1087865 - Import Wizard hangs on install. All windows look funky after that

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1083071

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Jerry]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2125.104 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Uninstalled Firefox, then reinstalled.


Actual results:

On reinstall, the import wizard hangs, and all the windows look funky, having window edges, but no contents, like this:

http://i.imgur.com/Cn7xpPH.png

cpu usage normal:

http://i.imgur.com/5jSxyGj.png

If I close the import wizard weird stuff happens to the windows

http://i.imgur.com/DDEUIEF.png
http://i.imgur.com/zPGdsgU.png







Expected results:

Peace on earth, good will towards men

Comment 1

[Loic]

It's an issue about OMTC introduced in FF33.

You have 2 solutions:

1) updating your outdated drivers (surely Intel), open about:support and check the section "graphics" to have info (could you paste the details here, it would help for Mozilla devs)

2) starting Firefox in safe mode from Windows (Run > firefox.exe -safe-mode) then typing about:config and layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled=false (restart)

Comment 2

[Jerry]

Thanks for the swift response!

Can you expand on this a bit?  It is true, on my laptop, the nvidia drivers are out of date -- last time it offered to update them, it wedged my laptop for a day before I recovered it.

Regardless, they are only a year or so out of date, AND their age seems to affect ABSOLUTELY no other program I run, SO why and how is Firefox busted on a 3 year old laptop?

In short, I AM NOT ABOUT to update drivers on a 3 year old laptop. It won't happen, not after nvidia screwed me over the last time, but I do not think 3 year old drivers should be causing any programs any problems.

Though I will try setting layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled=false -- what will that do to performance?

And if you could, what is OMTC?

Thanks again for the quick response

Comment 3

[Loic]

Type about:support and paste the "graphics" section here, please.

Comment 4

[Jerry]

While running in safe mode....

Graphics

Adapter Description	Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Adapter Description (GPU #2)	NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M
Adapter Drivers	igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32
Adapter Drivers (GPU #2)	nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Adapter RAM	Unknown
Adapter RAM (GPU #2)	1024
ClearType Parameters	Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 50
Device ID	0x0116
Device ID (GPU #2)	0x0df5
DirectWrite Enabled	false (6.2.9200.16571)
Driver Date	11-28-2010
Driver Date (GPU #2)	3-4-2014
Driver Version	8.15.10.2253
Driver Version (GPU #2)	9.18.13.3523
GPU #2 Active	false
GPU Accelerated Windows	0/1 Basic (OMTC)
Vendor ID	0x8086
Vendor ID (GPU #2)	0x10de
WebGL Renderer	Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote	true
AzureCanvasBackend	skia
AzureContentBackend	cairo
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend	cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated	0

Comment 5

[Loic]

The issue is not about Nvidia but Intel drivers that are outdated (11-28-2010).
You need to update to the latest ones:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23764&lang=eng&ProdId=3319

Then you will not need to disable OMTC, it will be resolved automatically by restarting FF.

Comment 6

[Jerry]

Thanks for your help, I will look into updating the intel drivers.

(Sadly, intel and nvidia being about the same quality wise, when I ran the Intel "gfxui" to see what state their driver is in, it gives me this:

http://i.imgur.com/BD4J2gb.png

which perhaps explains why I hesitate to ever touch anything on this laptop labeled intel or nvidia having to do with graphics.)

Anyway, thanks again

Comment 7

[Loic]

It's an issue easy to fix: http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/77463-gfxui-has-stopped-working.html
Not a blocker to continue to install Intel drivers.

Comment 8

[Jerry]

Thank you for that too, at the risk of my ongoing whining, I earlier visited the intel site for the new driver, then, 

+ in Chrome, ran their java driver detection and update software to figure out precise which driver needed fixing, that utility failed

http://i.imgur.com/Jx0afbb.png

suggesting I may not have the latest version of Java, which I do have
http://i.imgur.com/H6sePDY.png

Then suggesting I try in IE

+ in IE, ran their activex driver detection and update software to figure out precise which driver needed fixing, that utility found a wireless driver to update, and that was all.

It did find all sorts of nvidia drivers which it warned me about
"Graphics Driver  

Product Detected  NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M  
Current Driver Installed  9.18.13.3523  
This device is unknown or unsupported. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates "

But somehow never seems to find the Intel HD Graphics driver that actually needs updating.

The page at sevenforums you sent me to 

+ sends me to tweakbit, I ain't loading a third party driver for a laptop, I'd prefer drivers coming from Dell's site, and maybe utilities from Intel or Nvidia, but I'd smoke crack cocaine before downloading graphics drivers from "tweakbit". Oh, yeah, the problem with the utility seems to be a .NET problem.

WTF?

So today to get Firefox running, I have been urged to

1) Update Intel Drivers, but no one can say for sure which
2) Update Java from version 8.20 to 8.25
3) Load ActiveX on IE
4) do something mysterious to .NET
5) load drivers from some mystery website

And all this on a laptop which runs just fine without jerking off and **** all over its brains the way some of our industry leaders think I should.

Seriously, I've been writing software for 30 years, and I have nothing but contempt for what our various industry leaders do to us. Their CTOs and CFOs should be lined up against a wall.

Anyway, thanks for your help

Comment 9

[Loic]

Honestly, you don't need these detection tools. Just grab the OEM drivers releases by Intel on their website, that's all. If you need the model version of your Intel Graphics card, check the Open Device Manager in Windows (http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000833.htm) to get the model name.

Comment 10

[Jerry]

Sigh.

Yeah, I tried that too. Brought down the intel drivers for the Intel HD Graphics 3000, 64 bit, "installed" them, black screen of nothingness. The abyss.

I'll hack on machines all day long, but not if I don't have a rescue machine next to me and not if I'm trying to get something done.

Luckily, this machine came back up after a reboot, with the old driver still installed.

I'm going to call it a day here and declare victory that the machine is basically running, even if FF is not running optimally. 

The state of our industry is abysmal at the best of times, it's compounded 20-fold laptops.

Thanks, best wishes.