717438 - Firefox 9.0.1 mozilla.cfg gives error "Netscape.cfg/AutoConfig failed"

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Chris]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

Updated from 8.0.1 to 9.0.1


Actual results:

We have the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\local-settings.js" which points to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\mozilla.cfg" This sets user settings for all users on the PC.
Error:
Netscape.cfg/AutoConfig failed. Please contact your system administrator. 
 Error: pref failed: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIPrefBranch.setBoolPref]"  nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)"  location: "JS frame :: prefcalls.js :: pref :: line 70"  data: no]


Expected results:

The above solution works for all previous versions on firefox and has stopped working for 9.0.1
Also there is no netscape.cfg, the error code needs updating.

Comment 1

[Chris]

It is not just a windows 7 error it does it with XP. It would appear the program no longer parses the "mozilla.cfg" file correctly.
Clicking ok on the error popup and the application starts successfully.

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Could you attach both files ?

Comment 3

[Chris]

Attachment: config file

the mozilla.cfg used.

Comment 4

[Chris]

Attachment: js file used to point to cfg file

script file used to auto config firefox as recommended.

Comment 5

[Chris]

further:
1. I have removed our company proxy details from the mozilla.cfg. It still errors with the entries in it.
2. This method of configuring firfox is documented elsewhere.
3. The entries in the mozilla.cfg do get applied even though there is an error.
4. I have many machines now doing this. Should have turned off automatic updates.

contents of the attached files
local-settings.js
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
mozilla.cfg
pref("browser.rights.3.shown", true);
pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);
pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", true);
pref("browser.download.useDownloadDir", false);

Comment 6

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

I will try to find a regression range tomorrow

Comment 7

[Chris]

Hi Matti
I forgot to say thanks very much.
cheers
Chris

Comment 8

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This cfg file generates an error in builds before Firefox8.0 

Regression range:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=3470891975c7&tochange=fd0817e454fe

- I did this manual and need to validate the range.

Comment 9

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

the regression range is wrong...

Comment 10

[Rafal Likus]

In my case commenting out this pref in mozilla.cfg stops generating this message.
But I do not know origin of this pref.

//stops the request to send performance data from displaying
//pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", true);

Comment 11

[Chris]

Hi I hope you haven't given up on this as it ruins the ability to configure all users on a workstation.
I do have about 4,000 computers and 30,000 users that may use the program.

//stops the request to send performance data from displaying
//pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", true);

is something new, a bar at the top of the screen asking to send performance data. It was in 8.0.1 and there was no issue. In fact it worked with 7.0.1 as well.

cheers
Chris

Comment 12

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

toolkit.telemetry.prompted is now an integer and not a bool.
That explains this part of error message "[nsIPrefBranch.setBoolPref]".

This pref got changed from a bool to an integer with bug 691951
I think this bug report is basically invalid

Comment 13

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Yeah, unfortunately you'll just need to update your config files to change this pref's type accordingly.

Comment 14

[Chris]

So let me understand what you are saying, I need to use an integer in the instead of a boolean. most likely this would mean something like:
pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", 1);

I would like to thank you for your help BUT, there was a change from the way 8.0.1 and 9.0.1 works and I as a user I couldn't be expected to know you changed the code. How does that make the problem invalid I wonder.
cheers
Chris

Comment 15

[Chris]

Ok and 1 more comment, we are an educational institute and we support the use of firefox even though it is difficult to configure without group policy support. Because of this change I cannot add it to my config file, because not all of my users use the same version and that would be because we do not do updates due to network traffic and consistancy. So one small change to you guys can be a major one for us. Of course the reference to netscape.cfg is still in the source code .... and it should be mozilla.cfg.

Comment 16

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

You'll want to set the pref to "2" to have the effect of cancelling the telemetry prompt.

I realize that this change made it more difficult for administrators. Unfortunately we only discovered this difficulty after we had already made the change, and there's no way to go back now and undo the damage. I'm sorry it caused you trouble.