Why does Firefox prompt for system handler when first word in search contains a ':'?
Recently, when I copy and paste an error message to the search box in Firefox and the first word contains a ':', such as when searching for this error message - "MESA-LOADER: failed to open dri: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gbm/dri_gbm.so: cannot open shared object file" - I get the "Open the mesa-loader link with System Handler?" prompt (see screenshot).
I used to be able to copy and paste such an error before into the search box and it would just work but now the browser defaults to thinking you are entering a URL. This could be because when I start typing in the search box, it immediately relocates what I'm typing to the address bar. Maybe this is the behaviour I need to disable? But how and why is it the default?
Help!
Browser details
$ > snap info firefox name: firefox summary: Mozilla Firefox web browser publisher: Mozilla✓ store-url: https://snapcraft.io/firefox contact: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/file-bug-report-or-feature-request-mozilla license: unset description: |
Firefox is a powerful, extensible web browser with support for modern web application technologies.
commands:
- firefox - firefox.geckodriver
snap-id: 3wdHCAVyZEmYsCMFDE9qt92UV8rC8Wdk tracking: latest/stable/ubuntu-24.04 refresh-date: 19 days ago, at 13:56 AEDT channels:
latest/stable: 144.0.2-1 2025-10-29 (7177) 261MB - latest/candidate: 145.0-1 2025-11-04 (7242) 262MB - latest/beta: 145.0b9-1 2025-10-31 (7213) 262MB - latest/edge: 146.0a1 2025-11-05 (7250) 298MB - esr/stable: 140.4.0esr-2 2025-10-14 (7023) 258MB - esr/candidate: 140.5.0esr-1 2025-11-05 (7236) 258MB - esr/beta: ↑ esr/edge: ↑
installed: 144.0-2 (7084) 261MB -
OS Details
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS" NAME="Ubuntu" VERSION_ID="24.04" VERSION="24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat)" VERSION_CODENAME=noble ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/" SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/" PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy" UBUNTU_CODENAME=noble LOGO=ubuntu-logo
由 Anthony 於 修改
所有回覆 (4)
Does your Firefox handle mesa-loader: strings specially, or does anytext: cause the same issue?
On Windows, Firefox will use special handling for novel protocols -- for example, zoommtg:blah?blah -- but usually they need to be predefined in the Windows registry (registered by the relevant application). Other ones typically just get searched.
If mesa-loader is not defined on your system, I'm not sure why Firefox is offering to launch the link externally. Maybe this is a difference between Windows and Linux.
The mesa-loader: text I posted was just an example as that's what reminded me to come post here.
Any string ending with a ':', as long as it's the first string I type with no spaces anywhere before the ':', will trigger this behavior.
Interestingly, I loaded Firefox ESR and I don't see the behavior there. So it must be something I've inadvertently done via loading some plugin/extension.
I'll have to troubleshoot this myself and report back.
If you start both side-by-side, you could open about:config in both browsers and filter using network.protocol-handler. to see whether there is a difference in those settings.