Shutdown-restart-stale windows problems - repeatable

[markfilipak]

Version: 27.8.3 (64-bit) running in Linux Mint 18.2 virtual machine guest (but see also, version 27.9.0 note at end of this post).

1.
When Pale Moon is not running, the Linux shutdown choices are "Suspend" "Hibernate" "Restart" "Cancel" "Shut Down".
When Pale Moon is running at the "Choose User Profile" dialog, the shutdown choices are "Suspend" "Hibernate" "Restart" "Cancel" "Shut Down" -- the same.
But when Pale Moon is fully running, the shutdown choices are "Suspend" "Restart" "Cancel" "Shut Down" -- "Hibernate" is missing.
This is 100% repeatable.
But there's more...

2.
When Pale Moon has multiple windows open, it must be closed with 'File' > 'Quit' prior to shutting down Linux. If Pale Moon is open when Linux is Shut Down, then when Linux is restarted & Pale Moon is relaunched, stale windows -- windows that had been closed prior to shutting down Linux -- reappear when Pale Moon is back up and running.
This is 100% repeatable.
But there's more...

3.
Pale Moon windows that I want to permanently close so that they don't reappear when Pale Moon is relaunched must be closed using the last-tab-closed method. If they are closed with the close button [X], they reappear when Pale Moon is relaunched.
This is 100% repeatable.
But there's more...

4.
When Pale Moon malfunctions, it affects the ability of other applications that are set to auto-launch on Linux startup -- sometimes they don't launch. Sometimes when Pale Moon malfunctions, it causes Linux to freeze until I reset the virtual machine and reboot it.
Sometimes stale windows reappear on the next Linux startup even having used the last-tab-closed method in the previous session.
One time, I could not get Pale Moon to close at all. I had to shut down Linux with Pale Moon running. On the next startup, all hell broke out, but it was fine after I closed Linux again and restarted again.

I just installed version 27.9.0 (64-bit) and the #1 symptoms above are still applicable. I will continue to experience the update version and report back. Until then, consider this a heads-up on what needs to be tested by more people.

----- UPDATE -----
The stale window problem (the #2 symptoms, above) is still applicable with version 27.9.0. I will continue testing.

[adesh]

Problem 1:
Hibernation requires saving memory contents to disk. If a lot of memory is in use when hibernation is requested, the resulting memory image size may be larger that the swap size (Image is generally compressed to reduce size, but still). Probably, your linux distro is taking this into account and not showing hibernation option if such is the case. So, look at the total memory usage and Pale Moon usage.

Problem 2:
It can happen because browser session file is updated only at reguar intervals, not real-time. So, when you shut down your machine with Pale Moon running, it can open very recently closed tabs/windows from the most recent session snapshot. If you are concerened about why Pale Moon is being relaunched, then that should be a "problem" with your distro. While shutting down, OS is saving the current list of open programs and relaunching them at startup.

[markfilipak]

Problem 1:
Hibernation requires saving memory contents to disk. If a lot of memory is in use when hibernation is requested, the resulting memory image size may be larger that the swap size (Image is generally compressed to reduce size, but still). Probably, your linux distro is taking this into account and not showing hibernation option if such is the case. So, look at the total memory usage and Pale Moon usage.

Linux Mint is running in a virtual machine. I give the VM 4 CPU cores (out of 8 total CPU cores). I give the VM 8 GiB of memory. The virtual HD is 40 GiB. Swap is 1.07GB but none is used. Pale Moon is the only application running.

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: mark-VirtualBox Kernel: 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: innotek (portable) product: VirtualBox v: 1.2
           Mobo: Oracle model: VirtualBox v: 1.2
           Bios: innotek v: VirtualBox date: 12/01/2006
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-6700HQ (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3) bmips: 20735
           clock speeds: max: 2591 MHz 1: 2591 MHz 2: 2591 MHz 3: 2591 MHz
           4: 2591 MHz
Graphics:  Card: InnoTek Systemberatung VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: vboxvideo (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 3840x1956@11.32hz
           GLX Renderer: Chromium
           GLX Version: 2.1 Chromium 1.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801AA AC'97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: d100 d200 bus-ID: 00:05.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-21-generic
Network:   Card: Intel 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: e1000 v: 7.3.21-k8-NAPI port: d010 bus-ID: 00:03.0
           IF: enp0s3 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 42.9GB (19.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: VBOX_HARDDISK size: 42.9GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 39G used: 6.7G (19%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 174 Uptime: 1:20 Memory: 622.7/7983.6MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

From 'about:memory'

Code: Select all

Main Process
Explicit Allocations

448.02 MB (100.0%) ++ explicit

Other Measurements

51.73 MB (100.0%) ++ decommitted

15,271 (100.0%) ++ event-counts

1.39 MB (100.0%) ++ images

219.36 MB (100.0%) ++ js-main-runtime

420 (100.0%) ++ js-main-runtime-compartments

155.30 MB (100.0%) ++ js-main-runtime-gc-heap-committed

307 (100.0%) ++ message-manager

1,598 (100.0%) ++ observer-service

388 (100.0%) ++ observer-service-suspect

821 (100.0%) ++ preference-service

105.59 MB (100.0%) ++ window-objects

    0.43 MB ── canvas-2d-pixels
  176.79 MB ── gfx-surface-xlib
    0.00 MB ── gfx-textures
    0.00 MB ── gfx-tiles-waste
          0 ── ghost-windows
  260.20 MB ── heap-allocated
        339 ── heap-chunks
    1.00 MB ── heap-chunksize
  265.76 MB ── heap-committed
  339.00 MB ── heap-mapped
      2.13% ── heap-overhead-ratio
    0.76 MB ── imagelib-surface-cache-estimated-locked
    0.89 MB ── imagelib-surface-cache-estimated-total
    0.47 MB ── js-main-runtime-temporary-peak
         29 ── page-faults-hard
    586,805 ── page-faults-soft
  630.55 MB ── resident
  601.91 MB ── resident-unique
1,322.16 MB ── vsize

End of Main Process 

The machine is basically loafing. I may be (probably am) wrong, but I don't think any of this explains the #1 behavior. What do you say?

