427927 - AutoConfig doesn't work with Trunk / Firefox 3

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

I have noticed that AutoConfig capability didn't work with Firefox 3 Alpha/Beta and Trunk. Tested on Windows and Mac. The following set of files works with Firefox 2.

[Local] firefox-admin.cfg:

(blank)

[Local] pref/firefox-admin.js:

pref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://admin.mozilla.local/autoconfig/firefox-admin.jsc");
pref("general.config.filename", "firefox-admin.cfg");
pref("general.config.vendor", "firefox-admin");

[Remote] .htaccess:

AddType application/x-javascript-config jsc

[Remote] firefox-admin.jsc:

// Do not edit this section:
lockPref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://admin.mozilla.jp/autoconfig/firefox-admin.jsc");
lockPref("general.config.filename", "firefox-admin.cfg");
lockPref("general.config.vendor", "firefox-admin");

// Client preferences:
lockPref("xpinstall.enabled", false);

Comment 1

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

(minor typo: admin.mozilla.jp -> admin.mozilla.local)

For testing, added

pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

to pref/firefox-admin.js, then added

displayError("foo", "bar");
lockPref("xpinstall.enabled", false);

to firefox-admin.cfg

but nothing happened.

Comment 2

[Orion Poplawski]

Confirmed for Linux as well.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Need a regression range on this.

Comment 4

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Where do I put firefox-admin.cfg? What directory?

Comment 5

[Jehan Procaccia]

I haven't tested with firefox 3 yet ... neither with svn thunderbird (where autoconfig is really relevant to my opinion for autoconfiguring mailbox reading !)
anyway, I maintain a doc on autoconfig here for 2.X
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfig
your question might be answered here:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfig#firefox.cfg
if it helps .
I will soon test autoconfig with recent firefox/thunderbird as our university needs it for next school year starting in september 2009 .

Comment 6

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Attachment: Fix

bug 340795 broke this.

autoconfig was lumped in with GTK2 system prefs.

Moving back to a standalone module.

Comment 7

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Comment on attachment 316056 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

Want autoconfig for FF 3.

Comment 8

[Damon Sicore (:damons)]

Comment on attachment 316056 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

a1.9+=damons

Comment 9

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Fix checked in.

Comment 10

[u217243]

Now it works again.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008042204 Minefield/3.0pre

Comment 11

[Anthony Lanni]

    I'm still seeing the same issue with

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008042314 Red Hat/3.0b5-0.beta5.3.el5 Firefox/3.0b5

but I expect it's because 3.0 beta 5 doesn't have the fix attached here...  What version is that fix checked into?  Or, how do I apply it?

Comment 12

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

There will be a release candidate for FF3 released very soon. you'll be able to test it there.

or you can download the latest nightly:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 13

[Anthony Lanni]

    Awesome, thanks!

Comment 14

[Anthony Lanni]

    ....aaaand nope, doesn't work for me in the release version on Linux, sorry.  Did it get regressed again?  

Here's my version info and contents of the config files:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061517 Red Hat/3.0-2.el5 Firefox/3.0

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/dw-config.cfg:
//point to the autoconfig directory on the web server
lockPref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/");

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/vendor.js:
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "dw-config.cfg");

   I've tried bypassing dw-config.cfg in the same manner Kohei Yoshino did.  This eliminates the pop-up error 'Failed to read the configuration file", instead it fails silently.

Comment 15

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

(In reply to comment #14)
WFM... Could you try again like this?

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/dw-config.cfg:
// This file is empty

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/vendor.jsa:
// point to the autoconfig *file* (not directory) on the web server
pref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/dw-config.jsc");
// this *vendor name* should be the same as the filename below
pref("general.config.vendor", "dw-config");
pref("general.config.filename", "dw-config.cfg");

Comment 16

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> /usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/vendor.jsa:

vendor.jsa -> vendor.js

Comment 17

[Anthony Lanni]

    Thanks, Kohei, that's what I meant when I said I tried bypassing dw-config.cfg in the same manner as you.  I tried it again, following your suggestions exactly: epic fail.  Same issue, although this time I got the pop-up error "failed to read configuration file".  

    However, I think that may be a different thing.  Firefox is trying to read dw-config.cfg as the config file, which is blank.

