384628 - Firefox on the Mac does not recognize the jnlp MIME type and appropriately prechoose the Java Web Start program

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[mvolaski]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

Unfortunately, the only example I have is not on the web. It's a piece of hardware, http://www.avocent.com/web/en.nsf/Content/DSR1021, that has a web browser that launches a java applet through a jnlp file whose filename ends with with .cgi. 

Here's the file's contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!-- JNLP File for Java Video Viewer Application -->

<jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="https://192.168.1.3/webstart2">
    <information>
       <title>Video Session Viewer</title>
       <vendor>Avocent</vendor>
       <description>Video Session Viewer</description>
       <description kind="short">Video Viewer</description>
    </information>

    <security>
       <all-permissions/>
    </security>

    <resources>
       <j2se version="1.4+"/>
       <jar href="avctVideo.jar"/>
       <nativelib href="acvvWin32Lib.jar"/>
       <nativelib href="libavctLinux.jar"/>
    </resources>

    <application-desc main-class="com.avocent.video.Stingray">
       <argument>title="Avocent DSR1021 - 520255-04E01E"</argument>
       <argument>devicetype=avsp</argument>
       <argument>path=a:192.168.1.3,p:6,c:0,s:"Video Viewer -
520255-04E01E"</argument>
       <argument>oem=Avocent</argument>
       <argument>user=1AVCT-1379113311</argument>
       <argument>password=1AVCT-0057971257</argument>
    </application-desc>
</jnlp> 

Firefox on the Windows side properly recognizes this file as a jnlp file and offers to launch the Java Web Start program, but on the Mac it's simply confused.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.

Comment 3

[mvolaski]

The problem certainly still affects my current profile. I haven't as of yet tried a fresh profile.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Can you please try creating a fresh profile?

Comment 5

[mvolaski]

It works fine with a fresh profile. I think it would work with regular profile except that Firefox for some reason is being tricked into thinking it has to save the .cgi file to disk and that fails with a cryptic "download error" rather than opening it with JavaStart or at least giving me the opportunity to assign the opening to JavaStart. In Preferences->Applications there is no reference to this type of file which ends with extension .cgi, so it seems like a separate bug. And certainly no program should ever fail with simply an error called "download error". That's worse than crashing!

The beginning of the file is
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!-- JNLP File for Java Video Viewer Application -->

Comment 6

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

There is some setting or extension in your current profile that is causing the issue. Try installing your extensions one by one in the new profile until you see the issue again. If you don't, it is a user setting.

Comment 7

[mvolaski]

Removing extensions made no difference. I'm not so sure about its being a setting. Who would program a setting to cause a download error? The code knows it's doing something wrong, it just doesn't how to express in specific concrete terms.