1110215 - Run an experiment: disable Flash protected mode and see how that affects the plugin crash/hang and BHR data

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Benjamin Smedberg]

On Windows 7+, we'd like to run an experiment on beta to force-disable Flash protected mode and see how that affects the Flash crash/hang rates.

To reduce data latency, I'm going to see if we can record all the necessary data in the telemetry payload instead of relying on FHR.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Attachment: flash-protected

Comment 2

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Comment on attachment 8536855 [details] [diff] [review]
flash-protected

Review of attachment 8536855 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

::: experiments/flash-protectedmode-beta/code/bootstrap.js
@@ +11,5 @@
> +function startup() {
> +  // Seems startup() function is launched twice after install, we're
> +  // unsure why so far. We only want it to run once.
> +  if (gStarted) {
> +    Cu.reportError("startup() function was launched twice; making second run return.");

this is an artifact of the way that experiments are installed/started up by being disabled by default and then getting enabled. I meant to file a bug about it last time but I think I never did.

Which is to say this is a known thing, no need to Cu.reportError. But yeah, keep the `if (gStarted) { return; }`.

@@ +45,5 @@
> +    });
> +}
> +
> +function shutdown() {
> +  gStarted = false;

Probably no point in setting this to false, unless you want to properly support hot-disabling the experiment and having it undo its effect. But in that case you will also need to clear the pref that was set.

Comment 3

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Staged: https://hg.mozilla.org/webtools/telemetry-experiment-server/rev/5448d3fa18f0

QA instructions:

Test using FF35.0b4 which should be built today.
Change these prefs:
* experiments.manifest.cert.checkAttributes;false
* experiments.manifest.uri replace telemetry-experiment.cdn.mozilla.net with telemetry-experiment-dev.allizom.org
* Use https://wiki.mozilla.org/QA/Telemetry/BrowserConsoleCommands to force-refresh the experiments
* Run the following command to see what experiment branch you are in: Experiments.instance()._getActiveExperiment.branch
** if you are in the "control" group, the pref dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode should be false
** if you are in the "experiment" group, the pref should be true
The branch should be random 50/50 split. If you want to re-test to try and get into the other branch, close Firefox and delete <profile>/experiments.json and relaunch/force-refresh

Comment 4

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Deployed in bug 1112677