your browser choice in 5.7?

[shep]

Originally Posted by TronDD

For a desktop system, I set my memory limits to something like 75% of physical memory. Leaves enough so that if something does run away, it won't take out the OS. If FF needs more than 3G of memory, it deserves to crash.

Tim.

Based on this and the fact that the defaults are 512mb, would it be reasonable base memory limits for a workstation/web browsing as follows: max physical memory - 512mb? = ulimit?

[TronDD]

Based on that logic? No. Because the default for a process is a MAXIMUM of 512, doesn't mean that a MINIMUM of 512 for the OS is sufficient.

However, if you think OpenBSD can survive with just 512M of memory, then, by that logic, yes, it'd be fine. Keeping in mind other programs will be taking some of that memory, too. The limits set are per process. That's why I tend towards a percentage. Usually the more memory you have, the more you have running on the system.

Tim.

[JWJones]

Conkeror and surf have been working well for me. I usually grab xombrero, too, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by shep

@ocicat. I could not find any recommendations on memory limits for Firefox.

Searching for "login.conf" & "firefox" on http://marc.info yields numerous posts -- a selected few I will post here:

• http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=114740073624149&w=2
• http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=140881070230830&w=2
• http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=110133542605876&w=2
• http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=140881685332274&w=2

For FF use with html5 videos or say 4 tabs when comparison shopping could you make recommendations regarding the amount of physical memory and memory limits?

TronDD has already posted a good suggestion. A crude solution I have used is to set values to infinity to see if the problems I have experienced were memory-related. I follow up with setting ulimit within ~/.profile. On i386, 2GB has seemed reasonable; on amd64, I go much higher. Once I have convinced myself that memory was an issue, I sometimes back the login.conf(5) values down, but not always. How one uses a desktop system is paramount to answering the question.

I cannot provide a definitive brain-dead solution which will address all environments, as my usage is specific to the way I use Firefox. Currently, I am using Firefox 37.0.1 installed on a 1GB RAM i386 system running -current, & with the defaults provided (as mentioned by albator...), I have yet to experience a crash. But then, I may not use Firefox as others would. I also reinstall every month or so, so I don't collect a lot of artifactual cruft either.

[shep]

Thanks

I write technically, often embedding web links and inkscape svg's

I have been a fairly devoted OpenBSD user with a fairly lightweight window manager. I have 4GB ram and previously have been able to have libreoffice, FF and inkscape/gimp running without issues. It seems that some webpages will trigger FF to core dump even when it is the only application running. My hard drive chatters for several seconds, and before I can run top, it has dumped. Oddly, the same version of Debian iceweasel in an i386 2GB ram system is more tolerant. I have set the defaults in login.conf to 3G. Xombrero, which used to be light and fast, core dumps with less provacation than FF. I have FF set not to save history and cookies between sessions.
Options
1) Buy more ram ?how much?
2) Run FF 35.0.1 in 5.7
3) Run Current
4) Try FreeBSD/Debian

Here is my /etc/login.conf just to be sure I did make any errors

default:\
        :path=/usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /usr/X11R6/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/local/sbin:\
        :umask=022:\
        :datasize-max=3072M:\
        :datasize-cur=3072M:\
        :maxproc-max=256:\
        :maxproc-cur=128:\
        :openfiles-cur=512:\
        :stacksize-cur=4M:\
        :localcipher=blowfish,8:\
        :ypcipher=old:\
        :tc=auth-defaults:\
        :tc=auth-ftp-defaults:

#
# Settings used by /etc/rc and root
# This must be set properly for daemons started as root by inetd as well.
# Be sure reset these values back to system defaults in the default class!
#
daemon:\
        :ignorenologin:\
        :datasize=infinity:\
        :maxproc=infinity:\
        :openfiles-cur=128:\
        :stacksize-cur=8M:\
        :localcipher=blowfish,9:\
        :tc=default:

#
# Staff have fewer restrictions and can login even when nologins are set.
#
staff:\
        :datasize-cur=1536M:\
        :datasize-max=infinity:\
        :maxproc-max=512:\
        :maxproc-cur=256:\
        :ignorenologin:\
        :requirehome@:\
        :tc=default:

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by shep

I have 4GB ram and previously have been able to have libreoffice, FF and inkscape/gimp running without issues. It seems that some webpages will trigger FF to core dump even when it is the only application running.

Antecdotally, I tried to run Firefox & LibreOffice simultaneously on this 1GB RAM i386 system. The combination consistently crashed. Both applications are memory pigs, & I gave up expecting this laptop to handle that load. I have other laptops which can withstand that particular task anyways.

Buy more...

In my opinion, there are some options which have not been explored before throwing money at the problem. Since one particular application is in question, I would recommend running -current in order to run the latest version of Firefox. This data point may be useful, & it doesn't cost money outside of the time of changing flavors.

If there is sufficient need, I will split out the relevant posts into another thread.

[shep]

I have current-amd64 on a cobbled together system (it's beige) with a refurbed motherboard and 4GB ram. I'll make sure the limits are the same and try to note sites that cause crashes. I recall a series of Iceland photos that reliably caused a crash after 18 of 30 photo - I'll try to find it and test stable/current in parallel.

[ocicat]

I will also resurrect a post from the archives ensuring memory limits. login.conf(5) is only part of the equation. ksh(1)'s internal ulimit command is the other portion:

http://daemonforums.org/showpost.php...5&postcount=13

[jggimi]

I have two systems running FF. Both are using login.conf(5) as released, using "daemon" as the user class, and shells/tcsh as their login shell.

i386, -current, 1GB RAM My day-to-day workstation

FF generally works; there is an occasional, infrequent failure which is not repeatable. It can occur on opening a first page, or any time thereafter.

amd64, -stable, 4GB RAM Occasional use workstation (graphic arts projects)

FF-ESR on 5.7-stable has been, to my memory, much better than FF on the i386 workstation mentioned above. But I use this workstation much less frequently. And my memory may be faulty.

