Blank uBO Thunderbird for macOS pane in versions after uBlock0_1.48.5b5.thunderbird.xpi

[onePW]

Prerequisites

• I performed a cursory search of the issue tracker to avoid opening a duplicate issue.
• The issue is not present after disabling uBO in the browser.
• I checked the documentation to understand that the issue I am reporting is not normal behavior.

I tried to reproduce the issue when...

• uBO is the only extension.
• using a new, unmodified browser profile.

Description

Updating the Thunderbird extension to any version beyond uBlock0_1.48.5b5.thunderbird.xpi results in a blank uBO GUI.

MacBookPro18,1 (Apple M1 Pro)
macOS Ventura 13.3.1
Mozilla Thunderbird 102.9.1

A specific URL where the issue occurs.

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/download/1.48.5b7/uBlock0_1.48.5b7.thunderbird.xpi

Steps to Reproduce

1. Mozilla's Thunderbird extension uBlock0_1.48.5b9.thunderbird.xpi has been installed from the official repository.
2. Thunderbird has been quitted, followed by a normal relaunch.
3. uBlock Origin has just been clicked in the attached .png file.

Expected behavior

uBO's GUI should open as in the attached:

Actual behavior

Extension uBlock0_1.48.5b5.thunderbird.xpi has been removed and extension uBlock0_1.48.5b9.thunderbird.xpi has been installed:

Configuration

macOS Ventura 13.3.1 has been started normally. Thunderbird 102.9.1 has been launched normally.

[onePW]

Question: If an EtreCheckPro 6.8.1 report file is attached, will the public have access?

[gorhill]

Yes, this a public issue tracker.

[gorhill]

I don't have Thunderbird 102 or MacOS, but I can't reproduce with Thunderbird 91 / Linux / uBO 1.48.5b9.

[gwarser]

Works fine for me in 102.9.1 (64-bit) on Linux.

[onePW]

Thunderbird 102.9.1 .pkg (from Mozilla's repository) was used to reinstall.
The issue first arose when the update was made to uBlock0_1.48.5b6.thunderbird.xpi. The issue is absent/resolved if a fallback is made back to uBlock0_1.48.5b5.thunderbird.xpi. Is any log written that might capture the failure state? What may I do to assist further?

[krystian3w]

I tried manually update to 7 or 9:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/download/1.48.5b7/uBlock0_1.48.5b7.thunderbird.xpi
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/download/1.48.5b9/uBlock0_1.48.5b9.thunderbird.xpi

and on both I reproduced blank pop-up on Windows 7 with TB 102:

TB 91 IMO lost emergency support at all (the solution is not to use a GNU/Linux package that some fan of a particular distribution maintains (like backport updates carried on TB 102 to 91) - until it extends support to compile versions for macOS and Windows 10.), TB 102 will lose it around the release of 117 Firefox (29 Agust - 1 September 2023).

[krystian3w]

Apparently, the bug console complains about the alarms API (perhaps there is none for TB):

TypeError: browser.alarms is undefined vapi-background.js:148:1

gorhill/uBlock@bec6cad

But fine with standard Gecko (for Firefox) WebExtension.

[gwarser]

Why it works fine on Linux???

[gorhill]

I upgraded my Thunderbird to latest 102.9.1 (with some pain points), and I can't reproduce an issue on my side. I do see that alarms does not appear to be supported as per https://webextension-api.thunderbird.net/en/latest/#firefox-webextension-apis-supported-by-thunderbird, but then I see no issue so far on my side.

---

In any case, I will check if alarms exists first and fallback onto something else if not.

[gwarser]

Seems fixed.

[gorhill]

The reference link I posted above does not list alarms but then I just realize I didn't declare alarms in the manifest, maybe that is the actual issue...

[gwarser]

Yes, b9 works in debug mode if I put alarms in permissions.

[gorhill]

I wasn't able to test using "Load Temporary Add-on...", loading the result of ./tools/make-thunderbird fails for some reasons, Any idea?

[onePW]

Good news! Between today's release of Mozilla's Thunderbird 102.10.0 stable and uBlock0_1.48.5b10.thunderbird.xpi, uBO's GUI opens with normal behavior!

I am thankful to who or what has resolved this issue.

[gwarser]

@gorhill I did use the xpi, because I already had it in VM. Will try the source in a moment...
It works on Linux. Did you select the manifest when loading? Chrome requires folder, Firefox the manifest file.
In Win11 works too.
Build from master gorhill/uBlock@464119a

[krystian3w]

The solution is not the 102.10.0 update, a snapshot from 102.9.1 with uBo 1.48.5b10 (The solution is a minor correction that went into the add-on's code):

Web filtering was not working during the outage.

In the test, I suggest you rename the iframe to detect cosmetic filtering (it looks like EasyList has removed the deprecated filters/baits).

optionally this can be addressed in filters-2023.txt