Start page always has about:blank highlighted/selected

isbd

My start page is a blank page, as I prefer, fewer distractions!

However it starts up with "about:blank" in the address bar and highlighted which I find rather annoying because I can't simply paste an address into the address bar. I have to delete the "about:blank" before pasting.

Is there any way around this?

edwardp

This post is deleted!

isbd

But is it actually a bug? It might be that it's intended to be that way. Though I think it's changed, maybe since version 5. It's been this way for quite a long time.

lfisk

@isbd I see this on new tabs... but it is the address bar and it's already highlighted. So I just go ahead and paste which then replaces it. No deleting necessary

isbd

If I paste in the address bar without deleting the "about:blank" first then my paste is simply appended.

I'm talking about Linux/Unix type paste here, click the middle mouse button, not Ctrl/V.

Ah, yes, a Ctrl/V paste clears the "about:blank", a middle button paste doesn't.

(I virtually never use Ctr/C and Ctrl/V, why move to the keyboard when you've just selected something with the mouse!?)

Pathduck

This is confirmed/unassigned bug:
VB-100538 Blank pages display about:blank in address bar

lfisk

@isbd I do just the opposite (Linux), Ctrl/V first and then maybe the middle mouse button.They're two different memory buffers and can hold different items at the same time or the same depending on how they were loaded. Left hand is almost always on the keyboard and those keys are an easy reach for me

qq2

@Pathduck, do you know why it is unassigned ?
The bug appeared after 6.2.3105.51 version (this was the last stable version without bug), more than half a year ago.
Also this bug has occurred several times before (Vivaldi 3.6 annoying bug with new page) and was somehow fixed. What is the problem with fixing it again ?

edwardp

@qq2 Please note Vivaldi has a small development staff.

See https://www.howtogeek.com/656466/what-is-aboutblank-and-how-do-you-remove-it/

I don't think it's a bug, since about:blank is buiit into the web browser (from Chromium).

dovregubben

I adressed this problem a long time ago, and I am surprised that a bug that affects the main purpose of a browser - by not being able to enter an url in the address field - still is there. I wish that a lot of bug-fix versions of Vivaldi could be published, instead of steadily adding new 'smart' solutions that immediately prompts a new version to fix the worst problems.
I have another post pointing at an issue with the new automatic tab hibernation, that already need to be fixed.

Dovregubben

dovregubben

@dovregubben I have a possible solution to this problem. When I open my Vivaldi, I don't want a Last Session, Start Page, Specific page or Homepage.

I want to open with a Blank Page!

Solution: make that an option in Settings!

Without about:blank in the address field.

Dovregubben

Pathduck

@qq2 said in Start page always has about:blank highlighted/selected:

do you know why it is unassigned ?

I have no idea, I'm not a Vivaldi employee and have no influence on their priorities. But if I were to guess - it's simply not high priority to fix this. I'm guessing here, but I imagine there's not a lot of users still relying on this outdated[1] about:blank feature.

Instead of waiting and getting frustrated, how about this:
Vivaldi has an amazing new tab page, Start Page (aka Speed Dial).
You can remove all (well almost all) the features of the Start Page, including the icons (Dials) to give a completely blank page:

In fact this offers some serious advantages, like being able to set the background colour, or even an image - you can't do that with about:blank.

The only thing that can't be removed in settings is the Quick Settings icon, it can be removed with some simple CSS.

Video how to do this quite easily:
https://0x0.st/XXe0.mp4

Start Page documentation:
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/navigation/start-page/

Notes:
[1] about:blank is a relic from the time of Netscape. Firefox still uses about: for internal pages, but Chromium browsers (Vivaldi/Chrome/Edge/Opera etc) have no idea what this is - they have left the feature in for purely historical reasons. My guess is at some point about:blank will be removed from Chromium and then it will also be removed from Vivaldi.

Personally I've always used about:mozilla instead

qq2

@Pathduck, thanks, this seems to be the only way to "fix" the problem. Because staying on the latest unaffected version becomes impossible due to browser crashes on some sites that did not crash it before.