1728594 - Firefox 91.0.2 64bit. Some website links will not open in same window.

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: Privacy: Anti-Tracking, defect)

Description

[Matthew Kettle]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0

Steps to reproduce:

Using Firefox 91.0.2 64bit on Windows 10. Some website links will not open in same window.

URL example: https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=bricks

Want to clink on a brick link nothing opens (https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223)

Cleared cache and cookies etc and turned off hardware acceleration and opened Firefox in safe mode still same problem.
Checked Firefox config settings for opening links and all seem OK.
This is annoying as links for some websites need to keep opening link in new window.

Today created a new profile using the about:profiles page.
Tested URL https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=bricks and clicked on link https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223 and it opened OK in same Firefox window.
However after that updated some settings in Firefox
Set custom URL HTML homepage
Send web sites a “Do Not Track” signal that you don’t want to be tracked --> Always
Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed
Do not save Logins and Passwords
History Firefox will --> Never remember history

Restarted Firefox and checked link above again and still cannot click/open link https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223 or https://www.virginactive.co.uk/login by clinking on the hyperlink on webpage.

Please can this be looked into as clicking on a link is essential for a web browser to operate. Would this be fixed in a Firefox update or is it just my profile/settings? All these links used to work on 1-3 previous older versions of Firefox.

Actual results:

Using Firefox 91.0.2 64bit. Some website links will not open in same window.

URL example: https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=bricks

Want to clink on a brick link nothing opens (https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223)

Cleared cache and cookies etc and turned off hardware acceleration and opened Firefox in safe mode still same problem.
Checked Firefox config settings for opening links and all seem OK.
This is annoying as links for some websites need to keep opening link in new window.

Today created a new profile using the about:profiles page.
Tested URL https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=bricks and clicked on link https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223 and it opened OK in same Firefox window.
However after that updated some settings in Firefox
Set custom URL HTML homepage
Send web sites a “Do Not Track” signal that you don’t want to be tracked --> Always
Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed
Do not save Logins and Passwords
History Firefox will --> Never remember history

Restarted Firefox and checked link above again and still cannot click/open link https://www.wickes.co.uk/Marshalls-Red-Perforated-Engineering-Brick---215-x-100-x-65mm/p/252223 or https://www.virginactive.co.uk/login by clinking on the hyperlink on webpage.

Please can this be looked into as clicking on a link is essential for a web browser to operate. Would this be fixed in a Firefox update or is it just my profile/settings? All these links used to work on 1-3 previous older versions of Firefox.

Expected results:

Please can this be looked into as clicking on a link is essential for a web browser to operate. Would this be fixed in a Firefox update or is it just my profile/settings? All these links used to work on 1-3 previous older versions of Firefox.

Comment 1

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

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Graphics' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Mark]

Experiencing the exact same issues.

Comment 3

[Jamie Nicol [:jnicol]]

Hi Matthew, thanks for the bug report. Could you try resetting each of those settings to the default one by one to test which one exactly causes the issue?

Mark, do you have those same settings changed?

Comment 4

[Jamie Nicol [:jnicol]]

Resetting this to untriaged as it seems unlikely to be a graphics issue (I presume the bot saw "hardware acceleration" and sent it this way)

Comment 5

[Marcela (Please NI request to Brindusa Tot)]

Hi!
I was able to reproduce it on latest Nightly version 93.0a1 (2021-09-03)(64-bit) on Windows 10.
I just only set this pref: History Firefox will --> Never remember history (About:preferences#privacy - History > Firefox will)

I've run mozregression and I found this pushlog_URl: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=cd54d705a55dcb037a99b25d89475fba2bafe795&tochange=3b1ecfe6403f101872a49cd1a8e1606c455c4761
I'll change flags accordingly.
Thanks!

Comment 6

[Steven DeTar [:sdetar]]

Glandium, this bug came up in the regression triage meeting today, could this possibly be caused by your push on June 15th in the regression range in Comment 5?

Comment 7

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

I don't think so.

Comment 8

[Matthew Kettle]

Hello All
Not fixed in Firefox upgrade 92.0 (64bit) as you know. Do you have all the info you need to fix the bug in terms of Firefox settings and being able to recreate this bug etc? Cannot wait for this fix! Might be fixed in Firefox 94.0?

Comment 9

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hm... none of the commits in the range from comment 5 looks particularly suspicious... Marcela, are you certain this is the regression range?

