Firefox w/ blank webpages? [SOLVED]

Issues related to applications and software problems
chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Firefox w/ blank webpages? [SOLVED]

Post by chexmix » 2017/08/31 22:38:26

Hi --

First, I tried to use the search function on the forum, but it kept balking and telling me to return in some number of seconds.

I am new to using CentOS at home -- it's the default at work, but I have no administrative privileges there. So, I am a newbie.

And so, the issue:

When I open Firefox, I get a blank white screen. When I try surfing to various sites ... still a blank, white screen.

I must admit I tried installing Scientific Linux before CentOS, simply because I work in science support ... and I had exactly the same problem there.

So I'm bit flummoxed. And while I at first wonder how a distro so high-profile could ship a browser this broken, I eventually come to the conclusion that it must be something I am doing wrong, exactly because no distro this high profile would do this.

But what am I doing wrong? Any pointers or hints would be welcome. I'm able to type (and see) this post because I installed Konqueror.

Thanks,

Glenn
Last edited by chexmix on 2017/10/27 12:02:00, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
TrevorH
Site Admin
Posts: 33202
Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by TrevorH » 2017/08/31 23:32:34

How completely white are we talking? Does it have a titlebar? A url bar? Buttons? Can you get into Edit->Preferences?

Pretty sure the default start page on firefox is to load up a local file saying "welcome to CentOS" or something akin to that.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by chexmix » 2017/08/31 23:37:24

There is a URL bar, title bar, etc ... it's just that while the URL/address bar says I am 'at' a particular site, all I see in the content window is ... whiteness. Like an Antarctic whiteout. This is true even of the 'Welcome to CentOS' page.

I am pretty sure I can get to Edit->Preferences. I am not on CentOS right now: I flipped over to Ubuntu because I got frustrated (this laptop is multi-boot mainly because I want to take some Linux cert exams).

User avatar
TrevorH
Site Admin
Posts: 33202
Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by TrevorH » 2017/08/31 23:39:34

What video card? Which desktop environment? Anything in /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by chexmix » 2017/09/01 17:17:48

I'll get back to you with this info once I get home.

Glenn

chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by chexmix » 2017/09/03 12:52:45

So ... I've discovered that I can get FF to display things correctly if I go into Help, choose 'Restart with Add-Ons Disabled' and then pick 'Refresh Firefox.'

Why should this be necessary I wonder? I'm checking now to see whether this fix persists by logging out and back in.

UPDATE: Well ... it doesn't even survive FF being closed within the same session. What the hell? This doesn't smell of video card difficulties to me, though I guess I could be wrong -- that's just intuition.

Seems silly I should have to do that every time I fire up the browser ...

I also tried disabling the few plugins that had been installed (I didn't explicity ask for them) and all it did was jack up the display - badly.

For what it is worth, too, if I surf to a link-rich page like Facebook in 'you can't see anything but whiteness' mode, I can move the cursor around and it changes just as it does when it moves over a hyperlink ... so it seems the content is there and it's just ... hidden.

G

chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by chexmix » 2017/09/03 13:25:06

Oh and finally:

Video card:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Grap
hics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: COMPAL Electronics Inc Device 0065
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 27
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable)
I/O ports at 3000
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

Desktop environment: Gnome "Classic"

/var/log/Xorg.0.log:

A few warnings but no errors. The warnings:

[ 33.677] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 33.677] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
[ 33.677] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa


Then at the end there are a crudton of these:

[ 1729.133] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 connected from local host ( uid=1000 gid=1000 pid=5428 )
Auth name: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ID: 229
[ 1729.134] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 disconnected
[ 1729.140] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 connected from local host ( uid=1000 gid=1000 pid=5428 )

I don't know what those are.

User avatar
TrevorH
Site Admin
Posts: 33202
Joined: 2009/09/24 10:40:56
Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by TrevorH » 2017/09/03 15:00:27

If it works with add-ons disabled then it's likely that one of those is the cause. Which ones do you have installed - best way to find the culprit is to disable them all and enable them one by one. Could also be a combination of them together but that's more difficult to diagnose.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

chexmix
Posts: 9
Joined: 2017/08/31 22:29:22

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by chexmix » 2017/09/03 22:47:37

Hi TrevorH,

First thank you for your assistance. I appreciate it.

These are the plugins installed. Mind, I installed none of these myself. This is absolute vanilla FF that I got when I installed the system.

IcedTea-Web Plugin (using IcedTea-Web 1.6.2 (rhel-4.el7-x86_64))
iTunes Application Detector
OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc.

I just disabled them all and restarted Firefox. No improvement. Blank pages. It seems the ONLY way I can use Firefox is the procedure I posted above, which is kind of silly.

I hate to be negative but so far my experience with RH-like distros has been frustrating. I'd say it's something stupid I'm doing but as I said above I had the same experience with Scientific Linux.

Maybe it's my laptop? It's not the latest and greatest but it is a Linux-friendly machine from ZaReason, so I wouldn't think running Firefox would be a problem. :(

aks
Posts: 3073
Joined: 2014/09/20 11:22:14

Re: Firefox w/ blank webpages?

Post by aks » 2017/09/05 17:21:03

These are actually important:
[ 1729.133] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 connected from local host ( uid=1000 gid=1000 pid=5428 )
Auth name: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 ID: 229
[ 1729.134] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 disconnected
[ 1729.140] AUDIT: Sun Sep 3 09:14:39 2017: 1316: client 19 connected from local host ( uid=1000 gid=1000 pid=5428 )

I don't know what those are.
MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1is "how" X authenticates displays to the X server. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_authorization
This authorisation happens even locally. Does you logged in user have the uid of 1000? (By default I think 1000 is the first user - if you type the id command in at the command prompt then it'll tell you what your id is). If you are, post back, it *may* be the case that your X authorisations are c*cked up.

Post Reply