Youtube freezing on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

Hello I recently installed Ubuntu 18.04 from Windows 10 and so far it's good, but I have a problem. Youtube is freezing every 30 seconds for like 1 or 2 seconds. I watched a movie and it didn't have a problem but it's freezing with Youtube.

If someone could help me I will be very happy to continue my experience with Ubuntu ! :)

Solution 1

From my experience it can be caused by the internet browser (chrome) but if you use firefox it's probably not that.

Solution 2

This happened to me too. It turns out to be a Chrome issue. Neither FF not Epiphany makes momentary sticky freezes nor halts while video playing. (decoding)

When you check chrome://gpu/ you will notice that Hardware Protected Video Decode part indicates that hardware acceleration is not available in Linux. Inorder to fix that go to chrome://flags/ and enable the Override software rendering list and restart Chrome. It worked for me.

Comments

[avazula]

Hi there. How did you install your Ubuntu: is it a virtual machine? Have you configured a dual boot? Have you erased your Windows and are only relying on Ubuntu now? Your installation type is important to understand where the problem comes from.

[Miroslav]

Wiped Windows 10. I really want to just use Ubuntu on my second machine aka for watching movies, netflix, youtube and etc.

[avazula]

Would this help?

[Miroslav]

No, i tried it 1 hour ago, and right now but still freezing.

[Santropedro]

@Predator1112 I updated Ubuntu and it fixed my issues. If you have problems with that goto the corresponding question.

[Miroslav]

I'm using Chrome. I really can't switch to Firefox. Everything for me is based aroung Chrome and Google's ecosystem. My computer and my phone and my tablet is linked to chrome.

[Jerare]

Can you test one minute to watch a youtube video on firefox ? it is freezing or not ?

[Miroslav]

I watched 5 minute video without a problem. So it's a problem with Chrome on Linux. Thanks for the info about the Chrome. I will try to use it :)

[avazula]

@Predator1112 don't forget to mark the answer as accepted if you found it useful.

[Miroslav]

Yea, thanks for the fast responses from both of you :) It's true that Linux family is a one united team! Cheers!

[RTbecard]

While this describes the issue in (slightly) more detail, this is not an answer to the issue. Nor is this a viable workaround for those of us who rely on chrome.

[RTbecard]

This solved the problem for me on Elementary OS Juno (a derivative of Ubuntu 18.04).

[Santropedro]

This DIDN'T solve it for me.

[Santropedro]

Even worst, this made chrome to crash when more than around 10 tabs were open, and they were just innocent wikipedia tabs and one youtube video in low resolution.

[iJames]

Worked for me even though the problem is happening across chrome, chromium, brave. (Not Firefox it seems). But the question is, what does it mean that running videos on my browser can't use GPU acceleration when they've been able to for years with Ubuntu 18.04?

[Anshuman Kumar]

Hi @Santropedro, how did you solve this? I know it has been a long time but if you remember anything, please share.

[Admin]

I have this issue on FF on ubuntu 18.04 after I download/installed some updates (!!!). And I guess now I have no option but just update OS to 20.04