Problem 2:
It can happen because browser session file is updated only at reguar intervals, not real-time. So, when you shut down your machine with Pale Moon running, it can open very recently closed tabs/windows from the most recent session snapshot. If you are concerened about why Pale Moon is being relaunched, then that should be a "problem" with your distro. While shutting down, OS is saving the current list of open programs and relaunching them at startup.

Yeah, this is not a problem. I supplied it mainly for completeness.

What about #s 3 & 4? I think these are real problems.

[adesh]

I don't know what is "last-tab-closed" method, if you could explain.

The problem with freeze may have something to do with how Pale Moon is playing with the graphics card. Try disabling hardware acceleration. I guess you are not trying to do anything graphics intensive like watching hi-res videos. Also, please consider it is just a VM and as such not suitable for real testing. Try Pale Moon on a real machine to see if these problems go away.

[markfilipak]

I don't know what is "last-tab-closed" method, if you could explain.

Sure, I'd be happy to explain.

In the menu,
'Tools' > 'Preferences', opens the "Pale Moon Preferences" dialog.
Then, in the "Pale Moon Preferences" dialog,
'Tabs' (tab) > '[X] Close the window when the last tab is closed', adds last-tab-closed close method to all Pale Moon windows.
Then, closing all the tabs in any particular window causes that window (and that window, only) to disappear when its last tab is closed -- thus I call it "last-tab-closed" method.

The issue is this: Suppose I have 8 Pale Moon windows open, thus,
[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
If, in any of them, I do 'File' > 'Quit', then Pale Moon closes all 8 windows, and later, when I relaunch Pale Moon, all 8 windows will reappear (or, at least, that's what's supposed to happen if "Show my windows and tabs from last time" is active in the Preferences).
But if, instead, I want to permanently close windows 7 & 8 (so that they don't reappear when Pale Moon is relaunched), and then close Pale Moon so that the remaining 6 windows do reappear later (i.e., they are sticky), well, there are 2 ways to do that. I can close windows 7 & 8 using their regular close buttons (i.e., 'X' in their titlebars), or I can use their last-tab-closed method. Then, now that there are only 6 windows open, I can use 'File' > 'Quit' to close Pale Moon, and the next time it will open with only 6 windows reappearing, thus,
[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

Now 'X' and last-tab-closed should be equivalent, but they're not. If I 'X' windows 7 & 8 and then quit Pale Moon, all 8 windows reappear when Pale Moon is relaunched -- I think that's a bug -- whereas if I last-tab-closed windows 7 & 8 and then quit Pale Moon, only 6 windows reappear when Pale Moon is relaunched. This is my issue #3.

The problem with freeze may have something to do with how Pale Moon is playing with the graphics card. Try disabling hardware acceleration. I guess you are not trying to do anything graphics intensive like watching hi-res videos. Also, please consider it is just a VM and as such not suitable for real testing. Try Pale Moon on a real machine to see if these problems go away.

I could speculate on why the method used to quit Pale Moon sometimes causes problems the next time Pale Moon is launched (and also why it sometimes affects how, or whether, other applications launch), but I was hoping someone else who had also experienced these sorts of symptoms in Linux could add more info. All the symptoms seem to be related to the number of windows that are open when PM is relaunched and how the last windows that were not to reappear were closed (using the 'X' method or the last-tab-closed method). I'll bet that the PM code is traversing different code paths when it should be traversing only one, but of course I can't be sure.

[Walter Dnes]

Linux Mint is running in a virtual machine. I give the VM 4 CPU cores (out of 8 total CPU cores). I give the VM 8 GiB of memory. The virtual HD is 40 GiB. Swap is 1.07GB but none is used. Pale Moon is the only application running.

I think the highlighted portions are the reason for your problem. As mentioned previously, hibernation involves saving machine state to swap. In general, you should have at least as much swap as RAM, if you want to use hibernation to disk. If you're not running major programs, and not using the full 8 gigabytes of assigned RAM, you might get away with 1.07 gigabyte swap. I recommend a 10 gigabyte swap file to cover a worst-case scenario, with a bit of spare room left over. Try that, and see if it solves your problem.

[markfilipak]

In general, you should have at least as much swap as RAM, if you want to use hibernation to disk. If you're not running major programs, and not using the full 8 gigabytes of assigned RAM, you might get away with 1.07 gigabyte swap. I recommend a 10 gigabyte swap file to cover a worst-case scenario, with a bit of spare room left over. Try that, and see if it solves your problem.

Thanks, Walter. I don't hibernate, but it does answer issue #1, and perhaps someone in the future will profit from your generosity. Thank you so much.