bookmarks copies home page over and over

Bug #213528 reported by cecilpierce
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Low
Unassigned
gnome-orca (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

First time I click on bookmarks a small window opens and copies my home page every time I start firefox. My home page is google so now I have a bunch in my bookmarks.
Thanks, Cecil

Ununtu Hardy 8.04 beta
Firefox 3 beta 5 (did the same thing in beta 4 but not 3)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Apr 7 15:16:23 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0~b5+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-15-generic i686

Tags: apport-bug
Revision history for this message
cecilpierce (piercececil-deactivatedaccount) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Lydia Pintscher (lydia-pintscher) wrote :

I can not reproduce this.
You are clicking bookmarks in the toolbar at the top?

Thank you for your report.

Changed in firefox-3.0:
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Im am also unable to reproduce this. Can you please try to use a new profile by following the instructions at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs
Is this an upgrade to Hardy or clean install?

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 213528] Re: bookmarks copies home page over and over

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 09:05:26AM -0000, John Vivirito wrote:
> Im am also unable to reproduce this. Can you please try to use a new profile by following the instructions at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs
> Is this an upgrade to Hardy or clean install?
>

No reply. If you still see this, please provide the requested info and
reopen this bug.

 status invalid

 - Alexander

Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

Almost identical description to an annoying 'feature' in 3.0b5

On first instance of wanting to access an existing bookmark from the menu a dialog box is displayed offering to bookmark the current page (whatever that may be, not just home page).
Selecting 'cancel' closes the box and from that point on selecting bookmarks from the menu gives access to the existing bookmarks.

The dialog box is the same one used for 'bookmark this page' ( Ctrl+D ).

Bookmark toolbar is turned off.
This is an upgrade to Hardy.

Additional and related, the option 'bookmark this page' is about as useful and advanced as that included as Favorites in MS Internet Explorer version 3 !
In other words, it's a great big step backwards from Firefox v2.

Really bright, no direct way of adding a bookmark into any existing folders in the bookmark tree.

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

Doing some testing and my conclusion is that 'bookmarks' in 3.0b5 is definitely broken.

Selected (from menu bar) Bookmarks
Selected 'Bookmark this page'
Dialogue box for adding bookmark appears.
No expansion of 'Bookmarks Menu' to display the existing folder structure.
Selection left on 'Bookmarks Menu'.
Button 'New Folder' does not display any sort of dialog allowing entry of the desired name and doesn't appear to have done anything.
Button 'Done' gives no indication of what has been done.

Selected (from menu bar) Bookmarks
Selected 'Organize Bookmarks'
Display of bookmarks appears as expected but ....
There is now a folder named 'New Folder' in the bookmarks.
There is an entry at the top level of the bookmarks for the current web page as was accessed at the time of selecting 'Done'.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 02:03:10PM -0000, Art Clarke wrote:
> Doing some testing and my conclusion is that 'bookmarks' in 3.0b5 is
> definitely broken.
>
> Selected (from menu bar) Bookmarks
> Selected 'Bookmark this page'
> Dialogue box for adding bookmark appears.
> No expansion of 'Bookmarks Menu' to display the existing folder structure.
> Selection left on 'Bookmarks Menu'.
> Button 'New Folder' does not display any sort of dialog allowing entry of the desired name and doesn't appear to have done anything.
> Button 'Done' gives no indication of what has been done.
>
> Selected (from menu bar) Bookmarks
> Selected 'Organize Bookmarks'
> Display of bookmarks appears as expected but ....
> There is now a folder named 'New Folder' in the bookmarks.
> There is an entry at the top level of the bookmarks for the current web page as was accessed at the time of selecting 'Done'.
>

You could try the RC1 builds currently in hardy-proposed

 - Alexander

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

OK, RC1 appears to have fixed both the expansion to display existing folder structure and 'New Folder' issues.

Still get the same issue of
On first instance of wanting to access an existing bookmark from the menu a dialog box is displayed offering to bookmark the current page (whatever that may be, not just home page).
Selecting 'cancel' closes the box and from that point on selecting bookmarks from the menu gives access to the existing bookmarks.

