Closed Bug 196308 Opened 21 years ago Closed 21 years ago

Flashing / flickering display when loading / switching windows / tabs / resizing (browser page area / frames / iframes / dropdowns turn black / strange refresh / redraw)

Categories

(Core Graveyard :: Image: Painting, defect)

Product:
Core Graveyard
Component:
Image: Painting
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED

People

(Reporter: fredbezies, Assigned: aaronlev)

References

(
URL
)

Details

(Keywords: regression)

Attachments

(1 file)

Make sure clipchildren properly set for child window
739 bytes, patch
roc
: review+
roc
: superreview+
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030307
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030307

I can see a speedy flash of black then white background when switching windows.

I only see this today.

Is this bug related to patch for bug 181676 ? It would be strange...

By the way, it is very bad for the eyes and every tabbed-browsing addict :-)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Build mozilla with latest CVS patches
2.Load Mozilla and create two tabs and open 2 pages.
3.Switch between them...

Actual Results:  
Background flashing black then white

Expected Results:  
No background flashing.

My about:buildconfig 

Build platform
target
i686-pc-cygwin

Build tools
Compiler 	Version 	Compiler flags
cl 		-TC -W3 -nologo -Gy -Fd$(PDBFILE)
cl 		-TP -W3 -nologo -Gy -Fd$(PDBFILE)

Configure arguments
--enable-calendar --enable-crypto --disable-installer --disable-tests
--disable-debug --enable-optimize --enable-strip --disable-pedantic
--without-system-jpeg --without-system-zlib --enable-extensions
It also happens when opening links in new tabs in the background.  (Without any
actual switching.)  2003030704 / XP.
I just saw the CC: box in this bug render all in black.  (I had to do a reload.)
 It's probably related.
Keywords: regression
Bug also appears in Windows 2000.
Happens on Win98 as well.  It appears to be using existing graphics context to
erase the background -- navigation buttons, URL bar flashes in the background
before the actual HTML content is drawn.
Actually just click on any dropdown to see the flickering. Only occured on
IFRAME:s before (bug 163577 and bug 185202).
Apparently, it's any kind of refresh / rendering at all (perhaps the bug summary
should be tweaked).  I'm going to have to go back to yesterday's build - this is
causing me too much eye-strain.
Bug best seen in Win98SE when hovering with mouse over the window of
downloadmanager, content and chrome. Each time a border is crossed it gives a
black flash.
Went back to 2003030608.

Following comments #4 and #7, moving OS -> All
OS: Windows XP → All
While the number of OSs reported now indicates that this bug is hitting all
Windows platforms, nobody has yet reported an instance of this happening under
MacOS or *nix.  Until we get reports from both of those platforms also we can't
correctly change this to All.  (Having an entry for "All Windows" is being
worked on via bug 9468.  And, yes, there are OSs other than "Windows" that could
be listed for the "PC" platform - I've been through this before...)

-> Windows XP (the original platform - even though, yes, more than XP is being
affected).
OS: All → Windows XP
Hi Jason,

I'm now using Mac OS X build 2003030703 and I can tell you that this build is
not affected by flashing backgrounds.

***
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030307
***
Can anybody running *unix confirm/deny this behaviour?
*** Bug 196330 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The flashing may not be visible on Mac OS X or Unix because of window back
buffering.
aaronl, could this be from your checkin?
I really don't any of my patches caused this. Not sure though, because I can't
make the bug happen on my build.
*** Bug 196348 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I tried backing out aaronl's content id patch, and that fixed it for me. 
I'm going to revert that change and see if the flashing returns just to 
check. I'd take a look at the view change in that patch first, if I had to 
guess.

-> aaronl
Assignee: jdunn → aaronl
testcases:
1. start browser, open downloadbox, move mouse over it.
I did this at work with current nightly 2003030704.

Here tested with yesterdays 2003030608:
no black flashes, but white flashes in this testcase from bug 196357:
2. http://www.foulds2000.freeserve.co.uk/bushv6.htm

This page restarts loading about all 3 seconds.
There is an upper part of the page with a scroller at the right,
and a lower part, about 20% of the page height, without scroller.
At start of nearly every load either the upper or the lower part gets white shortly.

This is a regression to build 1.3

I´ve been looking at 1.3 for some minutes,
and saw white flashes only in the lower part, and only about once or twice a
minute, not all 5 seconds.
*** Bug 196426 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm running WinXP Pro with Mozilla 1.3b and I do not see this bug. I cannot
duplicate it.

I'm using build 2003-03-07-17 on WinXP Pro and I am getting the same buggy
results.  Antime you switch windows, or even go from one webpage to another you
get this on-screen flicker.
However, when I use build 2003-03-06-08 I do not get this result on WinXP PRo.
1.3b had a very annoying window display issues on my W2K system which is cleared
up in this version, however, I am seeing what everyone else here is seeing on
2003030717
*** Bug 196532 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196503 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Also Whe I click by right mouse button on a link on a page with frames, the
screen turns all black instead of some images and stay black until I resize or
restack the window. Sometimes Mozilla after this fully crashes refering to
module xpcom.dll
Flags: blocking1.4a?
I tested some builds and came up with this on WinXP
2003030608-trunk - ok
2003030609-trunk - ok (svg)
2003030704-trunk - broken
2003030708-trunk - broken (svg)
2003-03-09-04-trunk no good on Win2K.  Happens in mail window too.
*** Bug 196502 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196593 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Is anybody here seeing the behaviour I described in comment 2 of this bug, or
that bug 196588 describes?  If so, is that a different bug or a dupe of this one?
*** Bug 196588 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.3?
per comment 11 : i see this behavior on XP Pro SP1 with 2003030904, but NOT on
Linux Mandrake 9.1 RC and nightly from same day. 

