1465537 - private browsing mode broken

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(WebExtensions :: General, defect, P1)

Description

[Rubén]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0
Build ID: 20100101

Steps to reproduce:

Updated firefox Nightly to version of 29-05-2018.


Actual results:

Firefox will not load any pages (i always browse in private browsing mode).

When surfing to - for instance - https://www.bonnieradvocaten.nl the loading icon in the tab appears but nothing else happens.

Also Firefox Nightly has filled up my SSD twice today writing 2 TB of date to it :(

When i Start Firefox nightly AFTER starting firefox stable for the first time Firefox Nightly does work.

Please also see:
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/8n3co2/firefox_nightly_not_loading/




Expected results:

Firefox should not fill up my SSD and should load pages.

Comment 1

[Rubén]

I'm using Linux but this problem seem's to also affect Windows.

Comment 2

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

buggyz, which version of Windows? And, which particular Linux?

Andrei, can your team have a look at whether private browsing is broken on Linux?

Comment 3

[Rubén]

Xubuntu 18.04 and Windows 10

I would like to reiterate that after starting Firefox Nightly for the first time, it seems to work normally, the following page will load normally:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/62.0a1/whatsnew/?oldversion=60.0.1

Starting it for a second time no page will load.

Comment 4

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

buggyz, do you use the same data profile for Firefox and Firefox Nightly or do you use separate profiles? Thanks

Comment 5

[Rubén]

I use the same profile for both FF and Nightly.

Comment 6

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

(In reply to buggyz from comment #5)
> I use the same profile for both FF and Nightly.

This is not a scenario we support as we do not support downgrading profiles, using the same profile between Firefox and Firefox Nightly is a scenario that leads to profile corruption, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Nightly#Platform_specific_instructions

I am going to close this bug as invalid since what you are seeing is likely the consequence of profile corruption. If you can reproduce the bug with a new profile (not shared with Firefox Release), then feel free to reopen it.

Thanks for flagging the issue though!

Comment 7

[Rubén]

I can reproduce this issue with a new profile not shared with Firefox Release.

It's the combination of using "Always use private browsing mode" and using Addons. 

If Addons / Extensions are enables when using "Always use private browsing mode" no page will load

Comment 8

[Rubén]

If addons are all removed everything works as expected even when Always using private browsing mode.

Comment 9

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Thanks, I can confirm the bug! Private browsing mode is broken when it is set as the default mode for all browsing activities, not when it is ponctually.

Could you try to pinpoint the addon causing the bug? Disable half of your addons then test that it works. If if works then the addon causing the bug is in the other half, if it doesn't work disable another half of the addons etc.

Comment 10

[Rubén]

(In reply to Pascal Chevrel:pascalc from comment #9)
> Thanks, I can confirm the bug! Private browsing mode is broken when it is
> set as the default mode for all browsing activities, not when it is
> ponctually.
> 
> Could you try to pinpoint the addon causing the bug? Disable half of your
> addons then test that it works. If if works then the addon causing the bug
> is in the other half, if it doesn't work disable another half of the addons
> etc.

Actually i think its any Addon.
I've tried "Ublock Origin" "HTTPS-Everywhere" AND "Stop Facebook Tracking" and they all cause this behavior when persistently using Private browsing mode.

Comment 11

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

OK, I found in my own profile which addon causes the bug (could be triggered by other addons), in my case it is Facebook Container

STR:
1/ Install the Facebook container add-on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/facebookcontainer/
2/ In about:preferences#privacy in the History section, select "Always use private browsing mode"
3/ Restart the browser
4/ Visit a webpage

ER:
Page loads

AR:
Page doesn't load, the spinner loads indefinitely in the tab header

Comment 12

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Given that this is a mozilla add-on, maybe we should track it for 62, what do you think Liz?

Comment 13

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Luke, can you take a look at this or help us find the right owner for this issue?

