Bug 143269 - with multiple input methods FireFox doesn't allow to use keyboard, at least being run from WindowMaker .
Summary: with multiple input methods FireFox doesn't allow to use keyboard, at least b...
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: SUSE LINUX 10.0
Classification: openSUSE
Component: Firefox (show other bugs)
Version: Final
Hardware: i686 SuSE Linux 10.0
: P5 - None : Enhancement
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: E-mail List
QA Contact: E-mail List
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: accessibility, UI, Usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-01-14 16:28 UTC by Olli Artemjev
Modified: 2006-03-01 10:27 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Found By: Customer
Services Priority:
Business Priority:
Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: ---
IT Deployment: ---


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Description Olli Artemjev 2006-01-14 16:28:32 UTC
I've multiple input methods on my system. Generally I used 'install all' method when installing my current SuSE 10.0 - all possible software is installed, though all dependences are OK, taboo settings applied only to game packages. In some applications I've select input method dialog (at least in KDE) w/ lots of methods avaliable. Some applications also doesn't allow to use keyboard unless correct input method specified. That's  why I've put 'multiple input methods' in summary as probably cause of problem.

I use also the following input extention:
[ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/setxkbmap ] && /usr/X11R6/bin/setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us,ru -variant ,winkeys
[ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/setxkbmap ] && /usr/X11R6/bin/setxkbmap -option -option grp:alt_shift_toggle

When I start firefox from WindowMaker it reacts on mouse OK, but keyboard input is avaliable only in russian codepage (after I press alt-shift). That's definitely a bug & it disallows me from using  firefox. :)

PS: Though I'm not using FireFox usually (it's heavy & dumb (relative to Opera)) I run it eventually on my prevouse system (SuSE 9.2). I also see that in SuSE it has no 'paste and go' enchancement installed. Mebbe it's time to implement the following:
---
Paste and Go - Firefox Extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=65&application=firefox
---
Comment 1 Wolfgang Rosenauer 2006-01-15 11:22:14 UTC
A bug for released version can't be a blocker.
I only see  severity of "normal" here.

I don't fully understand what you really try to do at the moment, but are you sure that this bugreport applies to our Firefox package only or is it a general Firefox thing? (which would apply to bugzilla.mozilla.org)

To the extension thing: What's the advantage of this  extension? A URL in your xselection can easily be dropped in the browser window and loads there immediately.
Comment 2 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-15 18:14:49 UTC
Heh. I would not use browser that disallows me to type from keyboard an url like I do it w/ any other. Yes it is possible to play w/ quote and paste, but that is enough annoying to drop the browser to /dev/null w/ somthing like 'rpm -e firefox' . And I definitely did that right now:
--cut--
skylab:/tmp/bluez # rpm -qa| grep  fox
MozillaFirefox-translations-1.0.7-0.1
MozillaFirefox-1.0.7-0.1
skylab:/tmp/bluez # rpm -e MozillaFirefox-1.0.7-0.1 MozillaFirefox-translations-1.0.7-0.1
--cut--
As any other user I need a browser that simply work, not 'works paired w/ terminal or keyboard buffer tool'. =) That's why I set the severity to Blocker. :|  A human should be very patient to continue suffer from such a  brawser beheviour w/ that huge variaty of alternatives like usual mozilla, opera, epiphany & other less common in usage like links & lynx. No one (w/ a very small except :) ) will use FireFox inside a WindowMaker (w/ Multiple input methods installed :)) since it disallows using keyboard in an ordinary way I guess. That's why it was 'Blocking'. I guess the problem doesn't exist in KDE. Unfortunately using KDE w/ my custom setup is nearly to brain damage - I use encryption for all system temp dirs like /var/cache & /tmp & also gonna implement encrypted swap. This customisation make KDE display uncached primary menu in 8 seconds after button-preess. =D So I've to use somthing usually fast. I choosed WindowMaker, & it flyes, though a friend of mine told me it starts slowly. :)))
So.. I can't use FireFox w/o making myself be very-very patient to software bugs. %) I decided to post a bug report & remove it now. =)

Well.. returning to our business, sorry for above extra details.
I can't be sure that this is _only_ a SuSE rpm bug since I didn't run a FireFox compiled from Mozilla web. Though I guess that's just a system input methods conflict, that is definitely related to SuSE, that allows such conflicts. The FireFox _should_ have ability to select imput method for all it's input bxes to avoid trapping into that. I say that since I think that, if system assumes that user may 've multiple imput methods, it should allow input method selection for all packages that are present in the system, or at least take care about reasonable run w/ defaults. That may be implemented as an enhancement or whatever..

