pages show as loaded but no content is displayed

Bug #86477 reported by Joachim Noreiko
20
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
firefox (Ubuntu)
Incomplete
Undecided
Mozilla Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox

Firefox occasionally loads pages without showing content. The localtion bar shows the new URL and the title bar the new title, but previous page is still displayed in the content area, or a blank page in the case of a new tab.

Other open tabs and windows are not affected.
Opening a new tab or window to load the desired page has the same result.
Opening a different address in the affected tab or window works normally -- it feels like it's the particular URL that firefox isn't working with.
This is a different URL each time this happens, and nothing in that page indicates a problem -- when this happens it's a page that was loading fine earlier.

Revision history for this message
didier (did447-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Hi,

Does it display the page if you resize the window?

Changed in firefox:
assignee: nobody → did447
status: Unconfirmed → Needs Info
Revision history for this message
Joachim Noreiko (jnoreiko) wrote :

Yes, it does.

Revision history for this message
didier (did447-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Marked as "fix Released" because I can't reproduce it anymore.

Changed in firefox:
assignee: did447 → nobody
status: Needs Info → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Decavolt (decavolt) wrote :

I'm still seeing this. Resizing the browser has no effect, even after reload.

Firefox 2.0.0.3+1-0ubuntu2

Revision history for this message
Nick Griffiths (nicholasgriffiths) wrote :

Just wanted to say I am also occasionally experiencing this problem. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce it on a whim at the moment, but I will post again if and when I can.

Revision history for this message
Luke Sandberg (lsandber) wrote :

I can confirm this problem on Fiesty running 2.0.0.3 often I will click a link from google and it will download everything but the google search page will still be displayed instead of the new page, but the title and url have been updated. I've round that if i resize the window It will render the page and everrything will be as normal.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 86477] Re: pages show as loaded but no content is displayed

On Mon, May 07, 2007 at 03:17:08AM -0000, Luke Sandberg wrote:
> I can confirm this problem on Fiesty running 2.0.0.3 often I will click
> a link from google and it will download everything but the google search
> page will still be displayed instead of the new page, but the title and
> url have been updated. I've round that if i resize the window It will
> render the page and everrything will be as normal.
>

This is probably a problem induced by an extension. If you still see
this even when running in safe mode, let me know:

 # firefox -safe-mode

 - Alexander

Changed in firefox:
assignee: nobody → mozilla-bugs
status: Fix Released → Needs Info
Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

It's still happening now and then on my machine. I've tried several versions, including 2.0.0.3+1-0ubuntu2, 2.0.0.4+1-0ubuntu1 and 2.0.0.4 tarball version downloaded from mozilla.com.
I agree with Alexander that it might be caused by an extension. Unfortunately I have more than 10 extensions installed and I can't locate the bad one. The problem happens quite randomly. Every time it happens and I restart firefox , it will disappear for quite a while and I have no idea when it's gonna happen again. Maybe we can all provide our installed extension list and see if there's something useful. Here's my list of firefox extensions:

Adblock 0.5.3.043 (Problem still exists after this one being disabled)
Download Statusbar 0.9.4.6
Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.05.1
Firebug 1.05
Foxylicious 0.7
FoxyProxy 2.5.3
Google Gears 0.1.47.0
Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.0.20070217L
JSView 1.2.9
Live HTTP Header 0.13.1
MeasureIt 0.3.6
ProxyButton 0.2.7
Tamper Data 9.8.1 (Disabled)
Web Developer 1.1.3

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 08:24:00AM -0000, Joe Cai wrote:
> It's still happening now and then on my machine. I've tried several versions, including 2.0.0.3+1-0ubuntu2, 2.0.0.4+1-0ubuntu1 and 2.0.0.4 tarball version downloaded from mozilla.com.
> I agree with Alexander that it might be caused by an extension. Unfortunately I have more than 10 extensions installed and I can't locate the bad one. The problem happens quite randomly. Every time it happens and I restart firefox , it will disappear for quite a while and I have no idea when it's gonna happen again. Maybe we can all provide our installed extension list and see if there's something useful. Here's my list of firefox extensions:

So did running in -safe-mode (as outlined in other mail) bring you the
expected stability? If so, uninstalling one extension by one might be
worth the efford.

Of course, getting lists of other users that run into this might allow
us to match the bad extension. But if you need a fix now, better try yourself.

