1299109 - If the browser crashes soon after disabling an addon then about:addons will falsely report it is disabled

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Kestrel]

I stumbled across this bug while trying to reproduce Bug 1298219 by systematically disabling addons and then force-crashing the browser.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to about:addons and disable a restartless addon that was enabled when the browser was started.
2. Crash the browser using Crash Me Now addon within a few seconds of disabling the addon (sometimes up to 60 seconds later).
3. Restart the browser.
4. Check for signs the addon is running.
5. View about:addons.

Expected results:

about:addons should reflect the running state of the addon.

Actual results:

about:addons incorrectly reports the addon is disabled and this is maintained across restarts. Disabling the addon by first enabling and then disabling it doesn't work on the first restart but does work on subsequent restarts. Changing extensions.pendingOperations to true and restarting does not fix the issue.

Comment 1

[Andy McKay]

So are you saying that the add-on is enabled, but its shown as disabled? Otherwise it sounds it like is working as intended.

Comment 2

[Kestrel]

Yes, the addon is enabled despite about:addons showing it is disabled and this persists across restarts.

Comment 3

[Vasilica Tamas, QA [:vtamas]]

I was able to reproduce this issue on Firefox 52.0a1 (2016-10-31) under Windows 10 64-bit using https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/crash-me-now-simple/?src=dp-dl-othersby 
  - see screencat: http://screencast.com/t/ZcKXDo66L4QA 
  - Browser Console errors: http://pastebin.com/iRwYmsFV

But I’m suspecting that this bug is related to this Crash Me Now add-on, because I didn’t reproduce it using the following one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dj2y26bodl85h9q/crash_me_now_advanced-0.3-fx.xpi?dl=0


Which crash me add-on were you using when you encountered this issue?

Comment 4

[Kestrel]

The same problem occurs when forcefully terminating the process so it is unrelated to the Crash Me Now addon.

Comment 5

[Vasilica Tamas, QA [:vtamas]]

(In reply to Kestrel from comment #4)
> The same problem occurs when forcefully terminating the process so it is
> unrelated to the Crash Me Now addon.

I managed to reproduce this issue by killing the process and without any Crash Me add-on installed. 
Browser Console errors: http://pastebin.com/qbqKjP1k

Andy, any thoughts about this?

Comment 6

[Andy McKay]

Sounds like something went wrong in the SDK code on start up after the crash and that might be the cause of the add-on being disabled. I'm curious if this changed with the recent SDK loader changes. What version of Firefox did you reproduce this on?

Comment 7

[Vasilica Tamas, QA [:vtamas]]

(In reply to Andy McKay [:andym] from comment #6)
> Sounds like something went wrong in the SDK code on start up after the crash
> and that might be the cause of the add-on being disabled. I'm curious if
> this changed with the recent SDK loader changes. What version of Firefox did
> you reproduce this on?

Fortunately, this is not a regression from the recent SDK loader changes because I reproduced this issue also on Firefox 52.0a1 (2016-11-02), Firefox 50.0 RC, Firefox 49.0.2 under Windows 10 64-bit and Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit.


It is a bit weird that I did not manage to reproduce this issue on Firefox 51.0a2 (2016-11-02) under both platforms.

Comment 9

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau] (back April 22)]

Too late for firefox 52, mass-wontfix.

Comment 10

[Kestrel]

I can still reproduce this with FF56 and WebExtensions but the time window for crashing to cause problems has dropped from 60 seconds to less than 5 seconds.

Comment 11

[David Durst [:ddurst]]

Closing for inactivity. Re-open if this is an issue.