Firefox and derivatives on linux, frequent dead clicks on tabs at top of screen

[Zepp]

I started noticing this issue a week ago or so and it's basically made gecko based browsers a no go to me for the time being.

With several tabs open, quickly moving the mouse to select another tab often makes my cursor hit the top of the screen. For some reason the way gecko browsers work in linux it can too frequently not register that the cursor is over the tab, so you click to select or middle click to close and nothing happens. It requires you to avoid the top pixel space of the tab to consistently register the click.

I troubleshot with chatgpt for a while and it basically said, it's a gecko browser thing on linux, you cannot completely fix it, only mitigate it. but none of the mitigations worked well enough for me to continue to use these browsers.

On windows this is not an issue as I use Floorp at work and never experience it. Also I never get this issue with chrome/blink based browsers on Linux or Windows.

Really sucks because I was just looking forward to going back to gecko(Waterfox to be exact)

Have you other linux users noticed this issue?

 

[Steltek]

I can't say that I've noticed anything like this recently on either Firefox or Waterfox running on Linux Mint with the MATE desktop environment.

Could it possibly be an extension issue?

 

[mikeymikec]

I haven't seen this issue either (Firefox with Linux Mint 21.1). I can click wherever I like within a tab and it registers the click.

 

[Zepp]

This issue was present on 2 separate machines, one debian 12 and the other 13, tried with Xfce, MATE, GNOME and Budgie desktops(all x11 not wayland) with 3 different themes(Numix, Qogir, Orcis)
on Firefox(esr) Waterfox and librewolf(all deb installs waterfox I also tried flatpak). I could reproduce it very consistently.

open about 6 tabs, then quickly click through each at the top of the screen. after 2-3 clicks one tab would not select. I could even just pass the mouse over them without clicking and see some tabs not getting highlighted as the cursor passed over.

If you guys dont see this at all I am quite confused what the issue is on my side.

 

[Ken g6]

Maybe your window is not fully maximized?

I'm on LibreWolf lately, which doesn't get updated quite as fast as Firefox.

 

[Steltek]

This issue was present on 2 separate machines, one debian 12 and the other 13, tried with Xfce, MATE, GNOME and Budgie desktops(all x11 not wayland) with 3 different themes(Numix, Qogir, Orcis)
on Firefox(esr) Waterfox and librewolf(all deb installs waterfox I also tried flatpak). I could reproduce it very consistently.

open about 6 tabs, then quickly click through each at the top of the screen. after 2-3 clicks one tab would not select. I could even just pass the mouse over them without clicking and see some tabs not getting highlighted as the cursor passed over.

If you guys dont see this at all I am quite confused what the issue is on my side.

I just went in and did this in both Firefox and Waterfox on my old 7700k based Linux Mint box without a problem. Opened 8 different tabs, and was able to randomly jump back and forth between them as fast as I could move and click the mouse.

It also doesn't occur on my Linux Mint VM either, so I don't know what to tell you. Both are running MATE desktop environments. My Mint VM also has two separate copies of Waterfox running -- one natively, the other from a flatpak (don't ask why - I was experimenting with something once and never removed the flatpak). Both work fine for me.

The only issue I see is a slight display delay due to my having the browser option being configured to display tab previews; however, I can click on any tab and it immediately responds.

All that being said, I have no doubt there is a bug if you can reproduce the issue on multiple machines. Why we aren't seeing it may come back to differences in how our browsers are configured. Mine are configured to Hades and back; I've turned so many flags on and off within about:config within my browsers that I doubt that even I could EVER reproduce these particular installations again.

Also, are you running a video card or running on integrated graphics? Both of my permanent Linux installations are running on integrated graphics. If you are running a video card, maybe it is a hardware acceleration issue with the browser?

Finally, do you see the same issue if you use CTRL-TAB to move across the loaded tabs instead of using the mouse?

 

[Zepp]

Maybe your window is not fully maximized?

I'm on LibreWolf lately, which doesn't get updated quite as fast as Firefox.

it's definitely maximized

I just went in and did this in both Firefox and Waterfox on my old 7700k based Linux Mint box without a problem. Opened 8 different tabs, and was able to randomly jump back and forth between them as fast as I could move and click the mouse.

Were you keeping the mouse at the top most of the screen while moving over the tabs? also I clicked pretty fast. It seems like there is a slight delay in the tab detecting the mouse hovering over it, so sometimes I click just before the tab would detect the cursor hover and it doesnt register the click to select the tab.

