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Nerdfest
Asked: 2010-09-30 12:02:08 +0800 CST

Clicking URLS opens a new tab in FireFox

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I'm running 10.04, with FireFox 3.6.x. I have NoScript and AdBlock installed, as well as Firebug and the GWT toolkit. The problem I'm having is that sometimes URLS open in new tabs even just with a normal click. I use my laptop's built-in trackpad as a pointing device with 'tap to click' enabled. This seems to happen between 10 and 25% of the time. It's quite annoying. Anyone have any idea what causes this?

firefox trackpad

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Are you tapping close to an edge or corner by any chance? Depending on your hardware model and software configuration, tapping near some edges emulates the second (middle) or third (right) mouse button. In Firefox, by default, middle-clicking on a link opens it in a new tab.

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  2. When I access my computer over VNC from my phone sometimes I find that the Control key gets sent a lot of the time. I know it's a different use-case to yours but it could be that your control key is getting stuck (or you're accidentally pressing it - I know how easy that can be on some small keyboards).

    You might be able to test this by running xev and seeing what keys get sent when you click. It throws a lot of output so it might be easiest writing it to a log xev > ~/Desktop/xev.output clicking the mousebox a few dozen times like you would click a link and then searching the output for whatever the control key looks like (it might make sense to press the control keys a few times to see what their output looks like for comparison)

    Either that or the links are have the attribute target="_blank" set.. In which case they're supposed to spawn new windows or tabs. I believe there is an addon that disables this.

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  3. Hope you solved this problem. If not, it appears to be a problem with touchpads that has a solution: at Launchpad Hope it helps.

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