Dialog Boxes Frequently Not Rendering - Broken

[stef204]

Version: 26.2.1 (x64)
Linux 4.5.1

Hi,

Been using Palemoon as my main browser for over a year now; very happy with it, thanks for the great work.

One issue has recently crept up, unfortunately, which is really frustrating: very often, website dialog boxes will just NOT drop down at all; they seem completely stuck, nothing happens when clicking on down arrow. At the same time, if I click on a bookmark folder, or a Menu item, it will not open or drop down either. So this "drop down" or "opening" issue seems to hit the whole browser, when it does occur. I generally have to restart PM to "fix" the immediate problem. But it appears frequently enough to be very frustrating and it has started me looking for another browser (which I do not want to do--so posting here.)

This was not always the case and started happening perhaps a couple of months ago or so.
It is hard for me to identify WHAT is causing the problem; possibly going to secure website like banking or websites where you have to log in? I don't see the connection though, most websites now use https.
And it will also occur on non-banking websites. I know this is not helpful. But it could be triggered first by going to a website where a login is needed. It could be a css-related problem possibly.

I have searched for "dialog boxes" in these forums and saw something re. extension tabhunter but I do NOT use it.
I do use noscript and thought it could be the culprit but I believe this problem has occurred as well with noscript disabled.

Edit: github.com is a website causing the above problems, as well as not reading the javascript "properly" I am unable to use the "Preview" when posting, or any of the markdown shortcuts such as insert link, etc.
The problem occurs even when I disable noscript (let alone whitelist github.com) so it does not seem to be noscript related.
This was not happening a few months ago, and there must may have been some changes made in the latest versions of PM which cause this.....
Edit: More likely, it comes from major changes made on github, fairly recently: I have reverted to the default user agent for PM and it seems to have resolved the github problem so far--although it could be purely coincidental as it hard to believe this small detail might be the cause.. Tested again with umatrix (as replacement for noscript, adblock+, etc., as explained below) and when user agent is spoofed, github starts to misbehave. Returning to original ua, fixes it, again so this github javascript (sub)issue can be considered solved. But the dialog box issue remains unsolved, unfortunately.

Edit: I have disabled noscript and adblock (+ element hiding helper) and replaced these with umatrix; and disabled as well "change referrer button" since all of these extensions I believe are covered by umatrix which seems to have a lighter footprint. Will run PM for a few days and post any noticeable changes/improvements here.

Edit: It has just happened again: I edited this post, then logged out of this website, clicked New Tab, and then tried to get to a bookmark inside a bookmark folder; the folder just would not open, no matter how many clicks. Then tried Menu items, same thing, the list under each of the items does not show. (This would seem to indicate the problem is not website related but internal to PM's code OR some extension is interfering perhaps. Although I believe to be using only a few extensions listed as "working" with PM.

I left the new tab open, logged back in here to add these few lines above, checked back on the "new tab" to see if I could now open bookmark folder or Menu item by clicking, and it is back to normal.
So the issue is still very much present.

When it happens while one is using online banking, for example, it can get really aggravating when in the middle of a transaction, which one cannot complete due to dialog box not dropping down to show list of choices (e.g. accounts, dates, whatever....)

Anyone else experiencing this problem? Can anyone suggest a fix, additional troubleshooting steps, etc., perhaps using PM's dev tools, console, etc.?

PS Will try a clean test profile again

[trava90]

I have not encountered this issue at all. GitHub (which I visit frequently) works just fine for me. I can't reproduce any of the problems you mention. Have you tried a clean profile? Sorry, I missed the last line of your post. Please let us know your results with a new profile.

[stef204]

I have not encountered this issue at all. GitHub (which I visit frequently) works just fine for me. I can't reproduce any of the problems you mention. Have you tried a clean profile? Sorry, I missed the last line of your post. Please let us know your results with a new profile.

thanks for your reply.

posting here with brand new profile, no extensions whatsoever, no tweaking of config.

just visited github and it seemed to work fine, including commenting, etc.
but let's put github aside, as I mentioned previously, going back to the original/default ua seems to have solved that javascript issue.

The real issue is dialog boxes, menu items, etc.; not showing or not behaving normally-under certain conditions (as of yet unknown.)

no problems so far with new profile. But too early to tell, Will keep testing it and report here.

I have also reverted to default theme in default profile, as it could be theme related: I was using "reinheit".

Also, here is a list of extensions I usually run, I don't think there is anything known to be incompatible in this list:

- All-in-One Sidebar
- Back-to-Top
- Cookie Monster
- Go-Parent-Folder
- Palemoon Commander
- Set as Boomarks Toolbar Folder
- Show Parent Folder
- Text Link (that's a great one)
- uMatrix (just added to replace Ablock Latitude + ABP Element Hidiing Helper + NoSript which all have been removed in favor of uMatrix)
- User Agent Switcher

[stef204]

OK, I have some more info now which should help in narrowing down the problem, in part:

I am able to confirm that the "bug" (dialog boxes and menu items not rendering properly/not "dropping down when clicked") does not come from an incompatible or faulty extension or theme; or custom configuration--so it should be a problem with Palemoon itself.

