Web GL support has apparently stopped in Chromium browser (under Linux)

tony_canas

I have a Linux-based system (OpenSUSE 13.1) running Chromium browser (Version 48.0.2564.82). with NO add-ons  The Graphics card is NVIDIA GT9600, and I run teh NVIDIA official graphics drivers (version 340.96).

This PC ran Onshape very successfully.  I made some models.  I was also able to run Web GL demonstrations from the web.

After a month's gap in my usage, I have tried to return to my models but I see a message telling me that my browser has Web GL disabled.  Digging further into chromium (chrome://gpu) , I see that WEB GL is in fact unavailable because "GPU process was unable to boot: GPU access is disabled in chrome://settings".    When I try to access "chrome://settings", I can find no setting that might disable hardware access.

I can also say that I have not updated the Chromium installation, nor have I updated the NVIDIA drivers.  

I am now stuck and unable to access my models.  

I wonder if anyone has encountered this phenomenon before - un-explained sudden disablement of Web GL?  I would be grateful for any advice, since my learning experience has been cut short and my models are out-of-reach!

Thanks in anticipation...

PS: 

I should add that there have been no updates of any sort (including kernel)  that may have caused this.  I have tried the obvious things since, including updating the NVIDIA drivers by hand, re-installing Chrome from scratch...

I moved to Chrome after my attempts with FIREFOX showed some bugs (mostly using the scroll wheel on the mouse would kill the ONSHAPE session).  Today, I CAN open the designs in FIREFOX, and I can also run WEBGL demonstrations found on the web, so I assume that my NVIDIA drivers are working.

As far as I can tell, my graphics chip is not on the blacklist...

The main point of my question is that Chrome tells me that WebGL is disabled in the settings page.  I can find no such setting, and I have done nothing (consciously) to affect any such setting.  

I am sorry if my original post was unclear / lacking in detail.  I appreciate all the answers!

tony_canas

Update: If CHROME is started with the option "--no-sandbox", it will correctly open my designs in ONSHAPE.  It does however complain that the command-line option is unsupported and may lead to instability and a lack of security.  Now to find out what this option helps... 

jon_smirl

You need to figure out why Chome doesn't like your OpenGL anymore. Check if Firefox works. Try glxinfo and make sure your Nvidia driver is running. 

Even though you did not update Chromium or NVidia your kernel may have been updated. Maybe that update made the NVidia drivers unhappy.  It could be as simple as dkms is not installed, so when you updated the kernel the Nvidia drivers were unable to rebuild.

jakeramsley

On my Ubuntu machine, I often get automatic updates that break my NVidea drivers forcing me to reinstall them to get WebGL to work.  The other thing I have had to do in the past is run chrome with the --ignore-gpu-blacklist flag so that it doesn't instinctively think it can't handle WebGL.

tony_canas

Update: If CHROME is started with the option "--no-sandbox", it will correctly open my designs in ONSHAPE.  It does however complain that the command-line option is unsupported and may lead to instability and a lack of security.  Now to find out what this option helps... 

gned

dear tony , 
me too i'm under opensuse 13.1 and with even last version of chrome (68.0.3440.106) I can't arrive to open correctly any drawing. It just hangs indefinitely. I did wegl tests on the web and it works correctly there. Also the trick  "--no-sandbox" does NOT work for me. Did you arrive to fix the thing in some way or you get some more explanations from Onshape ?thanks
 

Paul_J_Premakumar

@gned,

Is your issue specific to drawings or does this include the part studios / assemblies as well? Can you try opening the browser compatibility check page: https://cad.onshape.com/check . Does this work?