[Ubuntu Wiki] Update of "MozillaTeam/Bugs" by chrisccoulson
Ubuntu Wiki
noreply at ubuntu.com
Mon Oct 24 15:10:49 UTC 2011
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The "MozillaTeam/Bugs" page has been changed by chrisccoulson:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs?action=diff&rev1=66&rev2=67
== Introduction ==
- You can help Ubuntu developers fix Firefox and make the software better by providing them with ''useful'' bug reports. Please realize that we need enough information to confirm it as a *bug* so the initial report must have enough for us to do that. Please see the following link on [[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html|How to report Bugs]]
+ You can help Ubuntu developers improve Firefox and Thunderbird by providing them with ''useful'' bug reports. This means that you should provide as much information as possible to describe the bug (please see [[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html|How to report Bugs]])
- You will find that you may need to use the Terminal for some of these commands. if you are not sure how to use a terminal, please see the [[https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/desktopguide/C/terminals.html|Terminal Guide]] for a basic introduction.
+ You may find that you need to use the Terminal for some of these commands. If you are not sure how to use a terminal, please see the [[https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal|Terminal Guide]] for a basic introduction.
- Here are some instructions you should follow before filing a bug report on [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+filebug|Firefox on Launchpad.net]]:
+ We get a lot of Firefox bug reports from Ubuntu users, and many of those don't contain enough useful information to sufficiently describe the problem or determine the cause of the problem. Please understand that we don't have the manpower available to spend time on every single bug report to continually ask reporters for information that ''could'' be provided up-front. To increase the chances that your bug report attracts the attention of a developer, you '''must''' follow these guidelines.
- == Try with a new profile ==
+ Here are some instructions you should follow before filing a bug report:
- Many bad Firefox behaviors are in fact caused by one of the many third-party 'themes', 'extensions' and 'plugins'. These will go away with a new profile - that is, when Firefox is restored to default settings and without any extensions and themes.
+ == Use Apport ==
- Problems with corrupt profiles are not handled in bug reports: if your problem went away with a new profile, please do not report the problem as a bug.
+ All Firefox and Thunderbird bugs '''must''' be submitted with Apport (unless there is another problem which prevents you from using Apport). For Firefox, you can do this by selecting the "Report a Problem" entry in the Help menu, or pressing Alt+F2 and running `ubuntu-bug firefox`.
- Start Firefox by entering the following command in a terminal: {{{firefox -ProfileManager}}}. You should now see the Profile Manager window.
+ For Thunderbird, please press Alt+F2 and run `ubuntu-bug thunderbird`.
- '''Important note''': From the Profile Manager you are also able to remove and rename profiles. Be very careful when deleting profiles, '''if you created the profile in a directory that already existed, the entire directory will be removed!'''
+ Using Apport attaches a lot of useful information automatically, and saves time by answering a lot of common questions that developers and bug triagers would normally need to ask. Please do not submit Firefox or Thunderbird bugs using the Launchpad interface. In most cases your bug report will not get any attention at all, and if it does receive any attention this will normally be to close it with a comment asking you to resubmit the bug using Apport. Please don't waste developers or bug triagers time by submitting bug reports using the Launchpad interface.
- Click on the 'Create Profile...' button to start the 'Create Profile Wizard'. Click 'Next' and enter a descriptive name for the new profile. Click Finish to have Firefox create the new profile. You should now be taken back to the Profile Manager and the newly created profile should be listed. Select it and click 'Start Firefox'. Try to reproduce the bug with this new profile.
+ == Try running in safe mode ==
- Note: you can go back to your own profile by starting Firefox using the command {{{firefox -ProfileManager}}} again, selecting your own profile, and clicking on 'Start Firefox'.
+ Some problems are caused by third-party themes, addons and plugins, or customization of hidden preferences in about:config. These customizations can be disabled temporarily by running Firefox or Thunderbird in safe mode.
- [[http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile#new|Link to Mozilla Documentation (Source)]]
+ To run Firefox in safe mode, ensure that you have closed all instances of Firefox, press Alt+F2 and run `firefox -safe-mode`.
