542111 - Create an observer for gfx.use_text_smoothing_setting in gfxPlatformMac.cpp

Status: NEW

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[Tobi74]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; de; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; de; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7

In Firefox 3.5 you can switch off the text smoothing (Cleartype in Firefox). In the configuration file (about:config) you can change it in the category "leave gfx.use_text_smoothing_setting" the text smoothing. In 3.6 the old settings are not transferred. And while the entry is allready to find in the configuration file, you can not change the text smoothing. I want to turn off the "smooth text" in the browser. Is there a solution for this problem? I work with Firefox under OSx. How or whether it works on Windows, I have not tried this yet.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
It didnt work everey time
Actual Results:  
-

Expected Results:  
Switching off the text smoothing in Firefox 3.6

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Please go to support.mozilla.com and they can help you with your settings.

Comment 2

[Tobi74]

Thank you for the fast comment. But it is not a problem of switching the settings the right way as it seems. It didnt work. I have tried it on different Macs. Other OSx-Users report it too.

Comment 3

[Tobi74]

We have found the responsible one: Ad Block plus!  We discussed ut in the german Firefox-Forum. 
http://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=78671&start=0

And here at Bugzilla@Mozdev – Bug 22313
https://www.mozdev.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=22313

Comment 4

[Wladimir Palant]

Let's reopen this. I checked and this is being caused by this line in the Adblock Plus XPCOM component:

> var styleService = Cc["@mozilla.org/content/style-sheet-service;1"].getService(Ci.nsIStyleSheetService);

Apparently this changes the initialization sequence enough that gfx.use_text_smoothing_setting preference is no longer considered. I'll change Adblock Plus to do lazy initialization of course but this should still be more robust IMO.

Comment 5

[Wladimir Palant]

Confirming and changing summary to reflect the actual problem. I reproduced this in a Minefield build (20100119) so this affects trunk as well.

Comment 6

[Tobi74]

The latest build (28-Jan-2010 02:20  289762) works! 
https://adblockplus.org/devbuilds/adblockplus/
Textsmoothing can be switched off. Thank you!!

Comment 7

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Perhaps this somehow causes the gfxPlatformMac constructor to be called from inside pref service initialization, such that its call to GetService the pref service fails?

Is that line in AdBlock plus being called from something that is in turn called from initializing the pref service?

If so, a stack showing how would probably lead to the problem.

Comment 8

[Wladimir Palant]

This line is executed when the XPCOM component loads. Given that it is registered in the app-startup category, that's probably when it is loaded. In other words - yes, it is getting the stylesheet service before "profile-after-change" event, preferences should be unavailable at that point.

Comment 9

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Ah, if it's before we have a profile (a simpler explanation), then this is just the fact that the code that reads the pref doesn't have a pref observer to observe changes.

Comment 10

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Code for the pref was added in:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f516b076843b

Comment 11

[John Daggett (:jtd)]

David, what are you suggesting for the solution?  

Right now the code is doing the pref read at platform initialization, seems like we should just make this a lazy read set up the first time the value is needed and the pref service is available.  I'm guessing that's what is desired here, I don't think there must to be done when the pref service is unavailable.

Comment 12

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

This could possibly be a mentored bug, but I unfortunately don't have the time to write it up right now :(