CentOS - Dec 2008 - [OT] Firefox loses plugins, anyone else? Bug? Known?

Fully up-to-date CentOS 5.2 and Firefox browser. A previous thread had a
problem with plugins disappearing. I've discovered, by accident, a
causal relationship.

Running a Thunderbird mail client (could happen with others? Haven't
tested with Evolution yet.) I click a link that opens the browser. BANG!
The plugins.dat is "emptied".

Restored from my rsync backup, repeat, BANG! "Empty" again.

Now, if the browser is already open, NP.

Anyone can confirm?

Known problem?

If not, I'll post bugs in the appropriate places.

TIA.

-- 
Bill

On Fri, 2008-12-05 at 08:07 -0500, William L. Maltby
wrote:
> Fully up-to-date CentOS 5.2 and Firefox browser. A previous thread had a
> problem with plugins disappearing. I've discovered, by accident, a
> causal relationship.
> 
> Running a Thunderbird mail client (could happen with others? Haven't
> tested with Evolution yet.) I click a link that opens the browser. BANG!
> The plugins.dat is "emptied".
> 
> Restored from my rsync backup, repeat, BANG! "Empty" again.
> 
> Now, if the browser is already open, NP.
s/open/opened via the desktop/
> 
> Anyone can confirm?
> 
> Known problem?
Got second cup of coffee downed and went to see if the bug was known
here
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=specific&order=relevance+desc&bug_status=__open__&content=plugin

Didn't see a match. If someone can confirm, I'll post a bug.

BTW, 

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008111319
CentOS/3.0.4-1.el5.centos Firefox/3.0.4

is CentOS stock AFAIK.
> <snip>
-- 
Bill

William L. Maltby wrote:
> Fully up-to-date CentOS 5.2 and Firefox browser. A previous thread had a
> problem with plugins disappearing. I've discovered, by accident, a
> causal relationship.
> 
> Running a Thunderbird mail client (could happen with others? Haven't
> tested with Evolution yet.) I click a link that opens the browser. BANG!
> The plugins.dat is "emptied".
> 
> Restored from my rsync backup, repeat, BANG! "Empty" again.
> 
> Now, if the browser is already open, NP.
> 
> Anyone can confirm?
> 
> Known problem?
> 
> If not, I'll post bugs in the appropriate places.
Bill,

Tried to reproduce this and could not - closed Firefox, clicked on a 
link in Thunderbird that opens Firefox.  All plugins are OK.

I have no plugins.dat, only

.mozilla/firefox/2ucxmtim.default/pluginreg.dat

firefox-3.0.4-1.el5.centos
thunderbird-2.0.0.18-1.el5.centos

Have had problems with disappearing plugins when first starting Firefox, 
and then having them return after closing/restarting.  Seemed to be a 
function of historical user configs and updates as it was not 
reproducible on a fresh user account.  Never could find a bug report on 
it and did not create one as it worked OK on a clean config.  Perhaps 
you could try this on a fresh account to check out that variable.

Phil

> Fully up-to-date CentOS 5.2 and Firefox browser. A previous thread had a
> problem with plugins disappearing. I've discovered, by accident, a
> causal relationship.
> 
> Running a Thunderbird mail client (could happen with others? Haven't
> tested with Evolution yet.) I click a link that opens the browser. BANG!
> The plugins.dat is "emptied".
> 
> Restored from my rsync backup, repeat, BANG! "Empty" again.
> 
> Now, if the browser is already open, NP.
> 
> Anyone can confirm?
> 
> Known problem?
Are you using a 64-bit firefox by chance?
I have a similar problem with flash plugin. Try to reload a page or
restart the browser. This works for me.
I didn't look any further as I thought this to be a problem of
32-bit flash plugin with 64-bit browser.

HTH