382477 - -no-remote interferes with other Gecko based applications (e.g. Firefox launching Thunderbird via mailto or TB launching FF via click on link)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect, P3)

Description

[Frank]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; nl; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; nl; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3

When I open a second URL in Firefox with Thunderbird 2 is already running with -no-remote command line option, this error message is shown (sorry for the Dutch error. I don't know the official English message):

"Firefox is al actief, maar reageert niet. Om een nieuw venster te openen moet u eerst het bestaande Firefox-proces afsluiten, of uw systeem herstarten".

(Translation: Firefox is already active, but doesn't react. To open a new window you must close the existing process or reboot your system)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure Firefox in not running
2. Start Thunderbird with -no-remote on the command line
3. Open a mail with URLs in it
4. Click on an URL
5. Firefox is started as expected and opens the URL
6. Click on another URL
7. Firefox gives the error message and does not open the URL



I *don't* have MOZ_NO_REMOTE set as an environment variable. When Thunderbird is not opened everything works as expected.

Comment 1

[Shmerl]

I got the same bug but with later versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. (Using Thunderbird 3.0b4 and Firefox 3.6 b1 candidate 2).

I run two instances of Thunderbird (on OpenSolaris x86 machine) in parallel (for two profiles) using

thunderbird -no-remote -P "profile1"
thunderbird -no-remote -P "profile2"

When any link within Thunderbird is clicked, it doesn't open a new tab in existing Firefox, but produces an error:

"Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

This doesn't happen, if Thunderbird is open without -no-remote.

The bug is reproducible on OpenSolaris and Linux, but not on Windows.

Comment 2

[Ginn Chen]

If -no-remote is used, it will set MOZ_NO_REMOTE env variable, and it will affect Firefox.

2968   // Handle -no-remote command line argument. Setup the environment to
2969   // better accommodate other components and various restart scenarios.
2970   ar = CheckArg("no-remote", PR_TRUE);
2971   if (ar == ARG_BAD) {
2972     PR_fprintf(PR_STDERR, "Error: argument -a requires an application name\n");
2973     return 1;
2974   } else if (ar == ARG_FOUND) {
2975     PR_SetEnv("MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1");
2976   }
2977

Perhaps we could introduce MOZ_RESTART_NO_REMOTE, if we have -no-remote option, we set this env before restart and unset it after restart, thus we can keep MOZ_NO_REMOTE untouched.

Workaround: If you don't use -no-remote option for firefox, you can manually unset MOZ_NO_REMOTE in your firefox script. Or you can write a firefox-wrapper script to unset it, and set your default browser to firefox-wrapper.

Comment 3

[Martey Dodoo]

I believe I am running into similar behavior - when I have Firefox open with -no-remote, it interferes with sending mailto links to Thunderbird when an instance of the mail client is already open. Instead of a composition window opening, I get the familiar "Thunderbird is already running, but not responding" message.

I am using Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b7) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b7 and Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101027 Thunderbird/3.1.6.

Comment 5

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Ok, this is really a start up bug and affects all gecko apps. Changing summary to reflect the issue better, and moving to toolkit as that's probably a better place for this bug.

Comment 6

[Torsten]

I get the same issue here with the actual versions (14). Until the last versions everything was fine. I run 2 instances of TB with -no-remote and can't open Links in FF anymore, because it is already active. Pleeeeaaaase fix this!!!

Comment 7

[jlenon]

I also get the same issue.  I run two copies of TB.  One copy is started with -no-remote.  Clicking on any link in TB with -no-remote gives this error.  The problem only started with Firefox 14 and wasn't an issue in Firefox 13.

Comment 8

[Herbert Eppel]

Same problem here, as reported by Torsten (Comment 6) and jlenon (Comment 7). Please fix this bug asap.

Comment 9

[J2m06]

Hello

for information no problem with Firefox 10
(but same with Firefox 12,14, and 15)
Google translation

J2m06

*----------------------*
Bonjour

pour info pas de problème avec Firefox 10
(mais idem avec Firefox 12,14, et 15 )

Comment 10

[J2m06]

ok with Firefox 11

Comment 12

[Matthieu Patou]

Five year old bug and still here ?

Why the MOZ_NO_REMOTE env variable is set when another application (for handling links) is spawned ?

Comment 17

[Stefan Schäfer]

Same issue her with firefox 30.0 and thunderbird 24.5.0

Will ther be any solution sometime?

Comment 18

[Oliver Betz]

It would be really useful to fix this. Not being able to use HTTP links (with -no-remote) in mails is a severe limitation for Thunderbird.

Comment 20

[Hiroyuki Ikezoe (:hiro)]

How about using "MOZ_NO_REMOTE" + MOZ_APP_NAME? i.e. MOZ_NO_REMOTE_thunderbird=1 or MOZ_NO_REMOTE_firefox=1.

Comment 22

[Stefan Weiss [:sir_none]]

additonal Information from reporter (Nick Greaves) of bug 775619:

By setting the handling of http and https within Thunderbird to various browsers, I can reproduce this problem with Firefox (standard installation), Palemoon (standard installation) and Seamonkey (PortableApps installation).

If I set it to Google Chrome - standard installation or PortableApps version - everything works as expected.  If Chrome is not already running it is started, if it is already running the link opens in a new tab.

So the problem is limited to the Mozilla "family".

I should perhaps mention that I am running the PortableApps version of Thunderbird, though I'm not convinced that this is relevant.

Although Firefox, Palemoon and Seamonkey don't use the "no-remote" switch, Thunderbird does.

If I run Thunderbird Portable without this switch, the problem goes away.