Comment 10

[Marcela (Please NI request to Brindusa Tot)]

(In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️) from comment #9)

Hm... none of the commits in the range from comment 5 looks particularly suspicious... Marcela, are you certain this is the regression range?

Yes, I'm certainly. Just in case, I will run it again.

Comment 11

[Marcela (Please NI request to Brindusa Tot)]

Mozregression Bisecting on mozilla-central [2021-03-13 - 2021-09-13]
Push log: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=cd54d705a55dcb037a99b25d89475fba2bafe795&tochange=62ae9b62d18e332ef5670b14e17bcf238c80ec7f

Comment 12

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hey Matthew,

I wonder if this is related to the Enhanced Tracking Protection patch in https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2e82d85e50b4646515359f9938d8c882e66f9d36...

If you click on the shield icon in the URL bar on the broken site, does the panel say that "Enhanced tracking protection is ON" for the site? If so, can you toggle it to off, reload, and see if that fixes it? If so, we can direct this to the WebCompat team.

Comment 13

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Actually, I just reproduced it myself. This definitely seems related to ETP - disabling it on the page causes navigation to work.

Hey twisniewki, any idea what's happening here? A shim problem?

Comment 14

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

(In reply to Marcela from comment #11)

Mozregression Bisecting on mozilla-central [2021-03-13 - 2021-09-13]
Push log: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=cd54d705a55dcb037a99b25d89475fba2bafe795&tochange=62ae9b62d18e332ef5670b14e17bcf238c80ec7f

Thanks, this regression window was critical in finding the right component. Much appreciated.

Comment 15

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

After some digging around, it turns out that gtm.js relies on their dataLayer.push method returning true, otherwise it prevents the default action when tracked links are clicked. I'm very surprised that such breakage hasn't been more widely reported, but the fix is thankfully trivial. I'll attach a patch here ASAP.

Comment 21

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Attachment: Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r?johannh,ksenia

• gpt.js expends dataLayer.push to return true, or it will cancel clicks on the relevant tracked links.

Comment 22

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/105859612c91
fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r=johannh,ksenia,webcompat-reviewers

Comment 24

[Atila Butkovits]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/105859612c91

Comment 26

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

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:twisniewski, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?
If not please set status_beta to wontfix.
If yes, don't forget to request an uplift for the patches in the regressions caused by this fix.

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 28

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Comment on attachment 9241852 [details]
Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r?johannh,ksenia

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Links on many pages will be broken in private browsing mode and when strict ETP is enabled.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: No
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: 1. Open a private browsing window.

2. Visit https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=bricks
3. Click on any product/brick.
4. Confirm that the browser navigates to the brick's page, rather than the link being broken.

• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Trivial patch to a system addon script.
• String changes made/needed:

Comment 29

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Comment on attachment 9241852 [details]
Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r?johannh,ksenia

Low risk fix to a widely reported webcompat issue. Approved for uplift in 93 beta 8, Thanks.

(On a side note, I think that a webcompat bug with 8 duplicates should probably have a higher severity than S3)

Comment 30

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/1c039763cf23

Comment 31

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Seems like we should probably take this on ESR91 as well.

Comment 32

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Comment on attachment 9241852 [details]
Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r?johannh,ksenia

ESR Uplift Approval Request

• If this is not a sec:{high,crit} bug, please state case for ESR consideration: The user impact seems relatively large, and the patch/fix is simple.
• User impact if declined: Links on many pages will be broken in private browsing mode and when strict ETP is enabled.
• Fix Landed on Version: 93
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Trivial patch to a system addon script.
• String or UUID changes made by this patch:

Comment 36

[Alice0775 White]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: some website link does not work if ETP strict or PBM.

Please consider to uplift this to 91esr.

Comment 37

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Reproduced with 93.0a1 (20210901214553) on Windows 10x64 and STR from comment 28.
Verified fixed with Firefox 93.0b8 (20210921185902) and 94.0a1 (20210922094736) on Windows 10x64, macOS 10.15 and Ubuntu 21.04.

Comment 38

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Comment on attachment 9241852 [details]
Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable; r?johannh,ksenia

Approved for 91.2esr.

Comment 39

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-esr91/rev/8a0abab0ed6b

Comment 40

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Verified fixed with Firefox 91.2.0esr (20210923162219) using STR from comment 28 on Windows 10x64, macOS 10.15 and Ubuntu 21.0.4.

Comment 41

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/66f965de72a8
[components] Bug 1728594 - fix a SmartBlock regression which causes some site links to not be clickable