385230 - Links from other applications when firefox is not running do not open

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 395891

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Rob Arnold [:robarnold]]

The firefox process is started and appears to be deadlocked. No window is displayed. If an instance of firefox is already running, this problem does not occur. I was not able to reproduce this on windows XP.

Comment 1

[Adam Guthrie]

Should probably try to find out when this regressed (if it did at all).

Comment 2

[Rob Arnold [:robarnold]]

This regressed sometime between alpha 1 and alpha 2. This problem seems to exist only when firefox prompts for a profile. This behavior does happen on windows xp when there are multiple profiles.

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

See also bug 366374, bug 295248.

Comment 4

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Rob: Using today's build on Vista I don't see this using Thunderbird. What applications specifically are you seeing this on?

Comment 5

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Marcia, did you uncheck don't ask in the profile manager before testing?

Comment 6

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

I now see that when PM prompts for a profile selection, you do get in a state where apps do not open. I do not see the issue when I turn off PM.

(In reply to comment #5)
> Marcia, did you uncheck don't ask in the profile manager before testing?
> 

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I'm fairly certain that this has the same root cause as bug 366374

Comment 8

[Rob Arnold [:robarnold]]

I think this behavior is not dependent on the source of the link; I have tried
links from Thunderbird and Miranda IM.

Also, that regression range is not quite right. The bug is exhibited in alpha
3.
The behavior described in bug 366374 is similar to what I get with alpha 2 with
an extra window popping up next to the profile manager. Alpha 1 works just
fine.

Comment 9

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Are folks still haviong trouble with this? I've just tested -

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9a7pre) Gecko/2007071016 Minefield/3.0a7pre

- profile manage turned on
- two profiles configured
- don't ask checked and unchecked

links from Outlook, Thunderbird, and Windows Mail on Vista all bring up the profile dialog when don't ask is not checked, then launch the browser to the correct page as expected. With don't ask unchecked, minefield launches as expected without the profile prompt.

Comment 10

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Jim this can still be reproduced though the results vary. This bug has to dowith having don't ask unchecked and opening an url without the app already running. 

Comment 11

[Marcin Ruszkiewicz]

This can still be reproduced using 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; pl; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008011904 Minefield/3.0b3pre

And also 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; pl; rv:1.9b2) Gecko/2007121120 Firefox/3.0b2

- profile manager is turned on
- two profiles
- don't ask is unchecked

Clicking a link from Thunderbird or any other app does not show anything as expected, there's just a dead firefox.exe process in a process list. No window appears, neither the profile manager or the website.

After checking the "don't ask" checkbox, both versions launch as expected with selected profile.

Comment 12

[skierpage]

This is happening for me on Windows XP (despite comment #1) as comment #11 states with 
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008061206 Minefield/3.0pre ID:2008061206
and Thunderbird version 2.0.0.14 (20080421) 

I've only noticed this bug in the last week or so of nightly Minefield builds, so perhaps it went away for a while in Firefox 3 nightlies.  (Although I usually check "Don't ask" in the Choose User Profile dialog and thus infrequently meet the conditions to reproduce.)  There's *no workaround* other than killing the firefox.exe process in Windows Task Manager's Processes tab!

For me only web links in Thunderbird 2 e-mail messages hang Firefox; double-clicking a .jpg attachment in an e-mail message or double-clicking a HTML file in Windows Explorer makes Firefox 3 display the Choose User Profile as expected.

Comment 14

[TAMAGNI Eric]

I have the same problem for two weeks with an Athlon running Windows XP SP3.

I encounter this issue since I install Firefox 3 RC1, then RC2 and final release.

I created a new profile.ini and two new accounts. It doesn't solve the problem.

I have this problem with web links in Thunderbird 2 e-mail messages and also with Internet shortcuts on desktop.

No problem if I check the "don't ask" checkbox, Firefox runs normally.

To turn arround this trouble I temporarily configure IE as default browser.

Comment 15

[Andrew Giles-Peters]

There is a discussion in the Firefox newsgroup about what seems to be this bug:
news://news.mozilla.org:119/[e-mail]
or mozilla.support.firefox topic 'URL links from Thunderbird won't open FF3'
A fix - disabling DDE - is suggested but I can't seem to do that to check it.

In the meanwhile I have checked don't ask on my two XP machines and am not having problems.

Comment 16

[Andrew Giles-Peters]

I have checked whether the bug occurs with a Mac. On OS10.4.11 I cannot reproduce the bug. Likewise on Ubuntu 8.0.4 there is no problem.