273004 - Unable to get mouse focus on widgets with CodetTek VirtualDesktop

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Widget: Mac, defect)

Description

[Meg Lauber]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/125.5.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.11
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 0.8, 0.9, 1.0rc1

In all three versions of Thunderbird I have tried (0.8, 0.9, 1.0rc1) I am unable to directly type anything 
into the message header section of the Message Compose window. I can only add email addresses 
through the address book, and I can only input a subject line when I go to send the message, and am 
prompted because the subject line is blank. I am running Mac OS X, 10.3.6 on a 15" Powerbook. I have 
also seen this under OS X versions 10.3.4, 10.3.3 and 10.3.2. 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Launch Thunderbird
2. Click "Write" 
3. Try to type in the "To" "Cc" "Subject" or any other message header fields. 
Actual Results:  
Typed text will only appear in the message body, never in the headers. 

Expected Results:  
I would expect to be able to type in a recipient's email address, and a subject line, as well as directly 
edit other headers like CC and BCC. 

I have been using the default theme, and I have not implemented any scripts, plugins, or major changes 
to the software. I install and set up my account, then try to compose a message.

Comment 1

[Meg Lauber]

Update: I have just replicated this bug in the current release of Thunderbird: 1.0, which was released 
today. Same behavior. 

Comment 2

[Meg Lauber]

I know you guys are busy - still have not heard back about this bug. I would love to use Thunderbird, 
but this bug makes it unusable for me. Am I the only person reporting this error? I have been able to 
replicate it on two Mac systems now, for three revisions of the email client. 

Comment 3

[David :Bienvenu]

do you have any extensions installed? This works for all other users, if I'm
understanding your issue correctly.

Comment 4

[Meg Lauber]

I have no extensions installed, nothing special on my machines. They are both OS X 10.3.7 (and I have 
had this problem since 10.3.2, I believe) and just the plain vanilla Thunderbird install. 

What I do have that may be different is a few programs that make my environment more usable for me. 
Could any of these be the issue? 

- CodeTek Virtual Desktops
- USB Overdrive (to switch mouse buttons for left-hand mousing)
- CodeTek DockExtender
- ShapeShifter (themes for OS X) 

Comment 5

[David :Bienvenu]

I have no idea about those programs (I'm not a mac user). You could also look at
the js console and see if you get any errors when you click in the header fields
(tools | javascript console)

Comment 6

[Meg Lauber]

Ok, I have tried finding a JavaScript console on the Mac version, but I could not find it in the menus nor 
anything on the support site. I also tried deleting all the preferences I had from last time I tried the 
client, and starting again - still no go. This time around, I discovered that I also had problems editing 
fields in the Preferences pane. 

Comment 7

[David :Bienvenu]

there's no Javascript Console menu item in the thundberbird tools menu? It might
be that you installed thunderbird without the javascript console (it's in the
developer options)

But it's sounding like one of your add-ins is messing up the text widget in
thunderbird...you might try asking on the support forums.

Comment 8

[Meg Lauber]

I wish that either of those were the case, but when you install Thunderbird on a Mac, there is no install 
program. You copy over a pre-built binary to your Application folder. Further, I don't have -any- add-
ins installed. This is a completely vanilla, pre-built binary that was downloaded from mozilla.org. 

I have also tried asking on the support forums, and never got a response to the thread. This bug report 
is pretty much my last effort at trying to find out what the devil is going on. I've also done web 
searches, and hunted through preferences, finding nothing. I'd suspect it was a one-off, but I am able 
to replicate the problem on a separate PowerBook, so there's got to be some common thread.

I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I think at this point it might need someone who is familiar 
with OS X. Is there anyone? 

Comment 9

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Meg Lauber:

I'm pretty certain this is some sort of conflict your having.  It's clearly not
widespread.  Nor can I find any evidence of anyone else having the problem.

