On Wayland toolbar menus are sometimes invisible/flickering

[Neo Rey]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0

Steps to reproduce:

Open Downloads panel, Library or Application menu form the Toolbar by clicking on the corresponding icons.

Actual results:

From version 90 I noticed that Library or other items in the Toolbar won't open when I click it. Instead it flickers a few times on mouse movement - it looks like it opens but it's not visible, it becomes visible a fraction of a second when I move the mouse otherwise it's completely transparent.

Which Toolbar icon this affects seems random. I tried to fix it by resetting the Toolbar and disabling extensions which have icons in the Toolbar. Then I noticed that Library was working normal again but Downloads or Application Menu wouldn't open.

When this happened with the Application Menu I could barely see the contents of the menu by moving the mouse which made the menu flicker. The cursor was able to select menu items in the menu but it was completely transparent.

In the enclosed screenshot you can see I selected the Library menu item but it isn't opened.

Expected results:

The menus in the Toolbar should open like they used to.
---
ProblemType: Bug
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DefaultProfileIncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Created attachment 9236820
firefox toolbars.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0

Steps to reproduce:

Open Downloads panel, Library or Application menu form the Toolbar by clicking on the corresponding icons.

Actual results:

From version 90 I noticed that Library or other items in the Toolbar won't open when I click it. Instead it flickers a few times on mouse movement - it looks like it opens but it's not visible, it becomes visible a fraction of a second when I move the mouse otherwise it's completely transparent.

Which Toolbar icon this affects seems random. I tried to fix it by resetting the Toolbar and disabling extensions which have icons in the Toolbar. Then I noticed that Library was working normal again but Downloads or Application Menu wouldn't open.

When this happened with the Application Menu I could barely see the contents of the menu by moving the mouse which made the menu flicker. The cursor was able to select menu items in the menu but it was completely transparent.

In the enclosed screenshot you can see I selected the Library menu item but it isn't opened.

Expected results:

The menus in the Toolbar should open like they used to.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Ubuntu 21.04
Firefox 91

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

In this screenshot I have selected the Libray icon in the Toolbar but the menu itself isn't showing.

[Release-mgmt-account-bot (release-mgmt-account-bot)]

The [Bugbug](https://github.com/mozilla/bugbug/) bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Downloads Panel' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

This was also reported downstream: https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/1940417

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Could this be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1719898 ?

Jeroen, thanks for the report. Can you also observe the problem with upstream builds of firefox (downloaded from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/download/thanks), or is it specific to the Ubuntu package?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Thanks for the report. Could you please run the following command to attach additional debug information?

    apport-collect 1940417

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

(In reply to Olivier Tilloy from comment #3)
> This was also reported downstream: https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/1940417

I checked about:config for gfx.webrender.unaccelerated-widget.force and this is set to false.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

(In reply to Olivier Tilloy from comment #4)
> Could this be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1719898 ?
>
> Jeroen, thanks for the report. Can you also observe the problem with upstream builds of firefox (downloaded from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/download/thanks), or is it specific to the Ubuntu package?

I haven't checked upstream or nightly builds yet, ususally I stay with release updates only.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

apport information

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

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[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Done! I think :-) never apported anything before

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

(In reply to Jeroen from comment #6)
> (In reply to Olivier Tilloy from comment #4)
> > Could this be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1719898 ?
> >
> > Jeroen, thanks for the report. Can you also observe the problem with upstream builds of firefox (downloaded from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/download/thanks), or is it specific to the Ubuntu package?
>
> I haven't checked upstream or nightly builds yet, ususally I stay with release updates only.

I understand you want to stay with release updates only. You can download an upstream release build, unpack it in a temporary folder and run it just for the purpose of testing this one bug. It will by default create a separate profile, so that won't mess with your normal setup. And it would be very useful to confirm whether the bug is indeed an upstream issue, or Ubuntu-specific.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

(In reply to Olivier Tilloy from comment #7)
> (In reply to Jeroen from comment #6)
> > (In reply to Olivier Tilloy from comment #4)
> > > Could this be https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1719898 ?
> > >
> > > Jeroen, thanks for the report. Can you also observe the problem with upstream builds of firefox (downloaded from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/download/thanks), or is it specific to the Ubuntu package?
> >
> > I haven't checked upstream or nightly builds yet, ususally I stay with release updates only.
>
> I understand you want to stay with release updates only. You can download an upstream release build, unpack it in a temporary folder and run it just for the purpose of testing this one bug. It will by default create a separate profile, so that won't mess with your normal setup. And it would be very useful to confirm whether the bug is indeed an upstream issue, or Ubuntu-specific.

I'm not exactly sure how to install a Firefox beta in a separate folder and run it. If you can help me with that, I'd be happy to help.

Maybe this also helps, I think these new reports concern same bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1939941
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1939895

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

(In reply to Jeroen from comment #8)
> I'm not exactly sure how to install a Firefox beta in a separate folder and run it. If you can help me with that, I'd be happy to help.