+ To run Thunderbird in safe mode, ensure that you have closed all Thunderbird windows, press Alt+F2 and run `thunderbird -safe-mode`.
+
+ If the problem goes away in safe mode then it is caused by one of your addons or customizations. In this case, please do not report the bug to Launchpad. If you have time, you could try to isolate which addon or customization causes your problem, and contact the developer of the problematic addon.
+
+ [[http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe%20Mode|Link to Mozilla Documentation]]
== Be specific ==
- Try to make sure that the developer will be able to reproduce the bug you are seeing. Provide every detail you can regarding the bug, especially an explicit statement of exactly which sequence of user actions are needed to reproduce the bug.
+ Try to make sure that the developer will be able to reproduce the bug you are seeing. Provide every detail you can regarding the bug, especially an explicit statement of exactly which sequence of user actions are needed to reproduce the bug.
- == Use the terminal ==
+ == For problems with specific websites ==
- Start Firefox from a terminal by running {{{firefox}}}. Now you can either run (((firefox 2>&1 | tee /tmp/firefox-errors.txt))) than attach it to bug report you fill find it in /tmp/ dir in filesystem. or you can create a new text file and copy-paste the output in that file, and attach it to your bug report as an attachment. '''Note''' this only works on Firefox 2.0.x; the latest Firefox 3 betas do not leave errors in terminal.
+ If a website does not display correctly in Firefox, you '''must''' provide the following information where possible:
+ * A screenshot clearly showing the problem.
+ * Please remember that the problem may not always be obvious to somebody else who isn't familiar with how the website should normally appear. In this case, please describe exactly what is wrong.
+ * You probably want to remove personal information from any screenshots.
+ * The URL of the page causing the problem (preferably a URL which doesn't require signing in, although we appreciate this is not always possible)
- == Specific Websites ==
+ You might be surprised that we do get reports about websites not displaying correctly without any of this basic information provided.
- If you are having a problem with a website, please include its link, along with the exact problem you experienced on the site. We would truly appreciate if you can also take the time to isolate what on the page is triggering the bug, and include it as an HTML snippet in the bug report if possible. Something else that would be helpful is a screen shot of the problem you are seeing. You may also want to to try reproducing it with Epiphany-browser or a non-xulrunner browser like Konqueror or if you'd rather not install KDE libs or other parts on you Gnome you can try using Galeon.
+ If you have a problem with a website, please also do the following:
+ * Try using the website in another (non-Gecko) browser (eg, Chromium or Epiphany).
+ * Please state which other browsers you tested when submitting your report.
+ * If the website works correctly in other browsers, please provide a screenshot showing what the website should look like.
== Crashes ==
+ === Some things to consider ===
+
+ Please don't assume that just because you experience a crash, that everybody else will be able to easily reproduce it too. All crash reports must be submitted with a complete stacktrace, and a description of the steps required to trigger the crash (if it is reproducible). If the problem occurs on a specific website, please also include a URL.
+
+ As an example, these types of reports are not useful, and are unlikely to receive any developer attention at all:
+
+ Sometimes after I clicked on a link, firefox crashes and the "report this crash to the devellopers" window opens.
+
+ ...and...
+
+ Since my automatic upgrade to Mozilla Firefox browser 7.01. I'm not now able to play promotional videos on websites. When attempting to play a video, firefox browser crashes completely .And then you have to restart firefox.
+
+ (these are real examples)
+
=== Submitting Crashes to Mozilla ===
- The preferred way to submit crash data is to send it directly to Mozilla when the crash dialog appears. To find your submitted crash data, go to about:crashes in the browser. You can provide this crash id in the bug that you reported to Ubuntu.
