firefox black window on wayland

It appears that I cannot see the attached screenshot. Can you maybe try re-attaching it?

Can you share some details about your hardware (particularly GPU and drivers in use)?

Does it make any difference if you run it like this?

    MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 snap run firefox

Here is the attachment again. Can you see it now?
I am going to try the command line and tell you thereafter.

Sorry but can you tell me how and where I can gather information about GPU and drivers?

I've just tried the command line and it worked (no more black screen).

Though the result is :
nicolas@nicolas-fixe:~$ MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 snap run firefox
update.go:85: cannot change mount namespace according to change mount (/var/lib/snapd/hostfs/usr/share/libreoffice/help /usr/share/libreoffice/help none bind,ro 0 0): cannot create directory "/usr/share/libreoffice/help": permission denied
update.go:85: cannot change mount namespace according to change mount (/var/lib/snapd/hostfs/usr/share/xubuntu-docs /usr/share/xubuntu-docs none bind,ro 0 0): cannot open directory "/var/lib": permission denied
Missing chrome or resource URL: resource://gre/modules/UpdateListener.sys.mjs

No, I still can't see the attachment. I wonder whether this is a Launchpad bug?

In any case, it's good to know that the command line I suggested seems to work around the problem.
Just to confirm, if you run it with:

    MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 snap run firefox

you get the black screen again?

For GPU info, you could attach the output of `sudo lshw -C display`.

Oh I found that https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/carte_graphique. Result is:
nicolas@nicolas-fixe:~$ lspci -vnn | grep -A 12 '\[030[02]\]' | grep -Ei "vga|3d|display|kernel"
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880 [Radeon HD 4200] [1002:9710] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Kernel driver in use: radeon
 Kernel modules: radeon
nicolas@nicolas-fixe:~$ sudo lshw -enable pci -class display
[sudo] Mot de passe de nicolas :
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       produit: RS880 [Radeon HD 4200]
       fabricant: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       identifiant matériel: 5
       information bus: pci@0000:01:05.0
       nom logique: /dev/fb0
       version: 00
       bits: 32 bits
       horloge: 33MHz
       fonctionnalités: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
       configuration : depth=32 driver=radeon latency=0 resolution=1920,1080
       ressources : irq:18 mémoire:d0000000-dfffffff portE/S:d000(taille=256) mémoire:fe9f0000-fe9fffff mémoire:fe800000-fe8fffff mémoire:c0000-dffff
nicolas@nicolas-fixe:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 16 x 16, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
XWAYLAND0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 480mm x 270mm
   1920x1080 59.96*+
   1440x1080 59.99
   1400x1050 59.98
   1280x1024 59.89
   1280x960 59.94
   1152x864 59.96
   1024x768 59.92
   800x600 59.86
   640x480 59.38
   320x240 59.52
   1680x1050 59.95
   1440x900 59.89
   1280x800 59.81
   720x480 59.71
   640x400 59.95
   320x200 58.96
   1600x900 59.95
   1368x768 59.88
   1280x720 59.86
   1024x576 59.90
   864x486 59.92
   720x400 59.55
   640x350 59.77

With
MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 snap run firefox
it works too (no black screen), although the output shows messages:

nicolas@nicolas-fixe:~$ MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 snap run firefox
update.go:85: cannot change mount namespace according to change mount (/var/lib/snapd/hostfs/usr/share/libreoffice/help /usr/share/libreoffice/help none bind,ro 0 0): cannot create directory "/usr/share/libreoffice/help": permission denied
update.go:85: cannot change mount namespace according to change mount (/var/lib/snapd/hostfs/usr/share/xubuntu-docs /usr/share/xubuntu-docs none bind,ro 0 0): cannot open directory "/var/lib": permission denied
Gtk-Message: 10:32:53.386: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 10:32:53.396: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
Missing chrome or resource URL: resource://gre/modules/UpdateListener.sys.mjs

Let me try once again the attachment...

