Flash stalls when moving mouse [SOLVED]

[wwwarrick]

Debian release 6.0.6 (squeeze)
Kernel Linux 2.6.39-bpo.2-686-pae
Gnome 2.30.2
Flash 11.2.202.243
iceweasel 16.0.1

I have been playing flash-based games on Kongregate for quite a while now without much issue. However, in the last 2 weeks, one game that I play (Ninja Warz) started to behave oddly. Any in-game animation freezes only as long as the mouse cursor is moving. Not sure if this is a problem specifically on my end, or on the game developer's end. Meaning, not sure if the developer recently updated something causing this problem on my end, or if any recent iceweasel updates are to blame. Either way, the game ran perfectly for at least the one month I had been playing it up until it started having this issue.

I tried removing and reinstalling the flash plugin, which didn't help. Also, tried changing the quality to low, but that didn't help (which may rule out a hardware accelleration issue or proccessor load issue). Also spent some good time trying to google the problem, but I guess nobody else has experienced the same problem, as I found nothing related to the issue. Any suggestions? Anybody else having a similar flash-playback/animation issue?

*Edit: forgot to mention that the animation stalls only when I move the mouse within the game window only. I can move the mouse about anywhere outside the game borders and all is well. Also, when I stop moving the mouse, the animation resumes as if it had never stopped (objects "skip" to the location they would have been had the animation never stopped)... does that make sense?

[wwwarrick]

Just updated to the new release of iceweasel (16.0.2), but still no luck.

[wwwarrick]

Okay, new development here... I had a hunch that my proc was being overloaded by iceweasel trying to render all the flash plugin info, so I ran the system monitor while playing Ninja Warz. Sure enough, even when I set quality to LOW, both on-die chips are maxed out. When I look at the "processes" tab, the item called "plugin-containers" is using 106% of my processor's resources when I move the mouse around, and only drops to 96% when I am not moving the mouse (still at LOW quality). When I mouse over that process, it tells me it is running the flash player plugin through xulrunner 16.0. From there I went to Synaptic to see if there is an update to xulrunner, as that may be the problem. I ended up finding xulrunner listed 11 times. It would seem that I have version 6.0 through 16.0 installed.

So, my question now is... is that normal? Should I remove version 6 through 15 and just leave version 16 installed?

Edit: forgot to mention that my processor is an Intel g620 dual core 2.6ghz. It really should not take 100% of both cores to run a flash game...

[vbrummond]

I doubt that matters much, but I would make sure gnash, gnash-common, and browser-plugin-gnash are uninstalled. Just to be sure.

[wwwarrick]

According to Synaptic, gnash, nor any associated gnash items are not currently installed on my system. Thank you for the heads up on that one.

[lizbeth]

do you have the intel-microcode and microcode.ctl drivers installed? It might help?

[wwwarrick]

I actually did not have them installed. I went ahead and added them via synaptic, though. Even after rebooting, there was still no change. I'm sure that may have made things a bit more efficient, but "plugin-container" is still maxing out my proc. Would it make a difference if I uninstalled the flash plugin and reinstalled? Perhaps the same with xulrunner?

[lizbeth]

tell me please the full system specs you have including your swap space.

[wwwarrick]

okay, here goes:

Hardware:
mobo - MSI H61M-P21 (B3) R
CPU - Intel PDC G620 2.6G 3M 1155R
RAM - 2x2GB crucial RAM
HDD - 120gb hitachi deskstar 7200rpm

Linux:
Debian release 6.0.6 (squeeze)
Kernel 2.6.39-bpo.2-686-pae
Gnome 2.30.2
4GB swap <- never seen it use more than 1gb
10gb sda1 / <-ext3 4.6gb avail.
~100gb sda6 /home <-ext3 62.6gb avail.

please let me know if any other specs would help... thank you!

