274844 - Proxy settings default to localhost:8080 on startup every time, even after changing to manual

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[PhoenixRising]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

Proxy settings default to localhost:8080. Changing to manual works until browser
is shut down, then it reverts to localhost:8080 when started again.

Upgraded to 1.0 and reinstalled switch proxy extension. Would not come up with
correct proxy on startup so removed extension. Still will not come back the way
it was shut down.

With both proxies disabled, browser comes up with a manual configuration. I have
tried deleting the entries and setting the ports to 0 before switching to direct
connection, but it doesn't work. I have tried my second proxy which uses port
8999, but when the browser is started again it defaults to localhost:8080.

This occurs on two PCs, both running XP SP2. One is an English PC the other one
Korean. This also sometimes happens on my Mac OS X, but is not fully
duplicatable like it is on the PC.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start browser, get message cannot find page with selected browser.
2. Open configuration and change from default manual configuration (localhost:8080)
3. Browser works fine during session
4. Close browser.
5. Open browser and it repeats the same error.
6. Check configuration, has reverted to manual localhost:8080

Actual Results:  
Unable to access web until I manually turn off proxy configuration, or change
port to 8999.

Expected Results:  
It shoud keep the configuration I set before closing browser

Using default theme with SpoofStick and ViewCookies extensions installed.

Comment 1

[OstGote!]

Check your profile for a file user.js and if you have one, check if it inlcudes
proxy prefs. Remove the lines. Prefs from user.js are always reimported to
prefs.js and override your manual settings.

Comment 2

[PhoenixRising]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Check your profile for a file user.js and if you have one, check if it inlcudes
> proxy prefs. Remove the lines. Prefs from user.js are always reimported to
> prefs.js and override your manual settings.

I have no user.js files. I did find this in the all.js file:

pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "localhost, 127.0.0.1") but I can find
nothing that would set the ports to 8080.

I have searched my whole hard drive for *.js and found no user.js or anything
else that was even close. I looked through all the .js files under Firefox and
could find nothing other than normal default configurations.

Comment 3

[OstGote!]

(In reply to comment #2)
> pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "localhost, 127.0.0.1") but I can find
> nothing that would set the ports to 8080.

That lines are ok. Do you have WebWasher installed? This ad-filtering program
runs as a local proxy on localhost:8080? How did you uninstall SwitchProxy?

Comment 4

[PhoenixRising]

(In reply to comment #3)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "localhost, 127.0.0.1") but I can find
> > nothing that would set the ports to 8080.
> 
> That lines are ok. Do you have WebWasher installed? This ad-filtering program
> runs as a local proxy on localhost:8080? How did you uninstall SwitchProxy?

No to WebWasher. No proxies installed at all. I uninstalled SwitchProxy by going
to the Extensions window, highlighting SwitchProxy and clicking the uninstall
button.

My recollection is not totally clear on this, but it seems to me that when I
installed version 1.0 I got a message that SwitchProxy wouldn't work and needed
to be updated in order to run. I did the update/install and then I started
having problems switching between proxies. I use two of them, Primedius and
MetroPipe. When one is down, I switch. SwitchProxy would not remember the
switch. I also could not run with no proxy unless I manually turned the proxy
off. My assumption was that there was a problem with SwitchProxy, so I
uninstalled it.

I even tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it, but it kept the same
configuration settings. Perhaps I need to do that again, accompanied by a
registry scrub to remove all traces. Are there instructions somewhere that will
assist me in cleaning the registry before reinstalling?

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

you should just need to create a new profile.

From a command prompt, go to the firefox program directory, and run "firefox.exe
-P" and create a new profile.

Comment 6

[PhoenixRising]

(In reply to comment #5)
> you should just need to create a new profile.
> 
> From a command prompt, go to the firefox program directory, and run "firefox.exe
> -P" and create a new profile.

Thank you, Mike. But this raises another related issue.

When I started to create the profile, I discovered a hidden directory that did
contain the user.js file. I deleted the erroneous proxy lines and that resolved
the issue for now.

But, why wasn't this overwritten when I made my changes under the configuration
menu? Shouldn't the user.js reflect my choices when I close the browser? I
didn't have a problem before I upgraded to 1.0. Is it possible that the upgrade
somehow missed the user.js file?

Comment 7

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

user.js always overrides the default, even if you change the pref during a
session, its basically the old way of locking in a certain pref.  Nothing in the
core code writes to user.js, it writes to prefs.js, which is overridden by the
sort-of-hardcoded settings in your user.js file.

Comment 8

[PhoenixRising]

(In reply to comment #7)
> user.js always overrides the default, even if you change the pref during a
> session, its basically the old way of locking in a certain pref.  Nothing in the
> core code writes to user.js, it writes to prefs.js, which is overridden by the
> sort-of-hardcoded settings in your user.js file.

OK, I think I'm beginning to understand (you know how us old folks are). Is it
possible that SwitchProxy created the user.js file and left it the way it was
when I uninstalled it? It that is the case, it may be something that needs
looking into-but I suspect that is a different issue.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I apologize for taking up your time with this since
it appears to not be a bug, other than a user malfunction. I will try
SwitchProxy again, but at least this time I know what to look for if there an issue.

Comment 9

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 289773 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs,
filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change