1554154 - [Intermittent] Re-install prompt has an inconsistent behaviour

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Installer, defect, P3)

Description

[Oana Botisan, Desktop QA]

Note:

• Make sure that the stub ran at least once with the created profile.

Affected versions

• Nightly 69.0a1
• Firefox 68.0b3

Affected platforms

• Windows 7 x32
• Windows 10 x64
• Windows 8.1 x64

Steps to reproduce

1. Install latest stub version.
2. Make sure that the stub ran at least once with the created profile.
3. Uninstall the build.
4. Then install it again.

Expected result

• The Re-install prompt is triggered.

Actual result

• The Install prompt is displayed instead of the Re-install prompt.

Regression range

• I will try to find a regression if it's possible.

Additional notes

• When this issue occurs then it happens almost all the time.
• This issue is not reproducing on all the machines.
• There are some work-arounds, but that doesn't help in all the situations. Some examples would be to delete mozilla temp files or FirefoxURL from regedit.

Comment 1

[Molly Howell (she/her) (no longer active)]

I haven't been able to reproduce this on any of the listed affected platforms. On 68, you might be seeing bug 1546694, but that was fixed a few weeks into the 68 nightly cycle, so it seems unlikely to be related. A regression range or more consistent STR would be super helpful.

Comment 2

[Oana Botisan, Desktop QA]

I can't seem to find a regression for this issue. I can reproduce it on builds from 2017-09-01 and before that the Re-Install prompt is not triggered on any machine.
I am sorry I can't provide more consistent steps to reproduce this issue. We tried a lot of scenarios, but can't find the steps to reproduce this issue 100% of the time. But one of the scenarios that did reproduce the issue on one of the machine was to install a slightly older version of Firefox (66 or 68) closed the computer and left it over night, then without updating Firefox uninstall it and try to install the latest stub.

Comment 3

[Oana Botisan, Desktop QA]

I can't seem to find a regression for this issue. I can reproduce it on builds from 2017-09-01 and before that the Re-Install prompt is not triggered on any machine.
I am sorry I can't provide more consistent steps to reproduce this issue. We tried a lot of scenarios, but can't find the steps to reproduce this issue 100% of the time. But one of the scenarios that did reproduce the issue on one of the machine was to install a slightly older version of Firefox (66 or 68) closed the computer and left it over night, then without updating Firefox uninstall it and try to install the latest stub.

Comment 4

[Molly Howell (she/her) (no longer active)]

Thanks. This prompt was first added in the 2017-08-05 nightly (bug 1369255), so if it goes almost that far back then my guess is that this bug has always been there; the only thing that actually landed on 2017-09-01 was a small progress bar bug fix (bug 1396912).

From re-reading the description, I can see you know something about how this code works and what to look for (since you mentioned cleaning out FirefoxURL). Any pattern you can find in the states of any of those things (profiles, registry entries, existing installations, or whatever else) when this bug reproduces would be extremely helpful. Right now I don't really have anything I can use to start diagnosing the issue.

Comment 5

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:mhowell, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 6

[Molly Howell (she/her) (no longer active)]

This bug needs more investigation before we know how serious it is, but I'll give it a temporary priority.

Comment 7

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

This issue was reproducible with latest Nightly version 77.0a1 (2020-04-28)) on win 7 x64. I will update the flag as affected for this version.

Comment 8

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Change the status for beta to have the same as nightly and release.
For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 9

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Change the status for beta to have the same as nightly and release.
For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 10

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Reproduced it on the latest Nightly 80.0a1 on Windows 7.

Comment 11

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Reproduced on Windows 10 with Nightly v87.0a1 from 2021-02-18.

Comment 12

[Oana Botisan, Desktop QA]

I will lower the severity for this issue.