Zorin Freezing in Browsers - Zen & Brave

General Help
1

Hi everyone! I ran the usual update and after upgrade in the terminal earlier, and I've been doing some things online, uploading photos and short videos to Facebook, to try and find homes for 2 little kittens I rescued. I completed those tasks just fine. Went to cook dinner and when I came back my laptop had gone into sleep mode, which it shouldn't because I set it to never go into sleep mode. Anyway, I couldn't wake it up, so I forced it to shut down by holding the power button. This is something I have to do a lot because nothing I try will wake it up - hence me setting it to "never sleep".

After starting up in the normal way, I tried to go back onto Facebook to see if I'd had any luck. Everything froze up in the browser. I tried again but had the same issue.

I decided to try Brave as Zen has been problematic recently, and as I'd already saved my bookmarks and passwords on that laptop (HP Pavilion), I thought now was as good a time as any to set it up as the default browser. Nope. It juddered, pixelated and then just froze up. I've tried several times more, after forcing the laptop to shut down because nothing works. EDIT FOR CLARITY:
On Zen, I've just tried again and thought I'd check the speed of my connection using Oookla, and guess what? Yup, it's frozen again!

So, now I'm on my trusty Windows 10 machine, which I won't have running on W10 for much longer, obviously. What can I do? I've tried cleaning everything up with Bleachbit (please don't tell me this is dangerous as I've been using it for years without any problems. Plus, it is no where near as dangerous as the terminal, if you really mess up). I've also tried another update in the terminal, just in case. So, the HP laptop is next to me as I type, still frozen on Ookla Speed Test, using the Zen browser. I've just tried Ookla on this Core i3 Asus, and got 271.53 Mbps download, with a ping of 26, so it isn't anything to do with slow internet speed. Any advice?

2

Third Crosslink:

This is becoming a pandemic.

3

Thank you @Aravisian but this started when I was using Zen, which is a fork of Firefox - Mozilla. I've not made any changes to Wayland, it's just whatever the standard is when installing Zorin (Core) OS. I should also mention, I'm stuck in Zen now, not Brave as it was completely unusable.

4

Maybe I misunderstood your post - I gather that Zen was having issues for a while, but when you switched over to try Brave, did you experience freezing or crashing?

5

Yes, I was having trouble with Zen, so I thought I'd try Brave but I couldn't as it was completely unusable, so I retried in Zen. I've not used any other Chromium browser, only Mozilla.

6

Are you logging in on Wayland?

7

Yes I am, I've just checked (forced close and started up again). I've never messed with Wayland.

8

It is worth testing to see if you have this same experience on Xorg with Brave and with Zen.
You can choose whether Xorg or Wayland at your login screen. It's a selection menu is all.

9

Thank you for replying. Unfortunately, all I see when logging in is the pulsing Z, then HP Zorin, a black screen for quite a while, then eventually, my desktop. I can't find any menus to select anything from. I've tried searching for Xorg but it doesn't return anything.

I did a fresh install of Zorin Core OS a couple of weeks ago, if that matters.

Just to note that I've tried using Firefox (right now) and there don't seem to be any issues at all. As I do not want to use Firefox, I'll try LibreWolf too. If that works then I'll leave Zen alone for a while. I'd honestly prefer not to use Brave, if I can avoid it, but my thoughts were: if Mozilla is having issues, I should try a Chromium based browser, and as Brave is already installed I tried it.

As using Firefox seems to have fixed my problem, I think I'll just stick to any other Mozilla based browser that does what it is supposed to. :grimacing:

10

Uh... did you set to automatic login when you installed?

Instead of reaching the GDM login screen and entering your password...

11

I don't even know what a GMD login screen is. It drives me nuts having to log in every time I switch on a computer, so if there was a choice not to, I would have taken it. I only use passwords to log in if it's a device I use at work, this laptop has two....

12

Oh great, now Firefox has crashed too! The screen flickered, then went black, then back to the webpage I was viewing, black, then failed completely.

Firefox Crash Reporter has popped up, so I'll send it....

13

If you want to change to x instead of Wayland for testing (highly recommended) you can simply logout of your session, then when you click your username to login and the password field pops up, you should see in the bottom right corner a cog icon. Click it and you can click Zorin on X. Then login and test for the same issues.

If this solves your issues, you don't need to do it at every boot. It remembers your choice, so unless you wanted to go back to Wayland, you can leave it.

1 Like
14

Yeah, after what @Aravisian wrote earlier, I think I chose an auto login, so I don't see that screen, unfortunately. It's not been a known problem for me in over a year, so it took me by surprise. I only use the HP at home, so it annoys me to have to keep logging in. :expressionless_face:

15

Go to Settings>User (1):

Bildschirmfoto vom 2025-09-14 19-31-06
Bildschirmfoto vom 2025-09-14 19-31-062532×1952 192 KB

There unlock (2) this and then disable automatic Login (3).

Then, You should have the Login Screen. On the Login Screen, click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. Click on it and choose ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in. It should look like this:

2 Likes
16

@Ponce-De-Leon, that's done the trick. Thank you so much.

2 Likes
17

Do you mean that it did the trick in getting you logged in on Xorg?

Or that doing so put an end to the freezing browsers?

18

Both! I found Xorg, following the instructions above, then switched from Wayland to Xorg. I opened up Brave and it is working without any problems at all.

I've not tried Zen or Firefox. I'll try Zen again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for all the help!

2 Likes
19

I would guess you will be fine with Zen and Librewolf now that you're in xorg. Zen and Librewolf are my default choices in xorg with no problems encountered.

1 Like
20

@zGnOmaha, what I don't understand, is that I have never had any problems before this afternoon, and I've always used the "stock Zorin_OS". Randomness like this puts me off recommending Zorin. I mean, just why did things suddenly stop working on Wayland? For well over a year, there hasn't been a single issue.