Firefox 27 will not open in Sandboxie

[ky331]

Bo,

I can understand where you're coming from based on your testing: FF27 ran in Sandboxie prior to your test installation of avast, but would no longer run thereafter. As such, you are placing the "blame" squarely on avast.

But that doesn't address the issue for pre-existing avast users, who were successfully running FF26 in Sandboxie with their avast ... until the update to FF27 "broke" that arrangement. This suggests that using Avast, in and of itself, is not the problem.

Likewise, for users of other anti-virus programs, who also were successfully running FF26 in Sandboxie with their anti-virus... until the update to FF27 "broke" that arrangement as well. This means their anti-virus, in and of itself, is not the problem.

I believe this conclusively establishes that the change(s) implemented in FF27 are the direct cause of the conflict with Sandboxie. So why is everyone not impacted? Because, like a chemical reaction, sometimes you need the presence of the proper catalyst. It would appear that avast --- dare I say specifically the 2014 version (???)--- might be one of the necessary catalysts... but (even if so,) it's certainly not the only one.

Let's also stress what bobbym's work-around seems to have established: that "Disabling Visual Themes" works on WinXP & Win7, while "best performance visual settings" works in Windows 8, to allow FF27 to run in Sandboxie --- even with avast (or whatever other culprit anti-virus or program you'd like to blame) running. [Continuing the analogy, one could say that the visual "tinkering" acts as an "ANTI-catalyst", mitigating (or canceling-out) the chemical reaction.]

Conclusion: FF27 introduced some change, probably in its rendering of graphics, which, in the presence of an appropriate catalyst program, will prevent FF27 from running in Sandboxie.

The creators of FF can determine what change(s) they implemented... in particular, in terms of graphics rendering. I think Sanboxie's owners might consider analyzing that aspect as well. What WE can do is help locate the catalysts.

For example, among avast users reporting this problem, are you all using Avast 2014? --- Or is any impacted user using an earlier version (e.g., avast 8 )?? [For me, avast 8 is allowing FF27 to run in Sanboxie on my win7 system]

And for NON-avast users reporting this problem, what anti-virus program [including specific version] are you using?

We need to find a common denominator.

[catspyjamas]

UPDATE:

FIX:

Uninstall Sandboxie 4.08 after (re)installing FF 27.0 (if you've removed it, if not, proceed directly to the uninstallation of Sandboxie), then reboot, and install 4.08 as a clean install.

Issue with IE Quick Launch icon still remains (desktop Sandboxie icon pinned to taskbar); sometimes it works, sometimes not. FF appears to get into a state where it is not responding and stalls when the browser window does not appear, or the window is there but not visible. Task Manager is showing over 220,000 K in Memory(Private Working Set) for FF whilst this is loading.

So, I've unpinned the Sandboxie icon from the taskbar. Now, it is 100% startable using the SB desktop icon.

Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

An update to my situation. Since posting earlier, the problem continues intermittently on my Vista box - still mostly failing. I have to try all different ways - right clicking on firefox, opening in an alternative sandbox, opening via the sandboxie control window, using a newly created shortcut via Windows Shell Integration (created via the configure menu in sandboxie control) or using the shortcut on the desktop. I have to empty the sandbox between each thing (obviously) but eventually one of those ways WILL work, and there is no rhyme or reason to which one will work. They all have worked and all have failed. Also I have tried uninstalling avast! on my Vista box and it did not help. I uninstalled it fully with the correct tools and even went through and manually uninstalled the remnants, rebooting several times. I do not believe avast is the cause here - I think it is just that it is used by so many people so it gives an impression of being a common denominator, and also because there are others posting who are having this issue and who do not use avast.

Since starting this thread the other day I have set up a new computer - a Win7 x64 with SP1, fully updated. It too had the same issues initially - with no avast installed. So I went ahead and installed avast which didn't worsen or improve the situation - it was still an intermittent problem just like on Vista. Then I came across this post by mchain as quoted above. On my Win 7 box I "hid" the sandboxie icon from the task bar vis the control panel. (Note I did not have sandboxie pinned to the taskbar - just had the icon showing in the area where the power, network and volume buttons are - that is the one I "hid"). That worked!! Since doing this I have been able to open firefox via a sandbox every which way without failure. The only thing I have noticed is that it is a bit slower to open than usual, and this new laptop of mine is a pretty fast beast. Otherwise it is behaving as it was with previous versions of FF. I have since re-enabled the icon to have it showing constantly, and it continues to work just fine. I'll post back if that changes. I don't know why it worked, if hiding it reset something (?) or if it is just a fluke that I haven't had it fail again. In saying that hiding the icon from the taskbar didn't help on my vista box, only on the Win 7 one.