So if you think that's not 'Blocking' - let's set it to enchancement. %) 
From now I realy don't care much - the pacakage dropped since ther're many alternatives w/o such "extra-clever" url input requirements. %)

Though if I'll find a root of input methods conflict I'll update notes on this bug.
Comment 3 Wolfgang Rosenauer 2006-01-15 18:33:41 UTC
Mike, I'm not sure but I guess you know much more about input methods than I do.
Do you have any comments?
Comment 4 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-15 18:51:22 UTC
heh.. seems I misunderstood you & forgot about extantion. %)) Well, the extention is a good thing since it (if it's implemented like in opera) will allow to load an url via hot key from a keyboard buffer. W/ opera I just change buffer hit Ctrl-D & the show goes on. =) Usually I need pressing enter after pasting url into url box. W/ paste and go I don't need that irritating extra key. :) That fun. :) As about dropping somthing to the window.. I, probably, wouldn't use it since the url may appear on another traditional multihead display (I use 3 monitors) & anything like drug and drop would be probably impossible, but unsure - I didn't understand what you mean by 'drop an url' - didn't use it before - usually I use paste from buffer to the url box & then I press enter, some times I also need an extra mouse click to avoid the url being entered as google search (mozilla beheviour). %)
Comment 5 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-15 18:55:15 UTC
Retyping to clear thing about extention: w/ opera I just change focus to opera, press Ctrl-D and load goes on, or I select Paste And Go from right mouse menu and the loading goes on w/o extra enter or mouse clicks.
Comment 6 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-15 19:08:22 UTC
If you're about uising 'open' from lots of web-aware programms - I usually don't use that since:
1. not all are configured & I'm somewhat lazy to configure them. %)
2. the configuration includes customising browser used by an application . Some apps do not provide customisation but run KDE-default browser (conquer is quite slow & dumb for me) or system-default browser. That's usually not the thing that I want.
3 Using that the last tab may appear to be reused in some cases.

These all in summary make me avoid using 'open in the browser' dialog appearing by the right mouse key in many applications.
Comment 7 Mike Fabian 2006-01-16 10:59:31 UTC
Olli> When I start firefox from WindowMaker it reacts on mouse OK, but keyboard input
Olli> is avaliable only in russian codepage (after I press alt-shift). That's
Olli> definitely a bug & it disallows me from using  firefox. :)

I don't understand exactly what happens here, I never saw such a problem.
We need more details to find out what is happening here.

If you have installed "everything" then your default input method is
most likely SCIM (depends on the locale but I guess you are using
either a Russian or an English locale, in both cases SCIM should be
you default input method).

Check the value of the environment variable GTK_IM_MODULE, it is
probably set to "scim".

If that is the case, "Control+Space" or "Shift+Space" should activate
scim (in all applications, not only firefox). When scim is activated,
you should see a small panel on your desktop showing the currently
selected input method. If scim is not activated, the panel disappears
and you have direct keyboard input. "Control+Space" and "Shift+Space"
toggle between activated and disactivated state of scim.

I wonder whether scim is activated by default for you, (see bug #114153)
and you didn't notice the visible scim panel. If scim is activated
by default for you, it might be possible that a weird input method
is selected and you believe that input doesn't work because you don't
know how to use this input method.



Comment 8 Olli Artemjev 2006-01-16 22:38:15 UTC
oops.. sory for providing insuffiisient info. %( I removed scim after a day of usage. The list of possibilities was to big. Even after I've disabled extra support in KDE control center The menu didn't shrink to two possibilities. %) Should I post this as a bug to scim developers? Also w/ lots of input methods
I had wrong xkb functionality - it dooesn't switch by keyboard - only by mouse. %) Should I post it as a bug in xkb support for kde? ?-)
After removing scim there where some utils for chinnese and korean and others,providing another input methods. Currently removed almost all that mean input methods.. sorry it seem that I'm now unable to reproduce environment exactly.. though if it helps I may try to install firefox back and try again. %) Should I?
Comment 9 Olli Artemjev 2006-03-01 10:10:23 UTC
well, generally, either lets close that either tell me should I do somth (& what)
to give more details to try to get anything usefull from my report.
Comment 10 Mike Fabian 2006-03-01 10:27:41 UTC
As I cannot reproduce, I close it as WORKSFORME.