Bugs :
K-Meleon Web Browser Forum
Hello!
Recently (not exactly sure of the date, but it's no more than a week) my K-Meleon started crashing upon visiting duolingo.com webpage. The reason isn't really clear, I just open the page and the browser crashes some 5-8 seconds after. No other websites do this, just Duolingo.
I've tried cache-clearing, "dirty" as well as "clean" re-install... nothing helps. Has anybody else encoutered this?
At line 257, we have a <noscript>, which is exactly like the one found in the <head> of OspreyPacks here.
This <noscript> is invoking an image from Facebook, and I reckon this is causing the crash.
Possibly you can test this by disabling images in your Privacy menu, just hit F9 to toggle it.
I've run DuoLingo through the W3C Unicorn, there are 333 CSS errors in 3 Cloudfront CSS files. I'm not sure these will crash KM, since most browsers will simply ignore CSS they don't understand. You just won't get the page-view the author intends.
KM is a fault-intolerant browser, so badly written source code will break it.
Your best shot is to have several different browsers, so what fails on one will probably work on another. As well, try keeping a couple of older KM versions around: often they will render pages which fail on newer KM versions.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Thank you! Disabling pictures did the trick.
Yes, I use Opera 12.17 as my default browser. Most of the time it crunches its way through modern webs with more-or-less grace, but it gets painfully slow on Duolingo and some other Java-heavy webpages. That's where K-Meleon comes in to drag me through. I was seriously troubled when it stopped working. Thanks again!
Had no problems with load there.
Almost without any content blocker. But I'm using a sort of 'safe DNS' - so this could be a solution for everybody.
No probs with duolingo.com here. Checked with both KM75 and KM76RC. However I didn't test with clean installs.
I don't use any sort of 'safe DNS' and have disabled my HOSTS file during checking.
That's interesting about the hosts file, because I just tried duolingo.com in both Firefox 43 and K-Meleon 75, with nothing disabled. It didn't crash either of the browsers, but pressing a button to run their "placement test" for those with a partial knowledge of German produced no response. Meanwhile, however, Firefox kept trying to load Facebook in the background. I guess so did K-Meleon, although there was no indication of it. The connection to Facebook was unsuccessful, because I have deliberately blocked Facebook in my hosts file.
Then I tried the site in The World Browser 7, which is an extremely light Chrome clone. Duolingo.com worked flawlessly there, which probably means that my hosts file is being ignored by that browser.
Maybe if Facebook weren't in the hosts file, duolingo.com could have crashed either FF or KM, but who knows.
BTW, I passed their placement test.
---
Gerry
Ummm, no. Hosts is supplied and used by the OS. Browsers send a request for a file, the OS looks at the hosts file and if there is an entry the appropriate action is taken. This is either a re-route to local-host (127...) or to a specialised IP different from the usual, possibly to direct the browser to an infra-web mirror or something similar. Hosts is also used for local networking.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
I know. In my hosts file I deliberately made facebook.com point to the localhost (127.0.0). Now any time I enter facebook.com in the address bar I get an error message from the browser, stating that the site can't be reached (which suits me just fine). Usually I'll see the same error message if a Facebook item is embedded in a web page. The message will appear in the placeholder for the item.
In the case of Duolingo.com, FF and KM kept waiting for a connection to Facebook, and Duolingo.com never finished loading. Since it didn't stop the other browser, however, I assumed it was ignoring either my localhost setting, or the entire hosts file.
---
Gerry
Re-route in your HOSTS file to 0.0.0.0. The connection should be dropped instantly in this case.
A sniffer would show you if a connection to Facebook occurs despite of your HOSTS file entry.
The only way to make a browser to ignore the HOSTS file is to hard-code IP numbers in its code.
