422148 - Location bar auto-complete dropdown auto-closes when using X11 point-to-select

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Description

[Derek Upham]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b4) Gecko/2008030318 Firefox/3.0b4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b4) Gecko/2008030318 Firefox/3.0b4

Using FF3b4 on top of RHEL5/X11 and a point-to-select policy in the window manager, if the location bar's auto-complete window pops up under the mouse pointer, then the window immediately closes.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Use an X11 window manager that switches focus on entering an exiting a window.  One such window manager is Sawfish.

Make sure that you have a navigation history, so auto-complete has things to complete with.  Verify this by moving the mouse pointer to one of the far corners of the Firefox window, selecting the location bar with Control-L, and entering "www".  Hit escape to get out of the auto-complete.

Now move the mouse just under the location bar (two line heights down should be sufficient) and hit Control-L again.  Enter "www", which is known to have several matches.
Actual Results:  
The location bar does not pop up.  It looks like the autocomplete window is being created, but then destroyed immediately.  This creation/destruction happens too quickly for the eye to see (if at all), but Firefox's window manager frame flickers, indicating that Firefox is losing and regaining focus.

Quickly typing text during this process shows that a fraction of the keyboard events are getting lost, which is consistent with focus jumping back and forth between widgets.



Expected Results:  
The auto-complete window should not disappear.  Note that if the window is created when the mouse is away from it, everything works fine.  In particular, you can then move the mouse over the window and continue with the auto-completion.

This is with Sawfish window manager 1.3.3 on RHEL5, with the focus policy "enter-exit".  That policy changes focus when the mouse enters or exits a window.  Note that when the auto-complete window is up, Firefox maintains focus even if I move the mouse off of Firefox or onto another window.  I have to click outside of the auto-complete window to dismiss it and go back to normal focus.

The Sawfish "click" focus policy works fine; it requires an explicit click to change focus.

The Sawfish "enter-only" focus policy works fine; it only changes focus on entering a window, not leaving.

This suggests that when the auto-complete window first pops up, it is not recognized as being part of Firefox.  The main window loses focus, and Firefox believes that the user has just selected some other window---so it tears down the auto-complete window.  Once the auto-complete window has been fully initialized, this problem goes away.

Comment 1

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

Bulk closing all UNCONFIRMED bugs dealing with places that haven't had any bug activity in over 120 days, have no votes, and are not enhancement requests.

If you are still experiencing this issue in Firefox 3.0 or later, please re-open the bug with steps to reproduce (if they were not part of the original comment).

Comment 2

[Derek Upham]

Reopening.  This is still an issue on

  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4

Comment 3

[Teika Kazura]

I've been suffering from this issue for years, and it still persists for
  Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

But one says it's Gtk+'s widget GtkCompletion's bug.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.10 or later in safe mode or a fresh profile? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

Comment 5

[Derek Upham]

Yes, I am still seeing this problem.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.10) Gecko/20100914 Firefox/3.6.10

Comment 6

[Teika Kazura]

I experience it too on firefox-3.6.10. Thanks for reviewing.

Comment 7

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.