1230189 - Firefox periodically asks me to install updates, even right after the daily aurora update [shows a doorhanger]

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

Attachment: firefox-devedition-44.0a2_constantly-asking-to-install-updates.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:44.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/44.0
Build ID: 20151203004003

Steps to reproduce:

Do the (daily) update of Firefox Developer Edition under Linux x86_64 (arriving ~11AM PDT), by:
1. opening the "About" box
2. letting the upgrade finish
3. restart by clicking the "Restart to install upgrades" button

This is under Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS, using a vanilla mozilla .tar.bz2 build extracted to ~ and that I've been updating mostly daily for months. I'm *not* using the ubuntu .deb build.


Actual results:

Right after successfully updating (i.e. the "About" box shows I got the day's build: "44.0a2 (2015-12-03)"), I get an address bar popover asking me to update. The exact phrasing is "You should restart Firefox Developer Edition now to install updates.", see attached screenshot.

If I use the button to restart, the address bar button doesn't show up after restart, but sometimes comes back later in the day.

 - Is this expected because backend update logic is changing, or a bug?
 - Is it maybe about some component other than core firefox that wants to be updated (addon?), and in this case are there plans to make this clearer?


Expected results:

I shouldn't be asked for updates right after updating.

Comment 1

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

Issue persists as of 45.0a2 (2015-12-15)

Comment 2

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

It's now clear that what the doorhanger / addressbar popover prompt wants to update is *not* Firefox itself. Today I had the prompt while running yesterday's build, accepted the action to install updates and restart, but after the restart I was still on yesterday's build.

Any idea what this is, anyone?

Comment 3

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

Issue persists as of 46.0a2 (2016-01-27)

Comment 4

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

(In reply to Ronan Jouchet from comment #3)
> Issue persists as of 46.0a2 (2016-01-27)

Of additional interest: the doorhanger showed today using a 46.0a2 build freshly downloaded from https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-aurora/ , even though the daily upgrade for Firefox 46.0a2 itself isn't triggered (it is usually activated within a week, following a few days like today during which builds are available, but auto-upgrade doesn't happen yet).

-> If there was any doubt remaining, this is *not* Firefox trying to update itself, it's some other component. What is it, and could it be clearer?

I DXRed the string, without success:
https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?q=%22to+install+updates%22

Comment 5

[Ronan Jouchet [:ronjouch]]

Solved. More googling pointed me to ubufox, some Canonical/Ubuntu extension that, looking at its code [1],
 1. Adds updates notifications.
 2. Patches a custom about:home.

A downstream Launchpad bug might be appropriate, and investigating the root issue should be easy (the extension monitors many sources for updates; adding some logging, repackaging the extension and testing should tell someone interested what the problem is).

But frankly I don't care about ubufox; disabling this extension that always seemed dubious is my preferred solution as I'm not using Canonical builds anyway. Hope this bug someday helps someone :) .

[1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mozillateam/ubufox/trunk/files/head:/components/