 - Alexander

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

On 6/5/07, Alexander Sack <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> So did running in -safe-mode (as outlined in other mail) bring you the
> expected stability? If so, uninstalling one extension by one might be
> worth the efford.
I'm not quite sure about this one actually. I've never run firefox in
safe mode for very long.But so far I never run into the problem in
safe mode either. Uninstalling the extensions one by one would just
take quite a few days as the problem does't happen regularly,
sometimes once in two days ,sometimes in a couple of minutes. It's
difficult to determine when it's safe to say an uninstalled extension
is innocent.
>
> Of course, getting lists of other users that run into this might allow
> us to match the bad extension. But if you need a fix now, better try yourself.
Yeah, I'll try. Currently I disable most extensions except firebug and
web developer , both of which are in heavy use so I can hardly live
without them. I'll wait for a few days before I enable the next
extension. I'll give my report back if I find something helpful.
Thank you.
>
> - Alexander
>
> --
> pages show as loaded but no content is displayed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/86477
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Joachim Noreiko (jnoreiko) wrote :

The only extensions I have are:
- context search 0.2 (which firefox warns isn't compatible with 2.0.0.3 anyway)
- DOM inspector.

I've been running firefox in safe mode as suggested in an earlier comment, but a because of a bug with hibernation since Feisty I'm not able to run firefox for the length of time it usually seems to need before the bug begins to happen.

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

On 6/6/07, Joachim Noreiko <email address hidden> wrote:
> The only extensions I have are:
> - context search 0.2 (which firefox warns isn't compatible with 2.0.0.3 anyway)
> - DOM inspector.
>
> I've been running firefox in safe mode as suggested in an earlier
> comment, but a because of a bug with hibernation since Feisty I'm not
> able to run firefox for the length of time it usually seems to need
> before the bug begins to happen.
It still happens here in safe mode. At first I enabled only two
extensions and after several hours I still got blank pages with loaded
status. The I tried safe mode for another one hour or so. Again I ran
into the same trouble:(
I don't know where to start now. But I think this might be caused by
some underlying libraries since running the version built by
mozilla.com makes no difference on this issue. I used to run debian
sid on my box for a long time before switching to ubuntu 7.04. The
same firefox profile worked well on debian (I used the mozilla.com
version instead of iceweasel).
>

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 12:48:21AM -0000, Joe Cai wrote:
> On 6/6/07, Joachim Noreiko <email address hidden> wrote:
> > The only extensions I have are:
> > - context search 0.2 (which firefox warns isn't compatible with 2.0.0.3 anyway)
> > - DOM inspector.
> >
> > I've been running firefox in safe mode as suggested in an earlier
> > comment, but a because of a bug with hibernation since Feisty I'm not
> > able to run firefox for the length of time it usually seems to need
> > before the bug begins to happen.
> It still happens here in safe mode. At first I enabled only two
> extensions and after several hours I still got blank pages with loaded
> status. The I tried safe mode for another one hour or so. Again I ran
> into the same trouble:(
> I don't know where to start now. But I think this might be caused by
> some underlying libraries since running the version built by
> mozilla.com makes no difference on this issue. I used to run debian
> sid on my box for a long time before switching to ubuntu 7.04. The
> same firefox profile worked well on debian (I used the mozilla.com
> version instead of iceweasel).

In -safe-mode, plugins are still enabled (in contrast to
extensions!). Maybe try to remove them as well. You can see what
plugins are installed when going to URL: about:plugins.

some plugins might be installed in your profile directory:

 $HOME/.mozilla/plugins

.. just move the files in there somewhere else to test.

or in global plugins directory:

 /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/

... those should not be removed by hand, but you should uninstall the
ubuntu package that installed them. You can search for the
ubuntupackage by running:

 dpkg -S /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libPLUGINNAME.so

If there is no package found for that shared library you probably
installed globally by hand and can move those files somewhere else as
well for testing (like for the profile plugins above).

 - Alexander

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

On 6/7/07, Alexander Sack <email address hidden> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 12:48:21AM -0000, Joe Cai wrote:
> In -safe-mode, plugins are still enabled (in contrast to
> extensions!). Maybe try to remove them as well. You can see what
> plugins are installed when going to URL: about:plugins.
>
> some plugins might be installed in your profile directory:
>
> $HOME/.mozilla/plugins
>
> .. just move the files in there somewhere else to test.
>
> or in global plugins directory:
>
> /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
>
> ... those should not be removed by hand, but you should uninstall the
> ubuntu package that installed them. You can search for the
> ubuntupackage by running:
>
> dpkg -S /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libPLUGINNAME.so
>
> If there is no package found for that shared library you probably
> installed globally by hand and can move those files somewhere else as
> well for testing (like for the profile plugins above).
>
> - Alexander
>
Hmmm, all clear now, with no plugins and no extensions . Let's wait and see.

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

Hi, Alexander,
I can confirm that this issue also exists in safe mode without any
plugin. I recorded the session with recordmydesktop . The recording
can be downloaded from http://freo.3322.org/tmp/firefox.ogg .