Comment 23

[msalists]

Same problem here. 
Running TB in --no-remote mode and can not open links when FF is already open...
Suggestion: use different env names for different applications (FF_NO_REMOTE, TB_NO_REMOTE instead of MOZ_NO_REMOTE for all of them)? OR is it supposed to be a cross-application thing?

Comment 24

[JJ Berry]

This defect is still reproducible with Firefox 51.0.1 (32-bit) and Thunderbird 45.7.0 under Windows 7 (64-bit)

Steps to reproduce are as per Comment 1 (Shmerl 2009-10-22 09:35:03 PDT)

When starting Thunderbird without the --no-remote parameter, the problem does not manifest but also means I can't run two instances of Thunderbird with two different profiles, which is what I need to do. 

Currently it means I have to choose between Firefox as my default browser, or being able to run two instances of Thunderbird. 

This has only started occurring relative recently so I wonder if a previous fix has been reverted?

Comment 29

[hifromnz]

(In reply to msalists from comment #23)
This seems to be the obvious and simple solution - only need to change for thunderbird, so firefox ceases to be affected.  ANY PROGRESS?

> Same problem here. 
> Running TB in --no-remote mode and can not open links when FF is already
> open...
> Suggestion: use different env names for different applications
> (FF_NO_REMOTE, TB_NO_REMOTE instead of MOZ_NO_REMOTE for all of them)? OR is
> it supposed to be a cross-application thing?

Comment 30

[firefox]

Gosh, 12 years and this bug isn't fixed :) Time to push away these MOZ applications!

Comment 31

[Martin Stránský [:stransky] (ni? me)]

This can be fixed by enabling DBus remote for X11 (Bug 1415078). Recently it's enabled for Wayland only.

Comment 33

[firefox]

Well I opened a ticket a few months ago about this bug too, seems it has been merged... And after 12 (twelve!!!) years nothing has been fixed? Well, of course Firefox is a free client, but... For a software that claims to compete with Opera and Google, ahum... 12 years...

Comment 34

[ffthbugs]

--no-remote is not the only option concerned: when using --new-instance, launching FF via click on link doesn't work (Firefox is already running, but is not responding…)

Comment 35

[Ben Engbers]

The same problem still exists in Fedora 32.

After a crash in F31, I upgraded to F32 and then restored my user directory from backup.
One of the first applications I installed from the official repository, was Thunderbird (68.8.0). 'dnf install thunderbird' installs Thunderbird and Thunderbird on Wayland. In the settings menu, I chose Thunderbird on Wayland as default. Recovering my profile from backup, didn't show problems.
In F 31, I had installed Firefox developer edition to a user directory and created a desktop entry to start this edition. Both Firefox and Firefox DevEd used the same profile. The only problem was that if I started FF, it complained that FF was not my default browser.

After installing Fedora 32, I noticed that clicking a link in a mail didn't work anymore. While searching for the most recent FF DevEd version, I found instructions on how to replace FF by FF DevEd. FF DevEd is now in my applications menu.

I have now this situation:

• when clicking a link in Thunderbird and no FF running, FF DevEd starts and displays a dialog with the question if FF DevEd should be made the default browser.
• when clicking a link and FF is running already, the 13-year old message as reported by Frank, displays.
• The dialog on choosing the default browser pops up regularly. I believe that this dialog is triggered after (automatic) upgrading FF deved.

Ben

Comment 36

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

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 11 duplicates and 16 votes.
:mossop, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 37

[BugBot (nomail) [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.

Comment 38

[JJ Berry]

This bug is still relevant and still occurs. I can't believe nobody has fixed it yet - it's been, what, 16 years now?

I guess I am in the minority of being affected. But I continue to run two instances of Thunderbird, and when I click on a link with Firefox as my default browser and an instance open, then I get this issue. Still.

Frankly I don't know why I haven't changed my default browser to Brave or something, but somehow I stick with Firefox despite this bug STILL biting me every time I click on a link when Firefox is already running. The only way I can click on a link is to close Firefox first.

Comment 39

[Martin Stránský [:stransky] (ni? me)]

It's here: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp#4366

Comment 40

[Martin Stránský [:stransky] (ni? me)]

Attachment: Bug 382477 Set application specific MOZ_NO_REMOTE env variable r?emilio

Comment 41

[Martin Stránský [:stransky] (ni? me)]

Attachment: Bug 382477 Unset MOZ_NO_REMOTE after start and use gRestartWithoutRemote to keep no-remote state r?mossop

Comment 42

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/fa11ca8761ff
Unset MOZ_NO_REMOTE after start and use gRestartWithoutRemote to keep no-remote state r=mossop

Comment 43

[Cristian Tuns]

Backed out for causing build bustages on nsAppRunner.cpp

• Backout link
• Push with failures
• Failure Log
• Failure line: /builds/worker/checkouts/gecko/toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp(4379,5): error: use of undeclared identifier 'unsetenv'

Comment 44

[Kalvin Lee]

FYI, I'm getting some "Isolated Web Content" (tab process?) crashes in latest Nightly. mozregression seems to think that fa11ca8761ff7069d0c90ea0335e538e682d4e94 above is the culprit. I see it's been backed out, so I'll await the next nightly.

Comment 45

[Kalvin Lee]

Oh gosh, mea culpa, it merely says fa11 is the "first bad" revision (that it can find). There's a whole list of changes since the "last good" revision. Please disregard my comment and sorry for the noise.

Comment 46

[Martin Stránský [:stransky] (ni? me)]

Updated, Thanks.

Comment 47

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/f18a33d780e1
Unset MOZ_NO_REMOTE after start and use gRestartWithoutRemote to keep no-remote state r=mossop

Comment 48

[Marian-Vasile Laza]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f18a33d780e1