App name in application.ini incorrect

[Darren Worrall]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

After reporting a bug at Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=493442, Mikhail Stepura discovered what we believe to be a packaging error.

In /usr/lib/firefox-3.5b5pre/application.ini, under [App], 'Name' currently is 'Firefox-3.5', we believe this should just be 'Firefox', as there are other getters for the version number.

Running Ubuntu 9.04 x86

firefox-3.5:
  Installed: 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Darren Worrall (dazworrall)]

Created an attachment (id=377921)
Sync log

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

I'm observing the same issue using Firefox 3.5 beta builds from https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa and Weave 0.3.2.

WinXP clients (with Firefox 3.5b4 and Weave 0.3.2) are working without problems

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

I think I've found the root cause.

Take a look at _registerEngines method:
http://hg.mozilla.org/labs/weave/file/befd9af4df5d/modules/service.js#l397

It expects "Firefox" to be returned by Svc.AppInfo.name. But in my case the value returned by Svc.AppInfo.name is equal to "Firefox-3.5". So no engines are registered.

I've changed "Firefox" to "Firefox-3.5" and after restart all working fine.

I don't know whether it Weave bug or just wrongly packaged Firefox.

[Thunder-mozilla (thunder-mozilla)]

Good work, Mikhail. I would not have guessed to look at the app name!

I'm pretty sure the app name should be "Firefox", not "Firefox-3.5". There are separate getters to for the app version. So this would seem to be a packaging bug with the Ubuntu packages.

Keeping this bug open until I confirm tomorrow.

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

That value is initialized from application.ini (/usr/lib/firefox-3.5b5pre/application.ini)

[App]
Name=Firefox-3.5

[Darren Worrall (dazworrall)]

I can confirm changing the name field in application.ini to just 'Firefox' solves the problem - nice find!

Are you going to report the bug on Launchpad Mikhail, or would you like me to do it?

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> I can confirm changing the name field in application.ini to just 'Firefox'
> solves the problem - nice find!
>
> Are you going to report the bug on Launchpad Mikhail, or would you like me to
> do it?

Go ahead.

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

(In reply to comment #6)
BTW, it would be great to know launchpad bug # to track the issue. Could you please let me know its number after submitting? Thanks.

[Darren Worrall (dazworrall)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/377904

:)

[Darren Worrall (dazworrall)]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

After reporting a bug at Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=493442, Mikhail Stepura discovered what we believe to be a packaging error.

In /usr/lib/firefox-3.5b5pre/application.ini, under [App], 'Name' currently is 'Firefox-3.5', we believe this should just be 'Firefox', as there are other getters for the version number.

Running Ubuntu 9.04 x86

firefox-3.5:
  Installed: 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.5~b4~hg20090330r24021+nobinonly-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Thunder-mozilla (thunder-mozilla)]

Just talked to rstrong about this, he is of the opinion that Weave should not rely on the name, but use the ID instead.

I agree with him, my only remaining question is whether the bug you filed on ubuntu is valid or not (whether they should leave the name alone or not).

For the purposes of this bug, though, using the ID will fix the problem.

[Thunder-mozilla (thunder-mozilla)]

Fixes problem in Weave:

http://hg.mozilla.org/labs/weave/rev/4f3fcc54fef6

[Mishail (mishail-mishail)]

Well, as far as I understand the different name there is used to have a different profile for unstable Firefox's versions (~/.mozilla/firefox-3.5). Which will allow using both (stable and unstable) version simultaneously.

But, Weave relies on information from nsIXULAppInfo ("name" attribute) to determinate application capabilities,
The vavue of "name" attribute is initialized from application.ini (Name=Firefox) at startup.

[Dan Mills (spam-sandmill)]

We have changed Weave to use the application ID instead of the name, so the original cause for this bug is gone.

I'm not entirely clear what other side-effects changing the name might have--certainly some other extension might break like Weave did, but there is a good argument to be made for using the ID instead of the name.

Changing the name would have IPC implications, though I'm not really sure if that's true on linux.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Closing due to last comment.