Primarily due to bug 1136772, we want to disable the video/tab casting feature (added in bug 1054959 and bug 1088758) in Firefox 37. This depends on bug 1111967, which is about adding a pref to let us easily do that.

/r/5329 - Bug 1142521 - disable casting on firefox desktop by default, r?mconley Pull down this commit: hg pull review -r 25a5c972cd15afdc46502c003bdb6ffd1e246a67

(do we even need reviews for pref toggles?)

Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/5327/#review4305 Assuming this is a feature we do actually want to disable by default (I assume you're sync'd up with gavin/dolske, blassey and, I think, finkle?) then this looks fine.

remote: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/c4d1983fa726

Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs Approval Request Comment [Feature/regressing bug #]: Tab/video casting [User impact if declined]: Uses SSDP and/or UPnP which triggers firewall issues [Describe test coverage new/current, TreeHerder]: no, I think? [Risks and why]: will disable functionality that was currently enabled by default, which may be confusing for existing users (only affects the (limited) subset of users who have Rokus/chromecasts/...)). Those users will need to flip the pref in about:config. [String/UUID change made/needed]: No.

Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs Egh, meant to ask for beta approval, too. (In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #5) > Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] > MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs > > Approval Request Comment > [Feature/regressing bug #]: Tab/video casting > [User impact if declined]: Uses SSDP and/or UPnP which triggers firewall > issues > [Describe test coverage new/current, TreeHerder]: no, I think? > [Risks and why]: will disable functionality that was currently enabled by > default, which may be confusing for existing users (only affects the > (limited) subset of users who have Rokus/chromecasts/...)). Those users will > need to flip the pref in about:config. > [String/UUID change made/needed]: No.

Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs Trivial code change now that bug 1111967 has landed. However, as noted, this may be confusing for a subset of users. I think the firewall issue is significant enough to justify disabling this feature by default in 37. (In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #5) > [Risks and why]: will disable functionality that was currently enabled by > default, which may be confusing for existing users (only affects the > (limited) subset of users who have Rokus/chromecasts/...)). Those users will > need to flip the pref in about:config. about:config is not very user friendly. Is there a SUMO doc that describes how to reenable this feature for users who want to do so? If not, can you please put one together before 37 is released on Mar 31, 2015?

(In reply to Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo) from comment #7) > Comment on attachment 8577217 [details] > MozReview Request: bz://1142521/Gijs > > Trivial code change now that bug 1111967 has landed. However, as noted, this > may be confusing for a subset of users. I think the firewall issue is > significant enough to justify disabling this feature by default in 37. > > (In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #5) > > [Risks and why]: will disable functionality that was currently enabled by > > default, which may be confusing for existing users (only affects the > > (limited) subset of users who have Rokus/chromecasts/...)). Those users will > > need to flip the pref in about:config. > > about:config is not very user friendly. Is there a SUMO doc that describes > how to reenable this feature for users who want to do so? If not, can you > please put one together before 37 is released on Mar 31, 2015? I do not know how to put together a SUMO doc. I can write a blurb if I have a better idea of what we need? Shouldn't we ask the more regular SUMO contributors for something here, as they'll have a better idea of style/context?

Was it intentional to not merge this into Nightly builds before jumping on Beta & Aurora ?

(In reply to Jim Jeffery not reading bug-mail 1/2/11 from comment #11) > Was it intentional to not merge this into Nightly builds before jumping on > Beta & Aurora ? Last beta pre-rc goes to build today IIRC, and it's only a pref toggle. If this broke stuff on fx-team it would have been backed out already, so it'll be in tomorrow's nightly.

(In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #10) > I do not know how to put together a SUMO doc. I can write a blurb if I have > a better idea of what we need? Shouldn't we ask the more regular SUMO > contributors for something here, as they'll have a better idea of > style/context? Sorry for the confusion. I didn't mean that you had to create the SUMO article yourself but rather work with the SUMO team to create one. For the content, if our intention is to allow users to opt into this feature, we need some documentation that describes how they can do that. To start, can you add a description to the bug of how they should do that including the pref name, the value they need to set to enable the feature, and whether they need to restart or make any other config change? ni Joni, who should be able to help get the SUMO article created or put us in touch with someone else who can help.

(In reply to Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo) from comment #14) > To start, can > you add a description to the bug of how they should do that including the > pref name, the value they need to set to enable the feature, and whether > they need to restart or make any other config change? They will need to go to about:config, (optionally: search for 'casting') and switch browser.casting.enabled to true (it should be there already from next 37 beta onward, ie they won't need to create a new pref). Then they will need to restart for the change to take effect.

@lmandel and @gijs, Yes, we can get a SUMO article up for people who want to opt in using about:config in the next day or two: Just a couple of questions before I start. 1. Are there any specific risks to the user if they change this pref? We'd need to add a disclaimer if there's anything specific. Otherwise, we can use the general "be careful..." warning. 2. Is this for Roku only?

