Starting with a dedicated Firefox profile doesn't work

[inpbox]

--- Summary: ---

• Trying to launch Selenium::Firefox with a dedicated profile ends up using a tmp-profile

--- Environment: ---

• Debian: 10
• Perl 5.28.1
• Firefox: 68.6.0esr
• Geckodriver: 0.26.0
• Selenium-Remote-Driver 1.37

--- Code to launch with a dedicated Firefox-profile: ---

use 5.018;
use Selenium::Firefox::Profile;
use Selenium::Firefox;

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'firefox_profile' => Selenium::Firefox::Profile->new(
        'profile_dir'=>'/path/to/firefox/profile'
    )
);

$driver->get('https://www.mozilla.org');
say $driver->get_title();
sleep(60); # Just to get time to run the ps and look for the Firefox-entry

--- Run code, verify profile being used from ps: ---

• ps aux | grep firefox | grep profile

The firefox-entry should pop up:

• firefox-esr -marionette -foreground -no-remote -profile /tmp/rust_mozprofile...

[inpbox]

Could this problem be related to the same issue this user is experiencing:

• Unable to create new session using a custom profile mozilla/geckodriver#1058 (comment)

or it could be related to this:

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1421766

[inpbox]

--- This code will launch a dedicated profile ---

• perl launch_ff_profile.pl -port=5051 -sleep=5 -profile='/path/to/firefox/profile' -url='https://www.mozilla.org'

use 5.018;
use Getopt::Long;
use Selenium::Firefox;

my $url             = '';
my $profile_dir     = '';
my $binary_port     = '';
my $sleep           = 0;
GetOptions(
    'url=s'     => \$url,
    'profile=s' => \$profile_dir,
    'port=i'    => \$binary_port,
    'sleep:i'   => \$sleep,
);

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'extra_capabilities' => {
        'moz:firefoxOptions' => {
            'args'  => ['-profile',$profile_dir],
        }
    },
    'binary_port'     => $binary_port,
    'fixed_ports'     => 1,
);

$driver->get($url);
say $driver->get_title();
sleep($sleep);

--- Issues ---
This way of launching has other issues. You can't launch multiple profiles. Trying to launch a second profile will just result in an error.

• perl launch_ff_profile.pl -port=6061 -sleep=5 -profile='/path/to/firefox/second_profile' -url='https://www.chrome.com'

Could not create new session: invalid argument: can't kill an exited process

I'm guessing this error comes from trying to use the same default marionette-port (2828) as the already launched browser. But using arg: marionette_port doesn't work either.

Trying to launch with a marionette_port will start the browser but no communication between the client and server occurs!

[inpbox]

--- Trying to get the marionette port to be sent to the geckodriver ---

Problem we're trying to solve: geckodriver needs to be passed the correct marionette-port to be able to communicate with Firefox

--- Try 1, set port through prefs - No go ---

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'extra_capabilities' => {
        'moz:firefoxOptions' => {
            'args'  => ['-profile',$profile_dir],
            'prefs' => {'marionette.port' => $marionette_port}
        }
    },
    'binary_port'     => $binary_port,
    'marionette_port' => $marionette_port,
    'fixed_ports'     => 1,
);

--- Try 2, set the marionette-port directly in the profile - Works! ---

Modify file: /path/to/firefox/profile/user.js file for the profile you want to use and add:

• user_pref("marionette.port",3031);

This works!

Both profiles should be able to launch at the same time, provided that you have set the port-number in each user.js file:

• /path/to/firefox/profile/user.js
  • user_pref("marionette.port",3031);
• /path/to/firefox/second_profile/user.js
  • user_pref("marionette.port",3032);

--- Run-it ---

• perl launch_ff_profile.pl -port=5051 -marionette=3031 -sleep=30 -profile='/path/to/firefox/profile' -url='https://www.mozilla.org'
• perl launch_ff_profile.pl -port=5052 -marionette=3032 -sleep=30 -profile='/path/to/firefox/second_profile' -url='https://www.chrome.com'

--- Code example ---

use 5.018;
use Getopt::Long;
use Selenium::Firefox;

my $url             = '';
my $profile_dir     = '';
my $binary_port     = '';
my $marionette_port = '';
my $sleep           = 0;
GetOptions(
    'url=s'         => \$url,
    'profile=s'     => \$profile_dir,
    'port=i'        => \$binary_port,
    'marionette=i'  => \$marionette_port,
    'sleep:i'       => \$sleep,
);

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'extra_capabilities' => {
        'moz:firefoxOptions' => {
            'args'  => ['-profile',$profile_dir],
        }
    },
    'marionette_port' => $marionette_port,
    'binary_port'     => $binary_port,
    'fixed_ports'     => 1,
);

$driver->get($url);
say $driver->get_title();
sleep($sleep);

--- Conclusion ---

Try 2 works, for multiple profiles, but requires that you go into each profile and set the marionette-port you want to use. When running a specific profile you would also have to remember the correct port-number since it's now fixed.

[inpbox]

See, this thread, could this be the whole problem with the marionette-port?

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344748#c19

Looks like:

• marionette.defaultPrefs.port were switched out with marionette.port

Selenium::Firefox::Profile::add_marionette uses defaultPrefs.port

https://metacpan.org/source/Selenium::Firefox::Profile

sub add_marionette {
    my ( $self, $port ) = @_;
    return if !$port;
    $self->set_preference( 'marionette.defaultPrefs.port', $port );
}

[hornschorsch]

Its a bug in geckodriver which they are not able to fix since two years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1421766

[inpbox]

Ouch, gone from a P1 to P3-issue. Hope they implement your patch.

[teodesian]

So, should I close this issue since it's clearly an upstream problem, or should I try to work around this as suggested by inpbox and provide marionette.port?

[inpbox]

The problem with the geckodriver/marionette-port is clearly an upstream problem. But why does this code create a tmp-profile:

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'firefox_profile' => Selenium::Firefox::Profile->new(
        'profile_dir'=>'/path/to/firefox/profile'
    )
);

when this doesn't:

my $driver = Selenium::Firefox->new(
    'extra_capabilities' => {
        'moz:firefoxOptions' => {
            'args'  => ['-profile','/path/to/firefox/profile'],
        }
    }
);

Shouldn't they both launch the dedicated profile?

[teodesian]

You would hope so. Sounds like you are on to something there, I'll look at a patch as soon as I can.

[hornschorsch]

I believe the first example creates a temporary profile from the given directory while the second example actually uses the given directory as profile.

[pabloneruda1]

Any solution or how can I save settings for temporary profile?? It is really annoying...

[Okahoux]

@pabloneruda1

Please, look at the solution I posted here :
https://stackoverflow.com/a/63247874/10912110