[lizbeth]

No that all looks fine really. I did a little research on your chip and saw it has intel hd graphics built into your chip and since you have no other gpu listed I assume it's what you are using.

in synaptic there is an i965-va-driver for intel hd graphics sandy bridge (your processor). The description reads:

• The VA-API (Video Acceleration API) enables hardware accelerated video
  decode/encode at various entry-points (VLD, IDCT, Motion Compensation
  etc.) for the prevailing coding standards today (MPEG-2, MPEG-4
  ASP/H.263, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, and VC-1/VMW3). It provides an interface
  to fully expose the video decode capabilities in today's GPUs.
  
  Platform definitions:
  CTG: Cantiga, Intel GMA 4500MHD (GM45)
  ILK: Ironlake, Intel HD Graphics for 2010 Intel Core processor family
  SNB: Sandybridge, Intel HD Graphics for 2011 Intel Core processor family
  IVB: Ivybridge
  
  This package contains the video decode & encode driver backend for the
  Intel G45 chipsets and Intel HD Graphics for Intel Core processor
  family.

You could try to adjust the global settings for flash by going here:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/docum ... ger07.html

A box will appear with several tabs in it. The tab next to last on the far right -Website Storage Settings panel- can adjust the amount of disk space to give to flash to use for websites. You can also modify the amount of disk space just for one specific website. The default is 100k. Assuming you see the website of the game you play, increasing the disk space usage for flash might take some of the load off of the chip? Or if you don't see the site listed or if you don't know the name, (not my first choice) increase the default amount of disk space for all websites.

Also have you tried clearing out your browser cache?

[wwwarrick]

I GREATLY appreciate your time and effort in trying to help me solve this little problem. However, even after installing the i965-va-driver, and changing the storage allowance for all kongregate related entries (I found one for the specific game in question) to far more than they could ever use, still no luck. I also just cleared my cache and did a cold boot, just to eliminate as many variables as possible.

One thing I found still seems odd, though. I right clicked to see if I can turn the hardware accelleration off then back on again to see if there was a difference, but the "settings" option on the right-click menu was greyed out. Perhaps that means this particular flash game is software-rendered only? Also, I have to hold down the right mouse button to keep the menu up, otherwise, thet instant I let go of the button, the menu disappears. This does not happen with any of the other games I play.

I do not have a windows based system to test all this on to see if it runs differently on there, but I do have an asus T-301 tablet and keyboard dock that was just barely able to load the game. It had no trouble playing basic animation with the track-pad cursor moving around, though, it got a bit overloaded when there was too much going on at once. That makes me think it may be a limitation of the linux ported flash player, as it is always (am I wrong here?) a step behind the windows based release... what do you think?

I should also note that it used to play just fine about 5 weeks ago, but I do not recall a single action or update on my end that may have caused this problem. Nor has the game version changed since I started playing it back in early september. Thank you again for your time and assistance.

[lizbeth]

Wow. I'm at a loss.

Someone else care to pick up the torch here?

[lizbeth]

Well the latest version of Flash for linux is 11.2.202.243 and Adobe is no longer going to develop flash for linux. They will however continue to release security updates for flash 11.2. You could try to download the latest 11.2 release. I wouldn't expect much though.

Google Chrome however has pepper flash 11.4 and will continue to develop it's version of flash for linux as long as it continues to develop Chrome for Linux which is likely to be as long as they continue to develop Crhome OS and produce their netbooks.

Final Answer: Download and Install Google Chrome and see if that works better for you?

[wwwarrick]

yeah, I have heard that google chrome handles flash animation and some javascript "better" than other browsers, so I might as well. I also did not know that adobe was going to abandon its port to linux, how sad. I will install chrome a little later this week and let you know what happens... thanks again for your help!

[lizbeth]

You are so welcome!

[wwwarrick]

Well, that did it. With chromium installed, every bit of flash runs so much smoother. Some bits of flash will crash iceweasel, too, so I will start using chromium for all my flash-based gaming needs. Thanks again!