Cursor glitch makes Chrome completely unresponsive

Cursor glitch makes Chrome completely unresponsive   This has happened to me in several different games and with character sheets and handouts.  It's highly repeatable. It happened five times while I was writing this up. As I move the mouse over the VTT the cursor changes from an arrow to a crosshairs or a hand (depending on what's under the cursor, as it should) but when I move it over the "X" to close a handout or character sheet or even the "Upload files..." dialog box the cursor glitches and remains stuck rapidly transitioning between a hand and a crosshair.   Once this happens, I can't click anywhere in Chrome. Not on the VTT, nor the URL bar or another tab. The cursor still moves, but that's all.  I can switch to different applications in the OS and the mouse and keyboard both work normally. Other windows of Chrome don't respond.   I have to do a `sudo killall chrome` and restart it.   Browser:  Chrome Version 98.0.4758.80 (Official Build) (64-bit) OS  Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa) 64-bit  Kernel Linux 5.4.0-97-generic x86_64 MATE 1.24.0

Does it do this on a private browsing window? I can't repeat the behavior on this end. Although, my version is only at 97.0.4692.99 (Mac)

this was happening to me also, i worked out that if i played on opera not chrome it was working, so then i reinstalled chrome and was working. dont really know the cause honestly

keithcurtis said: Does it do this on a private browsing window? I can't repeat the behavior on this end. Although, my version is only at 97.0.4692.99 (Mac) Yes, it does it in a private browsing window too.

Let me explain a bit about how debilitating this bug is.   If I so much as accidentally mouse over the X in the slightest bit, Chrome stops responding to all inputs and I have to kill it and restart it.   This is extremely inconvenient, so I came up with a few work-arounds.   If I open a character sheet, the only way I can close it without force-killing chrome is to pop it out into a separate window, and then close it by clicking the X in the window manager.   Same for handouts.   Some dialog boxes have "close" buttons on them, so I can click that instead of the X.   Other dialog boxes don't have close buttons and can't be popped out to separate windows.  The upload art dialog box is one. If I open that, I'm stuck with it until I exit the VTT or accidentally mouse-over the x and have to kill Chrome.   To play in a game, so long as I carefully pop out my character sheet, without going near the X, things can go well for a while.   Of course, that just lulls me into a false sense of security. When the DM shows us a handout, I'll click to zoom in on it and see more detail, and then when I close it... you know what happens.   Bonus points if the DM pops up a handout and it appears with the X right under my mouse. It's more likely than you think.  

You can usually close a handout shown by hitting the escape key if its the primary window focus, if its not, clicking a *safe* spot on the handout somewhere should put it in focus and then an escape key will clear it, same with character sheets.  I question your custom themes, you say you have like ubuntu or something, have you made sure you don't have some OS skin running that you can't disable and run basic theme over it?  When you mouse over the X that is a general OS theme pointer that can change with themes in windows atleast.  

No, I don't have any special or custom OS skins or themes running. 

That would likely make it really hard to gather up a Console Log ( Chrome ,  Firefox ), but your best recourse is likely a  Help Center Request . Give as much info as you can, but if they can't reproduce what you are seeing, they might not be able to help. Other things to try might be deleting all caches and cookies, or re-setting/reinstalling Chrome

I"m not sure what might be causing this.  I am unable to reproduce this in Chrome:  Version 98.0.4758.80 (Official Build) (64-bit) I am running MXLinux (another Debian based distro), so it should share a lot of code with Ubuntu.  While I am running XFCE as my desktop environment instead of MATE, I don't think it should be affecting anything inside the browser other than affecting certain keybinds.  I always have to turn off the Alt+drag keybind that moves windows around or it will keep me from using Alt+drag on tokens.  The only thing that jumps out at me is that I am running a newer kernel:  5.10.0-11-amd64  I'm not convinced that should be a problem, though you never know... Does this only happen in Chrome?  If you log into a game on Firefox, does it do the same thing (I expect the answer there would be no)?  It will give you the unsupported browser pop-up, but you might also try Brave since it is a Chrome spin off.  If that works, but Chrome doesn't, then there is probably something screwy with some setting in Chrome. Edit: And if you try doing a reinstall of Chrome, be sure to delete (or move somewhere as a backup) the google-chrome folder that is in your home user folder's .config directory.  Otherwise, all the settings of the previous install will be used instead of starting fresh.

