Open Bug 1625111 Opened 4 years ago Updated 1 month ago

[Flatpak] The profile root folder is not correctly displayed in about:profiles

Categories

(Core :: Widget: Gtk, defect, P3)

Desktop
Linux
defect

Tracking

()

Tracking Status
firefox75 --- affected

People

(Reporter: cbaica, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

Affected versions

  • Fx 75.0b8

Affected platforms

  • Linux Mint
  • Fedora

Steps to reproduce

  1. Install Firefox flatpak build.
  2. Launch the installed build.
  3. Navigate to about:profiles.
  4. Click the 'Open Directory' button for the Root Directory section of the current profile.

Expected result

  • The root profile folder is correctly opened in File manager.

Actual result

  • Nothing happens.

Additional notes

  • The file path displayed for the root folder is wrong (it's not the one from the sandboxed folder).
  • The correct path for the root folder would be: ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/
  • The Local Directory file path is correctly displayed.

Found in triaging. Going forward, Flatpak-related bugs will no longer be filed under RelEng, but instead in Core/Widget:GTK where folks have much more in-depth knowledge on this. If the issues are RelEng related, they can be filed against Release Engineering :: Release Automation: Other and we'll take care of that.

Component: Release Automation: Flatpak → Widget: Gtk
Product: Release Engineering → Core
Blocks: flatpak
Priority: -- → P3

Is there any progress on this?

I've just installed firefox flatpak - I have two user accounts - work and home - on my system:

  • In one account, firefox flatpak is both showing (about:profiles) and referencing correctly the ~/.mozilla/firefox directory and the 'Open Directory' button operates as expected (opens the profile directory);
  • In the other account, firefox flatpak is showing in (about:profiles) ~/mozilla/firefox but that is not where its profile is - it is at ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox and the 'Open Directory' button is broken

What's even nuttier is that I've copied ~/.mozilla/firefox from one account to the other account and deleted ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/ but still the other account recreates ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox and refuses to use ~/.mozilla/firefox and creates a new instance.

How can this behaviour be correct in one user account and broken in another user account on the same machine...?
Please can it be fixed for both my user accounts?
Thanks
Morgan.

deleted ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox
mkdir ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox
ln -s ~/.mozilla ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla

seemed to work
(actually, I copied it first before deleting the copy and linking it)

Hm, the profile has the $HOME/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox path in both the flatpak and the host environment. We could alter the path for the flatpak, but that's not bulletproof solution because when running flatpak (flatpak run --filesystem=home:rw org.mozilla.firefox) with home file system access the path won't be correct.

Severity: normal → S3

Was going to file my first bug report on bugzilla, apparently it was in 2020.
Now I understand why some lose their profile data during backup/restoration. Thinking they are backing up their Firefox profile data while the root directory is actually a pure deception. Now, if one doesn't do selective backups of dot directories, they will fish their data back out after a long fishing trip. This is a first for me to come across where user data is disregarded in such a fashion.

Is the correct solution to have the path ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/ for flatpak installs and ~/.mozilla/ for installs with native package manager since the later is what is has been used historically and have the former since flatpaks a sandboxed? Or would it be better to have the same path independent of install method?
If we go for different paths, then how could we have the correct path display in about:support, about:profiles, etc. depending on install method? For example I have Fedora and had the .rpm pre-installed and replaced it with the flatpak version. Now the path for the root directory is ~/.mozilla/... which is wrong but the local directory is correct with ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/cache/mozilla.

(In reply to neyl from comment #6)

Is the correct solution to have the path ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/ for flatpak installs and ~/.mozilla/ for installs with native package manager since the later is what is has been used historically and have the former since flatpaks a sandboxed? Or would it be better to have the same path independent of install method?
If we go for different paths, then how could we have the correct path display in about:support, about:profiles, etc. depending on install method? For example I have Fedora and had the .rpm pre-installed and replaced it with the flatpak version. Now the path for the root directory is ~/.mozilla/... which is wrong but the local directory is correct with ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/cache/mozilla.

Flatpak version should be following the same concept Snap version does. Be accurate at what they display.
Root Directory/home/test/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/xaumxq0h.default

Something like this that can affect recovery, prevent data loss and confusion, shouldn't have been overlooked in the first place. Yet, with this discovery, it was still marked with
Priority:
P3
Severity:
S3
Maybe Flatpak version is low on Mozilla Firefox priority list.

BTW, Fedora Firefox even has Shell search option in Settings and a context menu includes Profile Manager on right click. Somebody at Fedora gave extra thought and consideration.
I had to do that manually for Firefox Mozilla build on Ubuntu.

Duplicate of this bug: 1859841
See Also: → 1878276
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