238083 - Mozilla silently dies on 'Switch Profile...', due to 'general.startup.*' prefs setting

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Startup & Profiles, defect)

Description

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040316] (W98SE)

I have 2 Mozilla profiles (and 6 unmigrated NetscapeV4 profiles);
I can start both my Mozilla profiles;
I can swich successfully from my v1.3 to my v1.7a profile;
but I can't do it the other way round.

Reproductible: 100%

Steps:
1. Start Mozilla with my v1.7a profile
2. 'Tools > Switch Profile...'
3. Select my v1.3 profile
3-R. Mozilla silently stops/dies, instead of re-appearing with v1.3 profile.

Workaround:
4. Restart Mozilla: v1.3 profile is active.
4-R. Then: The "back-end" switch succeeded, but the "UI" failed to restart
dynamically at step 3.

Comment 1

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040219] (W98SE)

Bug already there in v1.7a.

Comment 2

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040421] (<-- 1.7rc1 !)
(W98SE)

In fact, it can happen with any of my 2 profiles:

Working case:
{{
user_pref("general.startup.browser", false);
user_pref("general.startup.mail", true);
}}
(MailNews starts)

Failing case:
{{
user_pref("general.startup.browser", false);
}}
(Nothing starts)

It appears that, in the latter case, the switching process would need to "guess"
which "default" app. to start !
I would suggest:
1) the one from which the Switch process was started.
2) in any case, start something.
3) (or, at the very least, "_say_ goodbye")

Comment 3

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Currently I'm working on the reintegration of the profile switching UI in
Firefox and Thunderbird as an extension. I had the same behavior with Firefox
till the 0.8 release. Builds created later on the 0.9 trunk are still switching
with the same preferences to the other profile. Currently I can reproduce the
silent stop of Thunderbird during the profile switching. Using a debug build the
last message I receive is following code:

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/xpcom/io/nsStreamUtils.cpp#441
-> "Continue Event not posted"

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/profile/src/nsProfile.cpp#1287
-> "DefineLocaleDefaultsDir failed - NS_SUCCEEEDED"

I don't know if the behavior of Thunderbird is caused on the same background
like you have written here. Can you use a debug build of Mozilla to verify the
last reaction during the switching?

The preferences you mentioned Thunderbird doesn't use. I also removed all
entries from prefs.js and Thunderbird isn't starting again. But starting
manually after the silent stop is working.

Comment 4

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Can you use a debug build of Mozilla to verify the
> last reaction during the switching?

Where can I get a (W98SE) debug build ?

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

edge case that we don't have any fix in sight for. not going to block but we'd
consider a reviewed patch for 1.7

Comment 6

[Andrew Schultz]

Attachment: make the return value useful

<sigh>

Comment 7

[Andrew Schultz]

fixed on trunk

Comment 8

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20060424 SeaMonkey/1.1a] (tinderbox-builds, 2006042413) (W98SE)

V.Fixed on 1.8.1 branch:
in the previously failing case, a browser window now opens.

(I think this might be good to have in 1.8.0 branch too, but I leave it to you to decide.)