I set:

setenv NSPR_LOG_MODULES MCD:5
setenv NSPR_LOG_FILE ~/mozilla.log
setenv AUTOCONFIG_DEBUG 1

to enable logging in the MCD module. This will cause Firefox to note when it reads the autoadmin.js file, and where it reads it from, and it reports:

-134400304[805e790]: general.config.filename = dw-config.cfg

not real helpful, eh?

So I tried something else, something much simpler. It's not really necessary to redirect Firefox to a URL to get the config file; that's just for convenience. Firefox will read settings directly from the cfg file, so I put one setting in there:   

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/vendor.js:
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "dw-config.cfg");

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/dw-config.cfg:
pref("general.config.vendor", "dw-config");

    Still won't read that file - same error.  At the suggestion of Red Hat engineering, I also tried using the /usr/lib/xulrunner directories instead of /usr/lib/firefox: this also didn't work.

    So is this just me, or is it failing for others too?

Comment 18

[Anthony Lanni]

    I figured it out.  Well, Red Hat did.  Firefox 3 in Linux requires a link in /usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/ that points to /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig.  Once that link is there, the autoconfig works properly.

    Not sure if that link should be part of the base Firefox package, or packaged up by Red Hat engineers.  I suspect the latter.  Anyway, my contributions to this thread are, I believe, finished.

Thanks for the help!

Comment 19

[Jehan Procaccia]

Anthony, I'am glad it finally worked for you, so I try myself to run it. I use fedora9 in 64 bit , so the lib64 directory in path below ! 

First I wonder where did your set the "pref("general.config.filename", "dw-config.cfg");" in:

/usr/lib64/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/all-redhat.js
or in 
/usr/lib64/xulrunner-1.9/greprefs/all.js

next about the link RedHat suggested, I did as you recommended that

[root@localhost /usr/lib64/firefox-3.0/defaults]
$ ln -s /usr/lib64/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig/ ./autoconfig

and indeed the .cfg file got finally readed, thanks for the advice :-) 
could you give us an example of your dw-config.cfg, because mine generate error now :-( .

Thanks

Comment 20

[Anthony Lanni]

    Yeah, I'll be happy to show my configuration again.
    Jehan, instead of using all-redhat.js I created a new file (Firefox is smart enough to read every js file in /usr/lib<64>/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/) called vendor.js.

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/defaults/preferences/vendor.js:
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "dw-config.cfg");

/usr/lib/firefox-3.0/dw-config.cfg:
//point to the autoconfig directory on the web server
lockPref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/");

and finally, the link you described above: 

/usr/lib64/firefox-3.0/defaults/autoconfig --> /usr/lib64/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig

    I found that if the 'lockPref("autoadmin.global_config_url","<your_url>")' line is the first line in the dw-config.cfg file, it gave me errors.  That comment line eliminated the error.  (?) 

    dw-config-cfg points to a general directory, rather than a specific file, because I use the same two files for Mozilla, Thunderbird and Firefox: that directory contains an index.cgi that determines the software being used with $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'} and then points to the appropriate autoconfig file.

    Hope that helps.

Comment 21

[Jehan Procaccia]

Ok then your dw-config.cfg uses a redirection to a "global_config_url":
lockPref("autoadmin.global_config_url", "http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/");

Mine doesn't redirect to a URL but sets (lock !) preferences in itself  , sample few first line on mine dw-config.cfg (mine is called firefox.cfg ):

//put everything in a try/catch
try {
//Privacy & Security
defaultPref("signon.rememberSignons", false);
lockPref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.it-sudparis.eu/");
etc ...

I did that once as the "global_config_url" was broken some times ago ,and then I stick with a local to each station configuration file instead of a centralize conf file on a web server  as you do, we propagate that file with cfengine on linux and powershell on windows stations (about 300 stations) . Eventually, I  did that, because I though that it adds a degree of independance on the web server availability .

About a comment line at the begining of the file, I also had to do it , but can't explain why, probably that the parser needs that !? 

However, I'am interested in the way you use a unique file for Mozilla, thunderbird and firefox based on an index.cgi and $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}, can you give us a copy of you index.cgi and the common configuration file for the 3 applications ?

Thanks.