Note: I had failures of FF-ESR and sometimes the system would hang during its use, when running an early build of 5.7-release in test. That -release build was based on CVS tags and may not have matched what the Project distributed May 1 electronically and what is being distributed now on CD.

[shep]

My present limits

PooBear$ ulimit -a
time(cpu-seconds)    unlimited
file(blocks)         unlimited
coredump(blocks)     unlimited
data(kbytes)         3072000
stack(kbytes)        4096
lockedmem(kbytes)    1353904
memory(kbytes)       4059620
nofiles(descriptors) 512
processes            256

There were some earlier suggestions to use the AdBlock Plus extension which ran contrary to my normal bias of trying to simplify a process rather than adding additional code. After looking at the GNU Icecat project page I went ahead and added the AdBlock Plus extension. It seems to have made a marked difference. I was able to open multiple FF tabs: CNN, NewEgg, OpenPrinting, A printer manufacturers site and play an HTML5 video on YouTube in a 5th tab without a problem.

Given that the Icecat project has a builtin "AdBlock Plus", pulled a revoked certificate and tries to mitigate some the effects of javascripting, I was looking at trying to build an OpenBSD port of Icecat to test. I recall some Iceweasel/Icecat inquiries to the mailing lists that did not generate much enthusiasm but I think the environment is changing. Also, there seems to be a proliferation of webkit browser frontends that all seem to share common issues with webkit.

Icecat will not be a dropin to the www/firefox-esr port. There are strings that are defined in www/mozilla that are used in common with other mozilla projects. The other option would be to use Debian Iceweasel code but it does not have all the security tweaks that Icecat has.

Addendum: I was able to get as far as having icecat retrieve, cksum and partially extract using the porter's guide. I also tried to build in /usr/local using web guides but had a problem with it finding gcc 4.9. After several hours my suspicion was confirmed; I'm in over my head with a complex port.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by shep=54727

There are strings that are defined in www/mozilla that are used in common with other mozilla projects.

I suspect your intent was to refer to www/mozilla-firefox? Future readers may be confused since the referenced port no longer exists.

[ibara]

This is a mistake with openports.se -- there is indeed a mozilla.port.mk in www/mozilla which controls the variables common to all Mozilla ports.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by ibara

This is a mistake with openports.se...

Thank you for the correction. I should have checked CVS before posting.

[shep]

I received email responses from Landry Breuil and Antoine Jacoutot; maintainers of the collected Mozilla ports. I'll summarize them here.

1) Both are hoping for upstream mitigation's
2) Landry does not like the idea of a wrapper script, as used in Chromium,
3) There is some discussion about the default limits or a firefox/firefox-esr pkg-readme providing guidance.
4) Adding the AdBlock Plus extension increases the memory use but does prevent some processes that could potentially run away from running.
5) The Debian code base would drop into the OpenBSD ports structure but is not seen to offer any real advantages as it is largely a rebranding.

I had a thought on building Gnuzilla/Icecat within the OpenBSD ports structure by making a softlink www/mozilla -> www/gnuzilla which I'm going to look at. Icecat would offer a viable and perhaps improved alternative as it has a built in Adblock Plus, some code alterations to address javascript issues and pulled a revoked certificate.

[jkl]

On my OpenBSD "web laptop", I usually use Firefox (for things like Twitter) and NetSurf (for the occasional surfing). If it wasn't such a resource hog!

[walker45]

New forum member here - been using OpenBSD for about 10 days now (2 years of intermittent Linux, decades of Windows)

As a long time Opera user I was delighted to find that its original developer is now building a new browser named Iridium:

https://iridiumbrowser.de/about

As you may have read from the above link it is based on an enhanced chromium (one of those enhancements is native support for MHT files).

A caveat: I looked at Iridium on a Debian system running LXDE. LXDE's task manager showed many of its processes running as root but 'top' showed them running as user - I suspect that LXDE's task manager is buggy in that regard (Iinterestingly someone else found the same situation running XFCE - XFCE's task manager and LXDE's task manager probably share much the same code).

Another caveat: Iridium, like Chromium, phones home; pf rule managable? see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9482689

Another caveat: while Chromium's memory leak has been fixed (https://code.google.com/p/chromium/i...tail?id=441500), memory usage is still wack.

[jggimi]

Hello and welcome!

Originally Posted by walker45

I don't know if its available on OpenBSD

It's in the ports tree, in -current, so it will be available to with 5.8 on or about November 1. It continues to undergo development. Lots of patch revisions in the last week or two.

[walker45]

jggimi
>
> Hello and welcome!

Thank you. This looks like a nice community and I'm happy to be here.


jggimi
> walker45
> >
> > I don't know if its available on OpenBSD
>
> It's in the ports tree, in -current, so it will be available to with 5.8 on or about November 1. It continues to undergo development. Lots of patch revisions in the last week or two.

Good, we'll see how it compares with the other browsers. I'll likely use it as it supports MHT files and I've 7,000 plus of those things.

Regards,

[hitest]

Welcome walker45!

I'm quite fond of Chromium on 5.7.

[walker45]

Originally Posted by hitest

Welcome walker45!

I'm quite fond of Chromium on 5.7.

Thank you for your welcome and your comment.

I've not put as much time into learning OpenBSD as I could have (to date), but I'll look into installing Chromium on the machine I am using to learn OpenBSD as soon as I learn enough about Ports and Packages to do so.


Regards,