Strange Firefox issue on MacBook

[DesignDJ]

sometimes when viewing a page with flash, my keyboard stops working. If i quite firefox it fixes the issue....

any suggestions? i've actually had it happen on my g5 too.

 

[3nm]

you might wanna try an optimized FF that specifically designed for your mactel or G5. but i don't know for sure if that's gonna fix anything.

i use the regular FF 2.0.0.1 and it's really buggy. at times it wouldn't play .flv and sometimes it would use up > 90% of the CPU.

 

[diamond3]

I have had that happen on my G4. I usually just click on the desktop and type a letter and then go back into ff and it works normal. Its kind of weird.

 

[clevin]

actually, just click the desktop, move the focus away from firefox, then focus on firefox again, would be fine.

 

[DesignDJ]

thanks, glad this is normal, although it shouldn't happen at all.

 

[clevin]

i think it mostly happen when u open a pop-up, so a workaround might be
goto about:config
and change the value of "browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction" to "0", default is "2"

(also, make sure ur "browser.link.open_newwindow" is "3", this means u always open a link in new tab instead of a new window)

 

[joekix]

i think it mostly happen when u open a pop-up, so a workaround might be
goto about:config
and change the value of "privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins" to "3", default is "2"

how do i get to about:config? thanks

 

[diamond3]

just type it into the address bar. Then scroll down and find it and double click. A window will pop open and you can enter the new value to 3

 

[drake]

I have a similar issue on my PC. Some pages seem to hang with the circle thing just stops, then it all goes again. Can't do a thing on Firefox till its done its thing. Some sites are worse than others for causing this. I'm trying the above solution to see it it helps. Frankly, I think version 2.0 is buggy.

 

[clevin]

how do i get to about:config? thanks

1. type "about:config" in address bar and press enter
2. type in any part of the string in the filter bar, its like quick search, or spotlight if u want.
3. double click the string and make change.

 

[mkrishnan]

I was curious about Clevin's suggestion, so I did a quick google. If anyone else is curious, here is more information:

Link

Background

To get around the default popup blocker, some sites use Flash or Java applets to open unrequested windows. This preference controls popups initiated by plugins.

Possible values and their effects

0
No restrictions on plugin initiated popups.

1
Limit the number of plugin initiated popups to value defined in dom.popup_maximum. (even with popup blocker disabled)

2
Block all plugin initiated popups. (whitelisted sites will still be able to open popups) (Default in Firefox 1.5 and above)

3
Block all plugin initiated popups, even those on whitelisted sites.

Caveats
Though rare, some plugin content produces legitimate (requested) popups. You will need to manually add such sites to your popup whitelist if this preference is 2.

But for this, wouldn't there need to be an explicit whitelist item before 2 and 3 behave differently?

 

[clevin]

for get what i said, i tried, and it didn't work, i know there is one number i should change, but before i find the right one, ...

I will post back

haha, i found it, the string is
"browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction" change the value to "0", (also, make sure ur "browser.link.open_newwindow" is "3") , and then there will be no popups, all those popups that supposed to come out will open a new tab instead, thus might eliminate the problem of lose focus in text area.

 

[mkrishnan]

I'm not so sure this is a pop-up issue, Clev....

Look at this:

http://ruk.ca/discuss/3917

Well, in any event, of all of these people, someone should be noticing an actual pop-up if pop-ups were causing this problem, shouldn't they?

There was one user in there that suggested Google Toolbar causes this... I've personally never used Google Toolbar. Sometimes, I have also noted, however, that if FF stops responding to the KB, changing focus to another app and back also occasionally resolves this.

 

[e12a]

I have had this happen several times and it is annoying. Usually I just close the window and open up another by Command+N. its kind of a hassle. And no it isn't caused by Google Toolbar as I do not have it installed...nor any plug-ins for that matter.

 

[clevin]

I'm not so sure this is a pop-up issue, Clev....

Look at this:

http://ruk.ca/discuss/3917

Well, in any event, of all of these people, someone should be noticing an actual pop-up if pop-ups were causing this problem, shouldn't they?

There was one user in there that suggested Google Toolbar causes this... I've personally never used Google Toolbar. Sometimes, I have also noted, however, that if FF stops responding to the KB, changing focus to another app and back also occasionally resolves this.

possible, all i can do is guessing, I do have google toolbar tho. But this bug happens too rare for me to trace it...

 

[mkrishnan]

Of late I've been using Safari, too, but I do remember this happening occasionally and not seeing an obvious solution.

The one other thing though, that occasionally is an issue, is migrating a profile from FF 1.5 to FF 2.0 -- I've had disastrous results with this. FF 2 only really began working stably for me when I deleted my Profile before installing it.

 

[clevin]

Of late I've been using Safari, too, but I do remember this happening occasionally and not seeing an obvious solution.

The one other thing though, that occasionally is an issue, is migrating a profile from FF 1.5 to FF 2.0 -- I've had disastrous results with this. FF 2 only really began working stably for me when I deleted my Profile before installing it.

I would think the problem of migration probably comes from the extensions. personally, i have no experiences. I always has back up of my bookmarks, paswords and extensions themes, playing with gecko for so long, i really can't treat myself as a firefox end-user anymore, lol....

 

[northernmunky]

The same thing is happening to me, sometimes the address bar, sometimes on a webpage.... right now my google search is accepting type is is ignoring the enter key. I noticed this bug happened a lot more in the beta but just a lot less in the final, the solution being to take focus away from the browser and come back in.

This is probably a known issue, I'm looking at some Mozilla forum threads at the moment and their are several others with the same problem.