404 error after Firefox upgrade

[Patrick]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Im using Ubuntu 8.10 amd64, got a firefox update today by synaptic,

Commit Log for Sat Jun 13 11:07:00 2009

Upgraded the following packages:
firefox (3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) to 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
firefox-3.0 (3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) to 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
firefox-3.0-branding (3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) to 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
firefox-3.0-gnome-support (3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) to 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
firefox-gnome-support (3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) to 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1

... installed them all, started Firefox afterwards, get a

404: File Not Found

/projects/firefox/3.0.11/whatsnew/

We are sorry, the file you requested could not be found.

Please check the spelling and punctuation. Our servers are case sensitive, so also be sure that the address has the correct case. You can use the links on this page or the search Mozilla feature at the top to find the document you were looking for.

when trying to load startup page changed by Firefox to

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0.11/whatsnew/

Normally I have a about:blank page, this happends after each Firefox upgrade.

Need to say Internet browsing works fine and I can change startup page afterwards, just frustrated to get a 404 page after each firefox upgrade.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

so you say that you have a custom homepage set to about:blank and after each upgrade you get the upstream default again?

BTW, do you have ubufox installed or not?

[Patrick (taishor)]

No... Im saying after each Firefox upgrade, I get a 404 error message at mozilla.com webpage because Firefox changed startup page to a hardcoded url that does not work, independent of my prev startup page settings.

Try to browse to

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0.11/whatsnew/

thats the page I get as 404 error message.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

so your homepage pref gets reset to the default during upgrade? Can you please change the bug title accordingly?

[Jeff Trull (jetrull)]

I confirm this bug.

Alexander, it seems like there is a feature where after a firefox upgrade a tab is added which is intended to describe the update, as shown in the reporter's original text. Unfortunately this tab points to the wrong place, resulting in a 404 error coming up every time you start Firefox... at least for this update, that's true. I'm not sure that your proposed rewording "homepage pref gets reset to the default during upgrade" is an accurate description. In my case, for example, the saved tabs from the previous run come up, plus this 404 page, with the 404 page on top. My "homepage" is still correct.

Whatever part of the update that creates this extra tab needs fixing, to eliminate it or to point to a real page.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jeff Trull (jetrull)]

Just got another firefox update automatically, with the same problem - a new tab with a link to the following:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0.12/whatsnew/

which does not exist on the mozilla website.

[Koen Verweij (kfverweij)]

This still happens for the new 3.0.13 update. A tab appeared which tries to get to http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0.13/whatsnew/ but this page does not exist. I added a duplicate bug too (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/409247).

[Jeff Trull (jetrull)]

Oddly enough for me this is now fixed. For me, the new tab points to:

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0.13/whatsnew/

which does in fact exist. Perhaps there is a "localization" problem?

[Koen Verweij (kfverweij)]

Today's Firefox update on Jaunty still has the same problem. It now opens this page that does not exist: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0.14/whatsnew/
I guess if you're getting http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0.14/whatsnew/ instead now, it is probably a "localization" problem as you suggest.

[philinux (philcb)]

Marked as confirmed today. This has been happening a while. Also happens on Karmic. Not good for new users. Papercut I guess

[Koen Verweij (kfverweij)]

The similar bug for Firefox 3.5 on Karmic is bug 426422

[Scott Minster (sminster)]

I've had this bug since 3.0.7 (from duplicate bug 345347), but today when I finally restarted Firefox with the lasted 3.0.14 update, it went to the correct page (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0.14/whatsnew/). I know I didn't do anything to fix it -- maybe something has been changed that fixes this?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

mozilla has a bug (or at least had a bug) on this and it seems they fixed the web page, however this happens for people in Firefox-3.5 but with English here it doesnt happen using nightly builds from a PPA archive, Please leave this bug open as iit has duplicates added to it.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

yes. this was fixed a while back iirc.