664088 - Display flickers when loading/scrolling/mousing the page until focus is changed.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Lowell Anderson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20110608 Firefox/4.0.1 SeaMonkey/2.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20110608 Firefox/4.0.1 SeaMonkey/2.1

I am experiencing an annoying difference with SeaMonkey 2.1 over 2.0.14 (and previous versions).  When 2.1 loads a page, the display may flicker/flutter/flash with wide semi-transparent horizontal bands whence, scrolling or mousing over the page will show the same behavior.  Moreover, the problem persists until focus is changed from the page but, upon returning, the problem is gone.

The exact nature of the problem seems to be page dependent and easily can be seen by loading "ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/".

Perhaps not a bug, but it's very annoying.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Load "ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/"
2.Scroll or mouseover on the page to see the display flicker problem.
3.Change focus to another window/program.
4.Return to page and see the problem is gone.

Actual Results:  
Flickering display until focus is removed from the offending page.

Expected Results:  
No flickering

No flickering

Comment 1

[H. Hofer]

I can confirm this. It also happens on about:addons and other about: pages.

But Firefox 4+ has the same problem on my machine!

Comment 2

[Philip Chee]

Sounds like a graphics card driver problem and/or hardware acceleration.
Go Edit->Preferences
Appearance -> Content.
Uncheck the boxes for hardware acceleration and/or mouse smooth scrolling.
Also try updating the driver for your graphics card (Yes I know Linux drivers are a PITA).

Comment 3

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Sounds like a graphics card driver problem and/or hardware acceleration.
> Go Edit->Preferences
> Appearance -> Content.
> Uncheck the boxes for hardware acceleration and/or mouse smooth scrolling.
> Also try updating the driver for your graphics card (Yes I know Linux
> drivers are a PITA).

I'm on XP and acceleration is not supported for my card. Here's my about:support graphics section:

---- snip ----
  Graphics

        Adapter Description
        Radeon X1650 Series

        Vendor ID
        1002

        Device ID
        71c1

        Adapter RAM
        Unknown

        Adapter Drivers
        ati2dvag

        Driver Version
        8.593.100.0

        Driver Date
        2-10-2010

        Direct2D Enabled
        Blocked on your graphics driver. Try updating your graphics driver to version 10.6 or newer.

        DirectWrite Enabled
        false (0.0.0.0, font cache n/a)

        WebGL Renderer
        Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 10.6 or newer.

        GPU Accelerated Windows
        0/1
---- snip ----

And, BTW, there is no newer driver than that :-(

Comment 4

[Jan]

Hi,

I can confirm the flickering too. But I can't reproduce it in the above mentioned way. Switching on/off the "hardware accelaration" has no effect. I guess that it is something with styled backgrounds (css) in combination with images. But this is only speculation.

Regards, Jan

---
Using: Seamonkey 2.1 on Win7 64.bit

Comment 5

[Antti29]

I confirm this too. It happens on both of my computers, a 32-bit XP and a 64-bit Win7. Hardware acceleration is disabled in both (actually it was really buggy in Win7, but that's a totally different matter). The flickering seems to be quite random, and it happens when I move my mouse around on top of the website. The flickering disappears when I switch to another tab and then back.

Comment 6

[Jan]

Hi,

on Sunday I had some time for more analysis. I can now reproduce the bug on my system. My way:

1. Start Seamonkey
2. Open Plugin-Manager (ctrl+shft+A)
3. Go to "Get Add-Ons" (left side)
4. Open "See all themes and Personas" in a new tab (bottom right)
5. Switch immediately to the new tab if option "Switch to new tabs opened from links" is disabled

Page with available themes is flickering as described above. If I switch to another tab and go back to the suspicious tab, flickering is gone.

Some things I tryed to solve the issue without any noticeable effect:

1.) Using a fresh profile
2.) Switching on / off the cache
3.) Start Seamonkey without plugins
4.) Enable / disable "Appereance > Content > Use smooth scrolling"
5.) Enable / disable "Appereance > Content > Use hardware acceleration available"
6.) Enable / disable "Appereance > Content > Resize large images to fit in the browser window"

Aside: Firefox 4.0.1 works fine. I took a closer look to "about:config" and searched for "rendering". I couldn't see remarkable differences between the config of Firefox and Seamonkey.

So far,
Jan

Comment 7

[Philip Chee]

Strange we use the same graphics and display code as Firefox 4.0.1 so we should see the same problems in both Firefox and SeaMonkey 2.1.