Comment 14

[Alice0775 White]

regression window:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/pushloghtml?fromchange=6b406fa5a8a35fe00792d698bedd58eef07ad367&tochange=120d17a176ffa033fe79632804755ae23940c336

suspect: Bug 1460610:

@Kris Maglione
Your patch seems to cause the regression. Can you please look into this?

Comment 15

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

(In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #14)
> regression window:
> https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/
> pushloghtml?fromchange=6b406fa5a8a35fe00792d698bedd58eef07ad367&tochange=120d
> 17a176ffa033fe79632804755ae23940c336
> 
> suspect: Bug 1460610:
> 
> @Kris Maglione
> Your patch seems to cause the regression. Can you please look into this?

I don't want to say that that's not possible, but that's not possible. It's a one-line change that's a no-op if extensions are already installed.

Comment 16

[Alice0775 White]

(In reply to Kris Maglione [:kmag] (PTO through 06/05) from comment #15)
> (In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #14)
> > regression window:
> > https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/
> > pushloghtml?fromchange=6b406fa5a8a35fe00792d698bedd58eef07ad367&tochange=120d
> > 17a176ffa033fe79632804755ae23940c336
> > 
> > suspect: Bug 1460610:
> > 
> > @Kris Maglione
> > Your patch seems to cause the regression. Can you please look into this?
> 
> I don't want to say that that's not possible, but that's not possible. It's
> a one-line change that's a no-op if extensions are already installed.


via local build,
Last good : ba76eaa4b71a
First bad : 120d17a176ff

So, the patch[1] of Bug 1460610 definitely cause the regression.

[1]
120d17a176ff	Kris Maglione — Bug 1460610: Fix content process whitelist for profile extensions when none are present at startup. r=aswan

Comment 18

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

Hm, I don't have it completely figure out but webextensions delayed background startup uses the sessionstore-windows-restored notification.  When running with the STR from comment 11, that event is triggered before this code runs:
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/292d295d6b084b43b70de26a42e68513bb7b36a3/toolkit/components/extensions/parent/ext-toolkit.js#86

Apparently SessionStore.jsm emits that event differently (or specifically, earlier during startup) in private browsing mode, and I guess the changes in bug 1460610 delay extension startup just enough to cause us to miss the event.  This means that background pages never get started.  Facebook Container, uBlock, and the other extensions mentioned here all use blocking webRequest listeners so web requests just hang forever.

I'll figure out a place to move browserStartupPromise so that we can get it reliably, in the mean time if you are affected by this you can set the preference extensions.webextensions.delayed-background-startup to false to avoid it.

Comment 19

[Alice0775 White]

"Tree Style Tab" ver 2.4.24 is also affected in Always start with Private Browsing Mode. 
Tabs would not render in sidebar.  Ping-pong is displayed forever on the TST side bar.
And I also confirmed regression range is in comment 14 and comment 16.

Comment 20

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

Attachment: Bug 1465537 Move browser startup promises to ExtensionParent.jsm

Creating these promises from ext-toolkit.js was always dicey since that
script is loaded asynchronously during startup.  This should ensure that
the startup promises are reliably created early enough in startup.

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/248964/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/248964/

Comment 21

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Comment on attachment 8983131 [details]
Bug 1465537 Move browser startup promises to ExtensionParent.jsm

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/248964/#review255162

Comment 22

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/81b41583c253
Move browser startup promises to ExtensionParent.jsm r=zombie

Comment 23

[Bogdan Tara[:bogdan_tara | bogdant]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/81b41583c253

Comment 24

[marius.santa]

Attachment: always private working.gif

Reproduced in Firefox 62.0a1(20180530100110).
Retested and verified using: "Facebook Container", "Https Everywhere", "Tree Style Tab", "uBlock Origin" in Firefox 62.0a1 (20180608100105) on Windows 10 64Bit, MacOS 10.13.4.

Comment 25

[Victor Carciu]

Verified as fixed based on comment #24