Closed Bug 274631 Opened 20 years ago Closed 18 years ago

Keyboard stops working periodically - have to restart app

Categories

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Keyboard Navigation
Version:
1.5.0.x Branch
Platform:
PowerPC
macOS
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 269207

People

(Reporter: lauramuck, Unassigned)

References

Details

I am running a brand-new Powerbook G4 running OS 10.3.6. I use FireFox all day
long to access webmail.mac.com, which houses my .Mac mail client. Periodically,
regardless of what other apps are running or how long it has been since I
checked mail, the keyboard will stop working.

My "fix" has been to quit the app and relaunch it. 

This doesn't happen using any other app on this computer.

When the aforementioned problem occurs, I can't type anything or use any
keystrokes to do any work. It happens at least once a day, sometimes two or
three times.
If you mean keyboard shortcuts - Cmd-T for new tab, Cmd-W for close, Cnd-D
for bookmark, then I am seeing this, and it has been present since the first
days that Firefox has been on the Mac.

I was working on the basis that it was a problem of low priority.

I have not seen typing, as in typing into a text field, not working; but
sometimes the cursor will blink in a field that does not have focus, so
it is not always possible to be sure whether it is necessary to tab-select
or click-select a field.

I agree that it is intermittent.
(In reply to comment #1)
> If you mean keyboard shortcuts - Cmd-T for new tab, Cmd-W for close, Cnd-D
> for bookmark, then I am seeing this, and it has been present since the first
> days that Firefox has been on the Mac.
> 
> I was working on the basis that it was a problem of low priority.
> 
> I have not seen typing, as in typing into a text field, not working; but
> sometimes the cursor will blink in a field that does not have focus, so
> it is not always possible to be sure whether it is necessary to tab-select
> or click-select a field.
> 
> I agree that it is intermittent.

I see the same problem that the originator is reporting. It is not just
shortcuts, but the entire keyboard, but only for a single Firefox window -
cannot type into any text field, including the URL and search fields. Clicking
has no effect.

My workaround has been to open a new Firefox window using File/New Windows, and
to immediately close it again. This restores correct behaviour in the original
window.

Laura, please confirm this workaround for the problem as you see it. Maybe it
will provide a clue for the problem.


Similar to bug #264815 ?

I have "left clicking while new window popup" mess up keyboard problem.
No doubt about it. I'm a heavy user of SpamCop, and I'll often open dozens of
tabs open at a time (spawning them from Thunderbird.) Then, I'll work my way
through them, submitting reports and pressing Command-W to close tabs.  After
closing several tabs, the command key will stop working, and I have to either
use the GUI button to close the tab, or choose it from the pull-down menu.

Frequently after doing this, the command keys will begin working again.
Tom, are you confirming the whole keyboard not working, or just Cmd combinations
such as Cmd-W? These could be different problems, and this bug is about the whole
keyboard not working, which has been reported by two people so far.

The original report, now three months old, says "periodically, the keyboard will
stop working".

Ideally, a recipe for reproducing the problem - making it no longer 
intermittent - should be produced, which will go a long way to providing the
first step to a fix.
I am having the same trouble as some of the other people here.  (regarding the
keyboard stops working in FireFox).

I have a Macintosh Dual 1Ghz with 1Gig Ram.
Running OS X 10.3.8
FireFox 1.0.1

Every so often, especially if Firefox has been minimized for a while, it will
stop taking ALL keyboard input EXCEPT "quite"

Cmd-T does not work.
I can click on Google link and try to type into the search field and I get
nothing.  Event the cursor is not there.

The ONLY keyboard command I can get to work is Cmd-Q  (to quit)

Once I do that and restart the app, everything is fine.  I guestimate this
happens 2-3 times per 8-10 hours of use.

Firefox is the only app that does that on this machine.

Other than that, great program!

Kick Ass!

-cbmeeks
I posted some information on this in bug #264815
Additional Info below

> From the comments I posted in bug #264815
>
> Mac OS X 10.3.8     
>
> Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107
Firefox/1.0
>
> Keyboard stops working on Mac OS X - on a per window basis - other windows
> remain functional. Seen on any web page with an edit box.  Mostly occurs after
> using Yahoo mail for a while. At some point no text or keyboard commands are
> accepted, and the only work around is to close the window and open a new one. 
> Edit commands are enabled in the menu bar but have no effect, even when text is
> selected.   Haven't tried switching tabs.
>

I noticed that keyboard input is not available in the front window only after
minimizing it into the dock and restoring it to full size.  It happens regularly
but may not happen after only one minimize/restore or when only one window is open.


