I want to stop firefox from updating manually
1. Tried to make the app.update.url as empty string, but it doesn't work.
2. Tried installing in some other folder rather than C:/ProgramFiles so that
Automatically Install Updates option is not greyed out in Options>Advanced, but no success.
3. Tried looking at prefs.js but the options which are locked in about:config don't
even appear in that file.
Tired of uninstalling and reinstalling firefox again and again. Does anyone know how to edit locked properties like app.update.auto and app.update.enable in about:config??
I met same problem when I was trying to toggle App.update.enabled which was locked.
There are two places you need to search.
1. Firefox Profile_folder
Firefox installation folder, like %PROGRAMFILES%\Mozilla Firefox
To me, I found below string in one .cfg file, and after modify it, the lock flag gone.
"app.update.auto": {
"value": false,
"locked": true
},
I think it also applies to your problem.
Ref:
http://www.updatefreezer.org/index.php?id=22
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences
https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/13484/deploying-firefox-with-updates-disabled
Related
Here's the problem. I get a message that pops up that says, "one or more extensions cannot be verified and have been disabled". I know a temporary fix to get these apps working again but the apps always break after so much time. What I do is go in my extensions for my Firefox profile (which is a JSON file) and I use Wordpad to change all the instances of appDisabled": true to appDisabled": false. I also change all the instances of signedState":-1 to signedState":2. The problem is that it keeps changing the false back to true and the 2's back to -1's. I am using Firefox version 56.0.2. Is there any permanent fix that can keep these changes under the current version that I am using? I am getting sick and tired of having to make these changes every day. Also, a couple of key add-ons that I use which are Classic Theme Restorer and unblock Origin keep getting disabling from this issue. I value these add-ons and I would love it if you knew any command prompt that I could put into Wordpad that would make Firefox stop trying to verify add-ons or whatever it does that causes Firefox to disable the add-ons. I welcome any other fix as well. I do want to keep my current version of Firefox and I know the Greasemonkey I use wouldn't work on later versions.
I already tried using Wordpad to change all instances of appDisabled": true to false and signedState":-1 to 2. It would work for a while and then everything reverted back to how it was.
...
appDisabled":true
...
signedState":-1
When appDisabled is true and signedState switches to -1, I get the message saying, "one or more extensions cannot be verified." It also disables the incompatible apps.
Previously, I could write an addon for personal usage packed as something.xpi and I clicked on it to install it.
After a while, mozilla introduced xpinstall.signatures.required which you could still get around it.
However, it did not stop stabbing developers who are interested to have a personal addon isolated from the world. Today, only web extensions are working and my XUL based addon is thrown away. The tutorials only talk about temporary installation of a web extension while I want my one runs on firefox forever.
Beside whether I can use web extension to write into files or create a GUI in an independent page, I have a bigger challenge:
How can I install a local web extension permanently without creating a Mozilla account for personal usage?
Navigate to the folder where your extension is located. You can build it in the usual way using web-ext:
web-ext build
You can install this ZIP file permanently in Firefox by going to about:addons and dragging this file into the tab.
In order for this to work, you need to set xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config (works only for Nightly and maybe Developer Edition).
Apart from setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false, you need to add this to your manifest.json:
"browser_specific_settings": {
"gecko": {
"id": "some-name#example.org"
}
}
Found on https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/blqffs/how_to_permanently_add_temporary_addon/exh2u3o/, thanks to "alexherbo2".
You need a "blueish" Firefox -- Developer Edition (effectively beta) or Nightly (unstable, updated every night).
You can get them from https://mozilla.org/firefox/channel/desktop/.
Then xpinstall.signatures.required will work again.
(As for permissions--you can create a GUI in a tab or a popup, but I don't think you can do it in a separate window (unless you do a webpage-style popup window). You won't be able to write to arbitrary files anywhere on the system--which is a good thing! You can write to the Downloads folder, and read/write some sort of internal storage, but that may not expose the actual files involved. For more information see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Working_with_files.)
What you should be looking for is having your extension signed by Mozilla as Unlisted.
See Mixing Listed and Unlisted Add-ons on addons.mozilla.org blog post for an overview.
That way, AMO does not host nor (normally) review your extension; it simply runs some basic automated checks and immediately signs your extension so that it can be privately distributed as an XPI.
For those interested in developing/running an extension from a local directory without having to package or load it manually via "Load Temporary Addon..." from about:debuggin#/runtime/this-firefox please go to this github repository.
From the README.md:
The procedure involves a few steps, but it needs to be done only once.
First you need to enable AutoConfig aka userchrome.js by copying the file config-prefs.js to [Your Firefox install directory]/defaults/pref
Note: For best security, on Windows it is best to leave your Firefox install in "c:\Program Files" so that your config-prefs.js and userChrome.js can only be modified when you are in root/admin mode.
Then you need to edit the file userChrome.js and modify the function installUnpackedExtensions() to reflect the locations of your own addons.
The modified userChrome.js then must be copied to your Firefox installation directory. For example on Windows this is usually "c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox" for the 32-bit version of Firefox. You can rename the file, but remember to modify the corresponding line pref("general.config.filename", "userChrome.js") in defaults/pref/config-prefs.js
Now your addons from your local directories will be loaded automaticaly whenever Firefox starts. After editing your code remember to reload it from about:debuggin. You can also get there via the menu by selecting "More Tools", then "Remote Debugging", and click on "This Firefox" on the left side (but the quickiest way is to bookmark it and then add a bookmark keyword such as "dbg" for quick access.)
