Firefox 56.0.2 and Waterfox 56.* crashing at FEBE Options

[grahamperrin]

Spun off from viewtopic.php?p=17279#p17279 under Waterfox crashing; originally entitled Firefox 56.0.2 on FreeBSD-CURRENT crashing at FEBE Options

I experimented with FEBE alone added to a new profile with Firefox 56.0.2. Crashing occurs after simply opening the FEBE Options window, before any preference can be set.

Screen recording: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZxftwLD71hLSt9Mu2

From https://pastebin.com/Rmz3fN71:

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[grahamperrin@momh167-gjp4-hpelitebook8570p-freebsd] ~% firefox -p FEBE
mozilla::detail::MutexImpl::lock: pthread_mutex_lock failed: Resource deadlock avoided
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
[grahamperrin@momh167-gjp4-hpelitebook8570p-freebsd] ~%

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I'll experiment with Firefox ESR in a different machine, based on a more recent -CURRENT, with a different desktop environment …

[grahamperrin]

Tested with TrueOS Desktop as a VirtualBox guest machine, using the default Lumina desktop environment. UNSTABLE repo preferred.

Not reproducible with Firefox ESR 52.5.0_1,1; no crash.

Reproducible with Waterfox 56.0.s20171130, with a new profile; moments after first presentation of the FEBE Options window, Waterfox crashes.

[grahamperrin]

Reference:

https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central ... _posix.cpp

I see Mozilla bug 1366925 - Hit MOZ_CRASH(mozilla::detail::MutexImpl::lock: pthread_mutex_lock failed) at mozglue/misc/Mutex_posix.cpp:75 with evalInWorker and off-thread scripts but that was

> RESOLVED FIXED in Firefox 55

[cbaker_admin]

It's important to note that FEBE is not e10s compliant as it does not run correctly in a multi-process environment. The browser(s) should already know this and set the browser.tabs.remote.autostart preference (in about:config) to false.

Make sure this preference is set properly before attempting to open FEBE options.

[grahamperrin]

Thanks,

… Make sure this preference is set …

it was disabled by add-ons. A frame from the screen recording:

Crashing (from the same recording):

[grahamperrin]

Is output from truss(1) of any use?

Context:

Partial output: https://pastebin.com/KtLvjqTn

[cbaker_admin]

I'm wondering how productive it is to try to debug on an unstable OS. From the FreeBSD site:

FreeBSD-CURRENT is the “bleeding edge” of FreeBSD development and FreeBSD-CURRENT users are expected to have a high degree of technical skill. Less technical users who wish to track a development branch should track FreeBSD-STABLE instead.

FreeBSD-CURRENT is the very latest source code for FreeBSD and includes works in progress, experimental changes, and transitional mechanisms that might or might not be present in the next official release. While many FreeBSD developers compile the FreeBSD-CURRENT source code daily, there are short periods of time when the source may not be buildable. These problems are resolved as quickly as possible, but whether or not FreeBSD-CURRENT brings disaster or new functionality can be a matter of when the source code was synced.

To your knowledge, does FEBE work correctly on stable FreeBSD releases?

[grahamperrin]

I'm inclined to treat -CURRENT as stable enough in contexts such as this. Still, a couple of hours ago in ircs://chat.freenode.net/#freebsd I asked:

To anyone who uses Waterfox 56.x or Firefox 56.x on FreeBSD 10.3, 10.4 or 11.1: please, can you tell whether the application crashes with the options window of FEBE? viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5155

There's also the comparable hang with FEBE on stable Mac OS X. Not a crash, but it requires a force quit.

Postscript: debugging … I can't say (sorry), I'm not a developer.

[cbaker_admin]

I've installed TrueOS Stable (Current Release: 17.12) on a VMware virtual machine, but can't seem to figure out how to install Fx v56. I can get Quantum to install using:

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# pkg install firefox

I could research it more, but I thought you might know it off the top of your head.

[grahamperrin]

Just FYI

At the foot of output from:

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pkg -vvv

– you'll find the URL of your preferred repo and if you browse there, you'll find only one packaged version of firefox; of firefox-esr; of waterfox; and so on. If firefox there is already at Quantum, you'll not find 56.x packaged unless you get lucky with a different repo – however mixing repos is rarely recommended (and for what we're doing here, overkill).