Actually Win8.1, and possibly Win10 also, need to have 0.0.0.0 in hosts because Microsoft altered their "TCP loopback interface" in Win8.1 :O (source: There's no place like 127.0.0.0)
You can fix that by getting eDexter, a small proxy which monitors the hosts file and allows you to insert a small image into the target you have disabled. This eliminates the time-out wait. eDexter 1.34 can be downloaded from Gorilla Design Studio. There is a more recent version, 1.42 which I use, but it is very hard to find. Given that Pyrenean seems to have vanished, I can make the exe available--it's free-ware anyway so I don't think I'm damaging him eDexter works well on W7HPx64 SP1, so I figure it will work on W8 and W10 as well. Just install in admin, then all users should get it.
If you don't have Windows, Pyrenean did develop a simplified version using Java.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Attention to those re-routing to 0.0.0.0 in their HOSTS file and using a network diagnosting tool.
Put the below entry as first to avoid anomalies.
I did not try before, but I have added the item above to my hosts file. The Duolingo site works just fine for me.
Win 10 pro (64) KM 76RC2 8 gigs ram js enabled.
<b>eDexter</b> update...
Get eDexter 1.42 from HOSTSFILE.MINE.NU or go to HOSTSFILE.MINE.NU downloads directly.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2016 12:03PM by gordon451.
Just an update to this Duolingo.com issue:
It turns out that Facebook has nothing to do with my failed attempts to use Duolingo.com. I'm no longer seeing any indication that the site is trying to connect with Facebook in the background. The site doesn't crash any browser on my system. However, neither of my two Gecko browsers, FF43 and KM75, respond at all to clicks on the lesson buttons, while Chrome-based browsers (The World and SRWare Iron) respond immediately.
---
Gerry
Since you say FF has the same prob, it usually helps to search for FF+bug (whichever) directly, considering their 1000x (??) larger userbase.
And a search for "firefox" duolingo "nothing" sounds like it might be codec/html5/settings related:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=206278
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/3ke5ob/html5_audio_wont_play_in_firefox/
It's over my head, but you're more computer savvy and perhaps it gives you a hint...
I doubt whether it has anything to do with a codec. KM 75 handles all the HTML5 elements just fine, including the audio and video players.
The lesson buttons don't even bring up the page they're supposed to open, although the appropriate URLs do appear in the address bar. Another development, however, is this: I tried removing all the blocked URLs from my Javascript permissions list (I could have simply chosen to allow them, but I was a bit too hasty). Oddly enough, this finally made duolingo.com crash the browser shortly after loading the page. I don't know which of those permissions made the difference, however, and the list was very long, but I've since restored them from my backed up profile. At the same time I removed Duolingo from my bookmarks.
Anyway, I tend to think that the fault is with the site, not the browser -- sloppy script design, in other words -- and as has been noted earlier in this thread, KM is not very fault tolerant. When I used IE a long time ago it was way too tolerant; I could forget to close important tags in my own HTML pages and IE let me get away with it, because the pages worked anyway. People viewing them on other browsers would have complained bitterly.
I'm more computer savvy? No way; look at all the help I needed with those macros!
---
Gerry
You can talk about issues with k-meleon here.
K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
GeXeS
Date: August 03, 2016 07:10AM
Hello!
Recently (not exactly sure of the date, but it's no more than a week) my K-Meleon started crashing upon visiting duolingo.com webpage. The reason isn't really clear, I just open the page and the browser crashes some 5-8 seconds after. No other websites do this, just Duolingo.
I've tried cache-clearing, "dirty" as well as "clean" re-install... nothing helps. Has anybody else encoutered this?
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
gordon451
Date: August 03, 2016 09:33AM
At line 257, we have a <noscript>, which is exactly like the one found in the <head> of OspreyPacks here.
This <noscript> is invoking an image from Facebook, and I reckon this is causing the crash.
Possibly you can test this by disabling images in your Privacy menu, just hit F9 to toggle it.
I've run DuoLingo through the W3C Unicorn, there are 333 CSS errors in 3 Cloudfront CSS files. I'm not sure these will crash KM, since most browsers will simply ignore CSS they don't understand. You just won't get the page-view the author intends.
KM is a fault-intolerant browser, so badly written source code will break it.
Your best shot is to have several different browsers, so what fails on one will probably work on another. As well, try keeping a couple of older KM versions around: often they will render pages which fail on newer KM versions.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
GeXeS
Date: August 03, 2016 09:52AM
Thank you! Disabling pictures did the trick.
