628959 - black/transparent Firefox using remote Desktop Connection

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 594407

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[yael.aharon.m]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b9

When I log into my Windows XP machine via remote desktop (from a macbook), I don't see the content of the Firefox window. Instead, I see either a black or transparent windows. 
I think this is related to hardware acceleration, but cannot prove it.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox 4.09b on a Windows XP machine.
2. Install RDP from Microsoft on a macbook
3. Start Firefox on the XP machine and start browsing
4. Connect to the XP machine via RDP.
5. Observe black  windows instead of the content of the browser.
Actual Results:  
See black or transparent windows 

Expected Results:  
Be able to see the content of the Firefox while using RDP.

Comment 1

[Cork]

Try going to about:config and set layers.acceleration.disabled to true
that should disable d2d after a restart of firefox.

See if that makes a difference.

Comment 2

[yael.aharon.m]

I guess I was wrong about the hardware acceleration:( 
After adding the above setting and restarting Firefox, the problem persists.

Comment 3

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Is your Issue reproducible when you disable the Hardware Acceleration via "Options"/"Advanced"/Tab: "General" and restart Firefox?

Comment 4

[yael.aharon.m]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Is your Issue reproducible when you disable the Hardware Acceleration via
> "Options"/"Advanced"/Tab: "General" and restart Firefox?

That did it!
I can now use Firefox via RDP. It was also updated to 4.0b10, but I doubt that the update fixed the issue.

Comment 5

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Please post you Graphics Information you can get via about:support resp. "Help"/"Troubleshooting Information" after you reenabled Hardware Acceleration.

Comment 6

[yael.aharon.m]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Please post you Graphics Information you can get via about:support resp.
> "Help"/"Troubleshooting Information" after you reenabled Hardware Acceleration.

Adapter Description NVIDIA Quadro FX 580
Vendor ID 10deDevice ID0659
Adapter RAM Unknown
Adapter Drivers nv4_disp
Driver Version 6.14.11.9166
Driver Date 10-30-2009
Direct2D Enabled false
DirectWrite Enabled false (0.0.0.0)
WebGL Renderer TransGaming Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (git-devel Jan 21 2011 16:50:39)
GPU Accelerated Windows 0/3

Comment 7

[Ed Avis]

I observed this with 4.0b9 and earlier betas, but it doesn't happen with 4.0b10.  Perhaps the other reporters should check?

Comment 8

[yael.aharon.m]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I observed this with 4.0b9 and earlier betas, but it doesn't happen with
> 4.0b10.  Perhaps the other reporters should check?

Still fails for me with 4.0b10.

Comment 9

[Garfield]

Still fails with 4.0b12.  When I maximize Firefox I see the title bar, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 12. The actual window where the content is to be displayed appears 100% transparent in the remote desktop session.  I can see all the icons on the desktop.

Both machines are running Windows XP professional with SP3.

Comment 10

[anthonydam]

Garfield : Are you using the latest GPU driver available for both machines?

Comment 11

[Chris Dolan]

I see this on Win7 with FF 4.0RC1 and Remote Desktop Connection 2.0 

The browser is all black inside of the visible window border. If I click where I know the "Firefox" title should be, I can see the main menu. But clicking Options, that dialog is black too.

Nvidia Quadro FX 1500, driver 8.17.12.5896.  Windows "Update Driver" says that I'm up to date.

Comment 12

[Chris Dolan]

(oops, hit send too soon).  Remote Desktop Connection 2.0.1 from Mac OS X 10.5.8

Comment 13

[raphael777777]

I get this problem too. I'm using Win XP SP3 for both the computer I'm on and the one I connect to over Remote Desktop. Here's my about:support info:

Adapter Description ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series
Vendor ID 1002
Device ID 94c1
Adapter RAM Unknown
Adapter Drivers ati2dvag
Driver Version 8.821.0.0
Driver Date 1-26-2011
Direct2D Enabled false
DirectWrite Enabled false (0.0.0.0, font cache n/a)
WebGL Renderer Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.541)
GPU Accelerated Windows 1/1 Direct3D 9

Comment 14

[raphael777777]

Just wanted to add that I'm using FF4.0. Also, when I tried the suggestion above re: comment #4:

> Is your Issue reproducible when you disable the Hardware Acceleration via
> "Options"/"Advanced"/Tab: "General" and restart Firefox?

it worked for me as well.

Comment 15

[anthonydam]

Can't be reproduced when using Windows Vista as host running firefox and Windows 7 as RDP guest.

Comment 16

[Chris Dolan]

It's really irritating when people close bugs as WORKSFORME when they're 100% reproducible for others. So, what's the solution? We should all run with Hardware Acceleration turned off (if the browser weren't completely black, maybe I could find the option to turn it off) or we should all use AnthonyDa's computer, since it works for him?  My solution has been to use Chrome when using RDP. I've been a Mozilla user since Netscape 0.9 in 1994 and this is the first true blocker I've experienced in that time.

Comment 17

[u279076]

Bugs are closed WORKSFORME when we cannot reproduce the bug as reported.  Just because it's in a state of RESOLVED does not mean it cannot be REOPENED (that's why we have that status).  I'd be happy to reopen this bug if we can find a guaranteed reproducible scenario where this happens.

Chris, have you tried the suggestion in comment 3? It seems to have worked for others.

Comment 18

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Since this is seems to work with HWA turned off both on WinXP and Win7 someone might think it could be HWA Layers (D3D9/10) related, but Comment 2 does not say so ...

Could others check if just setting layers.acceleration.disabled;true helps instead of disabling HWA in total? Don't forget the Restarts.