Weird line while typing text in Firefox 3.0.3 in Mandriva 2008.1
 

When I type into firefox I get a line going just above the text--very distracting. This occurs in any text box into which I type, including the location bars. I went back to firefox 2.0.0.17 and it is not an issue.

Charles

Have you reported this as a bug?

Same Problem
 

I've had the same problem for months now. I mentioned it one another board and no one else seemed to see it or at least they didn't bother replying. I've tried the Mandriva RPM and I've also tried downloading the regular install (which can update itself) and they both exhibit the same glitch. Firefox 2.x showed no such glitch here. I only have this problem in Mandriva.

I just installed OpenSUSE 11.0 on another partition to try it out and it shows no such issue (although I had all different problems there like total instability until I could get the Nvidia drivers installed, which it didn't do by default and Mandriva did). It's a shame since Mandriva's fonts in general look SO much nicer than OpenSuse and Ubuntu. In fact, I've had less issues setting up and maintaining Mandriva than either one. I'm STILL trying to find the right Gstreamer plugins for Suse to let me listen to my Windows iTunes AAC (MP4, non DRM) library. I had far less trouble locating the needed files/repositories for Mandriva. On the other hand, this glitch along with Fluxbox (and Blackbox) not working at all in Mandriva are irritations and I've found no solutions so far.

I wonder if common hardware could be related to the problem. I've got an AMD 64 CPU (5600+) and an AGP Nvidia 7900GS graphics card. I also wonder if there's some font setting in Mandriva somewhere that could be related, but I've had no problems in Konqueror or as I've said, Firefox 2.x.

I just find it amazing that this problem isn't more widely reported in Mandriva installs, so I have to assume it doesn't happen to everyone because man is it annoying entering text and having weird lines appear above or over the text as you type (text further up looks OK as I type this, just the past dozen lines or so in two spots have the lines noticeable plus on the sides. If I move the cursor back over text, it really gets corrupted.

You should try to run this from a terminal console, and see if any errors occur. Post any errors you come across, and we will try to help you.

I tried running from a console and it gave no errors. Meanwhile, OpenSUSE just randomly freezes for no discernible reason (nothing obvious in HTOP or logs) so it looks like I'll have to deal with the line issue for now or use Windows and/or my Mac.

I didn't get any errors from the console either.

Very strange, I have firefox up to date running on several systems, from XP and Vista to Ubuntu and Fedora. Admittedly, I don't have Mandriva. Just out of curiousity, what addons and plugins are you running in firefox?

Ok, here's an idea: Go into

Click on Advanced button on the right. Then check that the settings are the same as this:

Then let us know how you're getting on!

You might want to look at this post and others similar:

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view...parentId=58085

I already tried changing the fonts in Firefox. I also tried changing the fonts in KDE as well. It doesn't make any difference. I also have ONLY seen this line problem with Firefox3 in Mandriva. It does not do it in SUSE or Fedora (which I just tried the Live USB stick for) or on my Mac or in XP.

I use the same plugins on all systems (Adblock Plus, Forecast Bar Enhanced, Fission, FireFTP, ChatZilla, Distrust, Download Status Bar and Tab Mix Plus.

Ok, can you run firefox in safe mode, without extensions or plugins, and see if that helps? If it does, you can rule mozilla code out.

After that, you can disable all extensions / plugins, and re-enable them one at a time to test them.

Safe mode produces same results
 

Using

//apps/firefox/firefox -P test -safe-mode

I still get the same results: A blue line usually above the line I am working on, and a blue line around the box I am typing in. Interesting, if I move the mouse, the line will go away until I begin typing again. This is the only application that does this (firefox 2x behaves normally). I am also noticing that selecting text with the mouse will also create a line.

Ok. Are you running Firefox from a network share? Thats what:

this looks like to me? That could be the root of your problem?

I tried firefox3 -p -test -safe-mode and it said it couldn't run in pure mode. I then tried it without the -p and ti started up in safe mode. It didn't matter. The line problem was still there even with all add-ons, etc. disabled. I get exactly the same behaviors that Charles G is reporting (mouse movement over the text box makes it go away temporarily, etc.)

I see the same annoying behaviour, Firefox 3.0.1 on Mandriva 2008.1 Free.
I have KDE 3.x, Compiz Fusion is enabled.
Extensions in Firefox are in no particular order:
Adblock Plus, NoScript, FireFTP, FoxyProxy, Download Statusbar, PDF Download, Session Manager, VMware Remote Console Plug-in.
Did not see this behaviour with the same setup, in Firefox 2.0.x

The common plugins are Adblock Plus and Download Status Bar? You wanna try removing them?

Seeing as the line was there in Safe-Mode which has NO add-ons running, I think it's safe to say that those aren't the problem. But I'll try disabling them anyway. Nope, no difference.

The two things I see are that this ONLY happens with Mandriva Linux from what I've seen online so far and it ONLY happens with Firefox 3 (i.e. Firefox 2 looks fine). So it just seems like a chicken/egg scenario.
Something IN Mandriva isn't liked by Firefox3.

