1599059 - Navigation between about:config and WebPages can break DevTools

Status: NEW

(DevTools :: General, defect, P3)

Description

[Cristian Fogel [:cfogel]]

Attachment: RipTools.png

Affected versions

• 70.0.1, 71.0b12, 72.0a1 (2019-11-22), 68.2.0esr

Affected platforms

• Windows 10, macOS 10.14, Ubuntu 18.04;

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Firefox access about:config
2. Open DevTools, any tab;
3. Access any webpage;
4. Navigate back and forth between config & the_page;
5. Do this a couple of times, fast enough for webpage to not get the chance to load;

Expected result

• pages and DevTools are open & loaded witout issues;

Actual result

• DevTools do not load anymore, only the empty container is displayed;;
• Opening DevTools again pushes the necroEd section up and displays both it and the new Instance of DevTools;

Regression range

• First bad: 2016-11-03;
• Last good: 2016-11-02;
• Pushlog: URL;
• the range might not be all that accurate since with this pushlog there where several builds that swapping pages between steps 2 - 3 the DevTools closed, could use confirmation if it is intended;

Additional notes

• attached screenshot with the issue.
• encountered durring the DevTools WNP panel testing.

Comment 1

[:Harald Kirschner :digitarald]

Attachment: browser-console.log

Browser Console logs point to recent Fission work.

Comment 2

[Alexandre Poirot [:ochameau]]

The pushlog includes bug 1068400, which introduced the automatical re-opening of the toolbox in case of navigation between two processes (which happens between about:config and any web page). Before this, the toolbox has to be re-opened manually.
This doesn't really look like a regression. It rather look like this was always brittle.
The regression range is from 2016, so it isn't clear if anything recent made it more brittle.

Instead, fission work will allow to not close the toolbox and instead keep it open and switch to the next page, no matter if it is running in another process or not. But this depends on bug 1592575. For now, this feature is preffed off.

Comment 3

[Alexandre Poirot [:ochameau]]

We should have fixed a couple of issues like this.
But this can theoriticaly still happen. Bug 1698891 should ultimately get rid of all such issues.

Having said that, let us know if that still occurs frequently or easily. It should be less frequent nowadays.

Comment 4

[Jan Honza Odvarko [:Honza] (always need-info? me)]

I think I was able to reproduce the issue, some DevTools panels are broken for me.

It's not exactly what's on the screenshot in comment #0 but the Inspector, Console, Performance, Accessibility panels are blank for me

I am also seeing the following error in the Browser Console (every time I navigate):

can't access property "on", this._client is null webconsole.js:45
WebConsoleFront resource://devtools/client/fronts/webconsole.js:45
    createFront resource://devtools/shared/protocol/types.js:515
    getFront resource://devtools/shared/protocol/types.js:535
    getFront resource://devtools/client/fronts/targets/target-mixin.js:288
    getToolboxEvalOptions chrome://browser/content/parent/ext-devtools.js:78
    eval chrome://browser/content/parent/ext-devtools-inspectedWindow.js:26
    AsyncFunctionNext self-hosted:695
    (Async: JSActor query)
    _send resource://gre/modules/ConduitsChild.jsm:63
    _send resource://gre/modules/ConduitsChild.jsm:111
    _send self-hosted:1282
    callParentAsyncFunction resource://gre/modules/ExtensionChild.jsm:857
    callAsyncFunction resource://gre/modules/ExtensionChild.jsm:621
    stub resource://gre/modules/Schemas.jsm:2724
    createPanelIfReactLoaded moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:36365
    loadCheckInterval moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:36673
    (Async: setInterval handler)
    <anonymous> moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:36672
    __webpack_require__ moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:20
    <anonymous> moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:84
    <anonymous> moz-extension://5215b255-a11c-44f1-9423-b3a1d86f40dd/build/main.js:87