2.53.1 Theme and Extensions Bug.

[Frank Lion]

Steps to reproduce - on 2.53.1 try to enable a disabled Complete Theme.

Result : 70% of the time only the content (if coded for) coded parts (Addons Manger, etc) will be styled. The chrome UI remains completely unstyled. Bug is random and a theme can be enabled OK one time, but not the next.

This is (?) the same bug that T/Bird 60 has.

Workarounds -
#1. Endlessly keep trying.
#2. Reinstall theme (sometimes needs to be done 2 or 3 times.
#3. Switch to the 2.53.2 unofficial version (which has same bug) and doing that seems to work every time.

Note - I have a couple of theme xpis* (Type 2) that also change chrome UI and these seem unaffected by this. So, I suspect a Type 4 registration bug here?

* these allow you to have one Complete Theme on the browser side and another on the Email side, both at the same time.

[TPR75]

Steps to reproduce - on 2.53.1 try to enable a disabled Complete Theme.

Result : 70% of the time only the content (if coded for) coded parts (Addons Manger, etc) will be styled. The chrome UI remains completely unstyled. Bug is random and a theme can be enabled OK one time, but not the next.

Built-in Default and Modern works correct with SeaMonkey 2.53.2 (Build identifier: 20200120130006) - I switched between them few times (enable Default -> restart -> enable Modern -> restart -> ...) and there were no visible errors.

EDIT: The same with 2.53.1 Beta 1 (Build identifier: 20191229191834).

[therube]

(Frank is speaking of an installed 3rd party themes rather then included themes.)

[Frank Lion]

The same bug also affects a fair number of extensions, i.e. once they have been disabled they cannot be re-enabled and require re-installation.

Affected extensions include custombuttons3 and all (?) of the toolbar buttons here - https://codefisher.org/toolbar_button/button_list/

[frg]

> The same bug also affects a fair number of extensions,

Was there a bug for this? I tried to enable /disable a toolbar button and it worked in 100% of all cases for me. Same for the pinball theme (which has some minor problems because of 2.53.1 changes).

[Frank Lion]

Was there a bug for this?

T/Bird bug? I'd imagine so, the theme side of it was pretty well known when T/Bird 60 came out.

Edit - tested this on a clean SM profile and the problem is still there, but very random. i.e. you can disable/enable loads of times and it's fine...and then it's not.

It's worth noting that even when the main theme UI vanishes, the Addons Manager will still be styled. In the case of my themes the same .css file is styling both the main UI and Addons Manager, etc.

[Frank Lion]

More research - Pinball (2019 version) theme shows no session at all. Modern2 and LCARStrek and others have blank about:profiles and/or Addons Manager tabs, if these were previously open.

What's happening with my themes is this - disable the ML theme in use and select any theme at all and on restart the Error Console then shows a warning 'No chrome package registered for chrome://akak/skin/frank.css'.

A non-ML theme seems to work, bar the above faults, but any other ML theme is devoid of main UI styling, but shows the content stuff. The 'cure' for ML themes is either to re-enable the originally used ML theme (in the case above, AK2) or re-install an alternative ML theme....which in turn then gives a persistent chrome://mlag/skin/frank.css message after disabling, etc.

ML themes are different to just about all other themes and are overlaying the default theme, instead of using the replacement theme method. However, it's a system I've used since 2014 without hitch on Firefox, SM until now.

That's all I've got for now, but something is far from right, not forgetting the extensions side as well.


Edit : None of the above happens in SM 2.49.5

[therube]

(Just to confirm the above, https://freenode.logbot.info/seamonkey/20200125.)

[Frank Lion]

(Just to confirm the above,

Yep. check out the Email side with themes as well. With mine, it all gets styled there (chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xul) even when the browser side doesn't. As the rules for both are all in the same file......?!


Even when you disable extensions you still get 'ghost' messages in the Error Console, i.e. No chrome package registered for chrome://useragentswitcher/skin/useragentswitcher.css or No chrome package registered for chrome://removetabs/skin/removetabs.css At the same time, other disabled extensions leave no trace in the Console.

One thing is for sure, this one ain't going away until it get fixed.

[Frank Lion]

You can either read all this or go straight to my Fix at the end.

It struck me that all these 'ghost' messages must be persisting in the C:\Users\uSER\AppData\Local\Mozilla\SeaMonkey\Profiles\xxxxxx, i.e the cache. Deleted entire Local profile and the problem vanished. Whittling it down shows that the problem is actually in the C:\Users\uSER\AppData\Local\Moz~\startupCache\startupCache.4.little file.

