442934 - With no default profile selected, firefox won't start properly when called from within other programs like thunderbird

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Khanban]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

When I don't select a default profile, and Firefox is not running, if I call it from within a proram, say clicking a link in Thunderbird, Firefox won't start properly (assuming it is the default browser, of course). Trying to start Firefox directly won't have any effect either. When you look in task manager Processes list there is firefox.exe with about 10MB memory usage. The only way to get everything back to normal is to end this process manaully and start Firefox again directly. Bug 295248 is similar to this one with different behaviour.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Do not select a default profile. I have more than one profile. I didn't test with only one profile.
2. Close all Firefox windows.
3. In Thunderbird, click a link (Firefox is the default browser).
4. Nothing happens. Look into task manager processes list.
Actual Results:  
Nothing visible happens. A half-baked firefox process will start running without any visible effects to the user. However, it prevents any attempts to run any instances of Firefox which are called directly afterwards.

Expected Results:  
A profile manager windows must open and after choosing the desired profile it should launch Firefox and continue as usual.

No difference between Firefox 2 and 3 on this bug. I think there might be something preventing the profile manager UI from being shown.

Comment 1

[s0r00t43v3r]

Found a weirder problem on Windows 8 with Aurora.

On my Taskbar, there is an Aurora shortcut edited so it asks for a default profile.
If I run Aurora from it, and click on a link on Skype (example), there is an error about Firefox process already running.
But if I close Aurora and click on link, everything will be ok, even for other links.

Temporary fix : Set a default profile.

Comment 2

[s0r00t43v3r]

Wait, made a mistake :

Temporary fix : Set a default profile AND run Aurora/Firefox without profile manager.