dickvl Reporter
	Description • 12 years ago

I use a mozilla.cfg file to set some prefs to a specific value for all profiles.

When starting the Nightly build I get this error message:
"Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator."

This build works:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2013-02-11-03-10-55-mozilla-central/

This build gives the error message:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2013-02-12-03-11-20-mozilla-central/

STR:
1. local settings.js with this content in Nightly /defaults/pref directory
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

2. mozilla.cfg with this content
// 
pref("browser.startup.homepage", "about:about");
pref("browser.newtab.url", "about:blank");

See also:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences

We could use some tests with mozilla.cfg as this doesn't happen for the first time (Bug 576430).

	Matthias Versen [:Matti]
	Comment 1 • 12 years ago

That would be http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=5835bc763be7&tochange=36525224b14e

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 2 • 12 years ago

Unfortunately the QA team says there's no way to create a test for it.

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 3 • 12 years ago

Looking through the patches, I see nothing of consequence except this major change:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=755724

	Jim Mathies [:jimm]
	Comment 4 • 12 years ago

Moving your mozilla.cfg to the browser sub-dir solves this, which happens to be the working directory when we look for it. Not sure if this is expected, cc'ing mike.

	Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo
	Comment 5 • 12 years ago

Tracking since this will largely affect our ESR users - assigning to Glandium initially since he is the owner of the regressed bug.

	Jim Mathies [:jimm]
	Comment 6 • 12 years ago

This won't be too hard to touch up if we want to. The currently read routine uses NS_XPCOM_CURRENT_PROCESS_DIR when opening the file:

http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?string=openAndEvaluateJSFile

Although I can think of some cases where we might want to look in the app dir. Since we now support multiple apps within the same gre, different apps might have different lock files. Maybe we should check app and if we don't find anything, check gre for all applications.

	Jim Mathies [:jimm]
	Comment 7 • 12 years ago

oops, meant to change that from unconfirmed -> new.

	Mike Hommey [:glandium] Assignee
	Comment 8 • 12 years ago

This seems like the sensible thing to do for existing setups to continue working (including FF-on-xulrunner)

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 9 • 12 years ago

I'm concerned about other things here to.

Did the distribution directory move under browser?

I assume defaults\pref and defaults\profile moved under browser?

And the extensions directory for extensions?

This is a MAJOR documentation overhaul.

	Mike Hommey [:glandium] Assignee
	Comment 10 • 12 years ago

(In reply to Michael Kaply (mkaply) from comment #9)
> I'm concerned about other things here to.
> 
> Did the distribution directory move under browser?

I think so, but that should probably be changed if that's the case. Can you file a separate bug for that?

> I assume defaults\pref and defaults\profile moved under browser?

defaults/pref no. defaults/profile hasn't been a directory for a while (it was in omni.ja ; and now it's in browser/omni.ja)

> And the extensions directory for extensions?

extensions should go in distribution/extensions, shouldn't they?

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 11 • 12 years ago

(In reply to Mike Hommey [:glandium] from comment #10)
> (In reply to Michael Kaply (mkaply) from comment #9)
> > I assume defaults\pref and defaults\profile moved under browser?
> 
>  defaults/profile hasn't been a directory for a while (it
> was in omni.ja ; and now it's in browser/omni.ja)

defaults/profile is still read and used if it is present. It's an easy way for an enterprise to deploy a custom bookmarks file by placing in in defaults/profile.

See:

http://mike.kaply.com/2012/03/30/customizing-firefox-default-profiles/

> And the extensions directory for extensions?

extensions should go in distribution/extensions, shouldn't they?

There are multiple places extensions can be deployed for different reasons.

Placing extensions placed in the EXE\extensions directory is a common practice because they can't be uninstalled by the user (although they can be disabled).

This is different than distribution/extensions which causes the extension to be installed, or distribution/bundles which reads the chrome.manifest but doesn't really install the extension.

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 12 • 12 years ago

>> I assume defaults\pref and defaults\profile moved under browser?

>defaults/pref no. 

Sorry, I meant defaults/preferences. Should that directory be created under browser now?

See:

http://mike.kaply.com/2012/03/15/customizing-firefox-default-preference-files/

	Mike Hommey [:glandium] Assignee
	Comment 13 • 12 years ago

(In reply to Michael Kaply (mkaply) from comment #12)
> >> I assume defaults\pref and defaults\profile moved under browser?
> 
> >defaults/pref no. 
> 
> Sorry, I meant defaults/preferences. Should that directory be created under
> browser now?

Yes, but you can still use defaults/pref.

> See:
> 
> http://mike.kaply.com/2012/03/15/customizing-firefox-default-preference-
> files/

Note that blog post is confusion because it mentions defaults/preferences and then says to place files in defaults/pref.

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 14 • 12 years ago

> Note that blog post is confusion because it mentions defaults/preferences and then says to place files in defaults/pref.

I'll fix that, but the source of confusion is that you now have to put files in defaults/preferences instead of defaults/pref after Firefox 14. That post was written before Firefox 14.

You should not use defaults/pref.

See:

http://mike.kaply.com/2012/08/01/major-change-setting-default-preferences-for-firefox-14/

or

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=779437

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 15 • 12 years ago

I've done some research and browser/defaults/preferences is the place to put the preferences file.

Also, adding files to browser/defaults/profile does cause them to get copied over to the profile.

So all the documentation for defaults will need to be updated (again).

Is the Metro version of Firefox going to have a separate profile from the regular Firefox?

	Benjamin Smedberg
	Comment 16 • 12 years ago

Comment on attachment 715131 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the parent directory of XRE_EXECUTABLE_FILE to find autoconf file

I think this is ok. Not that any other app is going to care about pref autoconfig anyway.

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 17 • 12 years ago

I really think we need input from kev needham's team on this

	Mike Kaply [:mkaply]
	Comment 18 • 12 years ago

Bah. wrong bug. I had a different question for this one.

Do we ever picture a world where other apps are in this directory along with browser (thunderbird for instance)

Is the autoconfig about the app or the browser?

And will the metro Firefox read autoconfig?

	Mike Hommey [:glandium] Assignee
	Comment 19 • 12 years ago

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/179a23a14368

	Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]
	Comment 20 • 12 years ago

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/179a23a14368

	Mike Hommey [:glandium] Assignee
	Comment 21 • 12 years ago

Comment on attachment 715131 [details] [diff] [review]
Use the parent directory of XRE_EXECUTABLE_FILE to find autoconf file

[Approval Request Comment]
Bug caused by (feature/regressing bug #): bug 755724
User impact if declined: existing mozilla.cfg setups stop working
Testing completed (on m-c, etc.): Validated it works with latest nightly.
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): Low
String or UUID changes made by this patch: None

	Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]
	Comment 22 • 12 years ago

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-aurora/rev/c15b6ac9ec65

	Sheila Hall
	Comment 23 • 11 years ago

I'm new to this so I don't understand fom the comments how I can fix this so it will work. Can someone please help me?