I had an extension FastStream installed on all my FF and forks on my various devices (this install is on Windows 10 if it matters). But the extension got de-listed because it no longer passes whatever requirements Mozilla has for getting signed. The dev is working on getting it through, but offers it through their github via zip file. I normally use Zen, so I didn’t have issues loading it and just turned off the auto update stuff that would remove it.
The old previously listed version was on my desktop that has the stable release of FF. So I removed it so I could update, but was blocked. No big deal, I went into about:config and set “xpinstall.signatures.required” to “false” per instructions. Restarted FF and now still blocked because it isn’t signed.
Some searching says that stable is a no go, while other results still say to just flip that signatures.required to false. The AI assistant on DDG says that the “xpinstall.signatures.required” option isn’t available on stable (even though it is and able to be flipped between “true” and “false” (I saw some people say that they see the option, but is grayed out and not able to be changed at all).
Kind of annoying that FF has been so much easier to load extensions not on the add-ons site. I have had issues trying to side-load on Chromium browsers I use, and FF never gave me this problem. I imagine it will eventually be an issue for the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension (not sure if extensions not listed on the site can get signed).
Is there any simple way to force it on stable? If not, can I simply “upgrade” my stable to beta or dev, keep my profile, and remove stable without losing anything? Would like to avoid ESR since I do like to know when features/UI changes happen so I can help people (I work on consumer PCs) that use stable on their devices.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
Yes, you can upgrade to beta or developer edition and move over your data. That article uses Firefox Sync, which is the easiest method, but I think it would also be possible to copy over the contents of your profile folder if that’s what you want to do.
Beta is generally very stable, so the main thing you’ll notice is a different icon. And you’d even be aware of changes before your customers see them :)
Awesome! I could always just change the icon if it bugged me for some reason. Would be helpful to know what stuff gets moved around before running into it when working on someone’s PC. The latest layout change in settings really tripped me out when I first started seeing it on their PCs. They haven’t done such a massive UI change for settings in a while.
Well, brace yourself for the Nova redesign, which is going to change a whole lot :)
I really need to catch-up on it. Only annoying thing (normally) with their major changes is muscle memory with the old UI. But using Zen with all the changes they have made more frequently reminded me of how excited I would get for big things FF did over time. I loved how much better the Quantum refresh made speed and memory usage noticeably better. Less excited about the trend of apps and other software making things “rounded” to look “modern” or whatever (though I do like the “floating” tab look from Proton refresh). Just feels like things are larger/taking up too much space, but I am guessing touchscreens are the reason. Aside from the block on unsigned extensions, I hope the functional changes lead to a decent successor to the gains Quantum brought.
I didn’t really like it on first sight, but I’ve been trying it every now and then and it kinda grew on me. But if I had to bet I’d still predict that it’s going to get a lot of backlash.
I tend to find most of their larger changes to be fine as long as I can relatively quickly adjust to locating things. It for sure will get backlash like a lot of their efforts to evolve and try things out.
It is possible on Firefox Stable, by using an unbranded build.
Didn’t think about that at all. I might play with that option at some point since I haven’t tried compiling a browser before. Would just like to periodically contribute to the ever shrinking percent of FF share of the browser space (which I believe forks and would guess the unbranded version don’t count towards). Really lame reasoning on my part, but do like to think their percentage needs to stop falling against the flood of Chrome/Chromium stuff. Maybe there is a extension that can spoof the specific telemetry used for that kind of statistic. Wouldn’t mind sending that while benefiting from others that are removed in different forks.
Hmm, don’t think you should need to compile it yourself? They offer downloads for Windows and macOS, and on Linux, the normal Firefox from the distro sources generally already has this compile flag enabled, as far as I know.
I mean, I actually never had a need for unsigned extensions, so never tried it myself, and obviously I wouldn’t know, if every single distro does it the same.
As for wanting to contribute to the statistics, I do understand that desire. But I believe, for the most part, it’s the user agent that counts. I doubt, they would set that to something else in the unbranded builds…
Nice to know it shouldn’t need compiling. Still might be fun to eventually try doing that just to say I could follow instructions.
I hope the user agent does contribute something. We need as many statistics as possible to chip away at the Chromium engine monopoly (just like the old IE Trident). Really hate all the fake “please update you browser or try Chromium” messages for random sites that are basically hard coded.
Certainly don’t want to spoof the Chrome agent and give reinforcing stats that Chromium is the only thing that should be coded for. I imagine in a lot of cases the issue is more about them using DRM which FF and forks don’t add out of principle. Even when DRM is supported, they still nerf FF for basically no reason (Netflix being the longest well known example). Really wish there was a way to fully switch Android’s Chromium Web-view to Gecko instead of all apps defaulting to Chromium inside them while I’m ranting about it. lol
I used to try “doing my part” by installing FF on PCs I was setting up for people as a second option (left Edge as default to not completely be an asshole) and just mention it could be helpful for seeing if a site was just not working or if there was an issue with Edge/Chrome. But out of all the stuff people just somehow not “notice” just installing out of nowhere (so many will just accept those scammy drive-by Chromium browsers like Swift or Web-Discover showing up). Saying they just though it was from Microsoft updates like they did with the screen filling IE toolbars. They really noticed Firefox and be like “is this malware?” or otherwise be weirded out. So I stopped though I still add uBlock Origin and the Lite version on all browsers, and show how to white list sites when needed. So I still get to “do my part” on that front.
you can upload the code to the amo as private, mozilla signs it but it doesnt get uploaded tp the page, then you get the signed .xpi and it should work. its annoying but it should work afaik.
If your extension consists of just a single JavaScript file you can simply add that to your Violentmonkey script collection. Otherwise, you can unzip the XPI file and load it as a temporary addon (AFAIK temporary addons are removed when you close Firefox).
