1687369 - Extra mouse clicks in Firefox, no similar behavior in other apps

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, defect)

Description

[MarjaE]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.14; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/84.0

Steps to reproduce:

I've been using Firefox.

Actual results:

Firefox keeps opening unwanted links, extra copies of links, and extra bookmarks. No other app gives me similar trouble.

If I click on a link to open it, I usually end up with 2 tabs with it. I also end up with a bunch of tabs withother pages I've not clicked links to. If I mouse over the bookmarks toolbar while trying to scroll, I often end up with all the bookmarks in a folder, or an alert about opening 66 tabs which I haven't clicked on either.

This has been going on for several months.

Owing to coordination problems and repetitive strain injuries, I need to use a specialized mouse, vertical, programmable, and with an actual middle button instead of the usual tendon-ripping wheel. I can't replace it every time I start getting these bugs.

Owing to the same, I either need to use page down or scrolling software to navigate pages, and many sites jack one or the other.

Firefox should not require users to replace mice every 2 to 3 years. If you have unusual needs, they can be very expensive.

Expected results:

Firefox should either reduce sensitivity to match other apps, to avoid false mouse clicks, or preferably include options to tweak sensitivity.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.

Comment 2

[Andre Klapper]

Does the problem still happen if you start Firefox in Safe Mode? (Safe Mode disables add-ons, extensions and themes, hardware acceleration and some JavaScript stuff in order to exclude some possible reasons for problems.) See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode

And does this also happen with a new and empty profile? See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems#w_6-create-a-new-firefox-profile

Comment 3

[MarjaE]

Add-Ons disabled: It still happens.

New and empty profile: It would injure me, so I'm not going to test that. bug 1579148.

Comment 4

[MarjaE]

What info do you need?

Comment 5

[Andre Klapper]

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines : Clear steps to reproduce (step by step, including a testcase), what you expected to happen, what happens instead.

Comment 6

[Andre Klapper]

Ah, sorry, please ignore my last comment and see comment 2: Testing with a fresh profile. If that's currently not possible then I'm afraid this will remain stuck. :(

Comment 7

[MarjaE]

Attachment: Screen recording.

I can't figure out a test-case, or test using a new profile without getting hurt, but here is a screen recording. Is there anything I could provide using the console or other loggers?

Comment 8

[Andre Klapper]

Which mouse hardware is this about? How can someone else reproduce? It's hard to fix bugs without being able to reproduce them. :)

I can imagine that this is not an issue in Firefox code itself, but either a broken add-on or a broken mouse or a broken operating system setting...

Comment 9

[MarjaE]

It's a 3-year-old Evoluent Vertical Mouse, with usb connection, with the Evoluent PrefPane, in MacOS 10.14.6. I suspect the mouse's age is part of the problem, but only Firefox has these extra clicks.

Comment 10

[Edgar Chen [:edgar]]

(In reply to MarjaE from comment #7)

I can't figure out a test-case, or test using a new profile without getting hurt, but here is a screen recording. Is there anything I could provide using the console or other loggers?

Is it possible to test Firefox Nightly which should use a different profile? You could download the Nightly from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/#nightly. Thanks.

Comment 11

[MarjaE]

I've had to change settings to stop animation, such as tab loading animations, blinking cursors, autoscrolling, smooth scrolling, cosmetic animations, animated gifs, animated pngs, autoplaying video, etc. A new profile would retain the system Reduce Motion setting, and some Firefox settings which defer to system settings, but would lose the Firefox settings.

Comment 12

[MarjaE]

possible duplicate of bug 782838

similar to bug 702750

Comment 13

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

I'd like to know that when you click in the red-dash-border in the following testcase,
https://d-toybox.com/studio/lib/pointing_device_event_viewer.html

Do you see redundant click (or auxclick, if non-primary button), mousedown or mouseup events? Per a mouse button press, only one set of these events should be fired.

Comment 14

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

And also, could you try the latest driver?
https://evoluent.com/support/download/ (it seems that this is the support page of your mouse.)

It's possible that mouse driver changes some behavior on specific application.

Comment 15

[MarjaE]

I'm having a lot of trouble using that site. The area to click is up top, the results are down below, and scrolling to see the results screws up the results. I can't clear the log using delete, only the clear button on the page.

I think I'm getting 2 sets of pointerdown, mousedown, pointerup, mouseup, auxclick for each middle-button click.

Comment 16

[MarjaE]

Attachment: Mouse Log

Comment 17

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

Thank you for testing it. The 2 sets of mouse button events means that our native widget part receives the native middle mouse button event twice. So, it seems that it's a problem of the mouse driver/utility. Could you check whether our mouse driver is the latest one?

Comment 18

[MarjaE]

I updated it yesterday, so it should be. I can't think of an analogous use of the middle mouse button in other apps.

Comment 19

[John Dai[:jdai]]

(In reply to MarjaE from comment #18)

I updated it yesterday, so it should be. I can't think of an analogous use of the middle mouse button in other apps.

Dear reporter,
After you updated the mouse driver, does the problem still happen?

Comment 20

[MarjaE]

Yes. I switched to a different mouse with a different buggy button. I don't know if there's a way to work around buggy buttons.

Comment 21

[John Dai[:jdai]]

(In reply to MarjaE from comment #20)

Yes. I switched to a different mouse with a different buggy button. I don't know if there's a way to work around buggy buttons.

Dear reporter,
Could you help to check if the Evoluent Mouse Manager configure the default buttons behavior?

Comment 22

[MarjaE]

Yes, it does. At one point I used it to switch left and middle buttons. It doesn't affect the number of clicks detected.

Since this is a software workaround for a hardware issue, a low priority may be appropriate.