Vscode: Snap version opens links in new Firefox process and profile, not existing process and profile

[BillDietrich]

Issue Type: Bug

Have Firefox browser running with your normal profile (lots of extensions, for example). In VSCode, open an HTML file for editing, and ctrl+click on an URL in the file to open it. VSCode will not open a new tab in the existing Firefox process, instead it will launch a new Firefox process with a temporary or empty profile. The new Firefox will show up in the running-application list (alt+tab on Ubuntu 20.04) with VSCode's icon, not Firefox's icon, associated with it.

Same happens if a link is opened via an extension, instead of via ctrl+click in editor pane.

Please either revert to the non-snap behavior (open new tab in existing Firefox process) or provide a setting to select between old and new behaviors. Thanks.

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.45.0-insider (ece7aaee861d7261a728d52ce436c667030ce17d, 2020-05-01T09:46:11.716Z)
OS version: Linux x64 5.4.0-28-generic snap
Ubuntu 20.04 desktop GNOME

System Info

|Item|Value|
|---|---|
|CPUs|Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 370 @ 2.40GHz (4 x 933)|
|GPU Status|2d_canvas: unavailable_software
flash_3d: disabled_software
flash_stage3d: disabled_software
flash_stage3d_baseline: disabled_software
gpu_compositing: disabled_software
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
oop_rasterization: disabled_off
protected_video_decode: disabled_off
rasterization: disabled_software
skia_renderer: disabled_off_ok
video_decode: disabled_software
viz_display_compositor: enabled_on
viz_hit_test_surface_layer: disabled_off_ok
webgl: unavailable_software
webgl2: unavailable_software|
|Load (avg)|2, 2, 2|
|Memory (System)|7.58GB (1.10GB free)|
|Process Argv|--force-user-env --no-sandbox --unity-launch --no-sandbox|
|Screen Reader|no|
|VM|0%|
|DESKTOP_SESSION|ubuntu|
|XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP|Unity|
|XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP|ubuntu|
|XDG_SESSION_TYPE|x11|

Extensions (3)

Extension|Author (truncated)|Version
---|---|---
linkcheckerhtml|Bil|2.2.0
web-accessibility|Max|0.2.82
HTMLHint|mka|0.6.0

[vscodebot[bot]]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• vscode interrupts Firefox drag and drop (#93631)
• Firefox crashes when I click on a link in VSCode. (#85344)
  

[isgj]

Maybe the code snap should use the browser-support interface.
Other electron based snaps that open links with the default configuration browser are connected to browser-support interface.

Disclaimer

I'm a snap noob

[NotWoods]

This seems to be a snapd issue as the Slack snap has the same problem. You can configure Firefox to work around the problem!

1. Open some URL from the VSCode snap.
2. In the new window, navigate to about:profiles.
3. Ensure that the profile marked as "Default Profile" matches Firefox when opened normally.
4. Use the "Set as default profile" button under the correct profile to change the default.

In my case, default-release was the profile used when opening Firefox normally, and default was used by VSCode and Slack. Setting default-release as the default in both versions fixed the issue.

[timotree3]

Wow awesome discovery NotWoods. That solution works perfectly. Thanks so much

[joaomoreno]

cc @flexiondotorg @sergiusens

[joaomoreno]

Closing as won't fix, given the current workaround.