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This might be related to Firefox randomly disables keyboard input, Keyboard input is not working in Firefox ALONE and keyboard input only works in the most recently created window.

When Opening several Firefox windows (for this discussion I will talk about 2 windows A and B, each with several tabs), occasionally the keyboard input is stuck on one of the Firefox window (lets say A).

Clicking window B brings it into focus, and I can use the mouse to scroll and move between tabs, but every keyboard input (either in any of the tabs, or in the url or search bar) is not sent to window B. Instead the input is still sent to window A (wherever the cursor was in window A before it lost the focus).

  • If I drag a tab from window B into window A, I can interact with that tab in window A.
  • If I kill the Firefox process and restart it (restoring sessions), the problem goes away, until it for unknown reason comes back.
  • If I move a tab to a new window C from B, then both C and A gets keyboard input but not B. If I join that tab back to B, now B gets keyboard input, but not A.

No other application suffers from this issue.

My environment is Ubuntu 14.04 with KDE 4.13.3.

I am on an up-to-date version of Firefox (currently 57.0) but I have seen this issue on older versions too.

Edit:

Inspired by @harrymc's comment, here is my extension list:

  • uBlock Origin 1.14.18 by Raymond Hill
  • Valence 0.3.8 by Mozilla

and my plugin list:

  • OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems 1.7.1
  • Adobe Flash 27.0.0.187
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    Does this happen when you use Firefox in Safe (no-addons) mode?
    – harrymc
    Commented Nov 14, 2017 at 19:58
  • @harrymc, that is a fair question, and a good approach to try and debug this issue, however I can't reproduce this issue at will, and the Internet with out ad-blocker is a horrible place, so I am reluctant to try this debug route. I will edit my question to list my (short) add-ons list.
    – Chen Levy
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 6:44
  • What mouse do you use
    – Dave
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 7:07
  • @Dave, I use the most generic wired "Microsoft Basic Optic Mouse v2.0", I also have my Lenovo's track-pad and "nipple" but I almost never use them.
    – Chen Levy
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 7:14
  • It could be a fault with the drivers on one of them. The reason is I have this exact same issue (although it affects Outlook as well) and the cause was the driver of my Evoluent mouse
    – Dave
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 12:23

1 Answer 1

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You need to locate where the problem is.

If the problem is with Firefox, your options for locating it are :

  • Try using Firefox in Safe (no-addons) mode to see if the problem is caused by some add-on
  • Try another browser to see if this is truly a Firefox bug
  • Post the problem on the Firefox forum as a bug (only if no other indication is found).

If the problem is caused by some other program :

  • Disable your anti-virus or any other product that has hotkeys and is hooking the keyboard
  • Boot in Safe mode with Network (if you can work even temporarily in this mode).
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