per comment 31: i do NOT see the behavior mentioned in comment 2
The 1.3 branch is not affected I believe.
Flags: blocking1.3?
*** Bug 196598 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Severity: major → critical
comment 31: I've seen just about every element black at some point since this
bug started.  I've also seen the entire page go black except for the selection.
*** Bug 196616 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I also see this behavior when a single-line select (ie. combo box) either gains
or loses focus.
*** Bug 196636 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: 196641
*** Bug 196641 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196664 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
See comment #17 before doing too much work. Bug 194968 is the main suspect already.
Attempting to head off more duplicates...
URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/def...
Summary: Flashing display when switching windows. → Flashing / flickering display when loading / switching windows / tabs / resizing (browser page area / frames / iframes / dropdowns turn black / strange refresh / redraw)
*** Bug 196709 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
No longer blocks: 196641
*** Bug 196771 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
aaronl, have you been able to reproduce this bug yet? Can we get some traction
on  this bug soon or backout the offending patch?
I can repro this now, I'm working on it.
*** Bug 196651 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It turns out that the lack of initData means we're a child window.
Creating initData to pass in my parameter gives me a default window type of
child window, but also a default clipchildren of false, which isn't what we're
supposed to have for child windows. That's causing the flickering somehow.
Attachment #116829 - Flags: review?(roc+moz)
How about we just change the constructor for the initdata to do the right thing?
*** Bug 196819 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 196867 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Holy ****, can someone back this out so that I can use the daily builds without
going into epileptic seizures from the constant flashing between pages, in tabs,
etc.

Sorry for the ranting spam, but someone had to say it.
If you read the comments you should have seen that they are working on it. You
can't expect 100% functionality and user experience when running nightlies.
Besides I think it's way better to fix the problem than back out the whole thing.
have you checked the background painting for invalidated client area?
see comment #2 of dup bug 196348.
*** Bug 196909 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
> I think it's way better to fix the problem than back out the whole thing.

I think that this problem is much more apparent than any "problem" that might be
caused by backing out the other fix.  Unless a patch for this is imminent, I
would say that the "better" approach would be to back out the other fix, reopen
that bug, and work on modifying the patch for it it so that it doesn't cause
this problem when checked back in again.

The statement "That's causing the flickering somehow." in comment 50 isn't too
comforting, because while the symptom may be known, the underlying cause still
hasn't been discovered/understood.  All of this is based on the fact that
nothing further has been discovered and simply not commented on here.
The patch fixes the problem by restoring the clipChildren value to what it
normally was for those windows.

So, while I don't understand why that caused flickering, that's just a side
note. It's a mistake to make that value different from what it used to be, and
the patch corrects that.
Attachment #116829 - Flags: superreview+
Attachment #116829 - Flags: review?(roc+moz)
Attachment #116829 - Flags: review+
checked in
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
What I still don't understand is that when I was resizing the window (before
that the patch has been applied), the chrome was refreshed normally but a copy
of it was also appearing in the content area.
I would guess that there is one reflow, that appeared in that bug, that is
unnecessary and that we should suppress.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030311 (1:17 PM)

Still flashing (after patch?) - black areas behind and around. Switching between
two overlapped windows gives a good example (the overlapped area flashes black
several times).

You need to wait until the next available nightly build, compiled AFTER 11:29
PST.  Anything you download now will still be a pre-patched version.  It's only
been checked in - no new build has yet been generated.  (In other words, wait
until tomorrow morning.)
Can a build be forced? I've seen sparatic builds after hours and on weekends,
this patch would warrant a new push   :)

Oh, yeah, btw I'm not just an irrate user, I just want to contribute as much as
possible and just want to try all the daily build to make sure new patch errors
are caught as soon as possible.  I've been following this thread right from the
beginning and I'm well aware of all the hard work that goes into the daily
process of bug tracking and trully appreciate it, thanks for a kick ass effort
and app.

I've already started to research how to use csv and build my own dailies, but
now I just have to set more time aside to figure this out.  If someone could
help me offline with building this for Windows I would really appreciate it.
It is not wise to force the patch, let the maintainers do their own work since
it wouldn't kill us to wait another 1/2 day.  Let the developers and maintainers
use their own available time to do their works.
Well, on my 10 minutes old CVS based build, this eye killer bug is gone. This is
a very good news :-)

Thanks for fixing this painfull bug.
*** Bug 196990 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 197007 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 197012 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 197013 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I can't reproduce this bug with 2003031204-trunk/WinXP.

And I can't reproduced two bugs.
Bug 163577 IFRAMEs flicker when scrolled and when parent window is resized
Bug 185202
iframes flicker when drop-down selects are used

Dup of this bug?
*** Bug 197078 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Confirming this bug has been fixed on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0;
en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030312.

Thanks!
i just downloaded mozilla 1.4, and the flicker appeared again for me.
on a page with an iframe like this:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Browser&format=guided

the flicker appears when you click in the iframe, and then out of the iframe
again. is this happening to me only?
it works for me with build 2003031404 on WinXP
(of course in Comment #74 i meant moz 1.3, sorry for the typo)

to Comment #75:
was there some content in the iframe?
if the iframe has nothing in it, the flicker does not appear for me too. it
appears as soon something is loaded in the iframe.
Flags: blocking1.4a? → blocking1.4a-
verifying fixed (works in 1.4 final on win2k)
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Product: Core → Core Graveyard
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