Comment 8

[Jan]

Hi,

I have an idea?! There is no flickering if I use the theme "SeaMonkey Modern 2.1". There is flickering if I use the theme "SeaMonkey Default Theme 2.1". Can anybody confirm this?

Regards, Jan

Comment 9

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Strange we use the same graphics and display code as Firefox 4.0.1 so we
> should see the same problems in both Firefox and SeaMonkey 2.1.

Yes! I do see the same problems in Fx, too.

Comment 11

[hhgygy]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Hi,
> 
> I have an idea?! There is no flickering if I use the theme "SeaMonkey Modern
> 2.1". There is flickering if I use the theme "SeaMonkey Default Theme 2.1".
> Can anybody confirm this?
> 
> Regards, Jan

Yes, it improved greatly in my experience, too !!!

Comment 12

[David E. Ross]

The Default theme -- being the default when installing SeaMonkey -- should not have this problem.  In this case, changing themes is merely a workaround and not a solution.

Comment 13

[Jan]

(In reply to comment #12)
> The Default theme -- being the default when installing SeaMonkey -- should
> not have this problem.  In this case, changing themes is merely a workaround
> and not a solution.

Dear David,

you're completely right. Switching the theme is not a real solution.

By the way "Classic Firefox theme for SeaMonkey" was flickering too in Seamonkey 2.1. I'm not sure but this theme seems to be based on the default theme.

And finally there is another flickering-free theme: Pinball from Johannes Schellen. I can't experience the above mentioned issue, if I you use it with Seamonkey 2.2.

Regards,
Jan

Comment 14

[Jan]

(In reply to comment #13)

Sorry guys, there is a mistake in my last sentence.

Revised: I can't experience the above mentioned issue, if I use it with Seamonkey 2.2.

Regards,
Jan

Comment 15

[Philip Chee]

Can the rest of you confirm that the problem does not affect SeaMonkey 2.2?

Comment 16

[Lowell Anderson]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Can the rest of you confirm that the problem does not affect SeaMonkey 2.2?

I installed Seamonkey 2.2 and went to "ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/" which immediately showed the problem.  I changed focus to a new window and the problem went away.  I was unable to recreate the problem on any other page until, guess what, I went to "this page (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664088)" and, wah-la, it's back.  However, when I logged in to reply to comment #15, the problem went away again.

So, I can confirm it still happens on 2.2 but not to the extent it did on 2.1.

Comment 17

[Lowell Anderson]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Can the rest of you confirm that the problem does not affect SeaMonkey 2.2?

Added note: I can consistently exhibit the problem now on 2.2 by loading "this page (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664088)" and moving either the horizontal or vertical sliders.  Again, the problem goes away if focus is changed from this page and back.

Also, thinking the problem might be related to this page's style, I changed [View; User-Style] to "None" but the problem persists.

Comment 18

[hhgygy]

Let me mention again that it does not flicker at all by me since the theme was set to "Seamonkey Modern".

Comment 19

[hhgygy]

My original problem was with Google Maps. Bug 671306
In Google Earth there is an option to directly go to Google Maps in the browser. When I did that it was terribly blinking for about 5 seconds.
For a test I switched back to Seamonkey Default Theme and it did the flickering.
When I return to Seamonkey Modern Theme, it does not flicker at all.
Could somebody check this on their PC?

Comment 20

[Lowell Anderson]

(In reply to comment #19)
> My original problem was with Google Maps. Bug 671306
> In Google Earth there is an option to directly go to Google Maps in the
> browser. When I did that it was terribly blinking for about 5 seconds.
> For a test I switched back to Seamonkey Default Theme and it did the
> flickering.
> When I return to Seamonkey Modern Theme, it does not flicker at all.
> Could somebody check this on their PC?

When I load "this page" with the "Default Theme" set, I get the flicker;  loading it with the "Modern Theme" set, I don't get the flicker.  While this doesn't prove flickering won't happen with the modern theme, it definitely shows that it does happen with the default theme.

Comment 21

[Lowell Anderson]

For what it's worth, I have found a way to cause a page to flash in Seamonkey 2.2 with the 'Default Theme' on my XPProSP3 system.  It appears related to tabs and how a page is loaded. Would someone please see if they can duplicate this finding?

1. Bring up Seamonkey 2.2 (Default Theme) and load any page
2. Drag any link from the page to the desktop
3. Double click the desktop shortcut link to load the page
4. Move the vertical slider to see the flashing.