It does not happen in Firefox.  I don't have Brave.

keithcurtis said: Other things to try might be deleting all caches and cookies, or re-setting/reinstalling Chrome The problem also happens in an incognito session, which doesn't use the cache or cookies.   I have Chrome set to "Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows"    

I am seeing this bug as well.  I'm running on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and it happens with Chromium ( Version 99.0.4844.51 (Official Build) snap (64-bit)) , Firefox (97.0.2 (64-bit)), and Google Chrome ( Version 99.0.4844.51 (Official Build) (64-bit) ). Once the pointer gets into the flicker state, the browser grays out and dims.  Sometimes, if I wait an actual minute, it will recover.  Sometimes I have to manually kill it.  Either way is super inconvenient.  I most often encounter this while exiting out of a monster or NPC's character sheet.  Now that I know about using the [ESC] key instead of the [x], I'll try to do that instead and hope I don't forget and hit the [x] (after 35 years of muscle memory!) accidentally.

Wow.  That muscle memory is really hard to overcome.  I had to log out and back in 8 times over the course of a 2 hour session.  Of course, the fact that Roll20's audio/video settings are also somewhat flaky, requiring additional log outs/ins to get your hardware properly recognized, doesn't help.

>  That muscle memory is really hard to overcome.    Yeah. And even if you do, that isn't even a foolproof method.   I've had the bug triggered when the DM popped up a handout and it appeared in just the right place to catch my cursor and crash Chrome.   I've decided to abandon chrome when using Roll20's VTT.

Thank you, I have this, too. Manjaro, Kernel 5.17, Chromium 100.0.4896.127-1. No extensions or themes. I tried the usual: clear caches, restarts, console output in developer tools - no hint. Really annoying! Any fix in sight?

I have found that I can use System Monitor to end the process of the Roll20 tab. It's the one with the highest CPU usage.  It's not a solution, but it's better than killing the whole browser. 

Well the common feature in everyone suffering from the bug seems to be some flavor of the Linux OS. Although Kraynic OS is on Linux and doesn't have the glitch, all others are. Have any of you filed a  Help Center Request ?

I did and nothing has come of it

No response, or no useful response?

Not a useful response.   >  Thank you for the information. We have used this to fill out and submit a bug ticket for our Development team to help assist with. We appreciate your patience. If there is anything else you might need assistance with in the future, please don't hesitate to reach out to us again. That was February.

Well that sucks. That likely means the XP team has transferred it to the dev team, who may not be able to track it down (it's not a commonly reported problem), or it may not be fixable at this point for that particular confluence of hardware and/or software. Not very helpful or informative for the end user, I know. The system does not allow for very good communication on problems that cannot be easily or quickly fixed.

keithcurtis said: Although Kraynic OS is on Linux and doesn't have the glitch, all others are. Yeah, my home machine is currently a dual boot setup of MXLinux and ArcoLinux, and I don't get this behavior with either distribution.  While I use Firefox as my primary browser, I keep Chrome installed for testing (mostly character sheet related) and getting console logs, since I don't have any extensions installed on it.  This may be one of those things that comes down to specific hardware, interaction between specific drivers, or something along those lines... PunyPaladin, are you planning on upgrading/installing the new LTS release that Ubuntu just put out?  I wonder if that would make this go away if there is something kernel/driver related. 

Kraynic said: PunyPaladin, are you planning on upgrading/installing the new LTS release that Ubuntu just put out?  I wonder if that would make this go away if there is something kernel/driver related.  I'm already on a LTS (20.04) and not in any hurry to switch.  Lots of software only officially supports one LTS, and past experience tells me it will be a long time before they make that 22.04.