37868 - Network errors when opening a new browser window transmute the URL to about:blank

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Location Bar, defect, P3)

Description

[Chris Siebenmann]

Build ID: current CVS pull, but this has been an error for a while.

 If Mozilla encounters a network error in the early stages of loading
a web page in a new window (such as if you use button-2 to open a URL
in a new window), the URL that that window's nominally showing is
transmuted from the real URL to 'about:blank' with no way back. This
is bad, because it means that you cannot hit Reload when the network
comes back.

 Reproduction:
- find an IP accessible machine that is not running a web server.
- set up a web page that has an A HREF pointing to that machine.
- load that web page.
- button-2 the link to open it in the new window.
- observe that the URL bar of the new window is either blank or
  shows 'about:blank' (after you hit Reload), not the URL you
  are trying to load.

 If you have an overloaded web server that responds only
intermittantly, you can use that instead of the IP-accessible
machine with no web server. (And it will be a more 'realistic'
test, in that hitting Reload has a use here.)

 One gets related results (somewhat slower) if you just point
the A HREF at an IP address that doesn't exist at all, and so
on.

Comment 1

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

confirming

Comment 2

[Gagan]

->ruslan

Comment 3

[ruslan]

Do you have a set up I can you right away?

Comment 4

[Tom Everingham]

Asa, can you still reproduce this?  I set up a link to a non-existant IP and I 
am not seeing this.

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

no. [e-mail] (Chris Siebenmann) can you still
reproduce this?  Resolving WORKSFORME, Chris, please reopen if you still
experience the buggy behavior.

Comment 6

[Chris Siebenmann]

 This still seems to happen with me on a current CVS build (on Linux).
When I button-2 a link to a machine not (currently) running a web server,
I do get an alert about it, but the new window's URL is blank, and hitting
Reload does not cause the alert to pop up again. (If I pick a machine that
is not currently responding to IP, I don't even get the alert.)

Comment 7

[Tom Everingham]

OK, I can reproduce this now.  Adding internal URL as test case.  

Comment 8

[ruslan]

adding gagan to the list

Comment 9

[Gagan]

pulling in ruslan's necko bugs ->darin

Comment 10

[R.K.Aa.]

Linux 2001020608
whenever i open a link with middle click (to open in new window) i see
"Error loading URL about:blank: 804b0002" before the page i intended to load
starts loading. Is that covered by this bug? (i have browser set to load a blank
page instead of any homepage on startup)

Comment 11

[Gagan]

the problem is that the default URL for each new window is being set to 
about:blank. This I believe should be fixed in docshell area which knows better 
what the URL that triggered the load in new window was. 

Comment 12

[Adam Lock]

This sounds like a chrome thing. The new chrome window should put the url that 
it has been told to load into the address bar immediately upon opening.

Comment 13

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

->url bar?

Comment 14

[Alec Flett]

reassign url bar bugs to new owner..

Comment 15

[Blake Ross]

Chris, can you retest this please?

Comment 16

[Chris Siebenmann]

 This no longer seems to happen for me on Linux with a current CVS pull
and build. (There is a related bug, where the browser instance got by
such a thing doesn't do anything on 'Reload', despite having the correct
URL in the URL bar, but I will file that separately if it isn't already
know.)

Comment 17

[basic]

so err this is fixed no?

Comment 18

[Blake Ross]

WFM per reporter.

Comment 19

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mass-verifying WorksForMe bugs which haven't changed since 2001.12.31.

set your search string in mail to "EmperorLondoMollari" to filter out these
messages.