I think this time it works because I renamed the file. Any misleading character in the old name ?

If applicable, I let you open a new bug description ;)

Yes, I can now see the screenshot.

And if you run from a terminal with just "snap run firefox" (i.e. without any definition of MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND), do you get a black screen?

Wow! I have tried again and again the different ways. Sometimes it works, sometimes no...

Let's summarize:
1) Boot. Open Firefox by clicking on the icon: black screen (tried 10+ times)
2) Boot. Open Terminal. Type MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 snap run firefox: no black screen (tried 5 times)
3) Boot. Open Terminal. Type MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 snap run firefox: sometimes black screen, sometimes no, although I try to do exactly the same steps... (tried 10+ times)
4) Boot. Open Terminal. Type snap run firefox: sometimes black screen, sometimes no, although I try to do exactly the same steps... (tried 10+ times)

Amazing.
How can I help?

Two more points:
a) We should write "black window" instead of "black screen". Only the Firefox's window is black. As you can see on the screenshot.
b) After I have a black window (whatever the way I obtain it), typing Ctrl-W closes the window and Firefox menu icon doesn't have it's orange bullet nearby anymore. Then, clicking again on the Firefox's menu icon opens Firefox's window normally (no black window) EXCEPT that I lose every tabs opened in the last session (and yes, of course, I have properly configured the fact that I want to save the tabs between two sessions).

Hope that helps!

Can you reproduce the problem with an upstream build of firefox (downloaded from https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=fr)?

Would you mind filing an upstream bug report at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Firefox, and sharing the link to it here?

I am so sorry, I am not sure I will be able to do that.
Let me try...
I have just downloaded FF104.0.1 with the link you provide.

I doubled-click on firefox-bin. See the attachment.

Let me try the upstream bug report...

Done.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1788205

Thanks!

Thank you!

I have two more things to tell you. Where should I write them? In launchpad or bugzilla?

Better in bugzilla, please.

This fixes the issue for me:

$ cat /etc/xdg/autostart/firefox-snap-launch-xwayland.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Launch Xwayland on startup of wayland session
Comment=This allows to start the Firefox snap from the dock without a black window
Type=Application
Exec=sh -c 'if [ "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE" = "wayland" ]; then xrefresh; fi'
TryExec=xrefresh
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
NoDisplay=true

How about letting some package install that, or maybe make use of the xrefresh command in some other way.

Simple way to reproduce is:

killall XWayland # may kill other apps!
start firefox

Now, it happens in all the installation where something doesn't bring X11 on startup and firefox is the first app launched.

Marco Trevisan submitted an upstream mutter merge request with a fix of this issue. I have applied it to the Ubuntu package through a PPA, installed the resulting binaries, and accomplished some tests:

* I can no longer reproduce the issue with a black window when opening Firefox in wayland, not even after having run "killall Xwayland".

* This sequence:

  killall Xwayland; sleep 3; GDK_BACKEND=x11 gedit

  results in a normal gedit window as far as I can tell.

* I also entered an x11 session, and also there I can open Firefox without issues.

So I uploaded mutter to the lunar unapproved queue for consideration by the release team.

Gunnar, thanks for reporting on this bug. A quick question: since the original issue got reported in 2022 before kinetic release, what was the status for this in 22.10? Was this also broken there? It's important for us to know if this is a regression or not.

Also, with a visible workaround (re-running firefox), my recommendation would be to release note it, and maybe only include it in case we will need to do a full respin of all desktop RC images for 23.04.

I'm not sure, but I think the issue was present in kinetic. Hence not a regression (probably).

I agree. Only this issue would not motivate a respin, and mentioning it in the release note sounds reasonable.

Mentioned under "Known Issues" in the lunar release notes.

Hi Gunnar and others,

with Lunar just released, I'm going over the lunar unapproved queue to pick out packages that should now become SRUs for lunar.

Could someone please add the SRU template to this bug's description, and fill it out?

