[tbb-bugs] #26381 [Applications/Tor Browser]: about:tor page does not load on first start on Windows and browser is stuck in endless reload cycle

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#26381: about:tor page does not load on first start on Windows and browser is stuck
in endless reload cycle
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  gk                                   |          Owner:
                                                 |  pospeselr
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:
                                                 |  needs_review
 Priority:  Very High                            |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser             |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tbb-torbutton, ff60-esr,             |  Actual Points:
  TorBrowserTeam201808R                          |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by pospeselr):

 * keywords:  tbb-torbutton, ff60-esr, TorBrowserTeam201808 => tbb-
     torbutton, ff60-esr, TorBrowserTeam201808R
 * status:  new => needs_review


Comment:

 With some clues from Bow Owen, I've figured out what's happening and have
 a patch with a potential fix!

 Basically our tor-launcher extension creates a window once tor.exe has
 launched, initialized and signaled back to the tor-launcher extension.
 However, this all can happen before XRE_mainRun completes and makes it to
 SandboxBroker::GeckoDependentInitialize (which is where the static paths
 are initialized).  As a result, these various paths are null, which causes
 SandboxBroker::AddCachedDirs to fail until XRE_mainRun has had a chance to
 catch up.

 The issue goes away if I move the call to
 SandboxBroker::GeckoDependenInitialize to before
 nsXREDirProvider::DoStartup (which is where various services and
 extensions are initialized).  All the child content processes correctly go
 through the SandboxBroker::AddCachedDirs calls, about:tor loads and the
 tab works.

 This patch moves up the call to SandboxBroker::GeckoDependentInitialize()
 and removes the temporary fix that reduced the sandbox level.

 https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/richard/tor-
 browser.git/commit/?h=bug_26381&context=9&ignorews=0&dt=1

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26381#comment:27>
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