Chrome is freezing Ubuntu when opening a tab or restarting

The problem is with Google Chrome v44. You can keep working by starting chrome without gpu acceleration:

google-chrome --disable-gpu

Or by removing chrome and installing the version just before that one:

sudo apt-get remove google-chrome-stable
wget http://mirror.pcbeta.com/google/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/google-chrome-stable_43.0.2357.81-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_43.0.2357.81-1_amd64.deb

This will let you use Chrome until a fix is out.

Note: you cannot disable gpu acceleration from the settings URL, as it will freeze your system immediately:

# DON'T go to (this might crash the system):
chrome://gpu
# or (this will definitely crash the system)
chrome://flags

I have been having the same problem with ubuntu 14.04 and Chrome. I have nvidia geforce gtx 650 graphics card. The problem seems indeed to be Ubuntu's nouveau graphics card driver. The fix for me was to go to System settings -> Software & Updates -> Additional Drivers and choose a proprietary nvidia driver (or which ever card you have) instead of nouveau. This change also seems to have fixed a problem I have had with youtube's media player (may or may not apply to other media players). Fast moving video image in particular used to seem to update in sections with horizontal "fault lines" appearing. It seems to be gone too.

I uninstall Chrome and then deleted all my configuration files, and nothing, got the same problem. This works for me in Ubuntu 14.04 64 bits

google-chrome --disable-gpu