Bug 684911

Summary:	Firefox changes smooth scrolling setting after an upgrade
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	markm <marek78uk>
Component:	firefox	Assignee:	Martin Stransky <stransky>
Status:	CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	14	CC:	gecko-bugs-nobody, mcepl, stransky
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i686
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2012-04-17 13:00:21 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:

Description markm 2011-03-14 18:53:28 UTC

Description of problem:

So called “smooth scrolling” feature does not work for me (never worked), so I like to have it off. Unfortunately, with every point release firefox sets that option again, forcing me to switch it off again. I can reproduce this issue on two different machines (home desktop and work laptop computers).

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

# rpm -qa | grep firefox
firefox-3.6.15-1.fc14.i686

How reproducible:

with every point release

Steps to Reproduce:
1. switch off smooth scrolling
2. upgrade your browser (ie. from 3.6.14 to 3.6.15)
3. open any web page
  
Actual results:

smooth scrolling is switched on

Expected results:

smooth scrolling switched off, as selected by user

Additional info:

Smooth scrolling makes scrolling pages difficult - they scroll very slow, hence I prefer to have this feature off. I have quite powerful desktop machine with quad core intel processor, though smooth scrolling is still unbearably slow.

Comment 1 Christopher Aillon 2011-03-15 16:39:05 UTC

How do you switch it off?

Comment 2 markm 2011-03-15 22:27:39 UTC

(In reply to comment #1)
> How do you switch it off?

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General (tab)

there is a “[ ] Use smooth scrolling” checkbox in “Browsing” section, which I have unchecked to switch it off.

With every point update it gets checked, so smooth scrolling is back on.

Comment 3 Christopher Aillon 2011-03-15 22:51:12 UTC

And do you cleanly shut down Firefox after setting it?  There've been reports of FF crashing on shutting down, which would lead to the pref not getting written to disk...

Comment 4 markm 2011-03-16 01:04:31 UTC

(In reply to comment #3)
> And do you cleanly shut down Firefox after setting it?  There've been reports
> of FF crashing on shutting down, which would lead to the pref not getting
> written to disk...

When I switch off smooth scrolling, it does get written to the disk correctly, as I do not have to switch it on again. Normally firefox does not crash for me, but I will test it on Fedora 14 (writing it from the Fedora 15 Alpha installation).

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that firefox is running when it gets updated? Web browser (firefox) is the first program I run, when I turn on my computer, and when I get a prompt for updates, I normally follow its request (install updates, log out or restart).

Comment 5 Christopher Aillon 2011-03-16 17:51:17 UTC

So, to clarify, your use case is essentially the following?

1. start firefox
2. change the setting (only changes the in-memory setting, not on disk)
3. never close firefox
4. upgrade while firefox is still running

If so, that might fail to write to disk since the location of the code needed to run at shutdown probably changes and it probably hasn't been loaded into memory yet...

Comment 6 markm 2011-03-17 01:07:37 UTC

(In reply to comment #5)
> So, to clarify, your use case is essentially the following?
> 
> 1. start firefox
> 2. change the setting (only changes the in-memory setting, not on disk)
> 3. never close firefox
> 4. upgrade while firefox is still running
> 
> If so, that might fail to write to disk since the location of the code needed
> to run at shutdown probably changes and it probably hasn't been loaded into
> memory yet...

Nope, I do close firefox everyday, the setting is being kept between sessions, but when I upgrade, it gets reset to the default value.

Comment 7 Christopher Aillon 2011-03-17 02:47:45 UTC

I see, thanks for clearing that up.  I definitely don't see that behavior.  Are you using en-US for your UI?

Comment 8 markm 2011-03-17 10:31:31 UTC

(In reply to comment #7)
> I see, thanks for clearing that up.  I definitely don't see that behavior.  Are
> you using en-US for your UI?

nope, I am using en_GB for my UI.

Comment 9 Matěj Cepl 2011-03-17 23:47:30 UTC

Are the problems with non-persistent settings limited to this one  or do you have some other settings which are switched to default?

Comment 10 Christopher Aillon 2011-03-18 00:58:59 UTC

I imagine it would be limited to the set of 5 or so preferences we change the default of, this being one, but no idea yet why it would reset.  I'm guessing the difference is langpack vs no langpack.

Comment 11 markm 2011-03-19 14:54:57 UTC

(In reply to comment #9)
> Are the problems with non-persistent settings limited to this one  or do you
> have some other settings which are switched to default?

only that setting get reset with every point update.

Comment 12 markm 2011-03-25 11:03:13 UTC

today, there was another point update and... smooth scrolling got switched back on after update.

Comment 13 Martin Stransky 2012-03-27 15:05:11 UTC

Hi, does it still switches back? (With Firefox 10/11).

Comment 14 markm 2012-04-17 13:00:21 UTC

it seems to work correctly with Firefox 10/11 :)