cannot open links from Thunderbird in Firefox 9.0.1

[Micah Gersten]

From https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/webdeveloper/+bug/904594/comments/10:

I'm having trouble opening links from Thunderbird in Firefox 9.0.1, and discovered that the problem is with Firefox.

Consider the following command:

    firefox http://www.ubuntu.com

If Firefox is already running, this should open the web site in a new tab or window. With 9.0.1, it opens the ProfileManager (I have multiple profiles). If I force a particular profile (with "-P default"), it tells me that "Firefox is already running."

I did an ssh into another machine, and started firefox-3.6.24 with "-no-remote". Now I have two Firefox sessions running, v9.0.1 on my workstation and v3.6.24 on a remote machine. Then, when I run "firefox http://www.ubuntu.com" in an xterm on my workstation. Lo and behold, www.ubuntu.com is opened on the remote Firefox v3.6.24, NOT on the local Firefox v9.0.1, which was actually started first.

Any ideas how to fix this? I cannot roll out v9.0.1 to all my Thunderbird users until this issue is resolved...

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. I tested this with a clean profile in Firefox and clicked on a link from Thunderbird twice and it opened in the same instance without issue. This was only with the local Firefox, I have not tested the remote case. Do you experience this issue with a clean profile?

[Mike Berkley (mike-berkley)]

I found the problem, and it is with Firefox 9.

The meaning of the "-no-remote" option has changed from "Open in a new instance" to "Open in a new instance AND DO NOT ACCEPT REMOTE CONNECTIONS." This means that if you want URL links to work in Thunderbird and to use multiple Firefox profiles at the same time, the first Firefox instance must to be running without "-no-remote". The rest can be run with "-no-remote". Or use Google-Chrome for URL links in Thunderbird.

See the following Mozilla bug.

  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=650078

I think we can close this Ubuntu bug, but leave it to document the upstream problem.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Upstream bug is showing "RESOLVED FIXED" on 2011-08-30
Target milestone: Firefox 9
Closing by marking "Fix Released"