I ran into a nasty issue on Ubuntu where watching YouTube in Chrome would randomly crash the browser (SIGSEGV / SIGILL) and eventually freeze the entire system. The worst part: no logs, just a hard lock with audio looping.
Symptoms
- Chrome crashes on YouTube (SIGSEGV / SIGILL)
- System-wide freeze (mouse + keyboard unresponsive)
- Audio stuck in a 1-second loop
- No useful errors in
journalctlafter reboot
Root Cause
The issue turned out to be the Linux kernel (6.8.x), not Chrome or GPU drivers.
This kernel version has instability issues in certain setups (especially with NVIDIA GPUs), leading to hard locks under video playback.
Solution
Boot into a stable LTS kernel and remove the problematic one.
- Boot into an older kernel (e.g. 5.15) via GRUB:
Advanced options for Ubuntu- Select
Linux 5.15.x
- Once booted, remove the unstable kernel:
sudo apt remove linux-image-6.8.* linux-headers-6.8.*
sudo apt autoremove
sudo update-grub
- Reboot and verify:
uname -r
Result
After switching to kernel 5.15, the system became completely stable:
- No Chrome crashes
- No freezes
- Smooth YouTube playback
Takeaway
If you’re seeing full system freezes with no logs on Ubuntu, don’t assume it’s the app. Kernel regressions can cause silent, catastrophic failures.
Stick to LTS kernels if stability matters.