The flashing is related to having at least one tab loaded when the new page loads and loading the page via a shortcut either on the desktop or in an email.  I cannot get it to happen when I copy the link to the address bar and load it that way or via a clicked link in a page. Also, the severity of the flashing appears related to the quantity of graphics on the page.

None of the options in 'Preferences' for 'Tabbed Browsing' or 'Link Behavior' seem to matter.

Comment 22

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

Hm. Maybe you could try the following experiment:
1. Start SeaMonkey 2.2 with the Default theme and load any page
2. Under "Edit → Preferences → Browser/Link Behavior", make sure that anything will open a new tab in the current window. (I'm not sure it matters.)
3. Do NOT close SeaMonkey
4. At the cmd.exe command-line or from the "Run Application" taskbar widget, run
      seamonkey -url ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/
(or any page longer than the area between tab bar and status bar) *without* the -no-remote switch, so that it will open in the already running instance. (Depending on your PATH setting, you may perhaps have to invoke SeaMonkey with a full path.)

When the new page opens, drag the scrollbar slider. Do you see flickering? (And I cannot test it myself because I'm not on Windows.)

Comment 23

[hhgygy]

I did what you proposed in both comment 21 and 22. 
I saw no flickering.
Everything is set to open a new tab.
Windows 7 32-bit, Seamonkey 2.2, Modern Theme

Comment 24

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to comment #21 and comment #22)

With SeaMonkey 2.2, default theme (with or without personas active), on XP SP3, I'm getting flickering with both methods.
My graphics configuration is in comment #3 .

Comment 25

[hhgygy]

(In reply to comment #24)
And what about the Modern theme?

Comment 26

[Lowell Anderson]

Re Comment 22.  Thanks for your suggestion.  Based on it, I revisited the problem and have now concluded the following:

0. 'Link Behavior' does matter.  The 'Preferences->Link Behavior->Links from other applications->A new tab in the current window' radio button needs to be selected to ensure the "selected link" (see below) will load into a new tab of the existing Seamonkey 2.2 window.

1. Having set said preferences and 'Default Theme', load any page into Seamonkey 2.2.  (Note to Comment 23, it doesn't seem to happen with 'Modern Theme' under either XP or Win7--see some of the earlier comments.)

2. Then while Seamonkey 2.2 is running, load any 'selected link' using any of the following methods:
   a. Double click a 'selected link' shortcut on the desktop
   b. Double click a 'selected link' in an email (Seamonkey mail)
   c. Double click a .html file (selected link) in a folder
   d. Run "seamonkey -url 'selected link'" in the Run application box
      or at a cmd prompt (appropriate paths set)
   e. "There may be more ways but, --left as an exercise."

Conjecture: When Seamonkey 2.2 (or 2.1) using 'Default Theme' is displaying a page in a tab, and almost any other page is loaded into a new tab in the same window via use of a non-Seamonkey application (a-e), the new page will flash under slider action until focus leaves the page and then returns to it. It doesn't happen when links are loaded with Seamonkey itself.

Can someone verify this conjecture?

NB: I'm not really interested in a workaround but in why Seamonkey 2.2 and 2.1 behaves the way they do with the 'Default Theme'.  Please see Comments 12 and 13.

Comment 27

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to comment #26)
> It doesn't happen when links are loaded with Seamonkey itself.
> 
> Can someone verify this conjecture?

Not completely. It also happens, when opening links from mails and newsgroups and when opening links by middle click, without switching immediately to the new tab.

Comment 28

[BaT]

I did some research, and I found something which could be interesting.

First: Link Behavior is relevant, but every method which opens the link in a new tab (but not in a new window) makes the flickering happen.

Second: I have a graphics card which could be used for hardware acceleration (it's an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450), but it's blacklisted because the driver's version number is too slow, even I'm updating Catalyst regularly. So I force-enabled hardware acceleration (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Blocklisting/Blocked_Graphics_Drivers#How_to_force-enable_blocked_graphics_features), and the flickering has gone. I played with the settings, and I found this: if the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox is checked, and I set layers.acceleration.force-enabled=true or gfx.direct2d.force-enabled=true, flickering won't happen. It doesn't matter that just one, or both settings are set to true.

I know that hardware acceleration is not available for everyone, but maybe this discovery would help to localize the source of the problem.

Comment 29

[H. Hofer]

Could it be that bug 657401 fixed the problem?

Comment 30

[Philip Chee]

if it did then it should also be fixed in the current SeaMonkey nightly trunk build (2.5a)
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/latest-comm-central-trunk/

Comment 31

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to Philip Chee from comment #30)
> if it did then it should also be fixed in the current SeaMonkey nightly
> trunk build (2.5a)

That's why I'm asking: I cannot reproduce the effect anymore since bug 657401 landed...