On 6/7/07, Alexander Sack <email address hidden> wrote:
> In -safe-mode, plugins are still enabled (in contrast to
> extensions!). Maybe try to remove them as well. You can see what
> plugins are installed when going to URL: about:plugins.
>
> some plugins might be installed in your profile directory:
>
> $HOME/.mozilla/plugins
>
> .. just move the files in there somewhere else to test.
>
> or in global plugins directory:
>
> /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
>
> ... those should not be removed by hand, but you should uninstall the
> ubuntu package that installed them. You can search for the
> ubuntupackage by running:
>
> dpkg -S /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libPLUGINNAME.so
>
> If there is no package found for that shared library you probably
> installed globally by hand and can move those files somewhere else as
> well for testing (like for the profile plugins above).
>
> - Alexander
>
--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Harm van Bakel (hvbakel) wrote :

I can also confirm this problem (glad to finally see I'm not the only one). Unfortunately it is notoriously difficult to reproduce since it seems to occur rather randomly. Sometimes I can go a week without any problems, then suddenly it may happen several times per day. I can also confirm that this problem is not linked to any extensions or plugins, since it still happens when running firefox with a clean profile and all plugins disabled. It does seem that the problem occurs less frequently when running swiftfox rather than firefox, but it's difficult to put in numbers.

Revision history for this message
Madman (advancedlogic) wrote :

i believe i have the solution, have you guys been playing with themes lately.

i have been changing my themes in gnome and i have changed everything to the basic stock look, and guess what everything is working fine now.

you guys should try this, if it works.
please tell me in my email
<email address hidden>

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Madman thank you adn i will take a look at it but please remember that is not a solution rather than a workaround and the problem is still out there.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

I am still unable to reproduce this bug for some reason on feisty and gutsy. can you please try with firefox 2.0.0.6 from repos and let me know if its still an issue?

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

The problem still exists on firefox 2.0.0.6. Due to the fact that only
a few of the firefox users are experiencing this issue. I suspect it
might be a hardware specific problem. And I've sent some emails asking
people about their hardware configuration. Unfortunately I was not
able to get enough replies. But I do get it from Harm van Bakel that
he's using ATI Radeon Mobility which I also have in my laptop.I'm
curious if this is something common or not:p

On 8/4/07, John Vivirito <email address hidden> wrote:
> I am still unable to reproduce this bug for some reason on feisty and
> gutsy. can you please try with firefox 2.0.0.6 from repos and let me
> know if its still an issue?
>
> --
> pages show as loaded but no content is displayed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/86477
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Joachim Noreiko (jnoreiko) wrote :

Sorry to break the pattern, but I have a GeForce 6600, and I'm using a desktop machine.

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

oops, at least i know i'm wrong:| thanks;)
On 8/4/07, Joachim Noreiko <email address hidden> wrote:
> Sorry to break the pattern, but I have a GeForce 6600, and I'm using a
> desktop machine.
>
> --
> pages show as loaded but no content is displayed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/86477
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

How many of you are using beryl/compiz or another form of desktop effects?

Revision history for this message
Joe Cai (joey-cai) wrote :

Hi, John
I don't use bery or compiz.What i'm using is the default ubuntu desktop setup.

On 8/5/07, John Vivirito <email address hidden> wrote:
> How many of you are using beryl/compiz or another form of desktop
> effects?
>
> --
> pages show as loaded but no content is displayed
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/86477
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Regards,
Joe

Revision history for this message
Hz (harritj) wrote :

Add me to the ranks of "wounded", started occuring today, restarting firefox has no effect as this happens randomly, albeit when first happened, all remaining attempts draws blank pages. Resizing window does draw the page(tiresome workaround).

Vanilla kubuntu(7.04) install. No FF plugins nor extensions, happens when run normally aswell as in safe mode.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 (installed from repo)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Installed as you can see from above on a laptop, no hibernation in use(only lock screen while away). Restarting Xorg had no effect either, bug occured on the 3rd tab I opened.

Only thing I can add to the mix of oddities is that this happened after ~7days of uptime, 'top' shows 140M/1G free. First time since clean install that uptime has been this long.

*disclaimer*No other apps where harmed during the attempts to reproduce the bug*disclaimer* ;-)

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 86477] Re: pages show as loaded but no content is displayed

On Sun, Sep 02, 2007 at 04:15:13PM -0000, Hz wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 72812 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/72812
>
> Add me to the ranks of "wounded", started occuring today, restarting
> firefox has no effect as this happens randomly, albeit when first
> happened, all remaining attempts draws blank pages. Resizing window does
> draw the page(tiresome workaround).
>
> Vanilla kubuntu(7.04) install. No FF plugins nor extensions, happens
> when run normally aswell as in safe mode.