Yes, I use Opera 12.17 as my default browser. Most of the time it crunches its way through modern webs with more-or-less grace, but it gets painfully slow on Duolingo and some other Java-heavy webpages. That's where K-Meleon comes in to drag me through. I was seriously troubled when it stopped working. Thanks again!
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
rodocop
Date: August 03, 2016 01:12PM
Had no problems with load there.
Almost without any content blocker. But I'm using a sort of 'safe DNS' - so this could be a solution for everybody.
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
Yogi
Date: August 03, 2016 03:26PM
No probs with duolingo.com here. Checked with both KM75 and KM76RC. However I didn't test with clean installs.
I don't use any sort of 'safe DNS' and have disabled my HOSTS file during checking.
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
foliator
Date: August 03, 2016 03:58PM
Quote
Yogi
No probs with duolingo.com here. Checked with both KM75 and KM76RC. However I didn't test with clean installs.
I don't use any sort of 'safe DNS' and have disabled my HOSTS file during checking.
That's interesting about the hosts file, because I just tried duolingo.com in both Firefox 43 and K-Meleon 75, with nothing disabled. It didn't crash either of the browsers, but pressing a button to run their "placement test" for those with a partial knowledge of German produced no response. Meanwhile, however, Firefox kept trying to load Facebook in the background. I guess so did K-Meleon, although there was no indication of it. The connection to Facebook was unsuccessful, because I have deliberately blocked Facebook in my hosts file.
Then I tried the site in The World Browser 7, which is an extremely light Chrome clone. Duolingo.com worked flawlessly there, which probably means that my hosts file is being ignored by that browser.
Maybe if Facebook weren't in the hosts file, duolingo.com could have crashed either FF or KM, but who knows.
BTW, I passed their placement test.
---
Gerry
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
gordon451
Date: August 04, 2016 04:48AM
Quote
foliator
... which probably means that my hosts file is being ignored by that browser.
Ummm, no. Hosts is supplied and used by the OS. Browsers send a request for a file, the OS looks at the hosts file and if there is an entry the appropriate action is taken. This is either a re-route to local-host (127...) or to a specialised IP different from the usual, possibly to direct the browser to an infra-web mirror or something similar. Hosts is also used for local networking.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
foliator
Date: August 04, 2016 05:15AM
Quote
gordon451
Quote
foliator
... which probably means that my hosts file is being ignored by that browser.
Ummm, no. Hosts is supplied and used by the OS. Browsers send a request for a file, the OS looks at the hosts file and if there is an entry the appropriate action is taken. This is either a re-route to local-host (127...) or to a specialised IP different from the usual, possibly to direct the browser to an infra-web mirror or something similar. Hosts is also used for local networking.
I know. In my hosts file I deliberately made facebook.com point to the localhost (127.0.0). Now any time I enter facebook.com in the address bar I get an error message from the browser, stating that the site can't be reached (which suits me just fine). Usually I'll see the same error message if a Facebook item is embedded in a web page. The message will appear in the placeholder for the item.
In the case of Duolingo.com, FF and KM kept waiting for a connection to Facebook, and Duolingo.com never finished loading. Since it didn't stop the other browser, however, I assumed it was ignoring either my localhost setting, or the entire hosts file.
---
Gerry
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
Yogi
Date: August 04, 2016 06:19AM
Quote
foliator
In the case of Duolingo.com, FF and KM kept waiting for a connection to Facebook
Re-route in your HOSTS file to 0.0.0.0. The connection should be dropped instantly in this case.
Quote
foliator
Since it didn't stop the other browser, however, I assumed it was ignoring either my localhost setting, or the entire hosts file.
A sniffer would show you if a connection to Facebook occurs despite of your HOSTS file entry.
The only way to make a browser to ignore the HOSTS file is to hard-code IP numbers in its code.
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
gordon451
Date: August 04, 2016 07:44AM
Quote
Yogi
Re-route in your HOSTS file to 0.0.0.0. The connection should be dropped instantly in this case.
