Firefox: Address line does not work

[Björn Nürnberg]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Firefox: Address line does not work

Problem:
When I put a web address such as “http://www.google.de“ into the address line of my Firefox Webbrowser and then press ENTER, Firefox does not react !!!
Furthermore, no searching engines are available in the search button next to the address line.

The error was (probably) caused by the installation of ICQ Toolbar 1.1.4.

Errors shown in the “Error Console” (“Fehlerkonsole”):
Fehler: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE) [nsIJSCID.getService]" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://browser/content/search/search.xml :: get_searchService :: line 145" data: no]

Warnung: Fehler beim Verarbeiten des Wertes für Eigenschaft 'quotes'. Deklaration ignoriert.
Quelldatei: http://start.ubuntu.com/8.04/screen-6c-24-24-12.css?v=08032801
Zeile: 26

Warnung: Ende des Wertes für die Eigenschaft erwartet, aber '.' gefunden. Fehler beim Verarbeiten des Wertes für Eigenschaft 'font'. Deklaration ignoriert.
Quelldatei: http://start.ubuntu.com/8.04/screen-6c-24-24-12.css?v=08032801
Zeile: 50

These are the things I did before the error appeared:
I installed several add-ons to Firefox:
 Customize Google
 URL fixer
 Google Toolbar
 ICQ Toolbar
 Yahoo Toolbar
(I have Windows XP next to Ubuntu on my PC where Firefox works with all these add-ons correctly.)

I updated my Ubuntu 8.04 System, Firefox was upgraded from Version 3 Beta 5 to Version 3.0.

This is how I tried to solve the problem:
I deactivated and uninstalled all the add-ons I had installed before.
I started Firefox in safe-mode and reset to default values.
I completely uninstalled the Firefox-3.0-package from my Ubuntu system and re-installed it.
However without success.
I do not know how to solve this problem!!! Please help me.

I looked for the cause of the error. I did a test on the Ubuntu-8.04-Live-CD and found out:
The error appeared right after I had installed ICQ Toolbar 1.1.4 !
So the add-on ICQ Toolbar 1.1.4 had caused the error. The problem cannot be solved by uninstalling ICQ Toolbar.
(Customize Google, URL fixer and Yahoo Toolbar were okay. Google Toolbar could not be installed as the add-on is not compatible with the beta-version Firefox 3 Beta 5.)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Jul 25 00:23:14 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=de_AT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-17-generic i686

[Oernie (arne-henningsen)]

I have a very similar problem: Sometimes when I write or copy a URL into the address field and then press ENTER, Firefox does not react. I have to close and restart Firefox to get rid of this problem. In contrast to Björn, this problem occurs only from time to time on my machines, I do not have many add-ons installed, and there is no output on the “Error Console” (“Fehlerkonsole”) when I press ENTER. I have noticed this on three different machines. All have Kubuntu 8.04 installed (one update from older Kubuntus, two fresh installs). This morning I have updated Firefox 3.0 to version 3.0.1 using the usual Kubuntu update procedure, but I this problem occurred again.

[Mathieu Comandon (strycore)]

I confirm this problem, it seem to happen at random times. As Oernie said, it can be fixed by restarting Firefox but also by opening a new Firefox window.
Note that this is not a Ubuntu bug because I have the exact same problem on Windows XP at work !

[sumanc (suman-sscu)]

I confirm this in Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit version with Firefox 3.0.4. Many a times writing the URL in address bar and pressing enter does not respond!

Also, I have found that if I choose to restart firefox after installing/updating some add-on, the firefox process keeps running and the window does not re-appear. I need to manually kill the process and start firefox again. Then it restores my previous windows/tabs. Same happens if I quit firefox (File > Quit). But this may be a different bug altogether and not related to the current issue under discussion.

[Harald (patches-ixsys)]

I had similar problems, ubuntu 8.04, firefox 3.0.4. The URL (address) field and the search box were both not working, thus entering an URL or a search phrase followed by return just did nothing.

The error console was full of errors. amongst them the error messages from the top of this bug report.

On my system that was NOT a bug of firefox nor of ubuntu since the malfunction was related to a NFS failure. My client experienced some errors while connecting the NFS server (lockd, RPC handle error), thus there were problems accessing ~/.mozilla/firefox.

It's not nice behaviour of firefox to throw these cryptic errors, since it was hard to see that the program could actually not ACCESS some ressources, but ok, it's all very complex nowadays....

Just a hint, check that firefox can access your homedir and everything it needs to....

Bests

haris

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

Strider wrote:
> I confirm this problem, it seem to happen at random times. As Oernie said, it can be fixed by restarting Firefox but also by opening a new Firefox window.
> Note that this is not a Ubuntu bug because I have the exact same problem on Windows XP at work !
>
>
have you tried to disable all extensions in tools -> addons?

most issues are caused by bogus extensions, so checking that would be a
good thing.

[JanBrinkmann (jbrinkmann)]

Thank you very much for the feedback. As stated in the last comment (by Alexander Sack), try to disable the extensions. A comfortable way to test if that works, could it be to use a new profile for this:

Start Firefox by entering the following command is a terminal: firefox -ProfileManager. You should now see the Profile Manager window.

Important note: From the Profile Manager you are also able to remove and rename profiles. Be very careful when deleting profiles, if you created the profile in a directory that already existed, the entire directory will be removed!

Click on the 'Create Profile...' button to start the 'Create Profile Wizard'. Click 'Next' and enter a descriptive name for the new profile. Click Finish to have Firefox create the new profile. You should now be taken back to the Profile Manager and the newly created profile should be listed. Select it and click 'Start Firefox'. Try to reproduce the bug with this new profile.

Note: you can go back to your own profile by starting Firefox using the command firefox -ProfileManager again, selecting your own profile, and clicking on 'Start Firefox'.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!