Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

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Omnimaxus

Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Omnimaxus » 2018-09-02, 03:02

Hi, everyone. Number one, thanks for the recent activity in discussing this situation. Number two, Night Wing, I understand what you are saying, but to paraphrase Sgt. Joe Friday (of "Dragnet" fame), "just the facts, sir." Meaning all I can tell you is what I see and know to be fact. Version 27 of Pale Moon was just fine prior to version 28 (with regard to the "X's" on the tabs). I tested both versions (with clean profiles). Version 27 still was fine inside and out, even after 25 - 30 consecutive starts/closes. Version 28 exhibited abnormal behavior at random. No "X's" for any tabs, yet had "X's" for all tabs other times. Again, "just the facts, sir." I don't know what else to say. Maybe Moonchild can use this as a reference point, and comb over the code going from version 27 to version 28. I don't know. Number three, everyone, please keep in mind what tenseys posted. All of the tabs in his pictures had "X's." That is the way it is supposed to be by default. That is not happening in my case for whatever reason. Number four, please, everyone, keep a closer eye on the tabs going forward. If there are, in fact, missing "X's" at random, please report back here (as a favor to ourselves). Pale Moon is an EXCELLENT browser, and I am happy to invest some of my personal time to help Moonchild and his team for the purpose of quality assurance and helping ensure that we, the masses, have a viable alternative browser that we can count on. Thanks to all.

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Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-09-02, 05:56

If you want to stick to the facts: Pale Moon 28 is a milestone release with a new generation of the layout and rendering engine that will act differently in certain situations.

For example: "Not updating your video drivers" may actually be a bad thing, because the new milestone might want to use a feature in the new version of the rendering engine that the driver does not properly support; something v27 did not try to use. That doesn't mean it's "not broken" on v27, but that it's simply not exposed to you.

Not that i think that this is what's going on here since your driver seems to be recent, although a bug in it is of course still possible, but it is important to understand how this works. Even if you keep every single other thing exactly the same, the upgrade can still expose a problem that wasn't there before, but that isn't actually in our code (interop problems or bugs in other software).

If it occurs after "x number of browser restarts" and then keeps occurring after that, then that clearly indicates it is something at the system level. It has to be, because the browser code will get a fresh start every time and the initialization will be the same. I you haven't restarted your system in a long time, then it may be solved with a simple reboot (memory fragmentation does occur, also in video cards, so if you've heavily used the graphics before it may have left your vram in a fragmented state, for example, making texture allocation for Direct2D or layers fail).

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Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Cassette » 2018-09-02, 10:36

I haven't experienced this issue so I started a new profile to test under similar conditions. I'm using Windows 10 x64 1803 and I have a Radeon RX 470 graphics so same generation as the 480. I opened the browser and closed it 20 or more times. I still can't reproduce the issue. I will note, however, that my drivers are slightly newer so that is something to try.
Driver Version 24.20.13001.1010
Driver Date 8-2-2018

Omnimaxus

Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Omnimaxus » 2018-09-03, 03:00

Update:

Updated video drivers (AMD Radeon drivers; version 18.8.2 - latest "official" drivers from AMD)

PM 28.0.0.1 is OK re: tabs (no add-ons; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes); X's showed up each and every time

PM 28.0.0.1 had one time with no X's in tabs (after Adblock Latitude add-on install; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes)

PM 28.0.0.1 had two times with no X's in tabs (after uninstalling Adblock Latitude; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes)

Uninstalled PM 28.0.0.1 (followed Moonchild's instructions for a clean removal of Pale Moon)

Installed PM 28.0.1 (clean install)

PM 28.0.1 is OK re: tabs (no add-ons; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes); X's showed up each and every time

PM 28.0.1 had one time with no X's in tabs (after Adblock Latitude add-on install; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes)

PM 28.0.1 had one time with no X's in tabs (after uninstalling Adblock Latitude; 20 - 25 consecutive starts/closes)

Uninstalled/reinstalled PM 28.0.1 (clean uninstall/reinstall)

PM 28.0.1 had one time with no X's in tab (after clean uninstall/reinstall; multiple consecutive starts/closes)

tenseys

Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by tenseys » 2018-09-03, 08:45

I tried a new profile and adding that extension and tried starting/closing a number of times and the "x" is always there.

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Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Cassette » 2018-09-03, 10:14

Even with a fresh profile, installing Adblock Latitude, and closing/starting the browser 30 times I can't get the close buttons to not appear on the tabs. Can you check on the about:config setting browser.tabs.closeButtons when the close buttons on the tabs don't show up?

Omnimaxus

Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Omnimaxus » 2018-09-03, 17:30

Update (again):

Reinstalled 28.0.1 (clean install). Interesting development. Started Pale Moon multiple times. The "X's" in tabs kept showing up until this one time, when there was also an accompanying artifact onscreen. See attached picture. When I hovered my mouse over the artifact, it disappeared. I did not click my mouse or anything. Come to think of it, this did occur once before, but I am documenting it here for posterity in case if someone may think there is a correlation somehow or somewhere (be it within Pale Moon's code, or from there being a problem between my video driver and Pale Moon). Also, Cassette, I did check re: the tabs in the "about:config" screen. See other attached picture. Lastly, Moonchild, I understand, but how is it that I never see this problem in other browsers, including Opera (my other go-to browser)?

Thanks to all!
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Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-09-05, 07:05

The artifact points plainly to a problem with your video driver's compositing and/or layers acceleration (direct2d) not working correctly. the "black stripe" will be the same underlying issue that also causes your "x" not to show up: the compositing texture is being dropped on the floor somewhere.

Why this doesn't display in other browsers? The same reason why certain glitches in drivers only show up with very specific games with specific settings: many of these require many conditions to be a certain way before they show up. If a browser has different rendering, a different engine or even as simple as a slower startup allowing the driver to catch up, might avoid this problem.
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Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by BillZM » 2018-09-05, 20:07

Picking up on Moonchild's advise that the artifact points to compositing/layers issues, and assuming you've already updated video drivers and experimented with hardware acceleration, presumably leaving it on:

You might install the Pale Moon Commander extension and experiment with settings at Advanced Preferences/Graphics (especially the Rendering tab). You could do the same of course with individual preferences in about:config, but Pale Moon Commander gives you a convenient framework for such experimentation. Searching and looking at the same preferences in about:config, though, allows you to recall what the Pale Moon defaults are, which is sometimes helpful.

Omnimaxus

Re: Bug with tabs ... (no "x" on tabs; random occurrence) ...

Unread post by Omnimaxus » 2018-09-06, 02:58

Hi, Moonchild. Thanks. I do have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 card I guess I could test with this problem, and do further troubleshooting that way. But I don't have the time or inclination to take off my PC case and install it again (not right now, anyway). I do, however, have an ASUS hybrid tablet/laptop combo that I could continue to use Pale Moon on, and see if the trouble persists (something tells me it will not, though). And BillZM, thanks. I will try that at some point if I am so inclined. I guess that does it for this thread (for now). I will report back if necessary re: any further issues. Again, thanks to both.

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