Since the package is in unapproved, and not proposed, I'm switching the bug task back to "in progress".

Regarding the patch, I see there is still a bit of back and forth in the upstream merge request[1]. Can we get that stabilized, hopefully even merged, before committing to an SRU?

1. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/2970

@Andreas: I just wrote this on #ubuntu-desktop:

https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2023/04/20/%23ubuntu-desktop.html#t17:57

This bug was fixed in the package mutter - 44.0-2ubuntu6

---------------
mutter (44.0-2ubuntu6) mantic; urgency=medium

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * Fix issue with Firefox opening black window in wayland sessions
    - d/p/display-Set-compositor-selection-earlier-on-XWayland.patch
      (LP: #1987976)

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Mon, 01 May 2023 18:27:57 +0200

Hello Michelet, or anyone else affected,

Accepted mutter into lunar-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mutter/44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-lunar to verification-done-lunar. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-lunar. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted mutter (44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1) for lunar have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

mutter/44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1 (amd64)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/lunar/update_excuses.html#mutter

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

As regards the failed autopkgtest on amd64, it's reasonably not related to the proposed change, since also version 44.0-2ubuntu4 fails now (unlike before the 23.04 release). My impression is that it's a problem beyond the mutter package:

Running test case...
TAP version 13
# random seed: R02S29be415b178acf3a28289b5a6c5eecf4
# GLib-GIO-DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation memory (GMemorySettingsBackend) for ‘gsettings-backend’
# libmutter-MESSAGE: Running Mutter Test (using mutter 44.0) as a Wayland display server
Bail out! libmutter-FATAL-WARNING: Failed to open gpu '/dev/dri/card0': Couldn't find render node device for '/dev/dri/card0'
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)
FAIL: mutter-12/closed-transient-no-input-parent-delayed-focus-default-cancelled.test (Child process exited with code 133)
Running test: mutter-12/closed-transient-no-input-no-take-focus-parents.test
Starting D-Bus daemons (session & system)...
Launching required services...
Starting mocked services...
Running test case...
TAP version 13
# random seed: R02Se6b3bbfe78ba522ee4e9987b0b12eb51
# GLib-GIO-DEBUG: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation memory (GMemorySettingsBackend) for ‘gsettings-backend’
# libmutter-MESSAGE: Running Mutter Test (using mutter 44.0) as a Wayland display server
Bail out! libmutter-FATAL-WARNING: Failed to open gpu '/dev/dri/card0': Couldn't find render node device for '/dev/dri/card0'
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)
FAIL: mutter-12/closed-transient-no-input-no-take-focus-parents.test (Child process exited with code 133)

The very same failure happens in mantic:

https://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/packages/m/mutter/mantic/amd64

but somebody seems to have added a hint so 44.0-2ubuntu6 migrated to mantic-release, and I suppose doing so would be motivated for lunar/amd64 too.

As regards the regular verification, I successfully accomplished the steps in the test plan using version 44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1 (from lunar-proposed) of the binaries built by the mutter source.

Firefox works fine with the new mutter version on lunar.

Thanks

On 23.04 I still get a black window on first firefox start with the proposed mutter update.

On 2023-05-19 18:45, Angel D. Segarra wrote:
> On 23.04 I still get a black window on first firefox start with the
> proposed mutter update.

Please note that installing the mutter binary package is not sufficient. I suspect that you need to do:

sudo apt install libmutter-12-0/lunar-proposed gir1.2-mutter-12/lunar-proposed

(and relogin)

Please try that and let us know if it helps.

that was it, appears to be fixed on my end. Thanks.

This bug was fixed in the package mutter - 44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1

---------------
mutter (44.0-2ubuntu4.23.04.1) lunar; urgency=medium

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * Fix issue with Firefox opening black window in wayland sessions
    - d/p/display-Set-compositor-selection-earlier-on-XWayland.patch
      (LP: #1987976)

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Apr 2023 19:59:49 +0200

The verification of the Stable Release Update for mutter has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.