[Bug 162976] Fills up .xsession-errors with "GetValue variable 1 (1)"

[era]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: firefox

Since (I think) sometime after I upgraded from Firefox 1.5 / Ubuntu
6.10, Firefox on all my machines, with or without safe mode, keeps on
emitting uninformative messages on standard error.

For most users, who start up Firefox by clicking on its icon in the
window manager of their choice, the effect is not directly visible, but
will (soon enough) result in .xsession-errors becoming huge, and more
important messages being lost, because the X server stops logging once
the file grows large (and even before that, because these uninformative
messages drown out more important and useful information).

As far as I can tell, this is a way to repro:

(This will start a second instance of Firefox, so you don't have to quit
if you are reading this in a Firefox session.)

vnix$ firefox -ProfileManager -safe-mode

Create a new empty profile, select all the safe mode checkboxes (disable
add-ons, reset toolbars and controls, bookmarks, preferences to
defaults, etc) and continue in safe mode.

On the bookmarks toolbar, click the Mozilla "Getting Started" link.  At
this point, you should see the following output at the prompt where you
started Firefox:

** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)

I don't know what it takes to get it to display more of these, but as I
surf in my regular session, I see a steady trickle of them.  I have not
been able to pin down exactly what triggers these messages.

You may want to remove the new dummy profile after you're done.  To the
best of my understanding, you have to quit Firefox and start it with
firefox -ProfileManager again.

To my surprise, I am unable to find an upstream bug about this, but that
is probably more a reflection of my lack of competence (and/or the lack
of a usable search facility in their bugzilla) than proof that it
doesn't exist.

** Affects: firefox (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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Fills up .xsession-errors with "GetValue variable 1 (1)"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/162976
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