[CentOS] [OT] Firefox loses plugins, anyone else? Bug? Known?

[Phil Schaffner]

William L. Maltby wrote:
> Fully up-to-date CentOS 5.2 and Firefox browser. A previous thread had a
> problem with plugins disappearing. I've discovered, by accident, a
> causal relationship.
> 
> Running a Thunderbird mail client (could happen with others? Haven't
> tested with Evolution yet.) I click a link that opens the browser. BANG!
> The plugins.dat is "emptied".
> 
> Restored from my rsync backup, repeat, BANG! "Empty" again.
> 
> Now, if the browser is already open, NP.
> 
> Anyone can confirm?
> 
> Known problem?
> 
> If not, I'll post bugs in the appropriate places.

Bill,

Tried to reproduce this and could not - closed Firefox, clicked on a 
link in Thunderbird that opens Firefox.  All plugins are OK.

I have no plugins.dat, only

.mozilla/firefox/2ucxmtim.default/pluginreg.dat

firefox-3.0.4-1.el5.centos
thunderbird-2.0.0.18-1.el5.centos

Have had problems with disappearing plugins when first starting Firefox, 
and then having them return after closing/restarting.  Seemed to be a 
function of historical user configs and updates as it was not 
reproducible on a fresh user account.  Never could find a bug report on 
it and did not create one as it worked OK on a clean config.  Perhaps 
you could try this on a fresh account to check out that variable.

Phil