Here, I locked things down weeks ago, whilst firefox was still at 56.x in a preferred repo;

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root@momh167-gjp4-hpelitebook8570p-freebsd:~ # pkg lock --show-locked
Currently locked packages:
firefox-56.0.2_9,1
firefox-i18n-56.0.2
virtualbox-ose-5.2.2
virtualbox-ose-kmod-5.2.2


Also (for anyone who's new to these operating systems): the STABLE distribution of TrueOS is based on FreeBSD-CURRENT, which (as outlined in the quote above) is distinct from FreeBSD-STABLE.

Re: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO88 ... using.html and Port flavors - What problem does that fix? | The FreeBSD Forums I wonder whether flavors might be used to gain outdated 56.0.2_10,1 but again, I reckon it's overkill.

----

More practically

I'll be back later with, hopefully, a pointer to a distro that has both (a) a GUI out of the box; and (b) outdated Firefox 56.x …

[grahamperrin]

As promised:

GhostBSD11.1-mate-amd64.iso from http://www.ghostbsd.org/download can run a live session in VirtualBox, and includes Firefox 56.0.2. Whilst a live session is good enough to reproduce the crashing, I have no idea whether it'll be good enough to debug.

(Beyond a live session: I had less success with an installation of GhostBSD in VirtualBox – no GUI, networking not working, and so on.)

[grahamperrin]

Reproducible with Waterfox 56.0.3.65_1 on GhostBSD.

Chuck, if you'd like to verify the bug on GhostBSD in VirtualBox, I found a simple workaround to X not starting. The whole caboodle, to include installation of Waterfox:

at the login prompt, command line, log in as root
pkg install waterfox
pkg upgrade
cd /etc/X11/
cp xorg.conf.vbox xorg.conf
shutdown -r now

Hint: at about:preferences#general in 56.0.3.65_1 you'll need to manually disable multi-process.

[cbaker_admin]

As of now, I can verify that FEBE v8.9.3.1 works with both Firefox v56.0.2 and Waterfox v56.0.4 under Windows 10. And FEBE v10.2 works with Pale Moon v27.7.2 (Windows 10).

At one time, FEBE was working fine with Ubuntu but I've haven't tested it recently. I know it does not work with Waterfox under Linux Mint 18.3. I've had limited success with OS X but don't remember with which versions and/or browsers.

There are simply too many nuances with different browsers running under different OSes to test all combinations. And I don't want to have to maintain several different versions of FEBE for each combination.

FEBE for Fx will probably not have any more updates. I will, however, try to maintain the Pale Moon version as well as a version for Pale Moon's Basilisk. But the focus will be on the Windows versions.

[grahamperrin]

OK – Windows was the only OS that I couldn't test at home with Waterfox. The Windows 7 Enterprise that I have in a virtual machine is 32-bit.

… I don't want to have to maintain several different versions of FEBE …

Understood. I'll give it a quick whirl in Firefox 56.0.2 on the 32-bit Windows OS.

Thanks for clarification!

[grahamperrin]

... FEBE v8.9.3.1 works with both Firefox v56.0.2 and Waterfox v56.0.4 under Windows 10. ...

Also works with Firefox 56.0.2 (32-bit) on Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit).

VirtualBox host: slightly outdated 5.2.6 r120293 on FreeBSD-CURRENT.

VirtualBox guest: Firefox installed, without administrator privileges, at:

C:\Users\gjp4\AppData\Local\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

The FEBE Options window works without crashing or hanging Firefox. The preference for the path to backups is persistent.

Tested: one backup. Thirteen errors, at a glance each one is a system extension -- pretty much as expected (during the backup, I chose to not seek things that weren't found).

At https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/febe/v ... on-8.9.3.1 I guess that it's too late to mark 8.9.3.1 as Windows-only for Firefox 56.0.2, yes?

At http://softwarebychuck.com/febe/febe.html#8931 maybe you can increase the range of compatibility, take the 51.0a2 up to Firefox ESR 52.* (from https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/febe/reviews/1069212/ I see compatibility with 52.8.0, and I doubt that future ESR 52.9 will be incompatible).

Thanks again