445215 - [10.4] Drop down menus flicker over Flash content

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Christopher Baldock]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061004 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061004 Firefox/3.0

Simply put, drop down menu's flicker over Flash content in Firefox 3! (Even with the proper Wmode parameters.) This was not a problem in FF2 and has only arisen within the new version. I have noticed the same problem on Toyota.com, Adobe.com and Youtube.com and is clearly a major error. The link I have included is to a test page of a project I am working on.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to Toyota.com or Adobe.com and look at what happens when the menu drops down over flash. It is not as noticeable on some of the Adobe index pages. The best one to see it on is the "dark gray" index page. (Keep refreshing to reach this.)
Actual Results:  
Terrible menu flickering and sometimes actual menu disappearance.

Expected Results:  
No menu flickering over flash content.

I am not sure how between FF2 and FF3 this problem has arisen. Everything was working just fine before. I have listed this as a major problem since it is very damaging to a website's credibility and could easily turn potential clients away from a site. Fixing this should be of utmost importance.

Comment 1

[Hasham]

Seems to WFM, on the given URL and toyota.com. I reloaded a couple of times as indicated and still the drop-down menu was clear. Please try this in FF safe-mode and see if this occurs. 

Comment 2

[Christopher Baldock]

I ran Firefox in safe mode and the same error still appears on all of the aforementioned sites. I believe from looking around online that this error occurs only with the Mac edition of FF3 and not the PC edition. I have checked it on multiple systems in the studio and the same problem is apparent on all websites mentioned and on all machines tested.

Comment 3

[Hasham]

Sorry to bother you again, but could you check if you have the latest version of flash installed (r124)? 

Comment 4

[Christopher Baldock]

I checked my Flash version (which was current) but re-installed the latest anyway just in case. The same flickering menu problem still persists however.

Comment 5

[Christopher Baldock]

As another reference, a colleague in the studio noticed it happening on "YouTube" also. In this case, it happens when the search bar is typed into causing it to drop down with possible choices - however, rolling over these choices since they are displayed over Flash causes the same undesirable flickering effect.

Comment 6

[Craig]

I encounter the same problem on:
Mac OSX 10.5 Power PC using Firefox 3 with window mode="transparent"

I cannot duplicate with:

Windows
======
IE6
IE7 
Safari
Firefox 2
Firefox 3

OS X
======
Safari 3
Firefox 2
Firefox 3 (Intel Only)

So this issue seems to be directly related to the Power PC build of the Flash Plugin for the firefox 3 browser

Comment 7

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

If this is a Firefox issue, seems like it's in the Plugin code.

Comment 8

[Christopher Baldock]

So are you Mozilla folks any closer to adding a fix for this in a future update? I've stopped using Firefox altogether since the version 3 update (I experience the problem on ALOT of sites.) Unfortunately for me, my manager uses Firefox and the problem affects her constantly - makes my life a misery since it only occurs through a very specific set-up. The problem is not visible to PC users or Leopard users but really needs to be solved! A search on Google will find a slew of people with the same problem. I'm surprised Adobe isn't all over you about it.

Comment 9

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

It would be helpful if there were a reduced testcase for this attached to the bug, or even just a testcase that wasn't 404.

Comment 10

[Christopher Baldock]

Sorry about the 404  - the link on this page is fixed. I really think that this whole thing is ridiculous - the fact that something can work fine in one version and then completely fail in a newer version is beyond me. I really hope that the folks at Mozilla can find a solution to this problem soon.

Comment 11

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

It's awfully difficult for anyone to find a solution when no one can duplicate the problem.

I don't see this at all in Camino trunk (equivalent to Firefox 3) on PPC with OS X 10.5 and Flash 10. Maybe it's 10.4-only?

Comment 12

[Christopher Baldock]

Indeed - this problem is very specific to system parameters (10.4 only is correct) so yes, it is difficult to replicate. That does not change the fact however that every Mac running in our offices has the same problem in FF3 so it can be taken for granted that plenty of end users are having problems too. Luckily, this number is not substantial but it would still be great to find a fix.

Comment 13

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I don't have 10.4 around any more, but I know a couple of people who do and who might be able to look into this further.

This also sounds a lot like bug 448278, which was in turn marked as a duplicate of bug 334321 (which itself may actually be multiple bugs).

Comment 14

[Christopher Baldock]

Ah-ha! Yes, both of those cases sound similar. Excellent - So what next? I am dying for a solution to this.

Comment 15

[aravindm]

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.3a4) Gecko/20100407 MozillaDeveloperPreview/3.7a4                   
WFM. Please update if you are able to still reproduce with the latest nightly build  ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 16

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

Closing since now after whiteboard closeme date and no reply to last comment.

Please reopen/comment with further info, if you still see this issue with Firefox 3.6.13 or later, with a clean profile and the latest version of the plugin.

If you wish, you can also try to reproduce in Firefox 4 Beta 8 or later:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html