421812 - Firefox hangs when loading any Java applet while using Java 1.6.x OEM builds

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Romain TISSERAND]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; fr; rv:1.9b4) Gecko/2008030317 Firefox/3.0b4
Build Identifier: Not applicable...

On most manufactured computers from Dell, Fujistu-Siemens, Acer, Sony, and more, your computer is preloaded with an "OEM" version of Java plugin, starting from 1.6.0 to 1.6.0_02. These builds work OK in IE, but they crash Firefox 2.x anytime you try to load a page with an applet.

please flag as blocking-firefox3

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Get an OEM version of Java 1.6 (well, on a scratch Dell computer for instance)
2. Launch Firefox 2.x
3. Point to browser to any webpage containing an applet, such as the Java tester as java.com
Actual Results:  
Firefox hangs, waiting forever.... No Quality Feedback Agent popups.

Expected Results:  
Firefox should open the Java applet if OEM license has been approved, or display the popup if it has not been accepted yet.

Okay, I've been investigating this problem for months since it's critical for my business, which relies on Java applets deployed to end-users. Here is all the information I've been able to gather :

1. OEM builds contain a "license popup" displayed at first start under IE. You need to check a box "I agree with the license terms" and it never popups again. 

2. Once you have accepted the license, the plugin works fine on Firefox then.

3. If you have never accepted the license, Firefox crashes apparently since it does not know how to open the popup (is it IE specific ?). I've found this info on a forum topic but can't find it again.

We have experienced these issues on various configurations from our customers :

- Most recent Dell laptops and desktops
- Most recent Acer laptops and desktops
- Most recent Sony laptops

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

and the OS is always Vista? or does this happen on WinXP laptops as well?

qawanted: do we have any such machines in-house we could use to confirm this?

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

marking new based on the older dupe which is from FF2.0.0.2 and XP.

Comment 4

[Romain TISSERAND]

Did not find any XP machine to confirm it is also the case, but considering OEM versions of Java 6 can be installed on XP, I can't see why it would not happen in Vista.

I can provide you the following files to help :
- A zipped copy of the JRE1.6.0_02 OEM provided with my Vaio laptop
- A zipped copy of the registry (have to find a tool to make a dump)

Just tell me if you are interested into.

Comment 5

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

Seems like there's little we can do about this in the browser, the Java plugin needs to interact with the browser like it does once the license has been accepted even when it asks the user to accept it.

Danielle/Kenneth, can you work with Romain here to figure out what can be done here, I doubt we'll make any progress on this on the browser side before releasing Firefox 3.

Comment 6

[Kenneth Russell]

I've filed this as 6674757, which will be visible on the Sun Bug Database (http://bugs.sun.com) in a day or two. It's filed with high priority and we'll try to diagnose it ASAP. I believe this is a bug in Java, not in the browser.

Comment 7

[danielle.pham]

Romain: I don't have access to any OEM JRE. So sure, I'll take a look at the zipped copy of JRE1.6.0_02 OEM if you can provide it.

zip copy of registry contents is not a good idea. You probably want to regedit->export to a .reg file instead.
I'm not sure where Sony, Dell and other OEMs put their OEM JRE in the registry. But it's probably good to try at this location:
HKLM->SOFTWARE->JavaSoft

Or if you know where OEM JRE is in your registry, please export just that hive.

But please understand that I may not be able to do any debug without a full installer but only some zipped contents.

I'll check with someone inside Sun too to see if we can contact the OEM and ask for a copy of their JRE installer.

Comment 8

[danielle.pham]

Romain:
Meanwhile, if possible, could you install latest JRE from Sun on the affected machines. JRE downloaded directly from Sun are tested to work with FF2 and FF3.
Just go to java.com and follow the few clicks to install latest Java. JRE 1.6.0_05 is the latest currently at java.com.

Also, could you pleas confirm: is this problem only happened on Vista or on any Windows?

Comment 9

[danielle.pham]

Romain:
I am able to reproduce the problem now so you do not need to send me any zip pkg.
What seen is:

When install with OEM User Licence Agreement option on (/v"EULA=1"):

- With 1.6.0_02 bundle, FF browser (2.0 or 3.0) doesn't hang but applet won't load. The same problem also appears on IE for me. Same condition seen whether XP or Vista.

- With 1.6.0_10 bundle: FF browser hangs if OJI plugin is used. If New NPRuntime Plugin is used, applet loaded then shortly after the JVM instance process gets killed.
If OJI plugin is used for IE, the EULA popup and applet loaded fine thereafter, regardless of browser (IE or FF) and plugin type (OJI or NPRuntime).

This is bad. I'll look into this problem right away.
Thanks, Romain, for reporting it.

Comment 10

[Romain TISSERAND]

Danielle :
Good to hear you have been able to confirm and reproduce the problem.
Thanks for digging into it :)

Comment 11

[danielle.pham]

Fix will be in 1.6.0_07. OEMs are contacted to grab 6u7 when it's available.
Meanwhile, please advice your customers to go to java.com and download/install latest JRE regularly from java.com.

Comment 12

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Thanks for the fast fix and your response danielle !

marking worksforme (fixed in the Java Plugin)

Comment 13

[Romain TISSERAND]

Thanks for the quick fix too !

Will the already installed OEM machines with 1.6.x < 1.6.0_07 be upgraded to 1.6.0_07 automatically when released ?

Comment 14

[danielle.pham]

By default, Java Auto Update is on.
So unless user manually turning it off, otherwise, Java Update will periodically allow one to get latest available releases.

Comment 15

[Joshua Mitchell (Inactive)]

Issue is Resolved - removing QA-Wanted Keywords - QA-Wanted query clean-up task