Seen in 1.0 and 1.0.1
I have characterized this a little better.
Create several windows, and minimize them into the dock.
Make sure there are text edit controls of some sort in the pages you have
selected.  By minimizing and restoring windows in some arbitrary pattern, you
should bet able to get FireFox into a state in which the frontmost window will
not accept keyboard input. Try to have all windows but one minimized into the
dock. By restoring one of the other windows, and then selecting the window
that was not accepting keyboard input, you should then see it start to accept
keyboard input.
(In reply to comment #8)
> Seen in 1.0 and 1.0.1
> I have characterized this a little better.
> Create several windows, and minimize them into the dock.
> Make sure there are text edit controls of some sort in the pages you have
> selected.  By minimizing and restoring windows in some arbitrary pattern, you
> should bet able to get FireFox into a state in which the frontmost window will
> not accept keyboard input. Try to have all windows but one minimized into the
> dock. By restoring one of the other windows, and then selecting the window
> that was not accepting keyboard input, you should then see it start to accept
> keyboard input.

This isn't necessary to cause this bug.  I browse constantly with one window and
many tabs and it happens frequently under those conditions, seemingly at random
when I try to start typing something into a form.

This is also present on Windows -- see Bug 288605.


I've found after reading about this bug that on my iBook (10.4.2), it only
happens when restoring a minimized Firefox window from the dock, at least for
me.  On restoring from the dock, no keyboard input is accepted and one cannot
click any links or input controls (including search bar, address bar, etc) with
the mouse.  Opening a preferences menu and closing it restores functionality.
Currently this says 1.0 branch, but we're also getting reports from later builds, eg bug 315705. Should this be changed?

Also, this breaks a major functionality. Severity = major?


*** Bug 312483 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Is this branch only? Or also reproducible with a trunk build?
Severity: normal → major
Assignee: firefox → nobody
(In reply to comment #13)
> Is this branch only? Or also reproducible with a trunk build?

One of the dupes uses at least the FF 1.5 branch. I've asked the reporter if he can reproduce this with a recent trunk build. See bug 315705 comment 11.

Moving this to keyboard navigation.
Component: General → Keyboard Navigation
QA Contact: general → keyboard.navigation
(In reply to comment #14)
> 
> One of the dupes uses at least the FF 1.5 branch. I've asked the reporter if he
> can reproduce this with a recent trunk build. See bug 315705 comment 11.

I am still seeing this problem as of 1.5RC1

I can consistently restore focus by cmd-tabbing away from firefox and back.  Restarting firefox doesn't appear to be the only workaround.  I'd change the summary to reflect this but apparently bugzilla thinks I'm a terrorist.

My original report (bug #312483) has what I believe to be the minimal testcase.

I went back and tested with earlier releases of firefox.  All the 0.X series up to 0.10.1 did not display this bug, it seems to have been introduced with 1.0.  1.0.7 still has this bug, as does 1.5rc2.  That would appear to narrow down the introduction of this bug to a change made between 2 Oct 2004 and 1 Nov 2004.  Shame the nightlies from back then aren't still up.

I'm a bit discouraged from narrowing it down any further, since lxr is pretty useless for browsing CVS history, and the anoncvs checkout process seems needlessly byzantine.
still broken in 1.5rc3.
still still broken in 1.5.
Flags: blocking1.8.1?
Version: 1.0 Branch → 1.5 Branch
*** Bug 324290 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 325078 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Still broken in 1.5.0.1
I tried to reproduce this using the steps in bug 312483 and comment 8, but it still worked fine.  This was using the trunk code from a few days ago.

If anyone is still seeing this in a nightly trunk build, please try to come up with steps that will reproduce this every time.  That may help us get some traction on this bug.

Thanks!
Comment 8 sounds like bug 294476.  The rest of this bug sounds like bug 269207 - duping to that, since it was opened first.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 269207 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 18 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
The original reporter (Laura) didn't specify a problem with only the toolbar text fields (same as comment #8), so this was probably a dupe of bug 294476, despite later comments, but either way it's a dupe of one or the other bugs or both.  Verifying.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
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