages, instead of from the Ubuntu dash or launcher bar ... so open up a terminal ( ctrl + alt + t ) and in terminal issue

    chromium  --disable-extensions

    Does it run better now ? if yes then issue is probably due to a bad extension ... if it still crashes can you update your question with a copy and paste of messages shown in the terminal

    UPDATE alright now from your new crash its GPU related, so launch from terminal using

    chromium  --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer

    and lets see if it comes up OK or not ... btw did you install graphics drivers yourself ? or are you using the default nouveau ?

    UPDATE2 just googling about I see Chrome stop working after upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 so if you are willing to destroy your Ubuntu install meaning anything of value is safely backed up ( Dropbox, or MEGA nz, or on a memory stick, cloud ...) run the suggested removal of package xserver-xorg-video-intel ... I am on a Ubuntu 20.04 laptop using the default nouveau drivers even though I have an Nvidia card yet I do have that intel package installed as per

    dpkg -l | grep xserver-xorg-video-intel

    which comes back with

    ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel                   2:2.99.917+git20200226-1            amd64        X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver

    OK so I just issued

    sudo apt purge xserver-xorg-video-intel

    and after a reboot can confirm the machine is fine so that may resolve your issue (as per above link) ... depending on your risk appetite try that purge and let us know (as long as your backups are current )

    • 1

  4. Those commands have fixed my broken packages. Chromium and other apps worked seamlessly afterward

    sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/*snap-confine*
sudo apparmor_parser -r /var/lib/snapd/apparmor/profiles/snap-confine*
sudo apparmor_parser -r /var/lib/snapd/apparmor/profiles/*
    • 0

  5. This doesn't answer the question as such but may help someone... Tripped over this at work on my dell laptop after installing windows fonts and the workaround posited by Antoine regarding fonts solved the issue.

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1864365/comments/33

    However just tried the same fix on my Intel NUC and I get this

    Gtk-Message: 10:31:24.401: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 10:31:24.402: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
[10624:10624:0100/000000.486036:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(374)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

    I tried this

    $ sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk3-module

    and a restart but still get the same error.

    $ lshw -c video | grep driver

    returns i915. So I'm guessing the driver might be the issue here as well as the fonts?

    Confirmed that removing the windows fonts I installed solves the issue.

    Anyway hope this helps someone.

    M

    • -1

  6. In my case , I tried all above mentioned, but nothing really helped... When I tried with the

    "snap connect chromium:gnome-3-28-1804 gnome-3-28-1804:gnome-3-28-1804"

    I found the gnome-3-28-1804 is not installed so I installed first by

    "sudo snap install gnome-3-28-1804"

    and chromium stared wirking is my system

    • -1