1345516 - [e10s] navigating from page that loads in the parent process to a page that loads in the child process shows about:blank (white page) and changes the security indicator

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[684sigma]

I have a problem with Firefox Beta 52. It doesn't happen in Firefox ESR 45.
Sometimes navigating from one page to another causes white page flashing (distracting) and generates jumping of elements in location bar.
It happens unpredictably, however, I noticed two specific scenarios when it happens

1. Open http://www.bbc.com/news
2. Navigate from http://www.bbc.com/news to about:preferences and back (click back button in location bar)

Result: when navigating from one page to another, there's a moment when all page becomes white
Expected: new page should just show when it's ready

1. Open about:preferences
2. Navigate from about:preferences to homepage, then to http://example.org. Navigate back (click back button in location bar) twice
3. Navigate forward then back

Result: when navigating from one page to another, there's a moment when all page becomes white. In location bar secure firefox logo with text is replaced for a moment by annoying (i) button, then replaced with secure firefox logo with text.
Expected: new page should just show when it's ready; firefox logo with text in location bar shouldn't change

Comment 1

[:Gijs (he/him)]

I don't think there's a reasonable way of fixing this beyond making more pages load in the child process. At the point where we start the new load, we don't know if it's going to succeed, and we have to swap the docshell over to the new process in order to execute the load, which is what's causing all of this. I guess in theory we could load it in a hidden second docshell and not swap over until the page load has started, but that seems laborious and error-prone, for a usecase as obscure as this one.

So I'm going to suggest WONTFIX. Mike?

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

I don't think there's much we can do easily for the blanking out problem. We might be able to detach the tab progress listener until the flip is complete, and that might address the URL bar issue.