No need for it to be a beta. Just download the upstream build from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/download/thanks, unpack the compressed archive in a temporary folder, this will create a "firefox" folder in there, and from that folder just run `./firefox`.
Once you've tested and reproduced (or not) the bug, you can safely delete that temporary folder.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

I figured installing and running a Firefox beta couldn't be that hard so I downloaded firefox-91.0.1.tar.bz2 and ran it from /Downloads/Firefox/

The menus seem to work fine in the 91.0.1 release.

I realized I enabled browser.compactmode.show in about:config, when I reset this setting to false menus seem to open again.

I this case Library menu in Toolbar wouldn't open. It opens now but when I choose Bookmarks or History these menus flicker on mouse move.

This also seems to have been fixed in the 91.0.1 release, even with browser.compactmode.show enabled.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

I just noticed that the flickering of the quite long Bookmarks and History menus in the 91 release only occur in Maximized window mode, in Minimized the menus open normally, extending beyond the Firefox window bounds and the bottom of these menus appear to conflict with the Dock (appear under it?). These long menus seem to have been improved in the 91.0.1 release and the bottom of the menus appear on top of the Dock.

[Gijskruitbosch+bugs (gijskruitbosch+bugs)]

Doesn't looks like the bot picked anywhere close to the right component here.

Per the comments, is this just resolved? It sounds like the 91.0.1 dot-release fixed the issues here?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

That sounds suspicious, there's nothing related in the 91.0.1 update release notes.
The bug was reported by Jeroen downstream (Ubuntu) against 91.0 (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/1940417), and according to the last few comments here, it's fixed in a 91.0.1 upstream build. However Ubuntu builds run with MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND, maybe that makes a difference?

Jeroen, could you please test again the upstream build by running it like this?

    MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ./firefox

and let us know whether the issue can be observed there?

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Sure. I just type MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ./firefox in terminal?

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Sure. I just type MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ./firefox or add this to about:config?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

From the folder where you unpacked the upstream build, type that command in a terminal.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Sorry I'm not used to run apps like that.

Do you mean I should type sudo **MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1** and then **[path to application]**?

When I type command **echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE** returns **wayland** so I suppose FF already runs in Wayland?

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

xrandr --listmonitors returns:

Monitors: 1
 0: +*XWAYLAND0 1920/508x1080/286+0+0 XWAYLAND0

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

No, I didn't mention sudo. Just open a terminal and type the following commands, one per line, verbatim:

    cd /tmp
    wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/91.0.1/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-91.0.1.tar.bz2
    tar xf firefox-91.0.1.tar.bz2
    MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ./firefox/firefox

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Alright. Thanks.

When I right click the toolbar and go customize it I can't see the little menu which makes the Download Panel button stay.

Menus seem to open fine though, except when you right click the Toolbar the fly out menu from Bookmarks Toolbar flickers sometimes when moving the mouse. Makes it hard to make a selection.

Do you have a clue whats causing this? Graphics drivers maybe or something in FF?

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

btw I got these messages in terminal after installing:

Gdk-Message: 20:17:14.812: Unable to load openhand from the cursor theme
Gdk-Message: 20:17:14.812: Unable to load 5aca4d189052212118709018842178c0 from the cursor theme
Gdk-Message: 20:17:19.096: Unable to load closedhand from the cursor theme

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

I've updated to 91.0.1

Now the Toolbar menus open but now the fly out or next menus flicker.

On mouse movement they flicker rapidly, when there's no mouse movement the menus disappear:

Library > Bookmarks > flickering menu
Library > History > flickering menu

Fly out menus in Application Menu seem to work fine.

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Hi,

Is there anything I can do to try and fix this? It is getting quite annoying...

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

I'd like to add that the list of visited pages and websites, which appears when you hold the Back or Forward button, also flickers on mouse movement. When I do not move the mouse the menu isn't visible at all. Right click on tthis button still works.

[Gijskruitbosch+bugs (gijskruitbosch+bugs)]

Does the flickering happen on a mozilla.org (not distro) Firefox, with a clean separate profile with no other changes (add-ons, prefs changed, etc.)? See [this SUMO page](https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles) for details on how to create a separate profile.

If so, can you provide the graphics portion of the about:support section of such a profile, please?

[Jani Uusitalo (uusijani)]

I can't speak for Jeroen, but I played around with the upstream builds (both 92 and 91) and my faulty profile a bit and managed to isolate the trigger combination for this: `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1` and setting `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to my preferred value of `1.2`; either resetting `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to its default (`-1.0`), or running Firefox without `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1` will make the toolbar items work again. [Here's the graphics portion of my `about:support`](https://pastebin.mozilla.org/OdgM9Oox).

