Why does this happen to Firefox?

[Rustycat]

I'm using Mint 15 Xfce on my old Dell laptop. At least once every browing session the main window will disappear, leaving just the top and bottom of the browser: http://i.imgur.com/d3Bo5IX.jpg

The only way I can 'fix' it is to quit the browser and restart it. It seems to happen when I touch the touchpad in a certain way/place but I can never reproduce it. Any idea what's causing this?

[DrHu]

You have probably jumped into full-screen mode
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ho ... ull-screen
http://liliputing.com/2008/12/how-to-change-firefoxs-full-screen-hotkey.html

And you should check out your touchpad options under Linux as well as any hotkeys you wanted to use keyboard , which will enable you to quickly switch into or out of firefox diusplay (screen) modes..
http://www-archive.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/moz_shortcuts.html

[Rustycat]

I know what fullscsreen on a browser looks like. If you look at the screenshot I posted you'll see it's clearly not fullscreen mode. Look at the top and bottom of the screen.

[Flemur]

Try these:
- what DrHu suggested even if it's not full-screen; FF sounds confused.
- start firefox without any addons ($ firefox -safe-mode)
- try an empty ~/.mozilla directory (rename/move rather than delete the old one if it's got stuff you want).
- try an older/different FF version (I stick with v18): https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org ... /releases/
(they're very easy to install: just dump the contents into /usr/lib/firefox, but keep firefox.sh).

[Nilla Wafer]

I think Firefox is "going too fast" in a way. New releases and new features are added at a dizzying rate, at least to me. I read somewhere that Seamonkey is kinda-sorta like a stable older version of Firefox with better integration with it's other functions (e-mail, IRC, HTML editing), so I'm trying it out. On Day One it was a little faster than Firefox. Today it's about the same.

But for me it's not just about speed, it's about simplicity and integration. For some reason Firefox and Thunderbird don't fully and properly communicate with each other. Clicking on a link to an e-mail address (mailto:nillawafer@example.com) in Firefox opens T-Bird and goes to my inbox but doesn't open a new "create message" screen. Copying-and-pasting the link into a new compose mail window copies the whole javascript there, so I still have to edit it down to just the e-mail address.

In Seamonkey, BAM! It does what it should, just like FF & TB used to do before version #578,746 came out. I don't know what's up with Firefox and Thunderbird lately, but they keep misbehaving and miscommunicating lately. Gimme the older stable stuff any day.

[shengchieh]

Does clicking the <ESC> helps? When I get something funny, I try clicking various key <ESC>,<F1>, <F2>, etc and see if I can get out.

Also, you can always ask the FF geeks at

http://forums.mozillazine.org/ -> FF support.

Sheng-Chieh

[palo]

I'm using Mint 15 Xfce on my old Dell laptop. At least once every browing session the main window will disappear, leaving just the top and bottom of the browser: http://i.imgur.com/d3Bo5IX.jpg

The only way I can 'fix' it is to quit the browser and restart it. It seems to happen when I touch the touchpad in a certain way/place but I can never reproduce it. Any idea what's causing this?

Hi Rustycat> When I look at your screenshot I see it a little different than you describe. I do not see the bottom of the Firefox window but only the panel. I see the FF title bar with shadow under it indicating that the window has been shaded. The default action for shading (or rollup as it is often called) is to place the cursor on the titlebar and scroll up. To un-shade you would scroll down. However you do scrolling with your mousepad you should try this and confirm that is what is happening. If that effect bothers you it can be disabled in the settings editor.

There is another way that action can be set/unset in the Window Manager by using a double click on the titlebar; but I think the default setting for that would be maximize but you can check. It would be at the bottom of the Advanced tab.

Pat

[MtnDewManiac]

Hi Rustycat> When I look at your screenshot I see it a little different than you describe. I do not see the bottom of the Firefox window but only the panel. I see the FF title bar with shadow under it indicating that the window has been shaded. The default action for shading (or rollup as it is often called) is to place the cursor on the titlebar and scroll up.

OP can also right-click on that title-bar and see if the option "Roll Window Down" is present. If so then you guessed his issue (he's shading the app without realizing it). Otherwise, the option would, instead, be "Roll Window Up" (in which case that's not the case and his issue is something else).

OP: It's not really clear - to me, at least - from the picture you linked to whether that image below Firefox's title bar is a screen that Firefox is displaying or, instead, your desktop's background. Please specify (unless Palo correctly guessed your problem and you've taken steps to ensure that you won't be encountering it again, of course).

Regards,
MDM

[Rustycat]

Yeah, that's my desktop background.

Palo, you solved it. Thanks. It was driving me nuts. How do I get rid of that title bar at the top? It takes up unnecessary space and I can't find an option in the FF preferences. I already did it in Chromium.

[palo]

Palo, you solved it. Thanks. It was driving me nuts. How do I get rid of that title bar at the top? It takes up unnecessary space and I can't find an option in the FF preferences. I already did it in Chromium.

Hi Rustycat>
Glad that it is cleared up. As for your second question about removing the titlebar at the top there is no option in FF preferences for that. However there is an add-on called Hide Caption Titlebar Plus that you can install. There are three pages of options you can look through and tweak in the addon's preferences. You will see that it says "Not available for your platform". Click on the gray "Add to Firefox" button and in the next message select "Install for Windows anyway". There is good documentation and help on hover actions for it, and not too difficult to set up.

Hide titlebar FF.png

Pat