In the past, with others, this was caused by an add-on.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

FredMcD, the OP already tried Safe Mode and a new Profile due to blowing away the .mozilla folder. Maybe read instead of just doing generic replies quickly.

sm00nie said

Hey all, I'm missing the minimize and maximize buttons. I don't have any addons installed and I have restarted in safe mode (help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled -> safe mode) and the buttons are not there. I restarted, deleted my .mozilla folder, re-downloaded, and the issue remains. Would anyone know anything else that I could try?

Have you tried another GTK theme as Firefox needs 3.4 (three.four) at minimum to run and there needs a GTK3 theme to theme Firefox. GTK2 themes can make Firefox look unthemed and some things can be missing like scrollbar arrows. Apparently GTK 3.20 or later Themes can also have a issue on some Firefox builds (third-party?).

Do other applications in your Linux distribution have these buttons?

Does Firefox show the title bar?

There is usually a (global) setting to show or hide the window control buttons and position them at the left end or right end. There may also be a system menu that opens via Alt+Space.

cor-el said

Do other applications in your Linux distribution have these buttons? Does Firefox show the title bar? There is usually a (global) setting to show or hide the window control buttons and position them at the left end or right end. There may also be a system menu that opens via Alt+Space.

Thanks cor-el. That was the issue. I'm used to a GTK environment and the fresh Debian gnome environment had me confused :P.

The fix for those who were wondering or who may have the issue: With gnome-tweak-tool -> Windows section -> toggle maximize & minimize on. You can also do it via gsettings in shell.

sm00nie said

Hey all, I'm missing the minimize and maximize buttons. I don't have any addons installed and I have restarted in safe mode (help -> Restart with Add-ons Disabled -> safe mode) and the buttons are not there. I restarted, deleted my .mozilla folder, re-downloaded, and the issue remains. Would anyone know anything else that I could try?

Greetings, I know I'm late to this problem but this may help someone else down the road. Before jumping through too many hoops, if you have a 2 in 1 laptop, mine is running windows 10, make sure you are not, by accident, in tablet mode. Click on the Action Center Icon to the right of the date and time, and turn off tablet mode. 2 hr lesson for me.

2linguru, the OP was using the Debian 9.2 Linux distro and not Windows 10.