Screenshots from my extention of zram. I still have yet to test if it fixes the kernel errors.
Firefox still fails to open, but now that SSH is setup I can more easily interact with this thing. I now have a stack dump.
Firefox was not found in htop, so I attempted to reopen it. After attempting to reopen it, the cursor shows activity. Then nothing. I recheck htop. It’s found, unopened on the screen. Like before, it is unkillable.
I send the command reboot and I see the same familiar kernel error, fb_set_par error, error code 16. Except this time it has additional output stating that it has removed the three zram devices zram{0-3}. Shutdown still hangs, because systemd again is unable to kill firefox (listed as GeckoMain).
I decide to research this error again, as I have been unable to find a list of error codes. Previous research led me to think that zram was too low. Searching again I find this post to the Raspberry Pi Forums from 2017. Much to my suprise it actually looks relevant, and even has the error code I am speaking of. The individual mentions that he was also using firefox-esr and sees the error in dmesg.
The individual states that he had the experimental form of the OpenGL driver installed, and removing it fixed all errors he had. Most information following this lead is for the RaspberryPi, not Armbian. Most solutions show disabling or modifying OpenGL settings in raspi-config which does not help me. I search through armbian-config and see no equivilent. According to this porst from ScratchPadGames Forum from 2018, you can’t do this on the RasPi 4, so Brian Beuken posted in 2020 that he recommends installing the packages libgles2-mesa-dev and libxrandr-dev.
Now your Rpi is ready to work as a fully featured X11 OpenGLES2/3 system.
firefox opens after this. It appears to open without problem. One of my previous tabs were saved, and it opened a pop-up to change the theme (seemingly due to an update). I close it and repopen it. It again opens.
I note that the experimental driver (which I had to hunt for the package name) is libgl1-mesa-dri. Solutions range, and most results are for Raspi. Pre-Pi4 simply removing the experimental GL driver was sufficent, but Pi4 and above require it. This device is none of the above.
I decide to do a web search for libgl1-mesa-dri armbain and see what is returned. The first result is a thread in the Armbian Forums from 2021 describing panfrost “not yet working”. I think this is irrelevant. There was also a guide from 2019 about Panfrost which describes itself as outdated.
None of the search results look relevant at all.
For now, I assume the problem to be fixed. I do not know if it is however. Continued use wil tell me if it is or is not. At present, firefox does not stall and opens correctly. The problem was not a firefox error, but a kernel error from framebuffer. Firefox just triggered it. I will continue to use this device and report if it happens again.
Also, a discovery (Ha!)