Comment 32

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

So, people, this is the time to speak up if you can see the problem in SeaMonkey 2.5a1 dated later than 2011-08-12 07:40:43 (otherwise the bug will be closed). I'm not going to test it myself because ATM bug 678637 makes trunk builds dated 2011-08-12 or later non-dogfeedable to me.

Comment 33

[Lowell Anderson]

(In reply to Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec] from comment #32)
> So, people, this is the time to speak up if you can see the problem in
> SeaMonkey 2.5a1 dated later than 2011-08-12 07:40:43 (otherwise the bug will
> be closed). I'm not going to test it myself because ATM bug 678637 makes
> trunk builds dated 2011-08-12 or later non-dogfeedable to me.

My usual ways of causing the problem no longer work in 2.5a1 so it looks like the problem has been fixed at least for Seamonkey: "Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0a1) Gecko/20110815 Firefox/8.0a1 SeaMonkey/2.5a1".

Thanks

Comment 34

[H. Hofer]

(In reply to Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec] from comment #32)
> I'm not going to test it myself because ATM bug 678637 makes
> trunk builds dated 2011-08-12 or later non-dogfeedable to me.

Well I don't know if two reports are sufficient evidence to close this bug.

Even more so now, that the nightlies (and other trunk builds) don't build anymore...

Comment 35

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to H. Hofer from comment #34)
> (In reply to Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec] from comment #32)
> > I'm not going to test it myself because ATM bug 678637 makes
> > trunk builds dated 2011-08-12 or later non-dogfeedable to me.
> 
> Well I don't know if two reports are sufficient evidence to close this bug.
> 
> Even more so now, that the nightlies (and other trunk builds) don't build
> anymore...

"30 orange and 2 burning" at the mo', but nightlies still sometimes get built. The reason I'm temporarily staying with the Aug. 11 build is that, with my ChatZilla settings, I get a crash at ChatZilla startup (in both SeaMonkey and Firefox dated Aug.12 or later). If you don't use ChatZilla you can test the latest SeaMonkey.

I suppose that this bug can stay "temporarily open" for the time being, maybe with a [CLOSEME yyyy-mm-dd DUP 657401] or similar, with some well-chosen date.

Comment 36

[Jan]

Yesterday I upgraded to Seamonkey 2.3.2 and I can not confirm that the bug is fixed. I still have the problem.

Comment 38

[Ed]

It still exists in SM 2.4.1 with WIN XP Pro SP-3

Comment 39

[NoOp]

Confirm that it still exists in 2.4.1:
Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20110928 Firefox/7.0.1 SeaMonkey/2.4.1
Win XP Pro SP-3 running in VMWare Player w/no 3D acceleration. I'll install SM 2.5b1 to see if I can replicate there.

Comment 40

[NoOp]

Considerably better with:
Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20110929 Firefox/8.0 SeaMonkey/2.5
No noticeable flicker that I can detect (same VMWare machine).  In SM 2.4.0 and 2.4.1 I was getting flicker just scrolling up & down this bug report.

I'll continue to run 2.5b1 for awhile & report back if I notice any further flicker. Can anyone else w/Windows please verify with:
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/2.5b1
(Note: I've no issues with SM linux - 2.4 or 2.5 so it seems to be primarily a Windows issue).

Comment 41

[Lowell Anderson]

(In reply to NoOp from comment #40)
> Considerably better with:
> Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20110929
> Firefox/8.0 SeaMonkey/2.5
> No noticeable flicker that I can detect (same VMWare machine).  In SM 2.4.0
> and 2.4.1 I was getting flicker just scrolling up & down this bug report.
> 
> I'll continue to run 2.5b1 for awhile & report back if I notice any further
> flicker. Can anyone else w/Windows please verify with:
> http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/2.5b1
> (Note: I've no issues with SM linux - 2.4 or 2.5 so it seems to be primarily
> a Windows issue).

Until today, I have been using 2.5a1 since 8-15-2011 with no evidence of the flicker problem.  In response to your request, today I installed 2.5b1 and have been unable to cause the flicker.  For me, the problem has been fixed.

I use Seamonkey 99.9+% of the time on XP Pro SP3 with all current updates installed.

Comment 42

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

Based on the previous comments, this poblem seems to have been fixed on Sm 2.5 by the landing on bug 657401. Earlier branches are still affected according to comment #36, #39 and #40.