plugin-container.exe - DLL Initialization Failed [SOLVED]

[Sope]

After updating Waterfox to v43.0 I have been experiencing a persistent bug where the browser stops responding and issues the following error window message :-

plugin-container.exe - DLL Initialization Failed

Initialization of the dynamic link library C:\Program Files\Sandboxie\SbieDll.dll failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

The problem persists with all addons temporarily disabled.

Windows 7 64bit
Sandboxie v5.06 64bit
Waterfox v43.0
Adobe Flash Player v20.0.0.267
No antivirus installed

Thanks for any help.

[Sope]

Update:
The problem appears to be temporarily resolved with only the Flash Player plugin disabled so I'm presuming it must be related to this particular plugin in combination with Waterfox v43, as the problem did not exist with this same plugin running in a previous version of the browser.

[bo.elam]

Sope, test disabling Flash protected mode to see if your issue gets fixed. You can do it via Tools>Addons>Plugins>Flash, Click Options, Untick Enable Flash protected mode.

Bo

[Sope]

Sope, test disabling Flash protected mode to see if your issue gets fixed. You can do it via Tools>Addons>Plugins>Flash, Click Options, Untick Enable Flash protected mode.

Bo

Hi Bo,
There's no options button associated with the Flash plugin, only the button to choose whether or not to activate the plugin itself.
I've also checked in about:config and can only find two preferences which may relate to Flash protected mode, namely, "browser.flash-protected-mode-flip.done" and "browser.flash-protected-mode-flip.enable", both of which have their values set to "false" as default. Changing these to"true" doesn't appear to fix the issue.

Update:
Ok, I've found another about:config preference named "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" set with a default value of "false", however, setting this one to "true" doesn't appear to help either.

[Craig@Invincea]

The only option then would be to remove the plug in and then see if the problem with the container goes away. If websites are using HTML5, then flash isn't needed. I haven't used waterfox in a while, but if it does mirror FF, then there is an option for "protected mode" to tick on and off.

Mozilla has more here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ad ... as-crashed

[bo.elam]

Update:
Ok, I've found another about:config preference named "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" set with a default value of "false", however, setting this one to "true" doesn't appear to help either.

Hi Sope, setting that preference to true should disable protected mode. If PM is indeed disabled, you should not see the FlashPlayerPlugin exes running in Sandboxie control, only plugin container should be running along waterfox and the SBIE processes.

I would try disabling PM again, either in about:config or in about:addons and confirm you dont see the FlashPlayerPlugin exes running, that way you ll know for sure that PM was really disabled. I think Waterfox is like Firefox, you should be able to disable PM via Tools>Addons>Plugins>Flash, Click Options, Untick Enable Flash protected mode. This is what we see in Firefox there.

And Sope, make sure you are using a clean sandbox with no contents in it. So, delete contents before trying testing disabling PM again. If you are using a clean sandbox, you can test while running sandboxed.

Bo

[Sope]

The only option then would be to remove the plug in and then see if the problem with the container goes away. If websites are using HTML5, then flash isn't needed. I haven't used waterfox in a while, but if it does mirror FF, then there is an option for "protected mode" to tick on and off.

Mozilla has more here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ad ... as-crashed

Thanks for your reply.

As mentioned in my earlier post, disabling the Flash plugin does indeed fix the problem.
Waterfox does not appear to mirror FF as it does not offer the option to toggle protected mode on or off, at least not from the plugins page.
I've tried disabling Flash hardware acceleration as suggested on the Mozilla support page in your link, but this did not resolve the issue.
The error box I'm getting doesn't appear to be issued by Sandboxie Control, or by the Flash player plugin itself in the usual manner when it crashes, but rather a message from the browser indicating a problem between plugin-container.exe and SbieDll.dll

I guess my next step would be to roll back to the previous versions of Flash and Waterfox one at a time, although the issue only arises when the browser is running sandboxed.

[Sope]

Update:
Ok, I've found another about:config preference named "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" set with a default value of "false", however, setting this one to "true" doesn't appear to help either.

Hi Sope, setting that preference to true should disable protected mode. If PM is indeed disabled, you should not see the FlashPlayerPlugin exes running in Sandboxie control, only plugin container should be running along waterfox and the SBIE processes.

I would try disabling PM again, either in about:config or in about:addons and confirm you dont see the FlashPlayerPlugin exes running, that way you ll know for sure that PM was really disabled. I think Waterfox is like Firefox, you should be able to disable PM via Tools>Addons>Plugins>Flash, Click Options, Untick Enable Flash protected mode. This is what we see in Firefox there.

