Firefox not opening file chooser dialog for importing certificates

[Ronald Huetter]

When installed as a snap, firefox won't open the file chooser dialog for importing a certificate authority. However, it is working when installed using apt.

How to reproduce:
1. Install firefox as snap
2. Navigate to Preferences | Privacy & Security | Certificates | View Certificates
3. Select Authorities
4. Click Import ...
   -> A file selector dialog should open to import a certificate, but nothing happens.

Environment:
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu55
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: Budgie:GNOME
Date: Thu Jan 28 11:43:55 2021
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-01-15 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Budgie 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" - Alpha amd64 (20210115)
ProcCpuinfoMinimal:
 processor : 3
 vendor_id : GenuineIntel
 cpu family : 6
 model : 42
 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
 stepping : 7
 microcode : 0x2f
 cpu MHz : 3701.000
 cache size : 8192 KB
 physical id : 6
 siblings : 1
 core id : 0
 cpu cores : 1
 apicid : 6
 initial apicid : 6
 fpu : yes
 fpu_exception : yes
 cpuid level : 13
 wp : yes
 flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon nopl xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc cpuid pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx hypervisor lahf_lm pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tsc_adjust arat md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities
 bugs : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
 bogomips : 7402.00
 clflush size : 64
 cache_alignment : 64
 address sizes : 43 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
 power management:
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 LC_ADDRESS=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_NAME=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_MONETARY=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 TERM=xterm-256color
 LC_IDENTIFICATION=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_TELEPHONE=de_DE.UTF-8
 LC_MEASUREMENT=de_DE.UTF-8
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LC_NUMERIC=de_DE.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-36.40+21.04.1-generic 5.8.18
Snap: firefox 84.0.2-1 (stable)
Tags: hirsute
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-36-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
_MarkForUpload: True

[Ronald Huetter (user-0209)]

Related to #1911649

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

It works for me here, I wonder if this might be caused by the missing XDG portal.

Can you share the output of the following command?

    apt policy xdg-desktop-portal*

[Ronald Huetter (user-0209)]

Output of apt policy xdg-desktop-portal*:

xdg-desktop-portal-backend:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
xdg-desktop-portal-tests:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.8.0-2
  Version table:
     1.8.0-2 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/universe amd64 Packages
xdg-desktop-portal-dev:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.8.0-2
  Version table:
     1.8.0-2 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main i386 Packages
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.8.0-1
  Version table:
     1.8.0-1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
xdg-desktop-portal-kde:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 5.20.90-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
     5.20.90-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/universe amd64 Packages
xdg-desktop-portal-wlr:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.1.0-3
  Version table:
     0.1.0-3 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/universe amd64 Packages
xdg-desktop-portal:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.8.0-2
  Version table:
     1.8.0-2 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages

[Ronald Huetter (user-0209)]

I tried:
sudo apt-get install -y xdg-desktop-portal

It didn't cure the problem, right after install. Re-installed firefox didn't make it work either. After reboot everything was working.

Question is, where did I loose this xdg-desktop-portal, but I'm quite sure it wasn't there from the initial install, because I see the same behaviour on some other test system.

[Fifi Cek (fifi-cek)]

Any workarounds in Firefox snap existing?

[Fifi Cek (fifi-cek)]

That's interesting, this ticket was opened for Firefox package while the observations here locally are for Ubuntu 18.04 Firefox snap is affected, Firefox classic package not.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[frigo (rigault-francois)]

I hit this bug too with firefox 94.0.1-1 / Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa)

when trying to import my certificate from /etc/ssl/certs/toto.crt, that has previously been installed with update-ca-certificates, "nothing happens" as you describe

when opening the Browser Console, and repeating the action, I get an error:

message: "Component returned failure code: 0x80520012 (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) [nsIX509CertDB.importCertsFromFile]"

we can see what happens by looking in the snap:
snap run --shell firefox
cat /etc/ssl/certs/toto.crt
: No such file or directory

this is a symlink that points to a folder under /usr/local/share/ca-certificates which is not accessible by the snap.

Fix it: copy the file under $HOME where it can be imported... hth

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

François, this is a different (although related) issue: this bug report was about firefox not even opening a file selection dialog to pick a certificate file, which was resolved after installing xdg-desktop-portal. The problem you're describing is that after selecting the certificate file, firefox fails to actually import it. I can observe the same problem, so that's definitely a bug. Would you mind filing an upstream bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi#h=dupes|Firefox to track the problem, making sure to include "snap" in the bug title, and marking it as blocking https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1665641 ?

Thanks in advance!