Why is it when I'm browsing (both Firefox and Chomium) it feels like I'm in a VIM session?

Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
GNOME

Problem Description:
First, when I browse to a page that has lots of content and I need to scroll down, the scroll bar keeps shooting back to the top. I’ve tried multiple browsers and even new profiles and they are all behaving the same. I even went as far as trying Firefox ESR and it too is plagued by the same issue.

Second, when I’m on YouTube and try to use the right/left arrow keys to navigate forward and backward in the video, instead I see the focus moving to different clickable elements in the YouTube page. If I hold down the right arrow for an extended period, sometimes I’m able to get the video navigation working. However, if I switch focus away from the browser and back again, it reverts to moving focus to clickable elements.

Third, sometimes when I open a new browser tab and and start typing in the address bar, when I hit the enter key, instead of submitting the text to a search engine, it drops down to a new line - like it’s a word processor or like I’m in VIM insert mode. I say it feels like VIM mode because when on a scrollable page, I can scroll using page, the scroll bar moves in response to H/J/K/L keys on the keyboard. The new line is not as prevalent as the other issues so haven’t had a chance to capture a screenshot. If I do, I’ll share a link here.

Relevant System Information:
The problems started when I was unable to launch Firefox sometime last week - I even raised a ticket then:

Screenshots or Error Messages:
Below are some screenshots that show what I see when trying to navigate forward/backward in a YouTube video:
I tried uploading a screenshot but got this error:
POST https://discourse.ubuntu.com/uploads.json?client_id=afe659fc7d3d415580a1ece686a4eec5

[Uppy] [13:54:31] This looks like a network error, the endpoint might be blocked by an internet
provider or a firewall.

I opened a ticket in the Mozilla forums before I realized that this was happening on multiple browsers and even different applications. You can see the screenshots there:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1591748#answer-1830909

What I’ve Tried:
I’ve tried different browsers, and not just via snap refresh firefox --channel ..., but by also fully uninstalling and re-installing. I even tried the ESR version of Firefox and it too behaves the same way. I’ve also tried older kernel versions to no avail.

If it helps, here’s fastfetch for my laptop:

$ > fastfetch --logo none
akk@akstpx1g5
-------------
OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS x86_64
Host: 21DE000KAU (ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5)
Kernel: Linux 6.8.0-134-lowlatency
Uptime: 2 days, 5 hours, 38 mins
Packages: 3689 (dpkg), 54 (flatpak), 56 (snap)
Shell: bash 5.2.21
Display (T27p-30): 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz in 27" [External] *
Display (T27p-30): 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz in 27" [External]
DE: GNOME 46.0
WM: Mutter (X11)
WM Theme: Yaru-viridian
Theme: Yaru-viridian [GTK2/3/4]
Icons: Yaru-viridian [GTK2/3/4]
Font: Ubuntu Sans (11pt) [GTK2/3/4]
Cursor: redglass (32px)
Terminal: terminator 3.12.3
Terminal Font: Ubuntu Sans Mono (15pt)
CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H (20) @ 4.70 GHz
GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile [Discrete]
GPU 2: Intel Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.40 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 38.94 GiB / 62.51 GiB (62%)
Swap: 14.49 GiB / 41.54 GiB (35%)
Disk (/): 371.89 GiB / 468.28 GiB (79%) - ext4
Disk (/docker): 103.63 GiB / 343.44 GiB (30%) - ext4
Disk (/home): 368.88 GiB / 502.89 GiB (73%) - ext4
Disk (/lxd): 30.47 GiB / 117.56 GiB (26%) - ext4
Disk (/myoldstuff): 570.96 GiB / 786.37 GiB (73%) - ext4
Disk (/opt): 293.40 GiB / 502.89 GiB (58%) - ext4
Disk (/stockm): 4.94 GiB / 195.80 GiB (3%) - ext4
Disk (/var/lib/libvirt): 544.18 GiB / 601.33 GiB (90%) - ext4
Disk (/vmachs): 584.87 GiB / 796.22 GiB (73%) - ext4
Local IP (wlan0): 10.0.0.54/24
Battery (5B11B79217): 66% [AC Connected]
Locale: en_AU.UTF-8

I’m using an old kernel because anything > 6.8 causes the NFS LXD container to lock up hard. I use this NFS as a backing store for the RWX volumes I use in my local kind cluster.

1 Like

It looks like you sent the message prematurely, mind editing it to completion?

Also, can you elaborate more on how this is feeling like VIM? I am a vim user; even have Tridactyl installed to make Firefox feel more like Vim, but I’m not seeing how your description matches any of Vim’s traits.

I’m also running 24.04 LTS and seem unable to reproduce what you describe. The only difference to your setup being that I’m not running GNOME; it’s Sway for me.

Apologies - I got distracted and forgot to finish that third part - which is what actually makes it feel like VIM. Let me fix that with an edit…

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Reads to me like you got Caret Mode activated. There’s a keyboard shortcut for that (Function key 7 (F7)) and there should also be a setting for it on the settings page ‘Tabs and Browsing’.

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That’s actually a Discourse feature. Some other websites probably have similar keyboard setups. h/j is also the common way of scrolling line-wise in pagers on a terminal, probably blatantly stolen from vi, but that could explain the seeming popularity.

I definitely have caret mode turned off. I did try turning it on to see what it does so I have an idea. But definitely off now.

I’ve resolved the issue but haven’t yet bothered to dig deeper to determine which of the options I turned off was responsible. I might do that over the weekend and post back so will leave this open until then.

After disabling all gnome extensions and screen reader, all those browsing issues on multiple applications have disappeared.

My belief is that an update to some UI component ~2 weeks ago made one of the extensions incompatible somehow and it manifested in all the issues I described above. I was beginning to feel paranoid about malware on Linux for the first time ever since I migrated to Linux back in 2008. But all is well that ends well.

Will report back here after further digging over the weekend to report exactly what it was that caused the issue then close this issue.

Thanks for those that chimed in - much appreciated.

3 Likes

Couldn’t wait for the weekend.

The culprit was the screen reader! Obviously some update has caused some regression as it has been function fine since I installed 24.04. I use it when I’m too lazy to read. I highlight text then press Shift+Super+S.

I wonder what broke it! I’ll raise a bug report on it.

Closing this one for now.

Bug raised for anyone wanting to follow:
Bug #2160282 “When screen reader is switched on, GUI application...” : Bugs : orca package : Ubuntu

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