regression: page scrolling jumps to top of page spontaneously

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh]

I switched to chromium-browser from Google Chrome when, 1-2 months ago, Chrome began to misbehave on all pages. It spontaneously jumped to the top of the page when I continue scrolling downwards (using a touchpad).

 As of a July 1 update to
chromium-browser:amd64 (50.0.2661.102-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.1237, 51.0.2704.79-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.1242)

chromium-browser now has the same bug! Chris Down, in comments below, says the bug is affecting most webkit-based apps.

He and I are both on higher-end Lenovo thinkpads (T450s, T460s), (and I believe this also affects T410s -- to confirm)).

To reproduce this, I scroll half-way down a page (using a touchpad?) and then click on something (e.g. blank space, which has no effect, or ctrl-click on a link to open it in a new tab) with a mouse button. Next, as soon as I touch the touchpad to continue scrolling, the page jumps to the top.

Makes browsing near impossible. Very frustrating to have this bug arrive at this browser after I already left Chrome (whose latest version on Ubuntu also still has this bug) to avoid it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: chromium-browser 51.0.2704.79-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.1242
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-28.47-generic 4.4.13
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-28-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DRM.card0-DP-1:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
DRM.card0-DP-2:
 edid-base64: AP///////wAebYhO5woAAAoSAQNqLx546mBFplZKnCUSUFSna4CVD5UAgYCBQHFPAQEBAQEBfC6QoGAaHkAwIDYA2igRAAAaITmQMGIaJ0BosDYA2igRAAAcAAAA/QA4Sx5TDwAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABXMjA1MgogICAgICAgABc=
 dpms: On
 modes: 1680x1050 1680x1050 1280x1024 1280x1024 1440x900 1440x900 1280x960 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 720x400
 enabled: enabled
 status: connected
DRM.card0-HDMI-A-1:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
DRM.card0-HDMI-A-2:
 edid-base64:
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 enabled: disabled
 status: disconnected
DRM.card0-eDP-1:
 edid-base64: AP///////wAGrz0TAAAAACYXAQSVHxF4AoflpFZQniYNUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBFDeAuHA4JEAQED4ANa0QAAAYAAAADwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAA/gBBVU8KICAgICAgICAgAAAA/gBCMTQwSEFOMDEuMyAKAHo=
 dpms: On
 modes: 1920x1080
 enabled: enabled
 status: connected
Date: Sat Jul 2 21:54:54 2016
Desktop-Session:
 'ubuntu'
 '/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg'
 '/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop'
DetectedPlugins:

EcryptfsInUse: Yes
Env:
 'None'
 'None'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-02-12 (141 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
Load-Avg-1min: 0.72
Load-Processes-Running-Percent: 0.1%
MachineType: LENOVO 20BXCTO1WW
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-28-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ea2fb511-8d62-4b96-bdaa-4b3f7bf79cc6 ro noprompt quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-05-24 (39 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/06/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: JBET54WW (1.19 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20BXCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40697 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrJBET54WW(1.19):bd11/06/2015:svnLENOVO:pn20BXCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadT450s:rvnLENOVO:rn20BXCTO1WW:rvrSDK0J40697WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.name: 20BXCTO1WW
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T450s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
gconf-keys: /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec = b'firefox\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager = b''/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager = b''/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme = b'gnome\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme = b'Clearlooks\n'
modified.conffile..etc.default.chromium-browser: [deleted]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

The following sequence downgrades chromium browser to the previous available version, prior to the introduction of the new bug, and holds it there:

sudo apt-get remove chromium-browser
sudo apt-get remove chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra
apt-cache showpkg chromium-browser
sudo apt-get install chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra=49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser=49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233
sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser

[Chris Down (chrisdown)]

I think this is a bug in Webkit, not Chrome, since this also affects other apps using Webkit (Spotify, Midori, other browsers w/ Webkit, etc)

[Chris Down (chrisdown)]

I also notice that you're on a T450s, and I'm on a T460s. Maybe it's some bug in Webkit that particularly applies to these new T*s models?

