1455572 - Firefox default browser check creates infinite loop with Thunderbird

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1494436

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect, P5)

Description

[daniel.james]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/59.0
Build ID: 20180323154952

Steps to reproduce:

Opened Firefox 59.0.2 64-bit on Debian 9.4. 


Actual results:

A warning said that Firefox was not my default browser, even though it is in ~/.config/mimeapps.list as follows:

x-scheme-handler/http=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/https=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/ftp=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/chrome=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
application/x-extension-htm=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
application/x-extension-html=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
application/x-extension-shtml=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;
application/x-extension-xht=thunderbird.desktop;userapp-Firefox-699D4W.desktop;

Accepting the offer to make Firefox my default browser added this stanza to the end of the file:

[Default Applications]
x-scheme-handler/http=thunderbird.desktop
x-scheme-handler/https=thunderbird.desktop
x-scheme-handler/ftp=thunderbird.desktop
x-scheme-handler/chrome=thunderbird.desktop
text/html=thunderbird.desktop
application/x-extension-htm=thunderbird.desktop
application/x-extension-html=thunderbird.desktop
application/x-extension-shtml=thunderbird.desktop
application/xhtml+xml=thunderbird.desktop
application/x-extension-xhtml=thunderbird.desktop
application/x-extension-xht=thunderbird.desktop

This created a loop between Firefox and Thunderbird so that when a web link is clicked on in Thunderbird, the system load average rose to 10+ making the system unusable.

Workaround was to delete the stanza added by Firefox and refuse the prompt to make Firefox the default browser.


Expected results:

Firefox should have set itself as the default browser without creating a loop with Thunderbird.

Comment 1

[u554753]

We cannot seem to be able to reproduce this issue on Ubuntu or Linux Mint distros.

Also not entirely certain if this is a startup/profile issue or if this is a Thunderbird issue. Please correct the component if needed.

Comment 2

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Daniel, have you sorted this out?

Comment 3

[daniel.james]

Hi Wayne, I resolved this by using the workaround mentioned above, deleting the lines added by Firefox and then answering 'no' to the default browser question. I hope it helps anyone else with the same issue.

Comment 4

[Jonathan Krebs]

Hi :)

i think this https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=948691 could be the same (firefox respects the MOZ_APP_LAUNCER environment variable, but does not set it. Thunderbird sets it to /usr/bin/thunderbird) .

I did not find this issue in this bugzilla yet and will continue searching / creating it tomorrow