604791 - When downloading an addon via the add-ons manager, it never completes successfully.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[David Hill]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.10) Gecko/20100914 Firefox/3.6.10 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: 3.6.10 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.10) Gecko/20100914 Firefox/3.6.10 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

When we click on Tools->Add-ons->Get Add-ons->Some random plugins->Add to Firefox,it will start downloading the XPI package but will never complete the download.  Sometimes it will end with a -261 error code meaning the file hash is corrupted or something like this.   Now, if we bypass the plugin manager and go directly to the download page of the given plugin, we save the link as and ... simply reclick the "Add to Firefox" in the plugin manager and it WILL work.  The problem may not be the add-ons manager but the cache manager or any manager that may be broken.  We've been able to reproduce this problem on many workstations.

We're using a proxy that may not like the add-ons manager (or an LVS that modify some packets)... but what's interesting in this bug is that we still can download the add-ons VIA firefox!  

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Try to install an add-on via the add-ons manager.
2.Wait for -261 invalid file hash message
Actual Results:  
It didn't work.

Expected Results:  
Install the add-on without having to download it first.

Many users here are complaining that they can't download some new add-ons...  We provided them the workaround but I still assume that this bug should be fixed!

Comment 1

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Well, if you download the xpi and install it directly then it isn't doing a hash check so if the data transferred really is being modified then this wouldn't be a terribly unexpected result.

What happens if you just click the install button for the add-on on addons.mozilla.org?

Comment 2

[David Hill]

Nope, I'm not installing it direcly.

1 - Try installing from add-ons manager.
2 - Transfer freezes (or completes with corruption)
3 - Go on the web page,  right-click on add-to firefox and click "Save link as" (this will successfully complete and cache the file)
4 - Go back to add-ons manager, install successfully the plugin without even downloading it because it's cached.

The problem seems to be at the add-ons manager downloader capability when using a proxy.  Something breaks the download and prevents the API from installing the add-on because the file never completes or completes with corruption.  But bypassing the add-ons manager for the downloader part solves the problem.   

So, maybe something is broken.  We've reproduced this problem with many revisions on many platform (xp sp2, sp3).

To make it short, we can download the add-ons with firefox when we save the link as something.  And then, we can install it through the add-ons manager.

I must have reproduced this bug/behavior at least 10 times just to make sure it wasn't something we did.

Comment 3

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

But what does happen if you try to install by just clicking the install button on addons.mozilla.org rather than saving the file manually?

Comment 4

[David Hill]

That doesn't work since it calls the add-ons manager ... :S

Comment 5

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> That doesn't work since it calls the add-ons manager ... :S

So what kind of result do you see? Any error messages or anything?

Comment 6

[David Hill]

It's the same error message.

-261 

I don't think the file is corrupted .  I think the add-ons manager isn't able to download the file successfully ...  

If the file transfer "hangs" in the add-ons manager, will it time out at some point?  Thus the -261 error code?   Maybe the add-ons manager should be using the same engine to download the file as when I right-click->save link as on the add-ons web page (addons.mozilla.org)...

Comment 7

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

This bug has been filed against the old add-ons manager. With Firefox 4 the add-ons manager has been completely rewritten. Are you still able to see this issue with Firefox 4? If not we can close this bug as WFM.

Comment 8

[Aleksei Perepelkin [:chaos]]

WFM in:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:11.0a1) Gecko/20111117 Firefox/11.0a1
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:10.0a2) Gecko/20111117 Firefox/10.0a2
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:9.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0 (b2)

Comment 9

[Maniac Vlad Florin (:vladmaniac)]

Comment 7 and Comment 8 

Marking as WFM