Ubuntu and the Sad Chrome Tab

Chrome has a reputation for being incredibly unstable on Linux. It’s been rock solid for me on other platforms, but on Linux (Arch, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 14.10), I run into the “sad tab” multiple times a day. Since I use Chrome as a mail client, music player, word processor, calendar, and television, it’d be nice if it worked once in a while. Where a reasonable person would switch over to Firefox, I started digging to determine the cause. Ultimately, the problem turned out to be a limit to the number of open files. Knowing that setting ulimitcan be a royal pain in the ass, I dove into askubuntu.com to find an answer. I was richly rewarded by: How do I increase the open files limit for a non-root user? Short version: Use a text editor to open /etc/security/limits.conf as root. e.g. sudo nano /etc/security/limits.conf Scroll to the end of the file. Add the following text```

  •           soft    nofile          4096
    
  •           hard    nofile          4096 
    

```Log out. Log in. Verify that ulimit picked up the changes by opening a terminal and executing ulimit -n - you should see the same number that you configured above. Use Chrome to process words, listen to music, or view adult situations.