Actually Win8.1, and possibly Win10 also, need to have 0.0.0.0 in hosts because Microsoft altered their "TCP loopback interface" in Win8.1 :O (source: There's no place like 127.0.0.0)
Quote
foliator
... FF and KM kept waiting for a connection to Facebook ...
You can fix that by getting eDexter, a small proxy which monitors the hosts file and allows you to insert a small image into the target you have disabled. This eliminates the time-out wait. eDexter 1.34 can be downloaded from Gorilla Design Studio. There is a more recent version, 1.42 which I use, but it is very hard to find. Given that Pyrenean seems to have vanished, I can make the exe available--it's free-ware anyway so I don't think I'm damaging him
eDexter works well on W7HPx64 SP1, so I figure it will work on W8 and W10 as well. Just install in admin, then all users should get it.
If you don't have Windows, Pyrenean did develop a simplified version using Java.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
Yogi
Date: August 04, 2016 09:37AM
Quote
gordon451
Actually Win8.1, and possibly Win10 also, need to have 0.0.0.0 in hosts because Microsoft altered their "TCP loopback interface" in Win8.1
Attention to those re-routing to 0.0.0.0 in their HOSTS file and using a network diagnosting tool.
Put the below entry as first to avoid anomalies.
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 fix for netstat and diagnostic tools
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
JamesD
Date: August 04, 2016 11:48AM
Quote
Yogi
Attention to those re-routing to 0.0.0.0 in their HOSTS file and using a network diagnosting tool.
Put the below entry as first to avoid anomalies.
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 fix for netstat and diagnostic tools
I did not try before, but I have added the item above to my hosts file. The Duolingo site works just fine for me.
Win 10 pro (64) KM 76RC2 8 gigs ram js enabled.
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
gordon451
Date: August 04, 2016 12:03PM
<b>eDexter</b> update...
Get eDexter 1.42 from HOSTSFILE.MINE.NU or go to HOSTSFILE.MINE.NU downloads directly.
____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2016 12:03PM by gordon451.
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
foliator
Date: August 21, 2016 10:02PM
Just an update to this Duolingo.com issue:
It turns out that Facebook has nothing to do with my failed attempts to use Duolingo.com. I'm no longer seeing any indication that the site is trying to connect with Facebook in the background. The site doesn't crash any browser on my system. However, neither of my two Gecko browsers, FF43 and KM75, respond at all to clicks on the lesson buttons, while Chrome-based browsers (The World and SRWare Iron) respond immediately.
---
Gerry
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
siria
Date: August 21, 2016 11:21PM
Since you say FF has the same prob, it usually helps to search for FF+bug (whichever) directly, considering their 1000x (??) larger userbase.
And a search for "firefox" duolingo "nothing" sounds like it might be codec/html5/settings related:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=206278
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/3ke5ob/html5_audio_wont_play_in_firefox/
It's over my head, but you're more computer savvy and perhaps it gives you a hint...
Re: K-Meleon crashing at Duolingo.com
Posted by:
foliator
Date: August 22, 2016 01:19AM
I doubt whether it has anything to do with a codec. KM 75 handles all the HTML5 elements just fine, including the audio and video players.
The lesson buttons don't even bring up the page they're supposed to open, although the appropriate URLs do appear in the address bar. Another development, however, is this: I tried removing all the blocked URLs from my Javascript permissions list (I could have simply chosen to allow them, but I was a bit too hasty). Oddly enough, this finally made duolingo.com crash the browser shortly after loading the page. I don't know which of those permissions made the difference, however, and the list was very long, but I've since restored them from my backed up profile. At the same time I removed Duolingo from my bookmarks.
Anyway, I tend to think that the fault is with the site, not the browser -- sloppy script design, in other words -- and as has been noted earlier in this thread, KM is not very fault tolerant. When I used IE a long time ago it was way too tolerant; I could forget to close important tags in my own HTML pages and IE let me get away with it, because the pages worked anyway. People viewing them on other browsers would have complained bitterly.
I'm more computer savvy? No way; look at all the help I needed with those macros!
---
Gerry
English