Do you use desktop effects?

 - Alexander

Revision history for this message
Hz (harritj) wrote :

No, vanilla kubuntu install. I cant stand eye candy, only "effect" I have is auto hide of the panel.

Revision history for this message
goto (gotolaunchpad) wrote :

Heyho :)

I have this problem since more than year now. It was already the case with FF 1.5. Im using Debian SID (so FF changed to "iceweasel" now). The problem persists.

Maybe interesting could be the following fact:
I had a DELL notebook and changed to a Thinkpad some time ago. They have very different hardware configuriation (Nvidia/ATI). So the problem seems to be independent of hardware components to me. But I copied my mozilla-profile from the old laptop to new Thinkpad - so this could be a problem with the profile... I set up Debian from scratch on the new laptop. So, I don't think this has anything to do with libraries.
I can confirm that it's independent of extensions.

I'm using KDE without desktop effects (no AIGLX). I'm custom KDE themes (someone mentioned it could has somthing to do with themes).
It's a very annoying bug. I always thought I was the only guy experiencing this issue, glad to meet you all in here :)
So the best thing is to find similarities of all affected users - please post more information about your configurations with could be important. (Remember the movie The Cube, where the prisoneers have to seek for similarities to solve the problem) ;)

Greetings
Marc

Revision history for this message
cgh (bugs-launchpad) wrote :

I know this is a Dubuntu forum, but if it helps I'm seeing this exact bug with a clean/updated install of Fedora Core 7, Firefox 2.0.0.5, and default extensions and settings. I still have the default Fedora Core Gnome theme. Yes I do have an "ATI Radeon Mobility" video card. I'm also running in Dual Head (Xinerama) mode. I'm curious if others are running in dual head mode as well.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

On Mon, Oct 15, 2007 at 07:44:22PM -0000, cgh wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 72812 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/72812
>
> I know this is a Dubuntu forum, but if it helps I'm seeing this exact
> bug with a clean/updated install of Fedora Core 7, Firefox 2.0.0.5, and
> default extensions and settings. I still have the default Fedora Core
> Gnome theme. Yes I do have an "ATI Radeon Mobility" video card. I'm
> also running in Dual Head (Xinerama) mode. I'm curious if others are
> running in dual head mode as well.
>

So does reverting to default them or using just one monitor help for you?

 - Alexander

Revision history for this message
goto (gotolaunchpad) wrote :

I've got a
ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [ATI Mobility FireGL V5200]

but *not* in dual head mode...

Marc

Revision history for this message
eddie (sliders66) wrote :

When I try to open www.citicards.com , I can see the contents loading,
but when it is done loading most of the page disappears( most importantly
the login user & password text-boxes).

The website says it supports Firefox on Windows & Mac OS, it does not mention Linux

Revision history for this message
Dax Marola (lord.xadar) wrote :

In my case it seems the bug is related to "low" bandwidth... I'll explain now what I mean...
We have 3 workstations, all linked to a router... when my father's workstation is on and downloading through eMule at a moderate/fast rate, I get the blank pages, same thing on my father's workstation's browser (Firefox, this time on Windows XP)...
Note: Sorry for the bad english...

Revision history for this message
Godric (godric) wrote :

Hi,

Got the same--or similar--problem since I moved from Debian Etch to Ubuntu a couple weeks ago. Oddly enough, it happens only with Google search results. For the first time I thought it was a Google problem, but I was never able to reproduce it with any other browser. Since then I have observed it twice on Windows XP (at work). On Ubuntu it occurs every three or four searches and sometimes I must reload pages three or more times.

The problem seems to be not connected with graphic adapter driver (a week or two after installation switched to NVidia driver--no observable change occured), nor compiz/Emerald (installed a few days ago, and no change either).

Configuration: ASRock K7S8X, Athlon XP 2200+ (1800 MHz), 1 GB RAM, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic, nVidia GeForce2 ddr with driver NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 1.0-9639 Mon Apr 1 2007 (heh, very funny, indeed). GNOME 2.20.1. Firefox identifying itself as: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; pl-PL; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071204 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.11. Installed plugins: AdBlock Plus 0.7.5.3, del.icio.us 1.2.1, ScrapBook 1.3.2, ubufox 0.4~beta1. No themes. Polish and English (GB) language pack (both 2.0.0.7).

Revision history for this message
chui (chui-usp) wrote :

Hey, I have FireFox and Ubuntu 7.10 and I found the same problem some minutes ago. Well, I disabled the ubufox extension (Tools > Add-ons) and this fixed everything! Hope this help you. Cya! Merry Xmas!

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