[MDrew]

And for NON-avast users reporting this problem, what anti-virus program [including specific version] are you using?

I am running Norton Antivirus 21.1.0.18. XP Pro SP3.

My issue is that FF 27 will not run in SB from the boot sequence when all previous versions used to. If I wait until all boot stuff is totally and completely through running and the system has "stabilized", I can than run FF sandboxed either from hot key or icon (I have FF as a forced program).

[catspyjamas]

Bo,
For example, among avast users reporting this problem, are you all using Avast 2014? --- Or is any impacted user using an earlier version (e.g., avast 8 )?? [For me, avast 8 is allowing FF27 to run in Sanboxie on my win7 system]
.

Yup avast! 9 free here (otherwise known as avast! 2014). But as I said in my previous post, fully uninstalling avast didn't change anything for me. I also had the problem on a second machine without avast installed and with a different OS. So far the only common denominator seems to be FF 27. As you say, *something* in FF has changed in the way it launches which is making it difficult for sandboxie to open on some systems. I found a solution in this thread as described in my post a couple above this one. Whether or not it is just a fluke I'm not sure (hard to tell when it's intermittent).

[mchain]

Agreed, there must be a common denominator for the SBIE issue.

I've been troubleshooting the FF 27.0 non-start issue, and noted that, whilst the FF browser will open all the time on double-clicking the FF desktop icon, it sometimes will not start when double-clicking the sandboxie default browser icon on the desktop. When this happens, I start FF using the normal non-sandboxed desktop icon to start and then close that instance, and that followed by a double-click of the desktop SBIE icon, that will then allow a sandboxed instance of FF to open normally. with FF set as the default browser.

Why that seems to always work do not know atm.

For now, until either Mozilla fixes whatever they did that made FF 27.0 not compatible with SB 4.08, or vice versa, I've taken the path of least resistance, and have Chrome now set as the default browser. It's probably the wisest path one can take here under the circumstances.

NO issues with SBIE and Chrome, and have avast! 2014.9.0.2013 running as unchanged, no settings changes to either Chrome, SBIE, or avast!.

(A little off-topic, but maybe not, could be related.)

A new issue:

A new issue occurred today with the latest version of adobe flash, 12.0.0.44, (I am aware that the Chrome version is proprietary) with it crashing in both FF 27.0 and the latest version of Google Chrome. In FF, it crashed consistently on every attempt to load any other site other than Google https, and, also the embedded version of adobe flash in Chrome was affected with exactly the same issue, crashing wherever an embedded adobe flash player was on that web page, so I went to uninstall adobe flash in FF using their uninstall utility, followed by a reboot.

The error message was the standard one stating that a plugin has stopped responding and do you want to start again or stop? This appeared in both browsers on all web pages I visited today and resulted in a browser hang in Chrome that was reported to Microsoft several times. FF did not cause a report error box to appear for Microsoft to appear, but did present the same error box; they both just froze completely and always required the 'delete contents' option to be used within SBIE to be used to escape and close the browser.

In almost every instance, when presented with the error box, I chose to stop the FF and Chrome plug-in from loading. It made no difference. They both became unresponsive and still froze.

Imagine my surprise when simply removing adobe flash from FF 27.0 and making Chrome the default browser instead of FF, removed all issues with Chrome flash and that browser crashing consistently as it had before. No changes to Chrome were made before or after selecting the default browser option for it.

Chrome works perfectly as the new default browser. It appears from here there was some sort of cross-browser impact, as removing flash from FF somehow fixed the flash crash issue with Chrome.

