810961 - hangs probing probing server during manual config if SSL is used with site that requires certificate exception (e.g., self-signed certificate)

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 713714

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Jonathan Kamens]

After auto-config from SRV records fails as described in bug 810957, I try entering the details manually:

IMAP jik3.kamens.brookline.ma.us 993 SSL/TLS Autodetect
SMTP jik3.kamens.brookline.ma.us 587 STARTTLS Autodetect

Then I click "Re-test", and it hangs "Probing server...", i.e., the little spinning wait graphic displays, and just spins forever.

Comment 1

[:aceman]

Can you open the tools -> error console before you open the 'new account wizard' and see if there appear any errors in the console?

Comment 2

[Jonathan Kamens]

Nothing at all in the error console.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

And doesn't hang, if you just manually configure account from the start?

Comment 4

[Jonathan Kamens]

There is no option, as far as I know, to "manually configure account from the start." When you go to add an email account, it forces you to enter a name, email address and password, and starts trying to autoconfigure using the specified information. You have to click "Manual config" at that point.

If there's a way to bypass the attempt to autoconfigure completely, please share it and I'll be glad to try it out.

Comment 5

[Jonathan Kamens]

I think the issue here is the self-signed certificate on my email server. The server probe apparently can't handle that. I verified this by working around the issue as follows...

* Create account in the mail account setup window using port 143 with no encryption.
* After creating the account, go into account settings and change it to port 993 with SSL.
* Exit and restart Thunderbird.
* Thunderbird prompts for security exception; go ahead and confirm the exception.
* Delete the account.
* Re-add the account, and this time use port 993 with SSL encryption.

When I follow these steps, the server probe returns immediately rather than hanging.

The moral of the story is that the mail account setup dialog needs to know how to prompt for adding a security exception.

Comment 6

[Jonathan Kamens]

Note that you won't be able to test this right now unless you use a TB build from December 13 or earlier, because of bug 823342.

Comment 8

[wgh]

Is it really resolved? It still hangs when I press "Re-test" without telling anything. 

I managed to add the account by choosing the password type, which enabled "Done" button, and pressing that button, though. After I pressed that button, certificate dialog finally appeared.

Comment 9

[8f70ed0d1f]

I've seen this too.  I have my "own CA" that signs my certificates, but sometimes end up confirming the exception rather than fully importing the CA cert into everything.  When I try to set up my account, the probing process "hangs" as described.  I get these messages (modified to remove real names and addresses) in my server logs, over and over:

postfix/smtpd[4690]: connect from my-pc.lan[192.168.1.2]
postfix/smtpd[4690]: Anonymous TLS connection established from my-pc.lan[192.168.1.2]: TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)
postfix/smtpd[4690]: warning: TLS library problem: 4690:error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca:s3_pkt.c:1256:SSL alert number 48:
postfix/smtpd[4690]: lost connection after CONNECT from my-pc.lan[192.168.1.2]
postfix/smtpd[4690]: disconnect from my-pc.lan[192.168.1.2]
imapd-ssl: Connection, ip=[::ffff:192.168.1.2]
imapd-ssl: couriertls: read: error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca
imapd-ssl: Disconnected, ip=[::ffff:192.168.1.2], time=0, starttls=1

According to http://postfix.1071664.n5.nabble.com/SSL-accept-error-td60795.html , this means Thunderbird tells the server it doesn't recognize the CA.  Then Thunderbird apparently disconnects and tries again in a loop.  I haven't checked to see if it terminates.  The workaround described by comment 8 works for me (specify all server parameters so that "Done" is enabled.)