That doesn't mean it's not real.  And it is a problem.  And we want to fix it...
but we don't see it, so we need more info:

These are likely causes:

- CodeTek Virtual Desktops
- USB Overdrive (to switch mouse buttons for left-hand mousing)
- CodeTek DockExtender
- ShapeShifter (themes for OS X) 

Try removing, or disabling them.  And see if it works correctly.  Then enable 1
at a time, and try.  Until you find the one that is causing the problem.  From
there we can decide where to go next.

These are the most likely cause.  One of them is adversely effecting how your
interacting with widgets in the Interface.

I'm guessing if you install Firefox, you'll have problems with some UI elements
in there as well.

This isn't going to be  Thunderbird bug (99% certain).  I'm guessing it will
fall somewhere in Core.  But we can leave it here for the moment.

Comment 10

[Meg Lauber]

Thanks for the tips... that led me to finding the source of the problem. I'll go
ahead and let you know that I have likewise emailed CodeTek about the issue.
Here's what I found: 

The only conflict is with CodeTek's VirtualDesktop Pro 3.1 (and earlier)

The workaround is: 
 - Log into the machine
 - Start Thunderbird
 - Open a message compose window
 - THEN start VirtualDesktop

If I do things in that order, then it all works just fine. I've emailed CodeTek
support, in case they can do anything to help. Do you have any additional
information I might give them, that would help them track the bug down? 

Thanks for all of the help :)

Comment 11

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Some research shows this is a problem for multiple users:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/14996

The problem appears to be an inability to get mouse focus on widgets when using
Virtual Desktop.

I'm confirming based on several user reports via a google search.  This can be
reproduced by several people all who pinpointed Virtual Desktop.

Comment 12

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

requesting blocking on 1.1

Comment 13

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Is this just a problem with Thunderbird, or do other Mozilla apps on Mac
(FireFox, Mozilla) have similar problems? If it's just Thunderbird, my guess is
that it's some packaging thing, like the lack of any resource fork or something.

Comment 14

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

A quick google search of "virtaldestop, firefox" says firefox is effected too.

For example:
http://www.theappleblog.com/2004/12/13/virtual-desktops/

This seems consistant across XUL apps.

Comment 15

[Meg Lauber]

I received a response from CodeTek almost immediately - they say that they are aware of the issue, that 
it affects both Firebird and Thunderbird, and that they are working with Mozilla on a fix. They had 
hoped that Firebird 1.0 would have included a fix, but it did not. 

As another workaround, someone suggested Desktop Manager, which is a free and open-source virtual 
desktop program for OS X. It is missing some features, but it is a decent little program nonetheless. 

Comment 16

[Mike Polo]

This happens for me too.  I can reproduce it every time.

I thought firefox was buggy.  Now I find that it's quite
nice, I just haven't been able to launch it successfully.

The symptoms when firefox comes up are:
- The menubar is empty except for the Apple symbol and
  Firefox.  File, Edit, View...  are not visible.
- The input fields can not be edited.  You can click
on links on your homepage, but not type in new links.

This is with codetek virtual desktop pro.  Quitting it and
launching firefox ends up with a nice firefox session.
Under virtual desktop pro, firefox is unusable.

the console log is filled with stuff like this:
2005-02-10 21:05:25.974 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4dcfc00 of class NSPathStore2 autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:25.988 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4d44330 of class NSCFNumber autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.566 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x190e180 of class NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.566 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4dcff30 of class NSPathStore2 autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.571 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4df3170 of class NSCFNumber autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.574 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x190e180 of class NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.574 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4d7d5e0 of class NSPathStore2 autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.579 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4deafd0 of class NSCFNumber autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.873 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4d71bb0 of class NSCarbonWindow autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

2005-02-10 21:05:26.951 firefox-bin[463] *** _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object
0x4b5d550 of class NSCarbonWindow autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

Comment 17

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

I'd be happy to hear from anyone at Codetek to help resolve this problem. At
this point, I have no starting points.