Revision history for this message
cecilpierce (piercececil-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Still does it with rc1 and i also installed MineField 4.0 and it does it to.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 11:18:45AM -0000, Art Clarke wrote:
> OK, RC1 appears to have fixed both the expansion to display existing
> folder structure and 'New Folder' issues.
>
> Still get the same issue of
> On first instance of wanting to access an existing bookmark from the menu a dialog box is displayed offering to bookmark the current page (whatever that may be, not just home page).
> Selecting 'cancel' closes the box and from that point on selecting bookmarks from the menu gives access to the existing bookmarks.
>

I am sorry, as I might be dense here, but i still have no idea what
exactly i have to do to reproduce ... could you give me a step by step
instruction like:

 1. click on menu Tools -> Something
 2. select the setting XXXX
 3. ...

of course not exactly like that, but you get the point.

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: Invalid → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

OK

1. open Firefox (on Ubuntu 8.04 - may or may not apply on other platforms)
2. click on menu Bookmarks

Firefox will display dialog box titled "Page Bookmarked", at which point you can either

1. bookmark the page or
2. select Cancel

Now click on menu Bookmarks and Firefox will display the existing bookmarks.

What we are seeing is that after starting Firefox, the first instance of use of Bookmarks offers to bookmark the current page instead of opening the drop down list of existing bookmarks.

It appears likely that the first instance of use activates the first menu item (which happens to be 'Bookmark This Page') instead of providing the list.

Art C

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

Ihave the same problem on bookmarks but also on Chronology.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

I have the same problem on bookmarks but also on Chronology.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

Sorry for the repetition.
I have also made some test.
I have defined a new profile and, with default firefox bookmarks, Firefox worked fine.
Then I have imported my bookmarks as html file and the problem came back but only when I started Firefox again.
I have tried to reduce Bookmarks.html and it seems to me that the problem depends from the dimension of the file.
However I am almost sure that something does not work fine importing bookmarks in html format.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

I have done another test.
I have exported my bookmarks as html file, then I have defined a new profile and I have loaded the html file with my bookmarks, then I have added the bookmarks one by one. Every group of bookmarks I have done an exit from firefox and have launched it again testing if bookmarks worked well.
When I have loaded about one third of bookmarks, I have found the problem.
Then I have deleted a group of bookmarks and the problem disappeared.
I think that the problem is a kind of overflow.

Revision history for this message
Hellzapoppin (mjwonly) wrote :

Hello I'm a XP user but found this forum while looking a solution for the problem described, I have eventually by trial and error discovered my problem was caused by the "realplayer browser plugin 1.0" I know it is a Windows PC but maybe it can help someone.

Good Luck.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

Thanks Hellzapoppin,
I have not realolayer browser 1.0 plugin on Firefox, but there something similar:
Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible (compatible; Totem)
I don't know if It is possible to disintall it without getting some problem with totem.

Revision history for this message
Hellzapoppin (mjwonly) wrote :

Maybe you could disable the plug-in (not uninstall) and see if that works, I disabled all my plug-ins than enabled them one by one until I found the plug-in that caused the problem.

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

Tested suggestions re plug-ins and number of bookmarks.

Plug-ins:
No effect from disabling plug-ins on either Ubuntu or Windows XP (machine is now re-configured dual boot with seperate hard disks)

Number of bookmarks:
More interesting results.
On Ubuntu:
Starting from clean re-install of Firefox, Bookmarks worked as advertised with defaults.
Added bookmarks as Sergio did until fault appeared.
Another complete removal and re-install, repeat the test & a DIFFERENT number of the same bookmarks could be added before the fault occured.
Repeated that process & got a different number of the same bookmarks added!
On XP:
Un-installed & re-installed, with defaults only appeared OK.
Added bookmarks and fault appeared immediately with only a few added.

I would add that I have done clean re-installs of Firefox on Ubuntu previously simply to get greater stability from it when several tabs have been open (without any improvement!!).
I'm getting the feeling that there is an underlying problem in the design and these are only symptoms.

