961723 - Nightly builds don't update (about - check for updates)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Avi Halachmi (:avih)]

Today, A windows machine of mine with a week-old nightly can't find updates in its about dialog. The xml it fetches does not contain any items: https://aus4.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/29.0a1/20140113030203/WINNT_x86-msvc/en-US/nightly/Windows_NT%206.1.1.0%20%28x64%29/default/default/update.xml?force=1

TheOne noted on IRC that this works: https://aus3.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/29.0a1/20140117030207/Darwin_x86_64-gcc3-u-i386-x86_64/en-US/nightly/Darwin%2013.0.2/default/default/update.xml?force=1

But this doesn't: https://aus4.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/29.0a1/20140117030207/Darwin_x86_64-gcc3-u-i386-x86_64/en-US/nightly/Darwin%2013.0.2/default/default/update.xml?force=1

jgraham today experienced a similar issue on Linux, with a nightly build from  2014-01-15, also with aus4 server.

Is the aus4 server broken today?

Comment 1

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

This is expected due to some concerns over a patch from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908134#c51. I think they'll be re-enabled later today...Nick will know for sure though.

Comment 2

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

That's right. I'm going to test in the next hour or two and if all is well re-enable updates after that.

Comment 3

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Re-enabled at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=908134#c58

Comment 4

[(no longer active)]

This is not fixed for me!

Comment 5

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Please set app.update.log to true and capture the url being requested.

Comment 6

[(no longer active)]

18:11:27.521 [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIPrefBranch.getCharPref]"  nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)"  location: "JS frame :: chrome://browser/content/aboutDialog.js :: init :: line 14"  data: no] aboutDialog.js:32
18:11:27.523 AUS:SVC Checker: checkForUpdates, force: true
18:11:27.524 AUS:SVC Checker:getUpdateURL - update URL: https://aus4.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/28.0a1/20131107030200/Linux_x86_64-gcc3/en-US/nightly-profiling/Linux%203.2.0-53-generic%20(GTK%202.24.10)/default/default/update.xml?force=1
18:11:27.524 AUS:SVC Checker:checkForUpdates - sending request to: https://aus4.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/28.0a1/20131107030200/Linux_x86_64-gcc3/en-US/nightly-profiling/Linux%203.2.0-53-generic%20(GTK%202.24.10)/default/default/update.xml?force=1
18:11:27.604 GET https://aus4.mozilla.org/update/3/Firefox/28.0a1/20131107030200/Linux_x86_64-gcc3/en-US/nightly-profiling/Linux%203.2.0-53-generic%20(GTK%202.24.10)/default/default/update.xml [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 368ms]
18:11:27.896 AUS:SVC Checker:onLoad - request completed downloading document
18:11:27.896 AUS:SVC Checker:onLoad - number of updates available: 0

Comment 7

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Ah, you have a profiling build. When that branch got shut down (bug 936582) no-one thought about updates for existing users. A quick check on metrics reveals 1 ADI on 28.0, and an intermittent on a 29.0 build (??). I suggest you just modify <install_dir>/defaults/prefs/channel-prefs.js to specify 'nightly', probably need a restart to pick that up.

Comment 8

[(no longer active)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Ah, you have a profiling build. When that branch got shut down (bug 936582)
> no-one thought about updates for existing users. A quick check on metrics
> reveals 1 ADI on 28.0, and an intermittent on a 29.0 build (??).

Haha, that 28.0 user is me!  :-)

> I suggest you
> just modify <install_dir>/defaults/prefs/channel-prefs.js to specify 'nightly',
> probably need a restart to pick that up.

Done.  That fixed the problem.  Thanks!

Comment 9

[Avi Halachmi (:avih)]

Assuming this issue is behind us, in case some future build is shipped with its update system broken (i.e. a build issue rather than a server issue), is there some mechanism in place to push a notification to users? preferably a mechanism which doesn't reuse the updates system code, and also other than at "Firefox home page" (sine not all users necessarily use it)?

Comment 10

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

(In reply to Avi Halachmi (:avih) from comment #9)
> Assuming this issue is behind us, in case some future build is shipped with
> its update system broken (i.e. a build issue rather than a server issue), is
> there some mechanism in place to push a notification to users? preferably a
> mechanism which doesn't reuse the updates system code, and also other than
> at "Firefox home page" (sine not all users necessarily use it)?

Yes, that is one of the reasons the Add-on Hotfix mechanism was added. It uses the add-on update mechanism instead.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Desktop/Add-on_hotfix