(In reply to Joni Savage from comment #16) > @lmandel and @gijs, Yes, we can get a SUMO article up for people who want to > opt in using about:config in the next day or two: > > Just a couple of questions before I start. > 1. Are there any specific risks to the user if they change this pref? We'd > need to add a disclaimer if there's anything specific. Otherwise, we can use > the general "be careful..." warning. It uses SSDP/UPnP stuff, but that was the default in 36, so probably doesn't warrant a warning. Without that, it wouldn't even work, so it seems pointless to warn about it. > 2. Is this for Roku only? It's for whatever casting devices we currently support, which I think might include others? I'm not the best person to ask, check the SUMO docs we made for this feature in 36, I presume? :-) (those probably need updating to include/point to this pref info anyway)

I have a first draft here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/send-videos-and-webpages-your-roku-desktop. Instead of having a separate article for the pref, we included the instructions in the main article. I didn't know that casting had landed on desktop, so we didn't have any SUMO docs for it (except for the one I just mentioned.) I'll find out who I need to talk to about this feature. I can't actually get it to work with my Roku or Chromecast, although the options are showing up on the UI.

(In reply to Joni Savage from comment #18) > I have a first draft here: > https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/send-videos-and-webpages-your-roku- > desktop. Instead of having a separate article for the pref, we included the > instructions in the main article. > > I didn't know that casting had landed on desktop, so we didn't have any SUMO > docs for it (except for the one I just mentioned.) I'll find out who I need > to talk to about this feature. I can't actually get it to work with my Roku > or Chromecast, although the options are showing up on the UI. Both Roku and Chromecast tab mirroring support is currently non-functional. The Roku support has never landed completely on the Roku side. We have simulators inside Mozilla for testing, but real-world support is not ready. Chromecast support recently broke when Google updated the Chromecast firmware. This is being tracked in bug 1131084. Firefox for Android has disabled all mirroring support for RELEASE_BUILD (beta and release) using the browser.mirroring.enabled pref. Desktop does not yet have this pref.

It seems we cannot verify this due to bug 1147873.

You should still be able to verify that we're not shipping video/tab casting UI in 37 and later.

(In reply to :Gavin Sharp [email: gavin@gavinsharp.com] from comment #21) > You should still be able to verify that we're not shipping video/tab casting > UI in 37 and later. Verified fixed on Release 37.0.2 (20150415140819), Beta 38.0b8-build2 (20150427090451) and Aurora 39.0a2 (2015-04-28). Video/tab casting is disabled, with browser.casting.enabled set to false by default and the associated context menu option inactive.

Hi all, I'm a bit confused as per why this was completely disabled. (Maybe I haven't successfully followed the breadcrumbs of all the linked bugs) Why was this completely removed instead of adding a toggle to disable in advanced preferences? Seems like we lost a valuable feature here. Thanks for clarifying.

On desktop it created a ping that triggered the windows and OS X firewall because it uses SSDP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Service_Discovery_Protocol

(In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] from comment #23) > Hi all, I'm a bit confused as per why this was completely disabled. (Maybe I > haven't successfully followed the breadcrumbs of all the linked bugs) > > Why was this completely removed instead of adding a toggle to disable in > advanced preferences? There is a toggle in about:config, and the feature wasn't "completely removed".

(In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #25) > (In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] from comment #23) > > Hi all, I'm a bit confused as per why this was completely disabled. (Maybe I > > haven't successfully followed the breadcrumbs of all the linked bugs) > > > > Why was this completely removed instead of adding a toggle to disable in > > advanced preferences? > > There is a toggle in about:config, and the feature wasn't "completely > removed". ¡Hola Gijs! Could you please tell me which is the exact "toggle in about:config"? As a Roku owner I'd like to turn this on. ¡Gracias! Alex

(In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #28) > (In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch from comment #25) > > (In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] from comment #23) > > > Hi all, I'm a bit confused as per why this was completely disabled. (Maybe I > > > haven't successfully followed the breadcrumbs of all the linked bugs) > > > > > > Why was this completely removed instead of adding a toggle to disable in > > > advanced preferences? > > > > There is a toggle in about:config, and the feature wasn't "completely > > removed". > > ¡Hola Gijs! > > Could you please tell me which is the exact "toggle in about:config"? > > As a Roku owner I'd like to turn this on. > > ¡Gracias! > Alex browser.casting.enabled

Was this flag removed completely? Is it any way possible to still enable it? I'm running version 57.0.4

(In reply to anthonymonori from comment #30) > Was this flag removed completely? Yes. > Is it any way possible to still enable it? No. bug 1171698 covers re-adding support for casting in some way that won't have negative consequences for the majority of users who won't use it.