Browser Toolboxfails to open when tor-launcher is present

In latest dev branch origin/tor-browser-60.8.0esr-9.0-1 the Firefox chrome debugger ( enabled in about:debugging -> Enable add-on debugging ) does not launch. When you attempt to launch it ( via Menu -> Web Developer -> Browser Toolbox OR via Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I key combo ) the tor-launcher dialog pops up claims that it cannot connect to Tor, and the permission dialog asking whether you want to allow the local debugger to connect never appears.

Building firefox with --disable-tor-launcher in your .mozconfig does allow the debugger to work.

added TorBrowserTeam201909R actualpoints::0.35 component::applications/tor browser owner::pospeselr points::1 priority::medium resolution::fixed severity::normal status::closed tbb-9.0-must-alpha type::defect labels

Trac:
Owner: tbb-team to pospeselr
Status: new to assigned

Moving tickets to September

Trac:
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201908 deleted, TorBrowserTeam201909 added

Trac:
Points: N/A to 1

Should this be tbb-9.0-must-alpha? Without this inspecting the background requests and debugging is a bit more difficult...

Replying to acat:

Should this be tbb-9.0-must-alpha? Without this inspecting the background requests and debugging is a bit more difficult...

If that is slowing down fixing the "real" esr68 issues, sure let's fix this quickly.

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-9.0-must-alpha added

I thought this was going to be a blocker for me in doing #31286 (moved), but I discovered that since (most of) the code I'm dealing with is in about:preferences so the regular in-page debugging tools work fine so I'm not actively working on this.

I do not think Kathy and I will have time to work on this before our vacation next week. I did a little research and fixing this issue might be as simple adding a check for MOZ_BROWSER_TOOLBOX_PORT inside shouldStartAndOwnTor() (in src/modules/tl-util.jsm). That environment variable should only be present in the debugger process' environment: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/source/devtools/client/framework/ToolboxProcess.jsm#258

I am not sure if more things need to be fixed though.

I tested mcs suggestion and everything seems to work as expected in browser toolbox (https://github.com/acatarineu/tor-launcher/commit/31303)

Alternatively we could add TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1 in https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/rev/9fe22f6a90e0a5c495d22b2e8b56fac5f46b0ba0/devtools/client/framework/ToolboxProcess.jsm#258, but I think changing tor-launcher is fine.

Trac:
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201909 deleted, TorBrowserTeam201909R added
Status: assigned to needs_review

Replying to acat:

I tested mcs suggestion and everything seems to work as expected in browser toolbox (https://github.com/acatarineu/tor-launcher/commit/31303)

Alternatively we could add TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1 in https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/rev/9fe22f6a90e0a5c495d22b2e8b56fac5f46b0ba0/devtools/client/framework/ToolboxProcess.jsm#258, but I think changing tor-launcher is fine.

I agree. Just a tiny nit: please add the toolbox check after the skip launch check so that it a) matches the order in which you declared the constants and b) matches more likely the usage patterns of the env variables: I'd expect both to be low but the toolbox one still much lower.

Trac:
Status: needs_review to needs_revision
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201909R deleted, TorBrowserTeam201909 added

Replying to gk:

Replying to acat:

I tested mcs suggestion and everything seems to work as expected in browser toolbox (https://github.com/acatarineu/tor-launcher/commit/31303)

Alternatively we could add TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1 in https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/rev/9fe22f6a90e0a5c495d22b2e8b56fac5f46b0ba0/devtools/client/framework/ToolboxProcess.jsm#258, but I think changing tor-launcher is fine.

I agree. Just a tiny nit: please add the toolbox check after the skip launch check so that it a) matches the order in which you declared the constants and b) matches more likely the usage patterns of the env variables: I'd expect both to be low but the toolbox one still much lower.

Actually, that's stupid and won't work. But swap the const declarations instead?

Sounds good: https://github.com/acatarineu/tor-launcher/commit/31303+1

Trac:
Status: needs_revision to needs_review
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201909 deleted, TorBrowserTeam201909R added

Looks good. Merged to master (commit 810ba7e93981511765ec1be667689ae2992e8c49).

Trac:
Status: needs_review to closed
Resolution: N/A to fixed

Not sure how to update the Actual Points here, since most of the work (investigating) was done by mcs. But let's say 0.25.

Trac:
Actualpoints: N/A to 0.25

Replying to acat:

Not sure how to update the Actual Points here, since most of the work (investigating) was done by mcs. But let's say 0.25.

I added another 0.1 (it was probably even less, but 0.1 is close enough).

Trac:
Actualpoints: 0.25 to 0.35

closed

changed time estimate to 8h

added 2h 48m of time spent

moved to tpo/applications/tor-browser#31303 (closed)