1044513 - Firefox shows empty black window, unless using safe mode

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Attachment: ff_blank_screen.png

I am currently running Aurora channel.  As of v33, Firefox starts up to an empty black window as shown in the attached screenshot.

Nightly also shows this behaviour; stable release Firefox does not.

The UI apparently works if I can intuit where the various controls are supposed to be - for example the cursor changes from an arrow to the text-entry "I" icon if I hover over where the search box would be on the home screen.

If I launch Firefox in Safe Mode then everything works fine.  However, I have no addons or themes installed, and no plugins apart from the new "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems" which I assume is there by default and which I can't figure out how to remove.

I've tried the following, with no change in behaviour:

  * Resetting my profile using the button in the "start in safe mode" window
  * Deleting my profile and starting again from scratch
  * Uninstalling and re-installing Aurora

So it smells like a funny interaction with something else on my machine.  What should I do next to help track this down?

Comment 1

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Raw data from the "troubleshooting info" page:

{
  "application": {
    "name": "Firefox",
    "version": "33.0a2",
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:33.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/33.0",
    "supportURL": "https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/33.0a2/WINNT/en-US/",
    "numTotalWindows": 1,
    "numRemoteWindows": 0
  },
  "crashes": {
    "submitted": [],
    "pending": 1
  },
  "modifiedPreferences": {
    "browser.cache.disk.capacity": 358400,
    "browser.cache.frecency_experiment": 3,
    "browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion": 7,
    "browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone": "33.0a2",
    "browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID": "20140726004002",
    "extensions.lastAppVersion": "33.0a2",
    "gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx": 0,
    "network.cookie.prefsMigrated": true,
    "places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages": 104858,
    "places.database.lastMaintenance": 1406432407,
    "plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types": "application/pdf",
    "privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs": true
  },
  "lockedPreferences": {},
  "graphics": {
    "numTotalWindows": 1,
    "numAcceleratedWindows": 0,
    "windowLayerManagerType": "Basic",
    "windowLayerManagerRemote": true,
    "numAcceleratedWindowsMessage": [
      ""
    ],
    "adapterDescription": "Intel(R) HD Graphics Family",
    "adapterVendorID": "0x8086",
    "adapterDeviceID": "0x0126",
    "adapterRAM": "Unknown",
    "adapterDrivers": "igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32",
    "driverVersion": "8.15.10.2321",
    "driverDate": "3-6-2011",
    "adapterDescription2": "NVIDIA NVS 4200M   ",
    "adapterVendorID2": "0x10de",
    "adapterDeviceID2": "0x1056",
    "adapterRAM2": "1024",
    "adapterDrivers2": "nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um",
    "driverVersion2": "9.18.13.1100",
    "driverDate2": "1-10-2013",
    "isGPU2Active": false,
    "direct2DEnabled": false,
    "directWriteEnabled": false,
    "directWriteVersion": "6.2.9200.16571",
    "direct2DEnabledMessage": [
      ""
    ],
    "webglRenderer": "Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)",
    "info": {
      "AzureCanvasBackend": "skia",
      "AzureSkiaAccelerated": 0,
      "AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "cairo",
      "AzureContentBackend": "cairo"
    }
  },
  "javaScript": {
    "incrementalGCEnabled": true
  },
  "accessibility": {
    "isActive": false,
    "forceDisabled": 0
  },
  "libraryVersions": {
    "NSPR": {
      "minVersion": "4.10.7 Beta",
      "version": "4.10.7 Beta"
    },
    "NSS": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    },
    "NSSUTIL": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Beta"
    },
    "NSSSSL": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    },
    "NSSSMIME": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    }
  },
  "userJS": {
    "exists": false
  },
  "extensions": [],
  "experiments": []
}

Comment 2

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Looks like an Optimus dual GPU system.
What about updating both GPU's drivers to recent one?
Do you run Firefox against the Intel or the NVidia GPU? Does that make a difference?

Comment 3

[matcheydj]

What about hardware acceleration in the browser? I'd try changing 

"numAcceleratedWindows": 0, 
to 
"numAcceleratedWindows": 1,

just to match the number of windows.

Comment 4

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

> What about updating both GPU's drivers to recent one?

