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Firefox 20 can't always select options in an open <select>

  • 10 replies
  • 13 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by SamBlak

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I'm getting a strange behaviour in Firefox 20 that I don't see in Firefox 19, but that I can't really find a source for. It's largely repeatable for me, but it's not easy for me to reproduce in other settings.

In essence, I can end up with a select that I can open, but when I click on an item in the selector, nothing happens. Javascript events don't seem to fire, it's just like the item can't be clicked. Once this happens, I can close and re-open firefox and repeat the behaviour as often as I like on the same drop-down. I was able to reproduce it with a simple test case here: http://jsfiddle.net/codiform/LgvRb/8/

But, strangely, I wasn't able to reproduce it with a local HTML file; not sure if that's relevant, or perhaps I just failed to exactly reproduce the scenario in some way, because it's not clear to me what the trigger is.

If i reload firefox in safe mode or reset firefox (in the --safe-mode dialog), this problem will go away for a bit, but it will come back. I have not yet been able to reproduce this when I don't have the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) plugin installed, but that may simply be because I'm trying to use firefox for GWT development, and when I can't trigger the behavior, I go back to doing development work until I the problem recurs. I don't know for certain that it can or cannot be reproduced without the plugin.

Although now that I think of it, I should try removing the plugin now that the problems back and see if it will make the problem go away again. That won't guarantee that you don't need to install the GWT plugin to make it occur, of course, but it'd be one more piece of data on reproducibility.

I'm getting a strange behaviour in Firefox 20 that I don't see in Firefox 19, but that I can't really find a source for. It's largely repeatable for me, but it's not easy for me to reproduce in other settings. In essence, I can end up with a select that I can open, but when I click on an item in the selector, nothing happens. Javascript events don't seem to fire, it's just like the item can't be clicked. Once this happens, I can close and re-open firefox and repeat the behaviour as often as I like on the same drop-down. I was able to reproduce it with a simple test case here: http://jsfiddle.net/codiform/LgvRb/8/ But, strangely, I wasn't able to reproduce it with a local HTML file; not sure if that's relevant, or perhaps I just failed to exactly reproduce the scenario in some way, because it's not clear to me what the trigger is. If i reload firefox in safe mode or reset firefox (in the --safe-mode dialog), this problem will go away for a bit, but it will come back. I have not yet been able to reproduce this when I don't have the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) plugin installed, but that may simply be because I'm trying to use firefox for GWT development, and when I can't trigger the behavior, I go back to doing development work until I the problem recurs. I don't know for certain that it can or cannot be reproduced without the plugin. Although now that I think of it, I should try removing the plugin now that the problems back and see if it will make the problem go away again. That won't guarantee that you don't need to install the GWT plugin to make it occur, of course, but it'd be one more piece of data on reproducibility.

All Replies (10)

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Problem doesn't go away if I remove the Google Web Toolkit plugin (although I haven't yet been able to reproduce the problem without first installing the plugin).

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Here's the thread on the GWT group as well, in case it's helpful. Someone else is seeing an FF20 regression, although it's unclear if it's related to what I'm seeing. It's not obviously-related anyway.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/google-web-toolkit/rFJv_HOg2jE

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Does this problem still happen in Safe mode?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
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No, as I pointed out in the fourth paragraph above, the problem doesn't occur in safe mode (at least, not right away) nor after 'resetting' firefox in the safe-mode dialog, but it does come back even after the reset if I resume normal activities.

Unfortunately, the only way I know to make the problem recur requires me to have a plugin, so I haven't yet been able to test whether or not the problem would recur in safe mode.

The fact that I can remove the plugin and still experience the problem, once it has recurred, implies to me that it's not specific to that plugin.

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I have the same problem with Firefox 20 on Mac OS X using a MacBook Pro with a Retina display. However, I only experience the inability to click an option in the select widget under certain conditions:

  • an external monitor is connected
  • the window is currently on the Retina display

If I move the window to the external monitor, everything works as expected. Using safe mode or a new profile does not solve the problem. Most importantly, the issue does not appear if I use the Retina display only without an external monitor connected.

I found a workaround by changing the setting gfx.hidpi.enabled to 0 or 1 in about:config. Unfortunately, this disables the Retina display support completely.

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Interestingly, I have a macbook pro with Retina display, I almost always have an external monitor connected, and I usually run Firefox on the Retina display, so this scenario could well be a source for my problems as well.

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I have the same problem, and have for a while now.

Im on Firefox 21.0 right now on my MacBook Pro w Retina. (OSX 10.8.4 fwiw)

Safe mode didnt help. I can click the drop down, but not select an option without hitting my enter key with the desired option selected. (make sense?)

Everything works fine if FF is on my external monitor, tho...

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There's nothing in the FF22 release notes, so I'm guessing this is still not fixed?

It's still irritating.

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After upgrading to Firefox 22.0 the problem did not occur again for me.

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its fixed on my end too! Yay!