The browser often crashes

Robert · 2019-11-24T08:55:59.272Z

Hi,

There are browser crashes after logging in. This happens, for example, in the “News” window when you click on a message. App windows in full screen mode cannot be scaled down either. I am using Firefox 70.0.0.1 (64-bit) on Ubuntu 18.o4 LTS.

Older browsers, such as older Android tablets, cannot be used at all. This is very unfavorable because Android devices often cannot be updated. Updates are also not possible without the Internet.

Robert · 2019-11-27T07:13:11.120Z

Hi,

I tested the software with the Google Chrome 78 browser. It did not crash. The problem with the apps with switching to fullscreen and back also occurs here. That’s very annoying!

As a way out, I have set up a direct access to the download files. This means that I do not use the start page with the login mask.

Please see https://forums.othernet.is/t/direct-http-access-to-the-folders-download-and-external-sdcard/6421

Will these problems be fixed in the next version of Skylark?

Will older browsers be supported?

Thank You

Abhishek · 2019-11-27T09:38:46.217Z

The crashes look like they might be specific to your system - and might be related to either some browser extension, or another plugin (antivirus software for example). I use the Skylark interface on multiple browsers regularly (Firefox and Chrome on Linux, Edge/Chrome/Firefox on windows, Firefox and Chrome on Android), and have never had a browser crash.

Robert · 2019-11-27T12:29:40.799Z

@Abhishek thank you. I will check my Firefox (addblocker?).

But how is this with the problem with the apps with switching to fullscreen and back?

How about the support of older browsers?

Thank you.

Abhishek · 2019-11-27T13:40:45.499Z

Same thing - switching back and forth between maximixed and non-maximized windows works fine everywhere I have checked. There is a bit of a usability problem on touch screens/small screens - thats a known and long standing problem. But thats unrelated to the problem you are reporting.

On small screens, or very high resolution screens you may run into an issue where all apps insist on running in the maximized mode only. They do this as they switch to “mobile mode” in such situations - its easier to use the apps on touch screens if they are maximized.

Maybe something is inserting javascript into your browser thats causing all this behaviour. It might be worth trying again with a pristine browser profile.

Is this resizing behavior happening across all browsers and OSes?

Skylark UI doesn’t really use anything cutting edge, most modern browsers should work fine with it. Any problem you might be seeing with the builtin android browser on old tablets is due to bad usability on touch screens - the problem I mentioned earlier. You should try with “request desktop version of this site” setting of the browser turned on. Theres not much I am able to do about this issue in the near term though.

(edit: I do use uBlock myself, and that doesn’t seem to cause any issues with the UI)

Robert · 2019-11-28T06:31:15.694Z

@Abhishek I found the cause. In my Firefox I have configured my personal TiddlyWiki (https://tiddlywiki.com) as start page. TiddlyWiki is very practical but also memory intensive. The start page of Skylark also consumes a lot of resources. I am now using an empty page as my homepage and have set a bookmark to my TiddlyWiki. Now the problems mentioned above no longer occur.

Now there are only the problems with the older browser versions. It should be remembered that in many countries most people do not have the latest technology. A few years ago I was in Ghana. The people had mostly only old, simple mobile phones. The internet cafes had PCs that we would call computer waste. Access to Othernet is probably not possible with this technology.

My suggestion: It should be possible to access the content even without the complex start page.

Robert · 2019-11-29T06:24:15.812Z

I had another browser crash. This happened after I heard VOA with the radio app. Possibly the WLAN had dropouts during this time.

Is it possible that a weak WLAN can cause browser crashes?

Robert · 2019-11-30T09:09:00.683Z

When I open the app “Waht’s New”, the corresponding window remains empty. A cross turns at the top. If I then open the app “News”, the browser often crashes when I select a message.

There’s obviously a bug in the app “What’s New”. Possibly the log file is not rotated. There’s no timout.

demandzm · 2019-11-30T13:56:43.437Z

I have tried running the same os and browser and had no issues. If you can try a clean install on a different drive/partition. Does the whole browser crash or just the tab? Is there anything in about:crashes?

Robert · 2019-12-01T11:33:17.426Z

Sorry, sorry,

I found a cause for the hanging app “What’s New”. I have set a symlink to the folder “external_sdcard” in the download folder. The app “What’s New” probably searches the download folder for the latest files. With the symlink, the app also searched the external SD card. Rachel files and Wikpekdia in German and English are also stored there. So that was my mistake. However, a built-in timeout would avoid such problems.

I’ll keep testing.

Robert · 2020-01-07T18:59:16.126Z

The browser crashed after a click on an Arabic article in the App “News”.