337281 - cant copy, paste or use arrow keys

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[martin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.3) Gecko/20060426 Firefox/1.5.0.3

Sometimes (especially often when I have just created a new window using CTRL-N) Firefox turns into a weird mode where arrow keys plus several key combinations (including CTRL-C and CTRL-V) are ignored. Typing normal letters etc plus erasing (using backspace) works just fine. This makes it very hard to edit form textboxes and so on. I know this is a subtle report, but it's the best I can do for now. Further, I have concluded that:

1. If Firefox turns into this weird ignore-some-key-combinations mode it can be fixed by selecting another application (by clicking on their entry in the taskbar) and then selecting the bad Firefox instance again and using the mouse to explicitly set focus to the relevant textbox.

2. This problem does not only affect textboxes and so on. Once the weird ignore-keys mode has been entered the same problems are happening in the address textbox (for the page URL) and inside the Google searchbox just to the right of the adressbar.

3. If I end up the weird mode and press CTRL-N, the newly spawned instance of Firefox has the exact same problems (ie it spawns in the weird ignore-keys mode) and if I close the new instance so that I effectively return to the original buggy instance that instance still is affected by the weird ignore-keys mode (applying the trick from #1 will still exit the weird mode though).

4. I unfortunately don't have a way to reprod entering the weird mode but lately it's been happening like atleast 20 times a day. I do very large amounts of Googling as part of my job and I also do I alot of pasting stuff into forms so 20 times per day is for a very very heavy user.

5. These problems existed way before 1.5.0.3 and probably a lot longer.



Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[martin]

I just found this bug (which seems very similar):
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=187083

Comment 2

[Charli Li (winsxs)]

*** Bug 337317 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[martin]

This bug (AFAIK!) has nothing todo with malware
or spyware as suggested here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Clipboard_not_working
Because I run into this problem several times per day
with a clean WinXP (+all patches) and FF 1.5.0.3

Further, this is most likely not even a problem
with the clipboard per se.
If you analyze it carefully enough you will notice
that a lot of other things are broke too. For instance
when CTRL-C and CTRL-V have stopped working is no
longer possible to move the arrow keys left or right
inside a form textbox. Also if you use mouse in the
Edit menu copy/paste will work. My guess is that this
is some kind of keypress issue. Like for instance
if Firefox doesnt exactly know which control has
focus and sends the keypresses to the wrong XUL
widget or something like that.

Because I run into this problem like 20+ times per
day and others seem to never run into this problem
I suspect that it might be a problem with some
javascript or something that I frequently use.
I'm not sure.

However, once the CTRL-C and CTRL-V keys stop working
and you simultaneously cannot move cursor left/right
in form textboxes you will also experience the same
problems in the URL textbox and the top-right Google
searchbox so it's not entirely a bad-html problem
it must be something with FF/ZUL or something too.

Comment 4

[Evan]

The link also states there's a bug that's scheduled to be fixed.  My initial take was the same as yours.

Comment 5

[Mark Pilgrim (inactive)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 172103 ***

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

martin, breifly, is your problem resolved in FF 1.5.0.4? (eg. bug 133439)

Comment 7

[Evan]

I installed 2 beta 1 and I wasn't seeing the error.  I usually do fairly frequently.

Comment 8

[martin]

I spontaneous reaction would be: it's not fixed in FF 1.5.0.4 but i'm not 100% sure because I stopped using mozilla/FF "in production" a while after FF 1.5.0.4 came out so I never got to give it a real thorough testing. Currently i'm using Opera instead. I'm gonna test Bon Echo when it comes out though.

Comment 9

[Evan]

It's still in 1.5.0.4 and the Beta actually.  Seems to happen more when I open a new window with a shortcut than with Ctrl+N.

Comment 10

[brian maniere]

Just confirming this bug still exists in the latest official release (1.5.0.4) and it's really annoying.  I would say it happens to me at least once a day on average.  I found another workaround on the mozillazine forums -- if you hit F1 to set the focus on a new window, the problem goes away once you bring focus back to the original brower window.  I haven't tested this extensively, but it worked just now, the latest time I ran into this bug.

This is a major usability issue that I'm sure turns off a huge number of users, so I hope it gets the prompt attention that it deserves.

See Bug 314683 and many others for probable duplicates.

Crazy thought, but what if the malware was the operating system?  Does this happen on Macs too?

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

do you still see this in FF2?

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

=> WFM Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b2) Gecko/20081125 Firefox/3.1b2

but if you see this using firefox 3 on windows, using a new profile, please comment