307048 - improve operation when connection to profile is slow or intermittent

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, enhancement)

Description

[Tom Roche]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6

I use a vanilla Firefox: default theme, very few non-default plugins
or extensions (IIRC currently just Autocopy). The one way my usecase
is probably quite different is that I keep my profile on a networked
drive. This can cause browser operation problems; some are
understandable but others IMHO should be fixed. Details:

My profile is on a networked drive which I can access from win32 and
linux clients @ work, and @ home via VPN. (I use winXP ~80% @ work,
100% @ home.) This allows me to maintain one profile and avoid
syncing. Performance is very good on the LAN, and is usually good on
the VPN, but the latter connection can be poor: it is always slower
<duh/> and can intermittently disconnect.

I list some (I've probably forgotten a few, will try to add) resulting
problems below (feel free to break into, or dup on, separate
bugzillas) from memory (please forgive inaccuracies, will try to
correct), in roughly ascending level of annoyance:

0 Profile drive disconnected @ startup. Obviously this will cause
  unavoidable problems. However current handling could be improved:

* the current error message is like "Profile <whatever> is in use."
  This is false and should be improved: the above statement should
  only be used if the lockfile is detected.

* Firefox should offer to create a local profile if the user has no
  other profiles.

1 Delayed writes of history fail. On winXP I get a "Delayed write
  failed" warning in the system tray every time I browse a new URL

* if the profile drive is disconnected

* even, I suspect, if the connection is too slow

* even after the profile drive is reconnected!

  This is so annoying that I usually turn history off (set remember
  days=0), which is annoying when I forget to turn it on again.

  Firefox should handle this (rather than delegating to the OS) by
  offering to temporarily (for this session) turn history off (or
  maintain history locally) if it loses connection to the profile (or
  even if it takes too long to find it), and should then offer to
  resume history once it re-establishes connection. (And the user
  should NOT get these errors once the profile drive is reconnected!)

2 CGI performance (i.e. typing in fields) always becomes VERY sluggish
  on a slow connection, even occasionally after disconnection. Firefox
  should handle this in a manner like the history enhancement I
  propose above: if Firefox can't find the profile, or even if it
  takes too long to find it, it should

* offer to temporarily turn off Saved Form Information

* offer to resume SFI once reconnected (or just do it, which could be
  a preference item)

3 "Normal performance" (i.e. just browsing URLs, not (e.g.) CGIing or
  bookmarking or changing options) always becomes VERY sluggish on a
  slow connection (even occasionally after disconnection, even with
  history turned off. IMHO this is just *bad*, and will be esp
  problematic if/when Firefox is ported to mobile devices.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
for the disconnected cases

1. Map a drive or mount filespace on a networked filesystem, preferably not on
your LAN.
2. Copy a profile into that space.
3. Launch Firefox using that profile, use it a bit.
4. Disconnect or unmount the space from step 1.

Actual Results:  
see details

Expected Results:  
see details

Comment 1

[zug_treno]

It seems problem 0 is bug 278860 and problem 1 is (related to) Core bug 124770.