Tiny firefox window at top-left of screen

[Alex Fraser]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

After running firefox for a while, a tiny window appears at the top-left corner of the screen. xprop shows that it's related to firefox, but other than that I don't know what it does. It's only one pixel wide. It captures mouse events (they don't get passed on to nautilus) but doesn't respond to them. It seems to have no window decoration.

I don't know what triggers it but I'll try to find out. Note that you'll only see it if your panel is not placed along the top or left of the screen (mine is on the right).

Versions:
Ubuntu: 8.04
firefox-3.0: 3.0~b4+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
xserver-xorg: 1:7.3+10ubuntu7
libgtk2.0-0: 2.12.9-2ubuntu2
flashplugin-nonfree: 9.0.115.0ubuntu4

[Fabien Tassin (fta)]

Did it appear just after an upgrade ?
We have a desktop notification asking users to restart firefox when it has been upgraded.

[Joseph Piché (josephpiche)]

Thank you for the bug report. Could you please try running Firefox with a new profile as described on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs. This will greatly aid us in tracking down the problem.

[Alex Fraser (alex-phatcore)]

I think it's actually a bug in Flash. It only occurs when I visit sites with flash, but then it hangs around until I close the browser. It happens in both Firefox 2 and 3. I guess I just didn't notice it before because my GNOME panel was in the way.

[Alex Fraser (alex-phatcore)]

When viewing http://youtube.com with flashplugin-nonfree installed, the tiny window appears. After uninstalling flashplugin-nonfree, restarting firefox and browsing to YouTube, the window doesn't appear. In Firefox 2, the window doesn't appear if mozilla-plugin-gnash is install instead of flashplugin-nonfree. I haven't tested gnash in Firefox 3 yet because it only installs into Firefox 2 (I'll raise a separate issue about that).

Using a fresh profile has no effect.

Versions:
mozilla-plugin-gnash: 0.8.2-0ubuntu2
firefox-2: 2.0.0.13+1nobinonly-0ubuntu1

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

Each time a flash video is encountered, the shadow that compiz draws around this window gets darker and darker. While I cannot be sure, I can only assume this means that each time a flash video is encountered another tiny window is created.

This window is more than aesthetically irritating, as it eliminates the association of my top-left corner to the "Applications" menu.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Does this bug change if compiz is enabled or disabled or its seen either way?
Is this reproducible using flashplugin-nonfree version 9.0.124.0ubuntu2 with firefox-3.0 b5?

[Alex Fraser (alex-phatcore)]

The bug is still present using:
flashplugin-nonfree: 9.0.124.0ubuntu2
firefox-3.0: 3.0~b5+nobinonly-0ubuntu3

I don't use compiz.

[Alex Fraser (alex-phatcore)]

I just tried it with and without compiz (restarting the browser each time). The tiny window appears in both situations, but it's more obvious with compiz running because of the shadow.

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

Whether in a Gnome or Openbox session, using Firefox or Epiphany, compositing or no compositing, this window appears when flash is encountered using the flashplugin-nonfree.

Gnash doesn't produce this odd little window.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 02:33:39AM -0000, Carl Simpson wrote:
> Whether in a Gnome or Openbox session, using Firefox or Epiphany,
> compositing or no compositing, this window appears when flash is
> encountered using the flashplugin-nonfree.
>
> Gnash doesn't produce this odd little window.
>

tried to disable your extensions through the dialog accessible in
Tools -> Addons menu?

 importance medium
 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

I disabled everything that it was possible to disable via this dialogue, on all of its tabs, and ran firefox. Obviously, no flash was displayed. I then enabled only flashplugin-nonfree, by clicking enable on the "Shockwave Flash" option, and loaded a flash video. The tiny window appeared.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 11:03:31PM -0000, Carl Simpson wrote:
> I disabled everything that it was possible to disable via this dialogue,
> on all of its tabs, and ran firefox. Obviously, no flash was
> displayed. I then enabled only flashplugin-nonfree, by clicking enable
> on the "Shockwave Flash" option, and loaded a flash video. The tiny
> window appeared.
>

Are you on amd64?

 affects ubuntu/nspluginwrapper
 status incomplete

 affects ubuntu/flashplugin-nonfree
 status incomplete

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status invalid

 - Alexander

[Alex Fraser (alex-phatcore)]

I'm not on AMD64.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (32-bit)
Video: ATI Radeon Mobility x1400 (driver: xorg-driver-fglrx-envy 1:7.1.0-8-4+2.6.24.500-500.29)

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

Whatever this was, I believe it was an issue with flashplugin-nonfree, and at any rate, for me it is gone with the latest Flash 10 Beta (the one released on the 2nd of this month). So for now, it looks like this issue will simply disappear in the future. I shall keep an eye out.

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

No sooner have I said thus, than a lier is made of me. Perhaps, now, with this Beta it is only happening for /certain/ instances of flash. Whatever is occurring, the problem is not gone as I said, at all.

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

Don't wish to spam this bug, but my suspicion was very quickly confirmed; this bug doesn't appear when a wmode is set for flash. "Windowless mode" does sound like a good reason for there to be no window associated with Flash. Of course, Flash 9 for Linux doesn't have wmode support, which is why it happens there with every instance of Flash using Flash 9, and only some with Flash 10, and why specifically that Beta is the one where the behaviour changes (wmode was only just introduced for Linux in that Beta).

For what it's worth, try this page on for size, with Flash 10, to see the behaviour:

http://www.communitymx.com/content/source/E5141/wmodetrans.htm

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

On jaunty, this symptom seems resolved for Flash 10 (even on amd64); please confirm.

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

I can confirm on x86 that with a Jaunty Alpha 5 Live CD, this problem no longer persists for Flash 10. Gnome-Do, another piece of software I recently found to cause the same problem, also does not create such a window on Jaunty. Wherever this bug was living, it seems it's gone for now.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

fixed by nspluginwrapper i guess.

[Carl Simpson (carmine-engraved+launchpad)]

Almost certainly not, on account of the fact that on my affected Intrepid system, nspluginwrapper is not even installed.

But it's fixed, and for now, that's all that matters.

[carolyn crownover (crlncrown)]

Additionally, my system just shuts off when I am in the middle of a project. I receive this message, firefox closed suddenly, then it asks, would you like to restart your session, or start a new session.