Bug 821685

Summary:	www-client/firefox-bin-94.0 requires DBus session running for remote/IPC
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Alexander Monakov <amonakov+bugs.gentoo>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Mozilla Gentoo Team <mozilla>
Status:	RESOLVED NEEDINFO
Severity:	normal	CC:	sam
Priority:	Normal
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
URL:	https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1738881
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Alexander Monakov 2021-11-04 15:33:58 UTC

Hi, this is a heads-up that starting from 94.0, Mozilla-provided Firefox binary requires running under a DBus session for remote/IPC stuff like opening new tabs from other applications to work.

Without a DBus session, the initial browser instance comes up fine like before, but attempts to open new tabs remotely stall for a couple of seconds and then produce a message box saying that another instance of Firefox is already running, but not responding.

See upstream bug report, comment 8 onwards: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1738881#c8

Thank you for your work. Cheers.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run an instance of Firefox without access to a DBus session (i.e. as usual if your setup doesn't spawn it, otherwise under env -u DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS).
2. Try to open a new tab, e.g. [env -u DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS] firefox-bin https://gentoo.org
Actual Results:  
The second command stalls for a bit, then produces a dialog box saying:
 "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile".

Expected Results:  
The second command should open a new tab with the given URL, like it did in Firefox 93.

Comment 1 Thomas Deutschmann (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2021-11-04 16:51:13 UTC

We are depending on dbus for -bin for a while, see https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/www-client/firefox-bin/firefox-bin-94.0.1.ebuild?id=68f94c41e9cc790589a13a8a27810732921177a8#n61

What are you expecting us to do here? I think everything is done from our POV. If you don't start dbus session before launching firefox, I think there is nothing we can do for you. Am I missing something?

Comment 2 Alexander Monakov 2021-11-04 17:04:13 UTC

My main intent was to provide information, in case someone else runs into the same problem: it is impossible to say from the failure _why_ the browser is broken after the upgrade.

Other software (and previous version of Firefox, for that matter) either work regardless if DBus session is running, or fail to start altogether with an appropriate error message.

Maybe mention the new requirement via a elog message from the ebuild?