firefox download manager doesn't work when target is on vfat filesystem

[John Wiersba]

Binary package hint: firefox

My download location was set (via a symlink) to a directory on a vfat filesystem. The /etc/fstab entry for this filesystem is:
   /dev/sda5 /d vfat defaults,utf8,umask=02,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,quiet,shortname=winnt 0 0

When selecting a file such as xxx.tar.gz from a web page, I get the download manager popup. When I choose the Save to Disk option, all that happens is that a 0 byte file is created at the target location -- no download status, etc. I'm guessing that maybe download manager is trying to manipulate file permissions in a way that is not supported on the vfat file system? When I change the download location to a ext3 filesystem then everything works.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Can you please provide a set of step by step instructions on how to reproduce this? What version of firefox are you using and what version of ubuntu is this on?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Does it work correctly without the symlink?

[John Wiersba (jrw32982)]

I have firefox configured to download to a directory named /ftp.

$ ls -l /ftp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Jun 12 23:48 /ftp -> /d/ftp
$ mount
...
/dev/sda5 on /d type vfat (rw,utf8,umask=02,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,quiet,shortname=winnt)
$ ls -ld /d/ftp
drwxrwxr-x 5 jrw jrw 4096 Jun 12 23:51 /d/ftp
$ uname -a
Linux nalini 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Thu Jun 7 20:19:32 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

firefox->help->about
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20061201 Firefox/2.0.0.4 (Ubuntu-feisty)

visit http://directory.fsf.org/cpio.html
select link ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/cpio/cpio-2.8.tar.gz

$ ls -l /ftp/cpio*
06/12 23:56:45 $ ls -l cpio*
-rwxrwxr-x 1 jrw jrw 0 Jun 12 23:51 /ftp/cpio-2.8.tar.gz

So, the file is created but never populated and the download manager window doesn't appear, either. However, when I changed /ftp to point to an ext3 filesystem, the tar.gz file downloaded properly. When I created /ftp as a directory (rather than as a symlink), it also downloaded correctly -- obviously in this case /ftp was on an ext3 filesystem rather than on a vfat filesystem. The same thing happened when I set the download directory in Preferences to be on a vfat filesystem (without a symlink).

Also, I noticed when downloading an attachment from my yahoo mail account a strange anomaly when the file was a text file named "hah" (no extension) -- yahoo said it was of type "BIN". The file downloaded correctly but when the file system was vfat, the file was named "hah.bin". When the download directory was on an ext3 filesystem, the file was downloaded properly as "hah". I don't know if it's related (probably not), but it's annoying.

Please let me know how I can help you debug this. Thanks!

[John Wiersba (jrw32982)]

John,

I updated the bug report with the information you requested. Please let me know how else I can help you debug this. I only have access to this machine at night (it's at home). Thanks!

-- John Wiersba

----- Original Message ----
From: John Vivirito <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2007 1:14:43 PM
Subject: [Bug 113070] Re: firefox download manager doesn't work when target is on vfat filesystem

Can you please provide a set of step by step instructions on how to
reproduce this? What version of firefox are you using and what version
of ubuntu is this on?

** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
       Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info

--
firefox download manager doesn't work when target is on vfat filesystem
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/113070
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[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

> Also, I noticed when downloading an attachment from my yahoo mail
> account a strange anomaly when the file was a text file named "hah"
> (no extension) -- yahoo said it was of type "BIN". The file downloaded
> correctly but when the file system was vfat, the file was named
> "hah.bin". When the download directory was on an ext3 filesystem, the
> file was downloaded properly as "hah". I don't know if it's related
> (probably not), but it's annoying.

The issue of adding a .bin suffix in *windows* partitions is been dealt
upstream at [1]. In there you can see a couple of workarounds that imply
changes in the fstab file (comment #23).

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=270159

[John Wiersba (jrw32982)]

See also https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336113 for this same bug.

[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

Maybe we should merge together bug 113070 and bug 120951, or wait to see if upstream duplicates bugzilla #336113 with #270159

[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

Thank you John Wiersba for your report,

This particular issue has already been reported as bug #65164 [1]
(MASTER Firefox 2 can't save to fat32/ntfs partitions (e.g. usb memory
stick) - results in empty file). You can check comment #20 for a deep
analysis and workaround.

Please feel free to add any other information you might consider to be
related to this particular issue either to [1] or [2].

As the original reporter you'll be informed by email of all comments or
changes that affects either this report or the Master Bug (bug
#65164 [1]). You can unsubscribe [3] to stop receiving this
mailing at any time.

And, of course, please don't doubt to report any other crashes/issues
you might find in the future.

Further information can be found at [4].

Again, thank you.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/65164
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/113070
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/65164/+subscribe
[4] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs