about:tor page does not load on first start on Windows and browser is stuck in endless reload cycle
When testing the Windows nightly builds I got greeted with an error page on first start
<title>&aboutTor.title;</title>
------------^This happened with a 32bit de bundle and I can't reproduce this on Linux. Moreover if I open about:tor in a new tab it works. From the second start on the about:tor page is shown as well.
Furthermore, after the second session Tor Browser is stuck on an endless reload cycle when visiting websites and other extensions are broken.
Activity
Kathy and I can reproduce this on Windows (32-bit de build) but not on macOS (de build).
It almost seems like an e10s problem, but I am not sure why it would be Windows-specific.
We also see both the Firefox "spoof language?" prompt as well as the Torbutton one. Is there already a ticket open for that issue?
Replying to mcs:
Kathy and I can reproduce this on Windows (32-bit de build) but not on macOS (de build).
It almost seems like an e10s problem, but I am not sure why it would be Windows-specific.
We also see both the Firefox "spoof language?" prompt as well as the Torbutton one. Is there already a ticket open for that issue?
Now we have: #26409 (moved).
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Kathy and I spent a little time looking at this today. I am recording our findings here in case someone else has any idea what might be going on. Here is what we know:
- The error is due to an undefined entity with aboutTor.xhtml.
- We only see the problem on Windows.
- This problem does not occur when multiprocess mode is disabled via
set MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1. - This problem does not occur when most of Tor Launcher is disabled during startup via
set TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1. - This problem does not occur when we allow Tor Launcher to do all of its work but suppress the windows that it normally opens (we had to modify the Tor Launcher code to make this possible).
This is all quite strange and leads Kathy and me to think that there is a general Firefox bug in loading of extension DTD files, e.g., maybe when e10s is enabled there is a race during startup which puts things in a bad state after Tor Launcher uses a DTD file during startup. Of course Tor Launcher should not be able to interfere with Torbutton in this way.
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One observation I had today while testing a Windows sv-SE bundle: it seems that NoScript is somehow not properly working as well? At least adjusting the security slider does not seem to work and I can't click on the NoScript icon. However, that might be worth a different bug as I have this issue with an en-US bundle, too. But on my Linux box it is working as expected.
Replying to gk:
One observation I had today while testing a Windows sv-SE bundle: it seems that NoScript is somehow not properly working as well? At least adjusting the security slider does not seem to work and I can't click on the NoScript icon. However, that might be worth a different bug as I have this issue with an en-US bundle, too. But on my Linux box it is working as expected.
I opened #26506 (moved) to look at this issue further.
Replying to mcs:
Kathy and I spent a little time looking at this today. I am recording our findings here in case someone else has any idea what might be going on. ...
Removing prefs.js allows you to reproduce this bug without installing a new browser.
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Replying to mcs:
- This problem does not occur when we allow Tor Launcher to do all of its work but suppress the windows that it normally opens (we had to modify the Tor Launcher code to make this possible).
For testing, here is a patch that implements the above (no windows opened by Tor Launcher): https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/brade/tor-launcher.git/commit/?h=bug26381-test-01&id=698e6fe038d2c8b22efe569b6e2bdd77dd2327b9
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Tracking down the root cause of this is proving to be challenging. My Windows debugging skills seem to be inadequate, especially when the browser is running in multiprocess mode. Here are some additional things that Kathy and I learned:
- In addition to the undefined entity bug, sometimes a blank page is loaded instead of about:tor. When a blank page is loaded, that tab is useless (all pages silently fail to load, including internal pages such as about:config).
- The problems with about:tor do not always occur. They seem to occur every time with a clean install or when running with TOR_FORCE_NET_CONFIG=1.
- When about:tor does not load correctly, Wextensions (all) do not work either. This points to some kind of race or other bug during initialization.
- Reducing the sandbox level makes these problems disappear: if I set
security.sandbox.content.levelto2about:tor loads correctly every time, but a setting of3or higher causes problems.
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So, it turns out that the endless reload cycle and broken extensions (#27261 (moved)) are very likely caused by the same underlying issue as this bug: they don't appear once I set
security.sandbox.content.levelto2but appear as soon again as I set it to3or above.So, I closed #27261 (moved) as duplicate.
Trac:
Summary: about:tor page does not load on first start in localized Windows bundle to about:tor page does not load on first start in localized Windows bundle and browser is stuck in endless reload cycle
Cc: mcs, brade, arthuredelstein, tbb-team to mcs, brade, arthuredelstein, tbb-team, sysrqb, ezio, ma1
Description: When testing the Windows nightly builds I got greeted with an error page on first start<title>&aboutTor.title;</title> ------------^This happened with a 32bit de bundle and I can't reproduce this on Linux. Moreover if I open
about:torin a new tab it works. From the second start on theabout:torpage is shown as well.to
When testing the Windows nightly builds I got greeted with an error page on first start
<title>&aboutTor.title;</title> ------------^This happened with a 32bit de bundle and I can't reproduce this on Linux. Moreover if I open
about:torin a new tab it works. From the second start on theabout:torpage is shown as well.Furthermore, after the second session Tor Browser is stuck on an endless reload cycle when visiting websites and other extensions are broken.
Replying to gk:
So, it turns out that the endless reload cycle and broken extensions (#27261 (moved)) are very likely caused by the same underlying issue as this bug: they don't appear once I set
security.sandbox.content.levelto2but appear as soon again as I set it to3or above.So, I closed #27261 (moved) as duplicate.
I closed #27291 (moved) as well for the same reason.
Never try to install portable software to "Windows-protected" folders! (%PROGRAMFILES%, %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, etc) (I've had a hard time to reproduce your issue on all my Windows 7-10 machines, because I never install something to Windows-specific folders without a reason.) The first error is
08:08:53.543 uncaught exception: Error opening input stream (invalid filename?): chrome://browser/content/ext-c-browser.js 1 (unknown)then there're some from extensions and the last is #27291 (moved).
Trac:
Username: fixtbb
