1853807 - The firefox-nightly .deb package doesn't get localized and is missing its distribution ID when using an existing profile

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Distributions, defect)

Description

[Gabriel Bustamante [:gabriel]]

The firefox-nightly .deb package doesn't get localized when using a profile from created by the tarred binary. The Distribution ID is also missing. Thing work as expected if a new profile is created for the .deb package.

Distribution ID => empty with my firefox binary profile
Distribution ID => mozilla-deb with a new profile

Comment 1

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

have you been able to reproduce this ? :)

Comment 2

[Gabriel Bustamante [:gabriel]]

No. But QA will try

Comment 3

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Confirming the issue with Firefox .deb 120.0a1 (2023-10-01) on Lubuntu 20.04 LXQt. The distributionID is not displayed in about:support or about > Firefox window. The Firefox .deb build is not localized after opening a profile from a tar.bz2 firefox with a Firefox .deb package. I followed the next steps:

Preconditions: have the system set to FR language and region

1. Download and extract the latest Firefox nightly .tar.bz2 and open it with a new profile.
2. Install Firefox.deb l10n FR (sudo apt-get install firefox-nightly-l10n-fr)
3. Open Firefox .deb (/usr/bin/firefox-nightly -p) using the profile created at step 1.

Actual Result:

• Firefox is not localized (language present in about:addons)
• distribution is missing from about:support and About Firefox window.

The distributionID missing can be seen on Ubuntu 22.1 and Ubuntu 22.04 as well for an en-US .deb build.

S3 because it seems that in a clean environment (default user profiles) the firefox.deb will create a new profile after running if the profile manager is not used. For example: If Firefox Nightly tar.bz2 is opened there will be two profiles (default-nightly and default). Installing and opening firefox.deb without the profile manager will create a new profile (default-nightly-1)

Using a new profile fixes the issue. If more information is needed please let me know, Thank you!

Comment 4

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Hello! I found some more information here. It seems that the issue is only reproducing if the previous profile was created and used by Firefox Nightly (120.0a1). If for example, I open a profile with Firefox 120.0a1.deb that was created with Firefox 119.0b4, 118.0.1, or 115esr the issue does not reproduce. The Firefox .deb is correctly localized based on the downloaded build and region/ language set and the distributionID is correctly displayed in the About Nightly window and about:support.

Comment 5

[Daniele "Mte90" Scasciafratte]

I can confirm the issue, I had Firefox nightly on my workstation from tarball moved to debian package with the repository and installed the italian package.
Also if it is configured (again) and restarted multiple times doesn't load the language.

Comment 6

[Gabriel Bustamante [:gabriel]]

I created a profile with the nightly .tar.bz2 and one using the beta .tar.bz2.

I installed the .deb and opened the profile created by the nightly .tar.bz2 and I was able to replicate the bug.

The profile created by the beta .tar.bz2 didn't trigger the bug.

In the profile's prefs.js created by the nightly .tar.bz2 there is a line setting distribution.iniFile.exists to false:

user_pref("distribution.iniFile.exists.value", false);

In the profile created by the beta that preference is set to true:

user_pref("distribution.iniFile.exists.value", true);

I manually set distribution.iniFile.exists to true in the profile created by the nightly .tar.bz2 and opened it in the .deb and Firefox got localized (and I see the Distribution ID in about:support)

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/distribution.sys.mjs
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/tests/unit/test_distribution_cachedexistence.js

Comment 7

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Thanks for finding this, :gabriel! :mkaply, would happen to have some insights the way distribution.ini files are handled? If not, who would be the right person to contact?

Comment 8

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

The distribution.ini is only rechecked for on version changes, so this behavior is kind of expected. We cache the value so we don't check for it at every startup if its not needed.

I'm unclear how this relates to the localization bit though...

Comment 9

[Gabriel Bustamante [:gabriel]]

Same. Maybe it has something to do with this?

https://github.com/mozilla-partners/deb/blob/main/desktop/deb/distribution/distribution.ini#L8

intl.locale.requested=""

Comment 10

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

You're right. completely forgot that was in distribution.ini.

So the question is can we detect this scenario to read distribution.in again. The EXE location has changed I think so in theory if we can detect that we can reprocess the file.

Comment 11

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

I took a look at the code and it seems to be the right approach to me too. I'm moving this bug to Firefox :: Distributions, then. :mkaply, in your opinion, what would be the effort to make this change?

Comment 12

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Attachment: Bug 1853807 - Recheck distribution.ini if executable location has changed. r?Mossop

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/cd5d7992648e
Recheck distribution.ini if executable location has changed. r=mossop

Comment 14

[Norisz Fay [:noriszfay]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/cd5d7992648e

Comment 15

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

Since nightly and release are affected, beta will likely be affected too.
For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 16

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

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:mkaply, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?

• If yes, please nominate the patch for beta approval.
• If no, please set status-firefox121 to wontfix.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 17

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Attachment: Bug 1853807 - Recheck distribution.ini if executable location has changed. r?Mossop

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D192874

Comment 18

[Phabricator Automation]

Uplift Approval Request

• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: Steps are in bug
• Explanation of risk level: Only affects distibution code.
• Is Android affected?: no
• Code covered by automated testing: no
• Risk associated with taking this patch: Low
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• String changes made/needed: None
• User impact if declined: Switching profile on .DEB doesn't switch locale
• Fix verified in Nightly: no

Comment 19

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Comment on attachment 9366083 [details]
Bug 1853807 - Recheck distribution.ini if executable location has changed. r?Mossop

Approved for 121.0b6.

Comment 20

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/e98d3fec31d0

Comment 21

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Hello! We verified the issue with Firefox 122.0a1 (2023-12-05) .deb and Firefox 121.0b7 .deb on Debian 10, Lubuntu 20.04 LXQt, Mint 21 and Kubuntu 22.

After following the steps from comment 3 the .deb builds are correctly localized and the distribution is set to mozilla-deb. Note that Firefox 121.0b7.deb was installed from the archive.