Bug 2307907 - Allow spawning new windows with different profile [NEEDINFO]
Summary: Allow spawning new windows with different profile
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: firefox
Version: 42
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Gecko Maintainer
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 2262415 2282112
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2024-08-26 13:24 UTC by Katerina Koukiou
Modified: 2026-06-08 16:01 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2026-06-08 16:01:44 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:
kkoukiou: needinfo? (gecko-bugs-nobody)


Attachments (Terms of Use)
extlinks WIP files (10.00 KB, application/x-tar)
2024-08-27 05:57 UTC, Martin Stransky
no flags Details

Description Katerina Koukiou 2024-08-26 13:24:44 UTC
In Anaconda Web UI we use firefox with a custom profile that looks like kiosk mode. [1] in order to achieve the desired application like view, with hidden bookmarks, top nav bar and more.

The users are able to open links to normal web pages through the Anaconda Web UI , which is running with this custom firefox profile. Such links are for example bugzilla, which is used for reporting bugs in the installation and a few more.

All external links, (all other than the anaconda Web UI locally accessible link) should be opened with a new instance of firefox that does not use that custom profile, but uses the default firefox profile.

Looks like this is currently not possible.

[1] firefox theme: https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda-webui/blob/main/firefox-theme/live/user.js

Note: this is blocking https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2262415 which will be a blocker bug for the Web UI getting into Fedora 42 as Workstation ISO installer. Please take that in mind for the target dates.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Martin Stransky 2024-08-27 05:57:11 UTC
Created attachment 2044926 [details]
extlinks WIP files

Comment 2 Martin Stransky 2024-08-27 05:58:01 UTC
It may be fairly easy, you just need to register new protocol handler and create a new launcher for it. There's a WIP I tested locally:

1) create new desktop file (extlinks.desktop for instance) and register new protocol (extlink://) and handler for it
2) create system wide launcher (/usr/bin/firefox-ext) which replaces extlink with https
3) update desktop database and try xdg-open extlink://ct24.cz for instance, it should open the new launcher
4) open the test1.thml page, it should open new FF instance (you need to restart firefox to fetch new protocols).

All WIP files are attached above.

Comment 3 Martin Stransky 2024-09-02 08:33:01 UTC
It may be possible to spawn the new Firefox window in semi-WPA mode - i.e. without URL bar, just a window with Web content. It may or may not contain titlebar so user can close the window. Just let me know what you need.

Comment 4 Katerina Koukiou 2024-09-04 11:29:10 UTC
Hey Martin thanks for the advice - your suggested solution works quite nice. 
I just have one small issue with double window opening, see the PR description for details. https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda-webui/pull/428 

I would appreciate any further hints.

Comment 5 Aoife Moloney 2025-02-26 13:11:17 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 42 development cycle.
Changing version to 42.

Comment 6 Fedora Release Engineering 2026-05-06 11:53:11 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 42 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 42 on 2026-05-13.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '42'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version. Note that the version field may be hidden.
Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see it.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 42 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.

Comment 7 Aoife Moloney 2026-06-08 16:01:44 UTC
Fedora Linux 42 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2026-05-27.

Fedora Linux 42 is no longer maintained, which means that it
will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we
are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora Linux
please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Note that the version
field may be hidden. Click the "Show advanced fields" button if you do not see
the version field.

If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against an
active release.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


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