Fortunately, I've consistently used SB throughout all these issues, so I know that whatever changes to adobe flash that were made to it after upgrading to the latest version, were made when I temporarily ran FF as unsandboxed to update add-ons used within it, and also know that whatever is causing these flash crashes, the browser sandboxed environment did prevent damage to the os.

Other than using a non-standard version of FF, what other versions of addons are available that will run swf files so I can safely view streaming video files within FF? Having options is always a good thing.

[ky331]

mchain,

For what it's worth, I'm having no issues with Flash 12.0.0.44 in FF27 --- neither UNsandboxed, nor in Sandboxie (subject to the "Disable Visual Themes" workaround to allow FF to run there).

[bo.elam]

Other than using a non-standard version of FF, what other versions of addons are available that will run swf files so I can safely view streaming video files within FF? Having options is always a good thing.

You are in XP, in XP, there is a workaround. That would be to disable plugin container. Not everyone likes doing that but I did. It works for me. If you want to try it, reinstall Flash and go to about:config. In about:config, search for "dom.ipc.plugins.enabled" and change the value to false. If it works, you ll see the difference immediately.

If the problem is in your W7. You cant disable plugin container in W7, so you disable protected mode in Flash. I have been doing this in both of my computers for a while, in my personal case, its a good workaround.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabli ... Flash_11.3

HTH.

Bo

[Der Moloch]

Imagine my surprise when simply removing adobe flash from FF 27.0 and making Chrome the default browser instead of FF, removed all issues with Chrome flash and that browser crashing consistently as it had before. No changes to Chrome were made before or after selecting the default browser option for it.

When you install the flash player for Firefox, the plugin registers with Chrome as well and you have two flash player plugins. Did you uninstall the version from Adobe or only disable it in Firefox? Maybe Chrome was running the version from Adobe and there was an issue with ProtectedMode.

[Radler]

The 'Disable Visual Themes' setting works for me too [Without using windows 2000 Mode].
Can now open Firefox 27 Sandboxed.
Thanks a lot bobbym, ky331, and everyone investigating the problem in this Thread.

XP SP3 (& Avast 2014.9.0.2013)

---Edited Post---

[ky331]

While I may take credit for the "Windows 2000 Compatibility Mode" workaround,
the "Disable Visual Themes" --- which I believe to be the preferable/safer approach --- was discovered/reported by bobbym.

Glad to hear it works for you.

[mchain]

Imagine my surprise when simply removing adobe flash from FF 27.0 and making Chrome the default browser instead of FF, removed all issues with Chrome flash and that browser crashing consistently as it had before. No changes to Chrome were made before or after selecting the default browser option for it.

When you install the flash player for Firefox, the plugin registers with Chrome as well and you have two flash player plugins. Did you uninstall the version from Adobe or only disable it in Firefox? Maybe Chrome was running the version from Adobe and there was an issue with ProtectedMode.

Uninstalled the flash plug-in for FF and got the results above. This says pretty much what you say above.

Completely uninstalled FF for now, will do a clean install of 27.0 later and see how that goes. Back to some of the standard troubleshooting tricks of yore here, and do not think this SB issue was related to an incompatibility with version 27.0 and SB per se, but rather a change specific to this Win 7 system. Have already done a clean install of SB, so there's that.

Thanks for the info, all, but I'd rather have FF running as it should and as designed, so no workarounds will in place here. Nothing ever runs here it that doesn't work right, it gets booted out the door if it doesn't work properly.

[Bellzemos]

I haven't read all postst in the thread, so: can I revert back to Firefox v26.0 until a solution (on either side) comes along? Has anyone succeded in reverting to FF 26? Do I have to uninstall FF first or just install over the v27.0? Will I lose my bookmarks etc.? Thank you!

[bo.elam]

Do I have to uninstall FF first or just install over the v27.0? Will I lose my bookmarks etc.? Thank you!

You can do an over the top installation. You wont lose your bookmarks.

Bo

[bobbym]

Hi;

The disable visual themes is still working but it may be creating problems on some other forums, I do not know for sure. Anyway, I just meant it as a temporary fix. Is there any new developments towards a permanent and correct solution?

[ky331]

disable visual themes... may be creating problems on some other forums...

Bobby, have you encountered problems... or links to stories of people having problems? Your work-around is doing very nicely for me, without issues to the best of my knowledge.