Also, are you running a video card or running on integrated graphics? Both of my permanent Linux installations are running on integrated graphics. If you are running a video card, maybe it is a hardware acceleration issue with the browser?

Im on integrated, both are Ryzen apus with vega.

Finally, do you see the same issue if you use CTRL-TAB to move across the loaded tabs instead of using the mouse?

no that works as intended

This is what chatgpt said about the issue:
"This issue is likely tied to Firefox’s handling of window and mouse events, which differs from Chromium-based browsers. Given the peculiar way it interacts with the system’s window manager, especially regarding tab switching and drag behavior, it might be a bug or specific quirk in Firefox's rendering engine or event loop.

Firefox’s Default Window Management Behavior, unlike Chromium-based browsers, has more extensive support for non-client area events (e.g., the title bar, borders) and custom window decorations, which may be causing interactions that don’t happen with Chromium browsers. When you click near the top of the window (where the tab bar is located), Firefox might think you are trying to drag the window or unmaximize it, whereas Chromium might handle this more smoothly due to differences in the UI toolkit or input handling."



I think i need to send a bug report to mozilla or ask in their forums but it's kinda cooled me off to using the browser now.

 

[Steltek]

it's definitely maximized


Were you keeping the mouse at the top most of the screen while moving over the tabs? also I clicked pretty fast. It seems like there is a slight delay in the tab detecting the mouse hovering over it, so sometimes I click just before the tab would detect the cursor hover and it doesnt register the click to select the tab.


Im on integrated, both are Ryzen apus with vega.


no that works as intended

This is what chatgpt said about the issue:
"This issue is likely tied to Firefox’s handling of window and mouse events, which differs from Chromium-based browsers. Given the peculiar way it interacts with the system’s window manager, especially regarding tab switching and drag behavior, it might be a bug or specific quirk in Firefox's rendering engine or event loop.

Firefox’s Default Window Management Behavior, unlike Chromium-based browsers, has more extensive support for non-client area events (e.g., the title bar, borders) and custom window decorations, which may be causing interactions that don’t happen with Chromium browsers. When you click near the top of the window (where the tab bar is located), Firefox might think you are trying to drag the window or unmaximize it, whereas Chromium might handle this more smoothly due to differences in the UI toolkit or input handling."



I think i need to send a bug report to mozilla or ask in their forums but it's kinda cooled me off to using the browser now.

I'm not seeing it, but it may just be an observational bias on my part as I (and likely others) don't do things exactly like you do.

Out of curiosity, have you tried to load an older version of the browser just for testing purposes to see if the problem previously existed in older prior releases?

Anyway, you've documented you are seeing it on two machines with separate distros and with different desktop environments. As a result, if nothing else, it is a bug for your use case and thus worth making a bug report to Mozilla.

The way they are going, though, Mozilla will probably respond by trying to implement some more AI helper slop to "assist users in properly selecting browser tabs" or something equally asinine and nonsensical instead of actually fixing the problem.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm sure Ryzen APUs are using the amdgpu driver as am I (6700 XT).

My default Firefox profile has the title bar enabled so I tried the same thing with a spare, pretty much untouched Firefox profile, but it still worked fine for me.

 

[Steltek]

Mine has the title bar, the file menu, and the bookmarks bar all enabled.

Beyond that, I don't see anything else I have that is non-standard in the actual interface settings. The only tab-related extensions I have running for now are Ad-Blocker for Youtube, and Session Boss to back up my tabs (since both Firefox and Waterfox sometimes have a nasty habit of loosing open tabs).

 

[Zepp]

I'm not seeing it, but it may just be an observational bias on my part as I (and likely others) don't do things exactly like you do.

Anyway, you've documented you are seeing it on two machines with separate distros and with different desktop environments. As a result, if nothing else, it is a bug for your use case and thus worth making a bug report to Mozilla.

Out of curiosity, have you tried to load an older version of the browser just for testing purposes to see if the problem previously existed in older prior releases?

It could be the way I use it, but I don't think I am doing anything that unusual. But I really don't recall having this issue the last time I tried using waterfox though which was a few months ago. I will try an older build and see if it's there.

The way they are going, though, Mozilla will probably respond by trying to implement some more AI helper slop to "assist users in properly selecting browser tabs" or something equally asinine and nonsensical instead of actually fixing the problem.

yeah I have no respect for that company anymore. I was a firefox user since the early 2000s when it was called Mozilla browser. I switched to waterfox a few years after it came out and used it until more recently when I started trying and liking blink browsers

anyway, thanks for the input all, I will do a little more testing and probably make a bug report