Firefox sub-menu initial letter shortcuts don't work in Unity

[JohnWashington]

In Firefox we're used to being able to select a menu (such as Bookmarks or History) with alt+B/H and then type a letter that corresponds with the start of the entry in this sub-menu. This doesn't work in Unity 3D (I haven't checked in 2D, though I will if there's doubt about that).

To be clear: sub-menu shortcuts do still work if they're underlined, e.g. alt+H for help, A for About. I'm used to using Ubuntu 10.10 where the bookmarks (and history) menus work fine as I describe. And in 10.10, if there are several entries with the same initial letter, one can press the key multiple times to cycle through the choices.

Please do not helpfully post klugey workarounds for this problem. I'm well aware I can pick up the mouse and get around the problem.

I assume this is a Unity problem rather than Firefox, but I'll be happy to investigate further if it's needed, provide detailed screenshots or whatever.

I've checked that it exists on Unity 3D and 2D. I've also installed xubuntu-desktop and logged into Xubuntu session. Xubuntu appears to be using the same Firefox (same content in About box) but here Firefox works fine.

By the way, I would have logged this bug several weeks ago, if it were evident how to submit bugs from a browser on another system. I don't run 12.04 myself, I noticed this failure on my wife's PC. It seems strange that I can't submit a bug just by going to bugs.launchpad.net.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: firefox 12.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.38-generic-pae 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: gill 1513 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20120423122624
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xfe600000 irq 53'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0892,1043841b,00100302 HDA:80862805,80862805,00100000'
   Controls : 49
   Simple ctrls : 21
Channel: release
Date: Sat May 26 22:12:26 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.3.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.3.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.3.221 metric 1
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=12.0/20120423122624 (Running)
RfKill:

RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/26/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1104
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P8H67-M PRO
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1104:bd09/26/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP8H67-MPRO:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[candtalan (aeclist)]

With Unity being strongly keyboard centric this type of failing is all the more important. Unity needs to be at least as functional as other environments, not less

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

I've checked that it exists on Unity 3D and 2D. I've also installed xubuntu-desktop and logged into Xubuntu session. Xubuntu appears to be using the same Firefox (same content in About box) but here Firefox works fine.

So I don't think the Bug Bot is correct to change 'affects' to Firefox. I've tried to set this to Unity, but this is not specific enough, so I'll have to leave it to someone who knows better.

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

I've found that in 12.10 Alpha1 I can restore the correct operation by disabling "Global Menu Bar integration 3.2.4pre" add-on (which I never installed, so presumably came as part of 12.04). I don't know whether I'm losing something else as a result of disabling this add-on, but everything seems to work ok.

So it's not a Firefox bug, I'm changing it to globalmenu-extension

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

I've now checked on 12.04 and there I disable "Global Menu Bar integration 3.2.3" add-on. It restores the functionality.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

This is not a limitation of Firefox or globalmenu-extension. This functionality needs to be implemented by whatever renders the menu on screen (which is what actually gets mouse and keyboard events when a menu is open)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

I don't know in what parts of the stack this functionality is missing. I don't even think that Gtk supports this anyway

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

Thanks Chris, but I fear that just marking this 'needs-reassignment' will condemn it to languishing for years.

We agree this is not a Firefox bug, Firefox works fine without globalmenu-extension.

As I understand it, you've provided globalmenu-extension to satisfy requirements given by the Unity designers. But suitable functionality elsewhere doesn't exist to enable you to complete that job. So isn't the next step for you to bounce this off the designers to alert them to a systemic issue?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.