**So my steps to reproduce this are:**
1. start Firefox with `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1`
2. set `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to `1.2`
3. click on the hamburger menu button

**What I expect to happen:**
For the hamburger menu content to show.

**What happens instead:**
The hamburger menu content flickers or doesn't show at all.

[Simon-may (simon-may)]

(In reply to Jani Uusitalo from comment #26)
> I can't speak for Jeroen, but I played around with the upstream builds (both 92 and 91) and my faulty profile a bit and managed to isolate the trigger combination for this: `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1` and setting `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to my preferred value of `1.2`; either resetting `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to its default (`-1.0`), or running Firefox without `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1` will make the toolbar items work again. [Here's the graphics portion of my `about:support`](https://pastebin.mozilla.org/OdgM9Oox).
>
> **So my steps to reproduce this are:**
> 1. start Firefox with `MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1`
> 2. set `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` to `1.2`
> 3. click on the hamburger menu button
>
> **What I expect to happen:**
> For the hamburger menu content to show.
>
> **What happens instead:**
> The hamburger menu content flickers or doesn't show at all.

Just for reference/as a workaround: A value of `1.25` for `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` seems to work flawlessly for me (I was also using `1.2` :-) ).

[Simon-may (simon-may)]

In fact, it seems really strange what values for `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` trigger this – `1.22` also seems to work without issues, while other values (like `1.21`) don’t.

[Simon-may (simon-may)]

(In reply to simon.may from comment #28)
> In fact, it seems really strange what values for `layout.css.devPixelsPerPx` trigger this – `1.22` also seems to work without issues, while other values (like `1.21`) don’t.

Sorry, nevermind, `1.22` does have problems with some entries in the bookmarks toolbar.

[Stransky (stransky)]

Please test with latest nightly, how-to is here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_debug_Firefox_problems?rd=Bug_info_Firefox#Testing_Mozilla_binaries

You should create a new profile so it won't break your working Firefox setup.

Alternatively you can use mozregression tool:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_debug_Firefox_problems?rd=Bug_info_Firefox#Use_Mozregression_tool

as:

MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 mozregression --good 91.0

and it will download and launch nightly for you but you need to check which version is actually running (mozregression will download and launch Firefox 91, Nightly and versions between these two).

[Jani Uusitalo (uusijani)]

I ran mozregression like this (twice, to be sure):

    MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 mozregression --profile /home/jani/.mozilla/firefox/fyaus28k.LP1940417 --bad 91 --good 89 --profile-persistence clone-first

Here's the result (it was the same for both bisects):

    5:25.73 INFO: No more integration revisions, bisection finished.
    5:25.73 INFO: Last good revision: 9f0fbb1431721c9eae68a3c94ae49a4d33fdb1f8
    5:25.73 INFO: First bad revision: 7b82d177a6b979036f180329be6b029d690d9e0c
    5:25.73 INFO: Pushlog:
    https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=9f0fbb1431721c9eae68a3c94ae49a4d33fdb1f8&tochange=7b82d177a6b979036f180329be6b029d690d9e0c

According to [that log](https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=9f0fbb1431721c9eae68a3c94ae49a4d33fdb1f8&tochange=7b82d177a6b979036f180329be6b029d690d9e0c), this [changeset](https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/7b82d177a6b979036f180329be6b029d690d9e0c) was introduced to address [#1661516](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1661516).

[Jani Uusitalo (uusijani)]

Also, I tested the 94.0a1 nightly now, and the issue is still present.

[W-jan-k (w-jan-k)]

Ubuntu and Fedora ship an untested pre-Nightly feature. (MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND = bug 1543600)

[krul (krul)]

i experience similar flickering behavior, but only while trying to open the menus of some extensions (like Bitwarden and 'I don't care about cookies').

These are flickering on wayland however the firefox hamburger menu works fine. Running Pop! OS 21.04 and Firefox 92.0

[Stransky (stransky)]

Can you test latest nightly please? Might be fixed by Bug 1735095.
Thanks.

[Jani Uusitalo (uusijani)]

I tested 95.0a1 (Nightly), and opening the hamburger menu (using the steps I outlined above) works now.

Closing it is still partly broken though, as clicking on the menu button doesn't close the menu; I think that is [bug 1694514](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1694514).

For a workaround, clicking outside the menu (and the menu button) does close the menu.

[Stransky (stransky)]

(In reply to Jani Uusitalo from comment #35)
> Closing it is still partly broken though, as clicking on the menu button doesn't close the menu; I think that is [bug 1694514](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1694514).
>
> For a workaround, clicking outside the menu (and the menu button) does close the menu.

Yes, that's a different bug.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1735095 ***

[Drew McNaughton (drewmcnaughton)]

Hi,

Yes, it seems to be working better now.

Cheers,

Drew

On 22/10/2021 12:45, Stransky wrote:
> Can you test latest nightly please? Might be fixed by Bug 1735095.
> Thanks.
>
--
Drew McNaughton

~vCard is attached~

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

All seems to work fine now!

[Neo Rey (neorey)]

Similar bug 179352: some menus but now mostly context menus flicker while mouse is moving. So right click to evoke the context menu, as long as you keep the mouse steady it stays visible. As soon as you move the mouse it starts flickering and it take 3 - 4 clicks to select an item from the contect menu. When clicking the library button > History or Bookmarks, the folowing menu flickers a few times before opening.

Firefox 105.0.2 / Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:105.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/105.0