Please note that this is an automated install of the extension every time Firefox starts, so it is not quite the same as a "permenent install". That is, this procedure has exactly the same effect as clicking on "Load Temporary Addon..." from the about:debuggin page, just that the process is now automated via userChrome.js. This means that if you have code that does something after the installation of the extension such as browser.runtime.onInstalled.addListener(details => { if (details.reason == "install") { ...do something after install... }); then this code will be called every time Firefox is launched.
You can try setting the preference extensions.legacy.enabled (this will only work in Nightly or Dev Edition).
I'm trying to develop an extension to run on the FirefoxDeveloperEdition (which doesn't require signing) on mac.
I followed the "Your first WebExtension" guide and everything works fine when using the "Load temporary add-on". But when I try to package it and install it using the "install add-on from file", it shows "this add-on could not be installed because it appears to be corrupt".
I zip all the files (borderify.js, manifest.json, icons, without the container folder) and change the suffix to .xpi. Is this the correct way of packaging? some answers mention that there should be a "install.rdf" ?, if so, how can I create that file? it seems there is no guide on the docs.
UPDATE:
I've tried using the mac builtin "compress n items", xpi file, also tried using web-ext build, xpi file. they all end up with the same error alert.
UPDATE 2:
I've set xpinstall.signatures.required false in about:config.
My firefox version is: 51.0a2 (2016-10-17) (64-bit)
Is there anyone able to load the unsigned xpi? Is it a Firefox bug? or is it just me?
If you want to install .xpi, you need to provide an id.
Add this to your manifest.json root
"applications": {
"gecko": {
"id": "borderify#mozilla.org",
}
}
It's not particularly well documented, specifically this page tells that "add-on will be assigned a randomly-generated temporary ID when you install it in Firefox.". However, that only seems to work for installing over about:debugging - xpi installation still requires an ID. It might be any string, since you've running it on DevEdition with disabled checks anyway.
Goes without saying, that would not work on release Firefox.
P.S: Ctrl-Shift-J will open a browser console that will usually contain additional information about the extension installation error - might be useful next time.
Hope I'm writing that in the relevant platform..
I'm working on a script that analyzing requests while browsing sites with Firefox.
I always see requests to aus4.mozilla.org, even after I changed the "Auto-Update" option in the browser to 'Disable' mode.
Does anybody faced with this problem before? How can I turn it off?
Here is how you can turn off Auto Updates on Firefox from Windows:
Run Regedit in windows (Must have admin right)
Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies
If the 2 folders Mozilla and Firefox don't exist under 'Policies'. Create them as per the following:
-Right click on "Policies" folder, Select New > Key then enter "Mozilla"
-Right click on "Mozilla" folder, Select New > Key then enter "Firefox"
-Right click on "Firefox" folder, Select New > DWORD (32 bit) value then enter "DisableAppUpdate"
-Double-click on "DisableAppUpdate" to modify Value data to 1 (hexadecimal). This will stop mozilla from downloading and updating Firefox;
It will show "Updates disabled by your system administrator"
To allow Firefox to update again; Modify the Value Data to 0 .
Weird, the option should work.
Double check that the app.update.auto and app.update.enabled configuration options are set to false (you can do that from about:config).
I would suggest using a better method to automate Firefox, for example Selenium. There are bindings for many programming languages, e.g. for Node.js.
Nowadays (65.0.2) disabling updates is relatively complicated. Here's the Windows solution:
In the firefox.exe directory, create one named distribution.
Inside distribution, place a filed named policies.json containing the following:
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}
Sources:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1232918
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md
After hours and hours trying to get things working, I have this error in my console:
[CustomizableUI] Widget action-button--myAddonID-misspelutton not found, unable to remove from inner-toolbar-myAddonID-the-title-of-my-addon1 CustomizableUI.jsm:171
So, the addon's widget id is misspelled somehow and stuck somewhere. The term does not appear in any of my code.
Details: I originally built this addon using XUL overlays, and am rebuilding it with the Firefox AddOn SDK. I think (but I'm not sure) this problem happens like this: I installed my signed addon from the Firefox Addon Repo, and then I used jpm post --post-url http://localhost:8888/ to install it into Firefox Developer Edition running the Extension Auto-Installer.
In my code I had this, but I've removed it and everything that pertains to it:
const { CustomizableUI } = Cu.import('resource:///modules/CustomizableUI.jsm', {});
[update]
I have also tried this: uninstall the addon, enter customization mode and choose "Restore to Defaults" which resets all the toolbars to default. Then I exited Firefox and restarted it. When I run jpm to install the addon, the error code persists.
Funny thing also is this: when I view the button using the toolbox inspector, it shows the #id of that button just like in the error.
With that said, how do I resolve the problem without creating a new firefox profile?
The 'widget' module has been deprecated due to a number of performance and usability issues, and has been removed from the SDK as of Firefox 40. Please use the 'sdk/ui/button/action' or 'sdk/ui/button/toggle' module
https://developer.mozilla.org/Add-ons/SDK/High-Level_APIs/ui
https://developer.mozilla.org/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/ui_button_action
https://developer.mozilla.org/Add-ons/SDK/Low-Level_APIs/ui_button_toggle
Something was "jammed" in the profile.
I knew this after I removed all code relating to customizableUI, then uninstalling the addon and then using "Restore Defaults" in the customization panel, restarting Firefox and reinstalling the addon, but the problem persisted.
So instead of using this with my existing profile:
jpm post --post-url http://localhost:8888/
I used this to run it on a fresh clean one:
jpm run --binary "C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefox Developer Edition\firefox.exe"
(I was using post instead of run because I run multiple instances of Firefox and did not want run to cause them to exit; but adding --binary and the path to Firefox dev did the trick )
In a fresh profile everything works just fine, even with the code utilizing CustomizableUI. There are no errors relating to that in the console.