And Sope, make sure you are using a clean sandbox with no contents in it. So, delete contents before trying testing disabling PM again. If you are using a clean sandbox, you can test while running sandboxed.

Bo

Ok, setting "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" to "true" does not resolve the problem either. Tested in a clean sandbox and with restarted browser after making changes.
Thanks for the screenshot, which confirms to me that the tick box your are referring to is not present in Waterfox.

[Sope]

I guess my next step would be to roll back to the previous versions of Flash and Waterfox one at a time, although the issue only arises when the browser is running sandboxed.

Ok, I went ahead and rolled back to an earlier version of Flash player but the problem was not resolved, however, rolling back to a previous version of Waterfox (v40.1.0) did the trick and the problem has gone.
Presumably this suggests that the root cause of the conflict is the plugin-container.exe application contained within the latest version of Waterfox.

I guess that unless the combination of Waterfox and Sandboxie becomes more widely used, the issue is unlikely to be a priority for either developer. However, I will also report the bug to the Waterfox team for the record.

Thanks for the advice.

[bo.elam]

However, I will also report the bug to the Waterfox team for the record.

Sope, perhaps you should ask them how to disable PM in Waterfox. A lot of problems between Flash and Firefox get solved by disabling PM. Thats the case even without SBIE being involved.

At this point in time, my sandboxed Firefox works fine with Flash with PM (W7) and plugin container (XP) enabled but sometimes, things work better if disabled. For the last couple of years, for me, enabling and disabling PM/plugin container has been an on and off thing. Sometimes is enabled and sometimes I disable it.

Bo

[Sope]

According to this article :-
http://www.ghacks.net/2014/12/21/how-to ... n-firefox/
setting "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" to "true" should disable PM, however, when I just re-tested it (back with Waterfox v40.1), it appears that the plugin-container.exe process runs when viewing Flash regardless whether I have set this to true or false?? Maybe this is unique to Waterfox?? It looks like I will have to investigate further how Waterfox handles Flash PM.

Anyway, thanks for your input Bo, much appreciated.

[bo.elam]

Sope, if you disable Flash protected mode, the plugin-container.exe still runs but the flash player plugin exes DON'T. Those exes are protected mode. The picture below shows flash player running with protected mode on. If I disable PM, the flash player plugin exes don't run and not appear in Sandboxie control

Bo

[Sope]

Well this is confusing
Just checked it now and I'm not seeing those FlashPlayerPlugin exe's with protected mode on or off, just plugin-container.exe in both instances.
That's with toggling the "dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode" preference. Also tried restarting the browser after making changes to see if that made any difference.
I'm using Flash Player v20,0,0,267 and running it by loading the http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ page.
I guess it must be something with the way Waterfox has been designed to handle Flash.

[bo.elam]

Just checked it now and I'm not seeing those FlashPlayerPlugin exe's with protected mode on or off, just plugin-container.exe in both instances.

Sope, its possible sometime in the past, you did disable Flash Protected mode using the old method described below. And you dont remember doing it. That could be the reason you are not seeing at all the flash player plugin exes. Read under "Disabling Protected mode in Flash 11.3".
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabli ... Flash_11.3

If you did add the line ProtectedMode=0 to your mms.cfg file some time ago, toggling the about:config preference (dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode) to true, I believe, it wont make a difference. Sope, perhaps you should check with Waterfox support. I cant test Waterfox as my computers are 32 bits, otherwise I would.

Bo

[Sope]

If you did add the line ProtectedMode=0 to your mms.cfg file some time ago, toggling the about:config preference (dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode) to true, I believe, it wont make a difference. Sope, perhaps you should check with Waterfox support. I cant test Waterfox as my computers are 32 bits, otherwise I would.

Bo

Nope, mms.cfg is as default (looks like it gets replaced every time Flash Player is uninstalled/reinstalled in any case).
I also tried adding ProtectedMode=0 to the mms.cfg file to see if that would allow the FlashPlayerPlugin process to show up.... made no difference.

I've posted a couple of questions on the Waterfox support forum but no reply as yet. It doesn't seem like a big operation so I suspect it may take some time to get a reply... if at all.
I'll update here if I find anything out that can shed some light on it though.
In the meantime I'll stick with Waterfox v40.1 and maybe try again when the next update becomes available.

Thanks for taking the time trying to help Bo, much appreciated.