I then used a trick of mine from years back when we had to stop locally installed rogue extensions from installing themselves into the Firefox profile. The fix is written for Windows users and Linux/Mac users should just make the usual OS path adjustments. I would add that the fix does not appear to affect the SM's start-up time in any way.




Fix - about:profiles > 'This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.' > Local Directory > Open Folder > startupCache and then close SM.

Rename the startupCache.4.little found in the startupCache to startupCache.4444.little (if you can't find the file then change themes and one will get created for sure). Make a new 0 bytes file in your text editor (Programmer's Notepad) and save it to the startupCache with the name of startupCache.4.little. Right click this new file and select Read Only and then Apply/OK.

Restart SM and you're done and all is back to normal..



PS. Don't let your eyes blur over when reading this, all you're doing is creating a blank file in place of the perp one and setting it to read-only. It's not hard.



@SM dev(s) - In their desperation for shorter startup times, I suspect those mopes at Firefox weren't purging startup cache right after FF57+ after 'restart type' extensions are updated/re-enabled/uninstalled, etc.

Plus, in 57+ Firefox had whacked Complete Themes, so they certainly wouldn't have been coding for their proper working of them. Overlay themes, like mine, would certainly be more affected than replacement type themes, which use brute force to override default.

[frg]

Looks like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1444957

Need to check if I find what changed between 52 and 56. Reopening the bug would be a waste of time. The code or caring for extensions is all gone now. Might just be best to document it in the release notes.

Oh and thanks for finding the cause.

Update: Hmm I suspect this one:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozi ... ed5fba1e9c

Not sure if we can back it out. Maybe for 2.53 only but not 2.57.

FRG

[therube]

(rambling... & before i saw the last two posts)

this was pointed out, https://pinball.madsenworld.dk/
so i put in, pinball_sea_2.53.1b1.jar (having renamed .jar to .jar.xpi)
started SM, & session WAS restored
that all was OK, & it was across many restarts with various theme changes

then, i read the above, & i (quit &) renamed startupCache.8.little to startupCache.8.little.zip
(note that it seems ... ? ... newer browser versions ? use 8 rather then 4 ?)

opened SM (when i had Quit, Metal Lion was the theme in use) & all was still well
startupCache.8.little was recreated, as expected
but when i changed to Pinball theme, at that point Session was not restored

created a new, empty startupCache.8.little, & set it as read-only
& with that, Pinball (now) still breaks Session Restore

Metal Lion is working properly

seems all ? (third party) themes have trouble restoring about:addons on Session Restore
when about:addons is the focused tab
the tab /shows/ as about:addons, but the page is blank (actually it doesn't seem to "be there")
F6 & Return gets it to display


if i put the old (backed up) startupCache.8.little file back in, then Pinball does /not/ break Session Restore

[Frank Lion]

so i put in, pinball_sea_2.53.1b1.jar (having renamed .jar to .jar.xpi)

Not necessary, only really silly people do that. Just navigate to the downloaded .jar via the cog in the top right of the Addons Manager and it will install.

You can even just drag the .jar straight into the middle of the Addons Manager

started SM, & session WAS restored
that all was OK, & it was across many restarts with various theme changes

In a 'Pinball was all was OK until I tried the Back button' type way?

then, i read the above, & i (quit &) renamed startupCache.8.little to startupCache.8.little.zip
(note that it seems ... ? ... newer browser versions ? use 8 rather then 4 ?

Well, you can't get newer than the newest around - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/seamonkey/r ... /2.53.1b1/

But yeah, 8.little is a thing, but I haven't seen it.

opened SM (when i had Quit, Met....

As for the rest, yeah, Cache stuff will send you mad. Best avoided, if possible.

Do a one-off clearing of your StartCache, as I'm not getting any of the problems you mention.

[Frank Lion]

Looks like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1444957

See also - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1484393

[frg]

Frank grab WG9s current 2.53.2 build and the next one. I asked him to do the one later today with --disable-startupcache. Did a local build with it, killed the cache to be sure and I really don't see any performance loss because of it. If it helps with the extension problem we can do the official versions with this options.

Other testers invited too

The 2.53.2 and 2.53.1 are currently still profile compatible so downgrading to the official 2.53.1b1 or 2.53.1 is not a problem. Worst case you need to reinstall Lightning if it becomes disabled.

FRG