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Interesting. How come a chromium-browser update would make the difference, and a downgrade fix it?
How do you mean it affects those other apps? (Is that true only of recent versions?)

[Chris Down (chrisdown)]

I don't know. I'm equally in the dark as you are :-)

I didn't test with previous versions, but I only saw this occur recently, too. It has prompted me to move to Firefox, which doesn't have the bug (but other Webkit-based browsers do).

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Okay, so it sounds like a recent update to webkit contains the problem.
(I hardly know what that means butso) I've added webkit to the affected packages. Hello webkit folk! Help?

Chris Down: I spent a lot of time moving from Chrome to Chromium to avoid the bug, only to be chased by it a couple of months later. You may have the same experience with Firefox. I wish I had just downgraded Chrome, initially.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Maybe this is related? It's hard to tell https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=575401

[Daniel Satanove (fhyve)]

I have a Lenovo X230 and have the same issue.

Another thing that I don't think was mentioned: when I switch tabs and switch back, then scroll, then click, it moves me back to where I was when I switched, rather than the top of the page.

It also looks like this person has the same issue: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=214415

[Chris Down (chrisdown)]

I doubt it will also happen in Firefox since it doesn't use Webkit to render pages :-)

But this definitely seems WebKit specific, I saw it even in webkit-gtk browsers (eg. suckless surf).

[Kuba (p-ubuntrone-3)]

I have an X220 and the same issue - and I'm on Arch. It only happens when I scroll using the Touchpad (edge scroll), not when I use a mousewheel.
Tried disabling smooth scrolling (Re: that Chromium bug report) - still there, even if the jump sometimes seems less high. Weird.

[dronus (paul-geisler)]

Applies to the Lenovo T420s Touchpad on Ubuntu 14.04 too. So no "feature" of newer systems.

Encountered the bug about one week ago.

Also applies to the current Chrome unstable dev channel.

[dronus (paul-geisler)]

If triggered by the middle button, the bug also persists if smooth scrolling is disabled via about:flags. So no coincidence with smooth scrolling.

[Chris Down (chrisdown)]

I think this bug should probably be priority high, it makes Chrome essentially completely unusable for people with these laptop models.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Just an update to comment #3: A workaround for this problem on chromium-browser is just the last three lines of what I wrote before, ie (as two lines):

sudo apt-get install chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra=49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233 chromium-browser=49.0.2623.108-0ubuntu1.1233

sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser

[Heinz (lauritz-hartmann)]

I'm having the same issue with
Opera 38.0.2220.41
on Lenovo Thinkpad E330
and Ubuntu 16.04

The same applies to the Vivaldi browser. I guess I'm stuck to Firefox now, which is really annoying.

[pik (alexander-maznev)]

I am on Arch-linux (but experiencing the same bug). The following downgrade fixes it for me: [ALPM] downgraded chromium (51.0.2704.106-1 -> 50.0.2661.102-1)

[Keepiru (keepiru)]

This bug was introduced in Chromium 51 and should be fixed in Chromium 52. More info here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=609748

Downgrading to chromium-browser_50.0.2661.102-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1117 appears to fix it on my T530.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Does any of the poohbahs know: (the inevitable question) will Chromium 52 (ie, the fix) get pushed out to the various distros? Which ones?
Or can we install it some other way?

Chromium is presenting other troubles to me know, so I'm looking forward to upgrading again.

[Hansen (moteprime)]

I've got (L450) this annoying bug to, (just finder what it was and getting it pinned down is such a relief).
On the Chromium release calendar* it says 16 or 20 july, but i'm on ver 51 yet.
When will we get Chromium ver. 52?

https://www.chromium.org/developers/calendar

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Version 52 is already/now released for 16.04 if you have security updates enabled.

I just did

sudo apt-mark unhold chromium-browser
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

to get version 52.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Upstream Chromium bug is a duplicate of #616308
which is showing "Fixed" in July 2016, version 52
Further to comment #27, closing as fixed