The other thing is it only corrupts *INPUT* box fonts while typing and moving the mouse makes it go away temporarily. It moves while you type too. OUTPUT or rendered screen text always looks perfectly normal.

I finally managed to get fluxbox to run from init 3 (still won't run from KDM for some reason) using 'init /usr/bin/startfluxbox' and the problem appears there too so it's not KDE 3.5 or 4.0 window managers causing the glitch.

hmm, seems like a conflict between mandriva and firefox alright. Have you reported this as a bug on mandrivas support pages and / or mozilla? After all, it is a beta version you are running?

This is a problem with Mandriva's default theme, Ia Ora. Upon installing QtCurve for both Qt3 and GTK2 and switching to it using the KDE Control Center (under "style"), the blue lines no longer show up.

I tried switching themes to Keramik and I still get the same lines in Firefox. I'm using KDE 3.5, so the QtCurve theme won't matter (KDE4 from what I can see).

Edit:

I just installed Mandriva 2009 as an update and after correcting where it screwed up the Grub entry (and thus made my system unbootable except by recovery), whatever was changed in 2009 seems to have corrected the line issue thus far. It also apparently modified all my Compiz settings, etc. and reinstated services I got rid of like Kerry Beagle. So who knows what all has changed, but at least I don't get those horrible lines anymore.

Edit2:

Now I've got a new problem with Mandriva 2009.0. My 2nd monitor is a 24" flat-screen LCD and my primary monitor is a 19" CRT. Whereas before the 2nd monitor showed whatever resolution I wanted just fine and KDE 3.5 adapted just fine, now the "KDE Desktop" will only show up as 1024x768 (what I have the CRT set to) regardless of what resolution the 2nd monitor is set to. In other words, if I set the LCD to 1900x1200, I'll get this "little desktop" inside the display like a minaturized version inside a larger black abyss. It doesn't scale the desktop up to fit the display (the mouse can move anywhere, though but the windows will only move within that small area). The only way I can get KDE to fill the screen is to select 1024x768 for the LCD, which isn't exactly optimal for a widescreen 24" monitor. It worked perfectly fine before with any setting when I was using Mandriva 2008.1. The update seemed to screw something up. I've restored my X11.conf file to what it was before; it doesn't matter. It does the same thing. I've reset nvidia-settings and tried different modes and nothing matters.

It's also obvious that Mandriva 2009 is using a different window decoration than it was before I upgraded. Kcontrol still says it's set to "la ora" for the window decoration but it's clearly NOT. It has some light blue transparent decoration with large white letters and a big honky "X" for the close button (much thinner looking for the 'real' la ora). Whatever this theme is, it's not present in the KDE Control Panel and trying to change the decoration there does not work. If another manager is running (Emerald?), I'm unaware of it. (Ok it appears to be the GTK decorator running the "Cairo" theme).

I also noticed the Mandriva 2009 update did not install KDE 4 even though that's supposed to be the default for it. I have a feeling these massive style "updates" still don't work right.

It'd be nice if I could get my 2nd monitor working right again. Fluxbox still won't run either from the KDM login panel. It hasn't worked ever since I installed Mandriva 2008.0. The only way I can get it to work at all is to force it on by going to init 3 and then using 'xinit /usr/bin/fluxbox' Otherwise, it doesn't work. I used to enjoy Fluxbox with a green Matrix theme and a few dock apps, but no more I guess.

I finally found out why Fluxbox wouldn't work with Mandriva 2008 and 2009. If you have it set to use Compiz 3D effects in the Mandriva "Configure Your Computer" panel (under desktop effects), then Mandriva enables Compiz as soon as you click login (i.e. before the selected window manager or desktop starts). Thus, the Compiz window manager was already running when Fluxbox attempted to start and thus it refused to start since another window manager was already running.

If you set Mandriva to NOT use desktop effects then Fluxbox and IceWM, etc. will all work fine again. I assume if I want to have compiz running ONLY for KDE and/or Gnome, I'd have to do some manual editing for those entries or something and bypass Mandriva's control panel setting. It also explains what happened to the La Ora window manager in Mandriva 2009 (when it starts Compiz first, it uses its window manager instead with KDE or Gnome).

Meanwhile, Fluxbox works best using two separate displays but KDE 4 works best with Twinview. In Mandriva 2009, I can't get a proper 2nd display with KDE 3 when using the desktop 3D Compiz effects, but now that it's turned off, it will display correctly (go figure). I don't see any easy way to auto-switch the two types of displays by desktop method. And if I set up a 2nd start bar, etc. for the 2nd monitor in Twinview, it ends up in the main display if I switch to separate display mode. It'd be nice if that whole setting/xorg thing could be integrated right into something like KDM and have each entry switch automatically. I have the feeling this is possible but would require some scripting.

I just tried "compiz --replace" in KDE 3.5 and it did come up and left the "La Ora" window decorations in place, but my 2nd display immediately went back to the improper display problem whereas the desktop fills up 1024x768 of real estate on the screen even though the overall size is 1280x720 (thus leading to a desktop that doesn't fill up the whole screen). This must be a bug in the newer version of Compiz or something since the version in 2008.1 didn't have this problem.