313271 - When I am in an open page (regardless of which), if I roll my mouse wheel to scroll quickly either up or down my web page changes to http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMKRR77ESD_0.html

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[rgutierrezg]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920 Firefox/1.0.7 SUSE/1.0.7-0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920 Firefox/1.0.7 SUSE/1.0.7-0.1

Always to that specific page, no other. I have never willingly visited this page
nor does it appear in any of my favorites. I downloaded Deer Park 2 v
1.6a1/Gecko/20051021, your latest nightly build, and I experience the same exact
problem. My mouse is a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical USB ran through a PS2
adapter. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Firefox
2.Open any page
3.Roll my mouse wheel to quickly scroll up or down

Actual Results:  
Page http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMKRR77ESD_0.html opens up, just
as if I had chosen it. Firefox acts normally from that moment on. But if I go to
any other page and quickly scroll again the same thing happens all the time.

Expected Results:  
Just scroll quickly up or down in the original page that I was browsing without
being redirected to ESA.

I have tried finding any other reports of this bug, but cannot find any using
ESA webapge as keyword.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Have you tried reproducing it with a new profile or in the safe mode? 
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder


 

Comment 2

[Elmar Ludwig]

Are you sure that you do not (inadvertently) click with the middle mouse button
(which is the scroll wheel on a wheel mouse) while scrolling?

If you do, you might just be running into bug 135884. You can test this by
temporarily setting "middlemouse.contentLoadURL" to "false" in about:config.

Comment 3

[rgutierrezg]

Attn: Ria Klassen; Elmar Ludwig

Followed your advice, here are the results:

1. RUNNING FIREFOX IN SAFE MODE
The ESA page does not load. I obtain this error message: "The URL is not valid
and cannot be loaded" [OK] So, apparently, it attempts loading it but it cannot.

2. RUNNING FIREFOX UNDER A DIFFERENT PROFILE
This is a clean, brand new profile created just for this purpose. It does NOT
contain any additional plug-ins or themes.
When I quickly scroll up or down my page changes to file:///opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/

This is, I presume, a directory within my own machine. It just gives me a list
(in FTP server fashion) of all the directories and files contained therein.
Firefoz then acts normally once again.

3. I AM SURE THAT I AM NOT PRESSING THE SCROLL WHEEL DOWN WHEN THE PROBLEMS
APPEAR. IN OTHER WORDS, I AM NOT CLICKING WHILE I SCROLL. POSITIVELY.  

Comment 4

[rgutierrezg]

Attn: Elmar Ludwig

I modified the middlemouse.contentLoadURL string of about:config and now I am
not getting the problem. However, I assure you that I am NOT pressing the middle
wheel down while I scroll. 

But, let's assume for the sake of the argument that i was indeed pressing the
wheel, why would Firefox always load that specific page that I had never seen
before, or why would it redirect the browser to a directory within my machine
when a second profile is being used? This is still bizarre behavior.

At any rate, after modifying about:config I consider this problem solved. Let me
know, however, if you need further input from me in this regard.

Comment 5

[Elmar Ludwig]

> I modified the middlemouse.contentLoadURL string of about:config and now I
> am not getting the problem. However, I assure you that I am NOT pressing the
> middle wheel down while I scroll.

All I can say is that this is the only explanation I can offer for this effect.

> why would Firefox always load that specific page that I had never seen before,
> or why would it redirect the browser to a directory within my machine when a
> second profile is being used? This is still bizarre behavior.

Assuming that a click is involved:

Technically a middle click on the content area acts like a clipboard paste into
the location bar. Combined with the default setting to allow web search in the
location bar this means that the current clipboard contents (the X11 selection)
is sent to e.g. Google and the first search result is loaded in the browser.
Depending on the currently selected text (and some browser settings) you are
directed to seemingly random pages on the web...

Bug 96972 and bug 135884 (and there are many more) contain heated discussions
about this. Read them if you really want to learn more about this. Currently,
the only option is to disable this hidden preference.

Unless someone else can reproduce this, the issue will end up as WORKSFORME.

Comment 6

[Elmar Ludwig]

Resolving as WFM per reporters comments.