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73416ba
(Get the code!)
Bug 436815 – offline mode turn on/off -- includes reports that seem related to this.I have had to disable NetworkManager to make Firefox 3 usable on my linux PC (running Fedora 9).
The problem is NOT restricted to Ubuntu as suggested in Comment #10
It seems that (1) NetworkManager is at fault in giving wrong information, (2) The Fedora people are at fault in turning on NM by default in Fedora 9, and (3) the Firefox people are at fault in making FF trust NM without allowing mechanisms to override that trust.
The combined consequence of those three faults is that I have wasted several hours in the last few days fighting this problem, until I discovered I could fix it by turning off NM, which I don't need on a PC connected by cable to the router using static addresses. From several other bug reports I think many other people are suffering.
I completely agree with this in comment #25 "Just in case someone is missing the point: do you have any idea how painful it is to go thru 30 tabs having to refresh each one of them just because Fx3 tried to be smart and started in offline mode?" I keep much of my work in multiple tabs in FF.
This terrible behaviour, including being required to refresh each tab manually, forced me back to using FF2 for a while, until I discovered that I could restart FF3 in online mode if I (a) start FF2, then (b) kill it then (c) start FF3 !! (I have no idea why this works, but it may be a clue for a fix.)
Painful, but not nearly as painful as having to restart all my tabs manually.
I've removed the need for this procedure by disabling NM, but, as indicated above, some people need NM (e.g. on laptops used with different connections in different places). So FF3 should either not trust NM, or should provide a way to users to override that trust.
It would not be so bad if the 'work offline' button had an option: 'go online and restart all tabs and windows'. (also suggested in Comment #28, I see.)
Good software designers provide ways of helping users mitigate the effects of faults in other software instead of simply blaming the other software.
Thanks.