Blank white screen when launching Chrome 94 (hardware acceleration)

[Orcman2019]

Worked on earlier versions of Chrome, noticed after Chrome 94 update that it won't work sandboxed with force to run sandboxed and any or all additional options allowed.

[Orcman2019]

Using classic 5.52.4, Firefox still works normally.

[DavidXanatos]

on my test VM chrome 94 still works fine, can anyone else confirm this issue?

[bjm234]

Worked on earlier versions of Chrome, noticed after Chrome 94 update that it won't work sandboxed with force to run sandboxed and any or all additional options allowed.

Please check -> chrome://settings/system
"continue running background" & "hardware acceleration" are off.
Chrome 94.0.4606.81 - my Chrome box forced or Run Sandboxed - my Chrome box not forced or Run Sandboxed - DefaultBox ...okay for me, at this time.
0.9.7e/5.52.5

[Orcman2019]

It was hardware acceleration.. I hadn't turned it on myself but apparently the update must have done something to it.

Currently both are off, I have preferences, forced, and bookmarks and history checked and it's working now.

[isaak654]

@Orcman2019 Could you post your hardware specs and Windows version?
Hardware acceleration set to off is a workaround, not a fix, so I would appreciate if you could share more details about this.

[isaak654]

There is a another report related to Opera version 80 that won't work with hardware-acceleration enabled:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-0-9-7-test-build.440906/page-4#post-3041470

Initial report of algol1 user:

New production version v.80 (using Chromium engine v.94) will no longer install sandboxed, albeit when installed normally first (without forced-Sandbox-folder) can later be opened sandboxed as normal and will perform without issues.
To make things worse the advanced "Developer versions" opera v.81 (using Chromium engine v.95) and latest v.82 won't install sandboxed any longer either - but even when initially installed outside a sandbox first and running without problems outside - will later refuse to open within a sandbox.
All I will get is a white screen, no sandboxie-error-msg, and after a few seconds a message in the header-bar saying "Loading... Opera [#] (Not Responding)".
Good thing we meanwhile have that "panic key" as this (terminating the process) for now seems the only way to close down that unresponsive window.
These observations - just in case that matters - have again been made on an 11th-gen-Intel-machine but currently I have no reason to assume that the phenomena described wouldn't occur on any Win10-system upgrading to these latest Opera-versions.

Workaround with one caveat (even with HW acceleration=off, the installation-process itself will no longer succeed with a target-folder being force-sandboxed as with previous Opera-versions):

Use hardware acceleration when available" -> try off -
It really did the trick! I wasn't even thinking of that - as until Opera v.80 all had worked well with HW-acceleration enabled.
So the question remains what the hell they may have "improved" again with that latest version to cripple the HW-acceleration-functionality within Sandboxie?
Also do you have any educated guess how much disabling HW-acceleration will cost performance-wise?
And since HW-acceleration DID WORK within Sandboxie up until now - how are the odds any minor adaptions @DavidXanatos could implement into Sandboxie would make HW-acceleration=on possible within Sandboxie again?
Addendum: Now that with HW-acceleration=off the browser will start sandboxed again I should point out that the first phenomenon described above still persists. Since Opera v.80 (and also with HW-acceleration=off) the installation-process itself will no longer succeed with a target-folder being force-sandboxed - as has been possible with previous Opera-versions

[DavidXanatos]

hmm... I cant reproduce this issue not even on my real host machine, it uses a 1060 nvidia card.
I presume the issue may be related to the used GPU and drivers.

[isaak654]

Further update about this issue by algol1:

Unfortunately I'v been premature in reporting that the latest upgrade to Sanboxie_Plus v.0.9.8 would already fix the newly discovered problems wit advanced Opera_developer-browser v.82. In fact it does NOT! Currently I have no idea how I could have gotten this wrong initially?!:oops:

Fact is that current production-version of Opera v.80 is the last one that will run sandboxed with HW-acceleration=ON. All advanced developer-versions of Opera from then on up to latest v.82 will only lauch with HW-acceleration set to OFF! Otherwise only an empty white screen will open up which after a few seconds will carry a message in the title-bar saying "Opera # (no response)".

Even if I've been wrong in initially reporting that Sanboxie_Plus v.0.9.8 would fix this I'd like to emphasize once more that this is not Sandboxies fault as these problems have clearly been introduced by latest/future changes made by Opera-developers.

Source: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-0-9-8.441287/#post-3042649

Further update by @superkryodev:

Good to hear Chrome HW-acceleration issue has disappeared for @algol1, however it still remains on my 11th gen

Many thanks for your continued effort

Source: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-1-0-1.442616/#post-3055648

Further update by algol1:

Sad to hear that and it makes the phenomenon even more strange as my system is 11th-gen-Intel, too.

Although I may have been a little premature in my enthusiasm. True, current Chrome and Opera will launch again here but I've encountered some very strange behavior regarding playback of Instagram-videos yesterday. The video suddenly froze - as then did the browser - and after killing it and performing a restart in a new empty default-box the browser all of a sudden came up completely fullscreen without any menu or bookmarks- or even settings-bar. Neither nor could remedy the situation. This was all the more strange as the box had been empty and only a re-boot finally brought back the browser to normal.

No clue yet if that had to do with the HW-acceleration-setting. Currently I'm back to OFF. So the jury is still out on the verdict if that issue has truly been fixed. But something must have changed as Chrome and Opera at least will launch now and will perform basic browsing without any hassle, even with HWAcc=ON..

Source: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-1-0-1.442616/#post-3055734

Further update by catspyjamas

Just tried 1.0.2. on this Win 11 Pro machine with Edge. Same as above. With HW acceleration OFF, the browser fails to even launch in the default sandbox. I get just a white window in a yellow border, which hangs there until I delete the contents of the sandbox (I gave it 15mins to see if it would come right). With HW acceleration ON, the browser will launch and work as expected, except for the invisible "find on page" search box. HW acceleration is enabled in all my Chromium browsers, and Edge is the only one with the "find on page" issue. EDIT can confirm that all my other chromium browsers (Chrome, Brave & Vivaldi) all launch under Sandboxie with HW both on and off on Windows 11.

Just tried launching Edge with HW acceleration OFF on a Win 10 Home machine, and it launches under Sandboxie. (EDIT as do all 6 Win 10 machines here). So this failure to launch with HW acceleration OFF in Edge seems confined to Windows 11, just like the "find on page" issue. Monica here on Wilders was able to reproduce the find on page issue in Edge on a Windows 11 machine too. She has rolled back to 10 though. Not sure how many other Win 11 users there are here to test the launching with HW acceleration off.

Source: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-1-0-1.442616/#post-3055884

[DavidXanatos]

this issue will be resolved using an experimental new feature, to enable it add EnableWin32kHooks=y to your sandboxie ini and reload the driver or reboot.

[isaak654]

this issue will be resolved using an experimental new feature, to enable it add EnableWin32kHooks=y to your sandboxie ini and reload the driver or reboot.

I think EnableWin32kHooks=y should be enabled by default in a later version, people keep complaining about the hardware acceleration issue without reading a damned thing:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/sandboxie-plus-1-0-1.442616/page-3#post-3057464

The limitation about 32 bit applications running on a 64 bit host (mentioned here) will be fixed on 1.0.4.