Huge syslog file crashing system

Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS in a minute can produce over 200GB syslog file which fills system partition and in a result it is not possible to start the system. It happened second time in few weeks. Tail result:

    tail syslog
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347543:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347550:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347557:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347564:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347571:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347579:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347586:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347593:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)
Dec 18 23:43:05 apollo update-notifier.desktop[3315]: [20034:20034:0100/000000.347600:ERROR:zygote_linux.cc(247)] Error reading message from browser: Socket operation on non-socket (88)

I do not understand what it means and could not find this exact error

edit1:

Top:

top

top - 17:28:47 up  6:36,  1 user,  load average: 1,58, 3,35, 2,30
Tasks: 317 total,   1 running, 246 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0,6 us,  0,3 sy,  0,0 ni, 99,0 id,  0,0 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
KiB Mem : 16365888 total,  8670196 free,  2479024 used,  5216668 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 19999740 total, 19999740 free,        0 used. 13513508 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                             
10893 art       20   0 1090796 312396 105196 S   4,0  1,9   0:20.10 chrome                                              
 2276 art        9 -11 1960216  12644   9096 S   2,3  0,1   2:42.12 pulseaudio                                          
 2583 art       20   0 1601656 253688 137168 S   1,0  1,6   9:13.19 chrome                                              
 6220 art       20   0  507104 168432 107560 S   1,0  1,0   1:37.60 steam                                               
 2245 art       20   0 4455520 257596  96820 S   0,3  1,6   6:03.80 gnome-shell                                         
 6330 art       20   0 1095892 120104  98220 S   0,3  0,7   0:03.59 steamwebhelper                                      
11213 art       20   0   52568   4308   3604 R   0,3  0,0   0:00.20 top                                                 
    1 root      20   0  225984   9716   6668 S   0,0  0,1   0:09.03 systemd                                             
    2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                            
    4 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0H                                        
    6 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 mm_percpu_wq                                        
    7 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.08 ksoftirqd/0                                         
    8 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:08.14 rcu_sched                                           
    9 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 rcu_bh                                              
   10 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 migration/0                                         
   11 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.02 watchdog/0                                          
   12 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 cpuhp/0                                             
   13 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 cpuhp/1                                             
   14 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.02 watchdog/1                                          
   15 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 migration/1                                         
   16 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.06 ksoftirqd/1                                         
   18 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kworker/1:0H                                        
   19 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 cpuhp/2                                             
   20 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.02 watchdog/2                                          
   21 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 migration/2                                         
   22 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.03 ksoftirqd/2                                         
   24 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 kworker/2:0H                                        
   25 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.00 cpuhp/3                                             
   26 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0,0  0,0   0:00.03 watchdog/3   

I use Chrome Version 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit)

I have 10 Chrome extensions but none of them is called zygote

"Software is up to date"- Ubuntu Software

I do not think I have any Gnome extensions, not sure how to check it

gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.28.3

Chrome active extensions:

- delugesiphon 0.72.5
- Google Docs Offline 1.7
- IP Address and Domain Information 4.0.1.0
- Nano Adblocker 1.0.0.83 - just installed, should not have caused issue
- Nano Defender 15.0.0.81 - just installed
- Tampermonkey 4.7.54 - just installed
- User-Agent Switcher for Google Chrome 1.9.3
- Docs 0.10
- Sheets 1.2
- Slides 0.10

This solved it

ps ax | grep zygote

 62183 tty2     S+     0:00 /opt/brave.com/brave/brave --type=zygote
 62185 tty2     S+     0:00 /opt/brave.com/brave/brave --type=zygote
 62781 pts/9    S+     0:00 grep --color=auto zygote

kill 62183

From the comments...

It looks like Chrome, or one of its extensions that you've installed, are causing your crazy syslog files.

Either:

  1. Temporarily disable ALL Chrome extensions and see if the problem still occurs.

  2. Temporarily run with Firefox and see if the problem still occurs.