Closed Bug 1298483 Opened 9 years ago Closed 7 years ago

Firefox Focus Not Working From Mail Link In Thunderbird

Categories

(Core :: Widget: Gtk, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Widget: Gtk
Version:
48 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Linux
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: kitchm, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0 Build ID: 20160728204513 Steps to reproduce: Open Firefox, open Thunderbird, open mail, select hyperlink Actual results: Firefox may open new tab for the link, but focus is not given to Firefox. Expected results: Firefox should have received the focus of the screen.
Works correctly for a while, but then Firefox must be restarted for it to work correctly again.
OS: Unspecified → Linux
Hardware: Unspecified → x86_64
Just to flesh this out, what version of Ubuntu are you using? And can you verify you are using the default window manager for that version? (If you don't know you changed it, you probably are.) I wasn't able to reproduce this immediately, but I'm working specifically in Xubuntu 16.04 with the regular Ubuntu repository packages. [bugday-20160829]
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
I am sorry. I seemed to have missed that. It is Xubuntu 14.04.4. and Xfce appears to be 4.11.
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
Xubuntu 14.04.4, got it. If I open Thunderbird and click on the same link ten times in a row, should I be able to reproduce it at that point? Or does Thunderbird need to be up for awhile? If so, can you characterize "awhile"? Is it ten minutes, an hour, four hours? To ask it another way, is it a matter of just clicking several links? Or is it more a matter of waiting awhile and then clicking a link? One option is to install the Mozilla builds for Thunderbird [1] and Firefox [2] and see if you still experience the problem. That opens the possibility of installing a testing version to see if it makes the problem better or worse. I will mention there are some unresolved bugs for Xubuntu 14.04 with window focus not changing as expected (but not in the context of Thunderbird and Firefox). There is a report on Launchpad [3] as well as Bugzilla for the XFCE project [4]. Are you seeing this problem with anything else? Short version, you would at least want to: 1. Navigate to Settings | Window manager tweaks | Focus 2. Verify "Activate focus stealing prevention" is unchecked [1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installing-thunderbird-linux [2] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfwm4/+bug/1377569 [4] https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11545
At some point during the daily use of the computer, with Firefox and Thunderbird both open all the time, the focus problem pops up. There is no known time frame; especially since the computer could have been idle for a period of time as it has to do with those two programs. The only thing I can add is that they are on separate desktops. I have seen no such problem with any other program within Xfce. "Activate focus stealing prevention" is off and off by default as far as I can tell.
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:51.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/51.0 I have tested your issue on latest Firefox release (v48.0) and latest Nightly (Build ID: 20160831030224) and could not reproduce it. I have a PC setup with 2 monitors. I have tried every combination of windows when opening links from Thunderbird. The PC has also been idle for a few minutes multiple times but the links were correctly opened in the browser Is this still reproducible on your end ? If yes, can you please retest this using latest Nightly build (https://nightly.mozilla.org/) and report back the results ? When doing this, please use a new clean Firefox profile, maybe even safe mode, to eliminate custom settings as a possible cause (https://goo.gl/PNe90E). "
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
Thank you for your efforts. However, I am unclear how to do this in my situation. I use the system continually with my personal profiles running. How would I do what you suggest? Do I have to obtain another computer system? Can I install more than one version of Firefox? Can I run more than one version of Firefox at the same time? Would there be any problem with profiles and their settings?
An ongoing problem with Thunderbird focus is also a problem for me. (See bug number 942610) I periodically have to restart program. I find this solves this issue as well. That "solution" is temporary in any case. I wonder if they are related.
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
I did think to try something else. I started Thunderbird in the same desktop window right after Firefox. Immediately, the focus problem occurred. This has never happened before.
The Firefox/Thunderbird combo is my normal work setup. The only difference is I currently run on Xubuntu 16.04. Today I set up an Xubuntu 14.04 virtual machine and did all my email work there. I used the repository versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. I kept both Firefox and Thunderbird inside the same "workspace", both expanded to fill the workspace. Firefox was usually behind Thunderbird, but throughout the day Firefox never failed to come to the top when I clicked a link in Thunderbird. (I did have to restart Thunderbird once during the day when it reached a point it could not update the IMAP server it was connected to.) In any case, I am completely stumped on how to reproduce this. There is one more thing you might try just to rule out completely any form of strangeness that may have crept into your XFCE configuration or Thunderbird and Firefox profiles: Create a brand new user on your Xubuntu 14.04 box. Login as the new user and set up Thunderbird there. That gives you a brand new desktop configuration and brand new profiles for Thunderbird and Firefox. Do you still see the problem that way?
Setting NI flag based on comment 10.
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
Well, this is hardly definitive, but here's what I did. I logged in as a guest user, started Firefox and then Thunderbird. Got a new e-mail address for this test, and downloaded some mail. Selected some links in Thunderbird, and found that Firefox came right to the foreground as it should. Since this desktop environment only had one desktop, I could not test that. In other words, really plain Jane. Here's the problem with it: I obviously could not take all my mail accounts with me. I did not load up the browser with a lot of tabs. I did not install any add-ons in either program. I did not have my complete mail storage active in T-bird. I did not have my vast bookmarks in F-fox. You know; the things that make computing fun, convenient and productive. My personal impression at this stage is that the programs do no handle large databases of information well. There may be something about their design that is not modular enough to compartmentalize properly as programs should. I know that's sort of nebulous, but I got nothing else. Thanks for the ideas.
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
Due to the fact that the issue is reproducible for the reporter I will assign a component and perhaps there's someone with extensive knowledge on this area that might be able to help here.
Component: Untriaged → Event Handling
Product: Firefox → Core
Karl, do you have any idea what could be going on here?
Component: Event Handling → Widget: Gtk
(sorry, see previous comment)
Flags: needinfo?(karlt)
Running Firefox with NSPR_LOG_MODULES=WidgetFocus:5,timestamp in the environment will provide a log that should indicate whether Firefox is requesting focus for the window with the new tab. Please indicate the time corresponding to opening the link that does not receive focus, so that the relevant portion of the log can be identified. If Firefox is requesting focus, then such problems are often due to bad event or DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID timestamps, but I don't recall whether Firefox actually passes the DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID timestamp to the running instance. XIM is known to send incorrect timestamps that confuse focus, so check with lsof -p <firefox-pid> that im-xim.so is not loaded.
Flags: needinfo?(karlt)
Can you try running like Karl suggests in comment 16?
Flags: needinfo?(tech)
There is an open question for him in the associated issue 942610.
(In reply to KitchM from comment #18) > There is an open question for him in the associated issue bug 942610. regardless of what is going on there, comment 16 is still needed

I can no longer replicate this bug. I have upgraded the OS and have had changes to the program. I will get back to it if the problem returns. Thank you.

Flags: needinfo?(kitchm)

thanks for the update

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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