1548017 - XULStore Can't find profile directory with ProfileManager

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: SQLite and Embedded Database Bindings, defect)

Description

[Ian Neal]

When starting with Profile Manager from a terminal a message appears in it similar to:
JavaScript error: file:///home/gizmo/release/mozilla-257/obj-ff/dist/bin/components/XULStore.js, line 65: Error: Can't find profile directory.

Doesn't error if you start without ProfileManager

Comment 1

[Ian Neal]

Definitely happens in ESR60, trunk now uses XULStore.jsm

Comment 2

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

XULStore expects to be able to access the profile directory by the time the first XUL window appears. But when Firefox starts with the Profile Manager, it displays the Profile Manager's XUL window before a profile directory is available (since the point of the Profile Manager is to choose a profile, which determine's the profile directory).

(A similar situation can occur when using the profile migrator to migrate data from an old Firefox profile to a new one. The migrator displays a XUL window as part of that process before the new profile directory is available to XULStore.)

This error will prevent XULStore from persisting any persistent attributes of the Profile Manager window. However, that window doesn't explicitly persist any attributes, and it isn't resizable, nor does Firefox every display other windows at the same time. So the only attributes that XULStore would (implicitly) persist are the coordinates of the window.

The new implementation of XULStore (currently enabled on Nightly, and will merge to Beta shortly, although it won't be enabled there yet) doesn't report this error, so I'm marking this fixed. I don't think it's worth trying to resolve the underlying issue in the old implementation, given how little impact it'd have; so I recommend that it be marked wontfix for ESR 60.

Comment 3

[Alex]

I am still getting this error on 78 beta. Please advise.

Comment 4

[Lina Butler [:lina]]

Hi! Beta and Release still use the old XUL store implementation (gated in bug 1547877; blocked on bug 1596063 before we can turn it on everywhere), so this is unfortunately expected. From comment 2, it sounds like the error is noisy and annoying, but isn't causing problems inside of Firefox:

This error will prevent XULStore from persisting any persistent attributes of the Profile Manager window. However, that window doesn't explicitly persist any attributes, and it isn't resizable, nor does Firefox every display other windows at the same time.

Comment 5

[Ben]

Hi ! I am still getting this error on 83.0 (64 bits)

It seems it prevents to make the following three.js sample code to work:
https://redstapler.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/space-warp-src.zip
It gives random errors each time i refresh index.html

Comment 6

[Ben]

Solved. Works fine when I host the files. Locally it seems it's a same-origin policy problem. Microsoft Edge gave me a better hint on the error