286573 - Synaptics scrolling - again, but with new information

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 20618

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Rui Craveiro]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050225 Firefox/1.0.1

Hi there, yesterday I found out something very curious relating to the infamous
Synaptics bug, and here are the details (PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY -- Who knows
nobody has ever seen these details already?)

- I have an HP Pavilion zt3000 with the latest Synaptics drivers (7.12.2.0).
- Every M$ application works just fine with these drivers (this is not a
provocation, just a way to prove that the burden may not be all at the driver's
side).
- Thunderbird does not scroll with the touchpad's scroll area.
- Firefox does not scroll with the touchpad's scroll area.
- Now, here comes the POSSIBLY NEW AND RELEVANT PIECE OF INFORMATION. Yesterday
I started using a big screen (1280x1024) and all the sudden I found out that
Firefox was scrolling!! What!!?? It scrolls!!?? Then I did some experiments. I
found out that it only scrolled the Window was vertically tall. I found out two
more things, according to my experiments:
  - The size of the Window is not what matters... what matters is the height of
the page area (where HTML is actually displayed). I found this by putting the
window in such a size where scrolling no longer took place, but very close to a
size where it already scrolled. Then I removed the toolbars (increasing the size
of the display area) and I started having scrolling again.
  - The exact threshold is 640 pixels tall. If the HTML display area has less
than 640 pixels, scrolling will not work. It it has more that 640 pixels,
scrolling will work again.

How about that!!?? Is it your problem or Synaptics? I do not know, but since M$
apps work, even if it is the driver's fault, maybe there is a workaround that
really works.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!!

Rui

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox using a big screen and a synaptics touchpad with the latest drivers.
2. Maximize Firefox (with the html presentation area above 640 pixels)
3. See that the touchpad's scrolling feature works
4. Reduce the window so that the html presentation area gets less than 640 pixels.
5. See that the touchpad's scrolling feature stops working.



Expected Results:  
It should scroll whatever the size of the window

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

This is a Synaptics bug.  Their driver is supposed to send specific events to
the app in order to work, but doesn't in all cases.  However, new drivers should
work fine on all Mozilla apps.

MS apps all use very common window types, which is why they work, because
Synaptics supports those.

Comment 2

[Pär Olsson]

Hey,
I have the latest synaptics driver (7.12.7) and vertical scrolling with the
synaptics cpad does not work in firefox. No matter the resolution from what I
have seen. I have sent a bug report to synaptics also.

Cheers!
 Pär

Reproducible: Always

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install latest synaptics drivers (7.12.7)
2. try vertical scrolling in firefox
3. a small picture of a pointer over a scollbar appears where the pointer is,
but no scrolling occurs

Comment 3

[Jo Hermans]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 20618 ***