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

It just occurred to me that all three features (bookmarks, plug-ins & tabs) probably use some form of table or array to store the pointers and/or descriptive links.
Could there be an issue with a function related to such a table or array which is used globally in Firefox?
Possibly in a library used by the compiler rather than an actual code error in Firefox itself?

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

I have tried to disable every plugin but the problem on bookmarks does not disappear.
I think, like Art, that this kind of problem is a symptom of a real bug.
But I wonder why the number of users that have the same problem is so small.
I have opened a discussion on mozilla.it forum but nobody has written for the same issue, except a moderator that wrote that she could not see anything.
Perhaps there is a combination of a software bug with some other issue (hardware configuration? Memory amount? Poor system speed?).

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

Arrrrrggggghhhhh!!! This is really crazy!

Testing some more so created a new 'test' profile.
First step, went into Edit/Preferences and customised that slightly as I usually do
Blank page on start, 'about:blank' home page, always clear private data on closing, use smooth scrolling, don't check for Firefox updates.
In short, nothing unusual or dramatic.
Closed Firefox and restarted it, no problem with bookmarks.
I don't want or use the Bookmarks Toolbar so deselected it, restarted Firefox again.
Bookmarks from the menu are back to the same problem - offering to bookmark the current page!!
Note that absolutely nothing had been done with the menu item Bookmarks other than each time Firefox started clicking on it to see what it tried doing.
Nothing I did to that profile corrected the problem.

Deleted the profile and repeated the same sequence with a fresh profile ('newtest').
Menu item Bookmarks worked correctly!

Doubt that the hardware is an issue (dual core P4 3200, 1.5GB RAM, ATI Radeon graphics card), thought maybe fglrx by some remote weirdo might have been involved but the saw that Cecil is using an Nvidia non free module.

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

I can't afford to stuff around with this anymore - it's a main production machine.
I've got a spare AMD Athlon 1500 512kb box kicking around so I'll set that up as a test machine, just won't be heard from for a couple of days!

Revision history for this message
Hellzapoppin (mjwonly) wrote :

3.0.1 has been released, could be worth a try.

Revision history for this message
Hellzapoppin (mjwonly) wrote :

Just tested realplayer plugin with 3.0.1 still causes the same problem.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Hellzapoppin wrote:
> 3.0.1 has been released, could be worth a try.
>
>
Maybe i missed something but what does realplayer have to do with
firefox bookmarks in any way including this bug?

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

Revision history for this message
Hellzapoppin (mjwonly) wrote :

Have a look further up this thread to:
 Hellzapoppin wrote on 2008-07-11.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Hellzapoppin wrote:
> Have a look further up this thread to:
> Hellzapoppin wrote on 2008-07-11.
>
>
Windows and Linux builds for mozilla apps are about the furthest from
each other. Thanks for your help on this but realplayer isnt causing
this in Linux. Has anyone looked upstream for a bug that matches this?

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

Backed up all important stuff and did a fresh install of Ubuntu from a new download.
After finally rebuilding all the apps etc, recovered from data backup.
Configured Firefox the way I prefer it, made sure bookmarks worked correctly.
Imported the entire set of bookmarks from HTML file, noticed that some of the default bookmarks were duplicated so cleaned that up.
Restarted Firefox and now have bookmarks working correctly.

Assumption is that _something_ left around when upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04 was at the root of the chaos.

Firefox 3 still isn't particularly stable but that's a separate issue.

Revision history for this message
Henrik Rydberg (rydberg) wrote :

Have a look at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/39330. I believe it is the same problem. And the problem might have something to do with 'assistive technologies'... yes, you heard right. I saw another bug similar... I will be back.

Revision history for this message
Henrik Rydberg (rydberg) wrote :

Maybe a long-shot, but this bug might actually be related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-orca/+bug/287577

Revision history for this message
Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest firefox version? Thanks in advance.

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

I believe this is fixed.

Using
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121621
Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.5
which I believe is the latest version.

appears to function as expected - it will bring up the dialog box 'Page
Bookmarked' when using

. select Bookmarks menu
. select Bookmark This Page menu item

or Ctrl+D

and if the user is silly enough to click on 'Done' then of course it
adds the current page to bookmarks.
Click on 'Cancel' and it aborts the bookmarking process as it should.