Comment 22

[Anthony Lanni]

    I may have been unclear: I use the same vendor.js and dw-config.cfg file for all three packages (Firefox, T-bird, and Mozilla).  Each of those has their own config file, called firefox.js, etc.  The index file and its module are written in perl.  Here they are:


http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/index.cgi:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use configFilename;
#Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007
#Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
my $config_path    = 'resources/js';
my $default_config = 'common-config.js';
my $config_file;
$config_file = $config_path . '/' . get_config_filename();
if( ! -e $config_file ) {
    $config_file = $config_path . '/' . $default_config;
}
print ("Content-type: application/x-javascript-config\n\n");
open(TMPFILE, $config_file);
while(<TMPFILE>) {
    print;
}
close(TMPFILE);

and

http://proxyconfig/autoconfig/configFilename.pm:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
sub get_config_filename
{
    my $browser        = 'mozilla';
    my $user_agent     = $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'};
    my $version;
    $browser =
    ($user_agent =~ /Firefox/) ? 'firefox' :
    ($user_agent =~ /Thunderbird/) ? 'thunderbird' :
    ($user_agent =~ /Seamonkey/) ? 'mozilla' :
                                  'mozilla'; #default
    return $browser . '-config' . '.js';
}

Comment 23

[mal]

This still doesn't seem to work on Windows XP

Adding pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
to the end of all.js causes FF not to start with 

Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator.

This is on XP SP3
 
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

Comment 24

[Jehan Procaccia]

Indeed, on windows autoconfig for firefox-3 doesn't work for me neither :-( .
 I am on vista , calling autoconfig with all.js doesn't seem to do anything. I don't have errors, but nothing is "locked" and none of the displayError message I call with the setting of mine MOZILLA_DEBUG environement viriable works .
HEre's what I did; 
1) ask all.js to call firefox.cfg

E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3\greprefs\all.js ends with

//Jehan autoconfig; http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfig
pref('general.config.obscure_value', 0);
pref('general.config.filename', 'firefox.cfg');

2) once irefox.cfg is called (which doesn't seem to occure  :-(  ) lock a default homepage:

E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3\firefox.cfg

//put everything in a try/catch
try {
// 1) env variables
if(getenv("USER") != "") {
   // *NIX settings
   var env_user    = getenv("USER");
   var env_home    = getenv("HOME");} else {
   // Windows settings
   var env_user    = getenv("USERNAME");
   var env_home    = getenv("HOMEPATH");}
  var env_mozdebug= getenv("MOZILLA_DEBUG");

if (env_mozdebug) {displayError("NO ERROR , just a test, user =" + env_user); }
lockPref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.it-sudparis.eu/" );
// Close the try, and call the catch()
} catch(e) {displayError("lockedPref", e);}

3) test it 
E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3>set MOZILLA_DEBUG=1
E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3>set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=MCD:5
E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3>set NSPR_LOG_FILE=e:\tmp\ff3-log.txt
E:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox-3>firefox

firefox shows up, but the default page is not set, nor the popup (which do work with thunderbird 2.0.0.14) of the displayError message doesn't shows up :-( .
Is there a kind of links to be done as it was mentionned on linux with autoconfig -> xulrunner ?
/usr/lib64/firefox-3.0/defaults/autoconfig -->
/usr/lib64/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig
I don't see any xulrunner on windows firefox3 installation !?

any help, greatly appreciated .
Thanks .

Comment 25

[Jehan Procaccia]

It works, ;-) 
it was a stupidity of mine,  I had saved a copy of greprefs/all.js as filename all-copie.js and has it kept the .js extension is was read and probably overloaded the all.js calls .
now I have rename it to .old and  these calls are well executed
pref('general.config.obscure_value', 0);
pref('general.config.filename', 'firefox.cfg');

So my lockPref("browser.startup.homepage", URL ); now works fine .
However I still cannot do ldap calls :-( , but that last since early realeses of firefox, cf 
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=295329

Comment 26

[mal]

Did exactly the same thing on a Vista box and it worked
so I copied the all.js and mozilla.cfg back to the XP box 
and that now works - As far as I can see there was no 
difference , but there must have been something. Creating
mozilla.cfg from scratch and using an old all.js and the
problem is back .. copy the vista ones and it goes away
so I guess it's not a bug ( just brain failure somewhere 
)... whatever !