Updating the optimus drivers seems to have done the trick, thanks for the suggestion!  Things are working again now in both Aurora and Nightly.  Posting my updated "troubleshooting information" in case the diff turns out to be helpful to anyone else:

{
  "application": {
    "name": "Firefox",
    "version": "33.0a2",
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:33.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/33.0",
    "supportURL": "https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/33.0a2/WINNT/en-US/",
    "numTotalWindows": 1,
    "numRemoteWindows": 0
  },
  "crashes": {
    "submitted": [],
    "pending": 0
  },
  "modifiedPreferences": {
    "accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar": 0,
    "browser.cache.disk.capacity": 358400,
    "browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run": false,
    "browser.cache.frecency_experiment": 3,
    "browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion": 7,
    "browser.search.useDBForOrder": true,
    "browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID": "20140726004002",
    "browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone": "33.0a2",
    "browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID": "20140726004002",
    "dom.mozApps.used": true,
    "extensions.lastAppVersion": "33.0a2",
    "gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx": 0,
    "media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate": 1406616954,
    "media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version": "1.0",
    "media.gmp-gmpopenh264.path": "C:\\Users\\rfk\\AppData\\Roaming\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\2crjm6ah.Default User\\gmp-gmpopenh264",
    "media.gmp-manager.lastCheck": 1406616952,
    "network.cookie.prefsMigrated": true,
    "places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages": 104858,
    "places.database.lastMaintenance": 1406546020,
    "plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types": "application/pdf",
    "plugin.importedState": true,
    "plugins.notifyMissingFlash": false,
    "privacy.donottrackheader.enabled": true,
    "privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs": true,
    "storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite": 1406433897,
    "storage.vacuum.last.index": 1
  },
  "lockedPreferences": {},
  "graphics": {
    "numTotalWindows": 1,
    "numAcceleratedWindows": 1,
    "windowLayerManagerType": "Direct3D 11",
    "windowLayerManagerRemote": true,
    "adapterDescription": "Intel(R) HD Graphics Family",
    "adapterVendorID": "0x8086",
    "adapterDeviceID": "0x0126",
    "adapterRAM": "Unknown",
    "adapterDrivers": "igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32",
    "driverVersion": "8.15.10.2538",
    "driverDate": "9-26-2011",
    "adapterDescription2": "NVIDIA NVS 4200M   ",
    "adapterVendorID2": "0x10de",
    "adapterDeviceID2": "0x1056",
    "adapterRAM2": "1024",
    "adapterDrivers2": "nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um",
    "driverVersion2": "9.18.13.1269",
    "driverDate2": "10-28-2013",
    "isGPU2Active": false,
    "direct2DEnabled": true,
    "directWriteEnabled": true,
    "directWriteVersion": "6.2.9200.16571",
    "webglRenderer": "Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)",
    "info": {
      "AzureCanvasBackend": "direct2d",
      "AzureSkiaAccelerated": 0,
      "AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "cairo",
      "AzureContentBackend": "direct2d"
    }
  },
  "javaScript": {
    "incrementalGCEnabled": true
  },
  "accessibility": {
    "isActive": false,
    "forceDisabled": 0
  },
  "libraryVersions": {
    "NSPR": {
      "minVersion": "4.10.7 Beta",
      "version": "4.10.7 Beta"
    },
    "NSS": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    },
    "NSSUTIL": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Beta"
    },
    "NSSSSL": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    },
    "NSSSMIME": {
      "minVersion": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta",
      "version": "3.17 Basic ECC Beta"
    }
  },
  "userJS": {
    "exists": false
  },
  "extensions": [
    {
      "name": "BugzillaJS",
      "version": "3.2.1",
      "isActive": true,
      "id": "jid0-NgMDcEu2B88AbzZ6ulHodW9sJzA@jetpack"
    },
    {
      "name": "DuckDuckGo Plus",
      "version": "0.4.2",
      "isActive": true,
      "id": "jid1-ZAdIEUB7XOzOJw@jetpack"
    },
    {
      "name": "Certificate Patrol",
      "version": "2.0.14",
      "isActive": false,
      "id": "[e-mail]"
    },
    {
      "name": "Firebug",
      "version": "2.0.2",
      "isActive": false,
      "id": "[e-mail]"
    }
  ],
  "experiments": [
    {
      "id": "[e-mail]",
      "name": "OOPP container unload timeout tester",
      "description": "An experiment using branches to set a value for dom.ipc.plugins.unloadTimeoutSecs preference (see bug 1018200).",
      "active": false,
      "endDate": 1406616647410,
      "detailURL": "",
      "branch": "60"
    }
  ]
}

Comment 5

[Mardeg]

Should that resolution be WORKSFORME?

Comment 6

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Yes.