Still have not seen a fix for the unpredictable freezes when Firefox
3.x.x is running but that's a separate issue.

Martin Mai wrote:
> We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with
> the latest firefox version? Thanks in advance.
>
>

Revision history for this message
RabidNelson (ourfateisninja) wrote :

This bug does not appear to be fixed. It occurred to me the first time in 3.0.5 and continues with 3.0.6. Could somebody please look into it for me?

Revision history for this message
Art Clarke (aar-clarke) wrote :

an update to my previous reports on this:

This PC has an ATI Radeon 9200 series graphics card with a widescreen
LCD monitor.
On it I'm using Thunderbird email application and was using Firefox 3.0.6
After frequent system crashes I have rolled Firefox back to 2.0.0.19
The crashes have stopped and I no longer have the issue with bookmarks.

A second PC on my network has an Nvidia graphics card with a standard
monitor.
On it is used Evolution email and Firefox 3.0.6.
This one has no issues with crashes nor with bookmarks!

So I'm starting to suspect that the problem is somehow related to either

1) the graphics card which might indicate some sort of issue between
firefox and x86 with some particular hardware or

2) software issues when Firefox and Thunderbird are both in use

RabidNelson wrote:
> This bug does not appear to be fixed. It occurred to me the first time
> in 3.0.5 and continues with 3.0.6. Could somebody please look into it
> for me?
>
>

Revision history for this message
RabidNelson (ourfateisninja) wrote :

I use an Nvidia graphics card and have evolution installed (but don't use it), but I still have the exact same problems. I don't believe those issues are related.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Ventura (sergioventura) wrote :

I had the same problem with ubuntu 8.04 and upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10. I had also some other problem with the upgrade of Ubuntu 8.10 and so I have done a fresh installation (saving home and formatting) and now Firefox works.

Revision history for this message
Daniel Castro (castromd) wrote :

I can confirm this happens to me as well. Since 8.04 and then upgraded (fresh install) to 8.10 and it was still there. Currently on 8.10 with FF 3.0.7 and still seen the issue. I have also been able to reproduce it on 4 different machines.
No solution yet?

Revision history for this message
Luke Yelavich (themuso) wrote :

This bug is not gnome-orca specific, since the mention of assistive technologies is for GNOME in general.

Changed in gnome-orca (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
erendorn (erendorn) wrote :

I'm having the same symptoms (not necessarily the same bug):
first click in the menu bar leads to:
- open the dialog box "page Bookmarked" if bookmark menu is clicked
- go to last page if Chronology menu is clicked

Yet I'm running firefox 3.0.10 under vista pro.

going to test the solutions above.

Revision history for this message
jeff story (jeffstory) wrote :

Samp problem here.

 Click on "Bookmarks" it top menu to access bookmarks, instead opens the dialog box, "Page Bookmarked"

Ubuntu 8.10 amd64 clean install,

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042523 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.10

Asus M3A78_CM, AMD Phenom 9850 quad-core

jeff@amd4-server:~$ uname -mr
2.6.27-11-generic x86_64

jeff@amd4-server:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon 3100 Graphics
OpenGL version string: 2.1.8087 Release

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

this is a dupe of the infamous "random click" bug. thats fixed upstream and will be fixed in ffox 3.0.11

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Revision history for this message
jeff story (jeffstory) wrote :

I see that the "random click" bug seems to be right mouse click related.
The problem I'm having is caused be left clicking "Bookmarks".

Are you sure these are related bugs?

Revision history for this message
Daniel Holbert (dholbert) wrote :

Yeah, it's a dupe. Right vs left mouse button isn't relevant -- the connection is that it's a single-click that opens a menu (whether it be a left-click opening the bookmarks menu, or a right-click opening a context menu), and then immediately activates an entry in that menu.

See also
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/269929
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/293770
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/315253
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/315547
which are all filed on left-clicking File / Bookmarks menus, and which are all duped to this bug's dupe-target.

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.