+ The preferred way to submit crash data is to send it directly to Mozilla when the crash dialog appears. To find your submitted crash data, go to about:crashes in the browser. In most cases it isn't necessary to open a bug in Launchpad when you do this, especially if the crash report you submitted is already linked to a bug report in the upstream Bugzilla, or the crash is being experienced on non-Ubuntu systems (eg, other Linux distros, or even Windows or Mac OS). If the crash you submit appears to be unique to Ubuntu and it doesn't have a bug open in the upstream Bugzilla (or you just feel that Ubuntu developers need to be made aware of it), then feel free to open a bug in Launchpad.
+
+ If you do open a bug report in Launchpad, you '''must''' provide the crash ID of the crash report you submitted.
=== Run Firefox in a Debugger ===
- Install the debugging symbols for firefox (and some other dbg packages like in above point):
+ Install the necessary debugging symbols
+ For Firefox:
{{{
- apt-get install firefox-dbg
+ sudo apt-get install firefox-dbg
- apt-get install libgtk2.0-0-dbg \
- libnss3-0d-dbg \
- libnspr4-0d-dbg \
- libpango1.0-0-dbg \
- libc6-dbg
+ }}}
+ And Thunderbird:
+ {{{
+ sudo apt-get install thunderbird-dbg
+ }}}
+ These symbols will also be useful in most cases for both Firefox and Thunderbird. Please install them:
+ {{{
+ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0-dbg libglib2.0-0-dbg libx11-6-dbg libpango1.0-0-dbg libc6-dbg
}}}
After closing all instances of Firefox, start Firefox from the terminal with the following command: {{{
@@ -74, +106 @@
}}}
2. Now ~/tmp/gdb-firefox.txt will contain the info we need to initially process your crash bug. So, please attach that file to your bug report.
- ==== Thunderbird-3.0 ====
+ Please use the same steps for Thunderbird, but replacing "firefox" with "thunderbird" instead.
- If you had a crash, provide exact steps to reproduce the crash. If you cannot reproduce the crash, provide details of exactly what you were doing prior to the crash. Then, follow these steps:
+ == Specific issues ==
+ === XML errors and broken UI after upgrade ===
- 1. Install debugging symbols by typing the following in a terminal (or install it with Adept or Synaptic): {{{
- # sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0-dbg \
- libgtk2.0-0-dbg \
- libnss3-1d-dbg \
- libnspr4-0d-dbg \
- libpango1.0-0-dbg \
- libcairo2-dbg \
- libc6-dbg
- }}}
- After closing all instances of Firefox, start Firefox from the terminal with the following command: {{{
- gdb /usr/lib/thunderbird-3*/thunderbird 2>&1 | tee /tmp/gdb-thunderbird.txt
- ... # someoutput
- (gdb) run
- ... # run and reproduce crash
- (gdb) bt full
- ... # full backtrace output
- (gdb) thread apply all backtrace full
- ... # all threads full backtrace output
- (gdb) quit
- }}}
-
- Now ~/tmp/gdb-thunderbird.txt will contain the info we need to initially process your crash bug. So, please attach that file to your bug report.
-
-
- = Specific issues =
-
- == XML errors and broken UI after upgrade ==
-
- After each release (eg Ubuntu Dapper 6.06, Edgy 6.10 and so on), some of our users report bugs that look a bit like this:
+ After each release, some of our users report bugs that look a bit like this:
{{{
XML Parsing Error: error in processing external entity reference
Location: jar:file:///usr/lib/firefox/chrome/toolkit.jar!/content/global/netError.xhtml
@@ -117, +122 @@
Other symptoms include missing UI elements after an upgrade or other kinds of XML errors in dialogue boxes or on firefox's stderr.
- This is one of the things that typically happens if you don't restart your Firefox after an upgrade. Please do not report this as a bug. (We think it's a bug that you have to restart it but sadly it's beyond our resources to fix it.)
+ This is one of the things that typically happens if you don't restart your Firefox after an upgrade. Please do not report this as a bug. There is already a bug report open about this.
= Closed Bug Reports =
If you find your bug report to be closed, it has been done by someone on our team for specific reasons. If you have a problem or wish to dispute the action, please use the bug report to ask for more information.
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