282478 - Download Bug - .dmg won't perform automatic functions

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[Mark Leverson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0 StumbleUpon/1.9991
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0 StumbleUpon/1.9991

I need a way to reset or alter the download prefs for all the download file type
actions. At present I set one for .dmg without setting always do this foe this
type of file. Everytime I download a .dmg the window reappears but the option to
have it occur without showing the window is grayed out and it doesn't show up
under the file types pref under downloads.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

certain mimetypes that are generic will not something we'll allow a fixed action
for, especially in cases where things get sent with the the default text/plain
mimetype.

Comment 2

[Mark Leverson]

If you aren't going to list all the download file types at least give us a way
to reset them to the defaults. 

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

You're not understanding me, if we don't give the choice/show an option, its
because the mimetype sent by the server is something like
application/octet-stream (which is what we default to if binary data is sent
incorrectly using the apache defaults).  If you have test URLs I can verify
this, but that's the only real case where we don't allow saving (since the
mimetype becomes generic, and there cannot be a "right" default handler).

Comment 4

[Mark Leverson]

Mike, you must not have read my first report too closely. This is happening with
.dmg a very common compression, disk image. It isn't showing up in the Download
file type pref window. The first .dmg I downloaded, the download window came up
with options. I selected save to desktop. I didn't check the do this always box.
I wanted to check out the behavior before I made it permanent. I wanted the
window to reappear. The next download of a .dmg the window did come back up, but
all the options are grayed out, unselectable. The window keeps coming back with
each .dmg download. This doesn't happen with any other file type,
sit,zip,bin,etc.,because I selected to make save to desktop occur each time, and
they show up in the download prefs where they can be changed. There is no way
for me to change the .dmg download settings at present. PS I will try to find
this issue in the old Mozilla bug reports.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Thanks for once again assuming my arrogance/ineptitude.  Your continued
insistence on being insulting staggers the mind.  Most people would simply not
bother, or at this point, just get your account suspended.  Maybe I'm a sucker
for punishment.

If you put a dmg on a server that doesn't know what to do with that, it uses the
default, which on Apache is text/plain, ISO-8859-1.  If the server sends it with
that mimetype, instead of following spec and actually attempting to display as
text/plain, we detect that its binary data and handle it using a "new" mimetype
of application/octet-stream, so we can download it.  Because files of that type
can be executables or binary data of any number of types, we don't allow a
default action for application/octet-stream.

Like I said, show me example links, and I would expect that all are being
handled with that mimetype, thus we have no way of properly fixing this.

Comment 6

[Mark Leverson]

I am not trying to insult you. You are not understanding what I am, apparently
poorly, trying to explain. I will give it one more try. As a test I went to
Version Tracker and downloaded Graph550.dmg, using Camino. It came thru fine not
displaying a window, putting the file on my desktop, as a disk image. I opened
the .dmg and it decompresed and the program is usable. I then did the same thing
with FireFox. I had removed the Download Manager Tweak before doing this, just
in case it was causing problems. I restarted FireFox before doing the download.
Again the Download window appeared, showing the file as Graph550.dmg. The Save
to Disk option had a dot in it, the Open with option was grayed, and the Do this
automatically for files like this from now on, box was grayed. I could make no
changes to the window options. I clicked OK. The file downloaded to the desktop
as Graph550.dmg. The file decompresses and the program runs. I opened the
FireFox preferences for Downloads, DMG is not listed as a file type. I opened
the Tools Downloads window, it displayes the file as Graph550.dmg. I think that
this is occuring because I didn't select the, Do this automatically for files
like this from now on, box, the first time that the options were displayed, on
the first .dmg file that I downloaded. I made sure to have this box checked on
all the other file types, SIT, ZIP, BIN, etc and they are all displayed in the
preferences downloads window and can be changed there. There is a lot that this
program does right. This is a small bug but an annoying one. Can you tell me
where the preferences file, for the downloads, is stored so I can trash it and
start over on the setup for downloads?  PS  I couldn't locate the old Mozilla bug.

Comment 7

[Mark Leverson]

Can someone tell me where the mime type, prefs are stored? I have trashed the
whole Users, applications support, Firefox, folder and the Fullcircle, firefox
folders and this behavior persists. Or is .dmg not recognized as a legitimate
mime type?

Comment 8

[Wolf [:wolf]]

It depends on what the server says it is.. If the server you're downloading from
is misconfigured, there's nothing Firefox can do to second guess that. It
believes the server and handles it as a downloadable binary, and uses the
defaults for that.

.dmg itself is supported, if Firefox knows, because the server told it, that it
is a .dmg. :-) 

Most likely your selections on the download dialog have nothing to do with why
its appearing as it is now, As you said yourself, you didn't choose "always". :-)

Comment 9

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

.dmg isn't a mimetype, its a file extension.  And I can send the same file with
17 different mimetypes with the same extension, and that's fine, based on how
internet standards work.

If .dmg is sent as application/octet-stream, there will not be a way to make
this permanent.  As I've said a few times already.

Comment 10

[Mark Leverson]

I am starting to understand what is going on here. I went to Mozilla 1.7.5. I
deleted the Helper Application, File Type "appliation/dmg" I could duplicate the
condition that is happening in FireFox. I then added a New Type to Mozilla,
"application/dmg". The bad behavior went away. In FireFox there is no way to
manually load a New File Type into it like I can in Mozilla and Camino seems to
have picked this type up for me on it's own somehow. How do I get DMG into the
Downloads, File Types, window without having to edit it into the mimeTypes.rdf
file, which at this point I am considering doing? 

Comment 11

[Mark Leverson]

Since there is such an adversion to the word preference in this forum, I'm
renaming this problem. This is a legitimate bug and happens with every .dmg file
I download. It even happens with files from http://www.mozilla.org/releases/.
mozilla-mac-1.8b1.dmg does the same thing. Since Seamonkey has now been frozen.
I think this needs to be addressed by FireFox.

Comment 12

[Wolf [:wolf]]

mozilla.org seems to use application/octet-stream to serve .dmg, meaning Comment
#9 applies.

"If .dmg is sent as application/octet-stream, there will not be a way to make
this permanent."

This is not a bug, but by design that files sent as application/octet-stream,
which is for executables, have fewer options available to you on the download
dialog.

Comment 13

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Don't reopen this again.  I have no intention of breaking the current behaviour,
or supporting adding arbitrary mimetypes, for reasons explained in detail.

Mozilla's existence in the world has no bearing on whether or not this gets fixed.

Comment 14

[Mark Leverson]

Forget that I brought this up. I'm going back to Camino for now. As I've said
before, it doesn't have this problem. Maybe I'll even start using Safari. At
least the Camino people understand how an application is supposed to work.

Comment 15

[Mark Leverson]

Well, Gentlemen, I have fixed this situation that you won't admit constitutes a
problem. I had Jeff Leigh email me a copy of his mimeTypes.rdf file and I put in
place of mine in the application support/firefox/profiles. This resolved the
situation. Firefox now behaves the same way that my Camino program does. I now
have DMG in the firefox File Types preferences. This can be changed now. But
since this problem didn't exsist, I guess someone else will have to discover
something similar.