(And, while this is pure speculation, I believe it could be related to the upgrade to 26 and the significant changes made at that time, as it does seem to coincide in time with the appearance of the problem.)

I have run Palemoon in a brand new and fresh profile, with absolutely NO additional extensions or themes and NO modifications to anything at all, be it about:config or anything else. The "bug" is present which leads me to the above statement.

Steps I used to reproduce:

Login to this forum.

Edit (or reply to) one of my post,

While writing into the dedicated "text box", I had some typos, which were underlined in red (normal behavior) so I decided to fix them by right clicking on misspelled word and choose the correct spelling, as i often do.
Nothing happened, i.e. no context menu appeared for right click. I then immediately went to a Bookmark Folder (containing a few bookmarks) located in my Bookmarks Toolbar Folder and same problem, it just would not open to let me choose a bookmark. I then clicked on several menu items such as "Tools", etc., and nothing happens, the list offering menu item choices ("Downloads, Add-ons, Set Up Sync, etc.) just does NOT show. I tried other menu items, same thing.

There was nothing I could do to bring normal functionality back but to exit Palemoon altogether and restart it, at which time behavior went back to normal.

So, I believe it is fair to say that the problem lays not with any incompatible extensions or themes or custom configuration, but with Palemoon itself. Would love to be able to really identify the source so it could get it fixed.

Looking forward to feedback.

Thanks again.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Steps I used to reproduce:

Login to this forum.

Edit (or reply to) one of my post,

While writing into the dedicated "text box", I had some typos, which were underlined in red (normal behavior) so I decided to fix them by right clicking on misspelled word and choose the correct spelling, as i often do.
Nothing happened, i.e. no context menu appeared for right click. I then immediately went to a Bookmark Folder (containing a few bookmarks) located in my Bookmarks Toolbar Folder and same problem, it just would not open to let me choose a bookmark. I then clicked on several menu items such as "Tools", etc., and nothing happens, the list offering menu item choices ("Downloads, Add-ons, Set Up Sync, etc.) just does NOT show. I tried other menu items, same thing.

There was nothing I could do to bring normal functionality back but to exit Palemoon altogether and restart it, at which time behavior went back to normal.

So, I believe it is fair to say that the problem lays not with any incompatible extensions or themes or custom configuration, but with Palemoon itself. Would love to be able to really identify the source so it could get it fixed.

Looking forward to feedback.

Thanks again.

Okay, I went through each one of your steps:

1) Replied to ths topic and tped in severl typos lke ths. (notice typos? I copied this line with the typos and pasted below and went through each underlined in red, right-clicking on each one and got context menu to correct spelling each time (see corrections below).

Replied to this topic and typed in several typos like this.

Context spell correction menu responded every time very quickly with the correction choices I selected to get the sentence above from the original "1)" line with typos.

2) Went to Bookmarks and opened several pages using bookmarks with no problem

Is this occurring in your "new clean profile"? (you posted quote: "posting here with brand new profile, no extensions whatsoever, no tweaking of config", so is this occurring for you in this "new profile"?)

What AV Security program do you use?

Have you tried disabling your AV security program to see if the problem stops in this case?

Have you rebooted your computer to see if this helps?

You could try these commands from an elevated command prompt. It may be that the network needs resetting.

Go Start > All Programs > Accessories
Right click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator (elevated command prompt) then do the following:
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh int ipv4 reset
netsh int ipv6 reset

The commands reset and clear out any accrued rubbish in the network system.

[stef204]

Okay, I went through each one of your steps:

1) Replied to ths topic and tped in severl typos lke ths. (notice typos? I copied this line with the typos and pasted below and went through each underlined in red, right-clicking on each one and got context menu to correct spelling each time (see corrections below).

Replied to this topic and typed in several typos like this.

Context spell correction menu responded every time very quickly with the correction choices I selected to get the sentence above from the original "1)" line with typos.

2) Went to Bookmarks and opened several pages using bookmarks with no problem

Is this occurring in your "new clean profile"? (you posted quote: "posting here with brand new profile, no extensions whatsoever, no tweaking of config", so is this occurring for you in this "new profile"?)

What AV Security program do you use?

Have you tried disabling your AV security program to see if the problem stops in this case?

Have you rebooted your computer to see if this helps?

You could try these commands from an elevated command prompt. It may be that the network needs resetting.

Go Start > All Programs > Accessories
Right click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator (elevated command prompt) then do the following:
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh int ipv4 reset
netsh int ipv6 reset

The commands reset and clear out any accrued rubbish in the network system.

I should probably have said: steps I used just before error occurred, as opposed to "reproduce" as I cannot reproduce 100% of the time. As I mentioned in my first post, it occurs frequently but not always.

Brand new profile is new clean profile, out of the box, no changes made whatsoever. Yes, it is occurring in BOTH my default profile (which has extensions and some config tweaks) and fresh clean profile.

This is a Linux thread....
You are referring to steps which Windows users would follow.

I don't use an AV, I don't need to flusdhdns, renew and release my ip address, etc. Believe me. And rebooting? This problem has been occurring for months now.... This means LOTS of reboots....