Firefox +1 Mega Thread

[lovinglinux]

Well, I just got firefox 9.0 by accident, didn't notice what version firefox was in the update. This is the first time I've ever had a linux distro upgrade a major version of such an important package.
I'm using xubuntu 10.10 amd64.
Five of my add-ons are not compatible with 9.0, and three of those are dealbreakers; CookieSafe, Autotrans, and Bookmark This Page Plus.

So, I want to downgrade to 3.6(.24?) AND pin it to that version.
How do I do that?
(I already tried to install the 3.6.24 package I could find in the repository, but there was a locale problem and it couldn't start, even though I'm using english as locale).

Edit: I think I figured it out myself.
First, go to your local ubuntu mirror
http://[someubuntumirror.somewhere]/...ain/f/firefox/
and download;
firefox_3.6.24+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1_amd64.deb
firefox-branding_3.6.24+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1_amd64.deb
firefox-gnome-support_3.6.24+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1_amd64.deb

Close firefox. Uninstall (preferably dpkg --purge);
abrowser
firefox
firefox-branding
firefox-gnome-support
firefox-locale-en

go to where you downloaded the 3.6 packages.
Install them with dpkg -i firefox*

Note: do NOT download and install the 3.6.24 abrowser package. (Read the description if you wonder why).

Pinning the packages (with dselect):
start dselect, choose Select packages.. and press space on the help page.
search for firefox (shift+7 or / on the keypad. Note: just hitting enter in the next search, searches for the next package with the last searched phrase. No need to write it again).
press shift+h to pin the package that's highlighted.
Repeat procedure for the firefox-branding and firefox-gnome-support packages.

Just curious; Why (OH GOD, WHY) did the Ubuntu-maintainers upgrade firefox and let 10.10 users stumble into misery like this, so they can waste some of their already ultra-short christmas vacation downgrading to a browser where all their add-ons/extensions work?

I'm thinking about dumping ubuntu entirely, and as you can imagine, this incident did not improve matters.

Sometimes things are less complicated than you think. You just need to ask. But judging by your posting history, I have my doubts if you will ever read this reply. I will try anyways.

The only way you could have obtained that version of Firefox is by installing a ppa manually or through another application like Ubuntu Tweak, because you are using 10.10 and Firefox 8+ is only available to Natty and Oneiric users. The Ubuntu developers didn't upgrade Firefox without warning you, but that will happen eventually, when Mozilla stops providing support for Firefox 3.6.x, probably with the release of Firefox 10.

So all you need is to open Software Sources, click the Other Sofware tab, locate any ppa related to Firefox or Mozilla, disable them, then re-install Firefox.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall firefox

However, if your problem is add-on compatibility then you could get compatible versions or force compatibility.

You can get a Compatible version of CookieSafe (3.1a9) at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...ible/versions/

Bookmark This Page Plus is a dead extension that hasn't been updated in more than 2 years. Forget about it. Use Add Bookmark Here ².

Autotrans is another dead extension that hasn't been updated in two years.Use Add to Transmission instead.

I strongly advise you to get rid of those old extensions and use the ones I recommended, because they are compatible and currently maintained. Sooner or later, when Mozilla stops providing support for Firefox 3.6.x, you will have to upgrade to Firefox 9+ and get rid of them. I also strongly recommend upgrading to Firefox 9 now, since it is a lot faster than 3.6 and has many features not available to your current browser. Use the firefox-stable ppa for that.

On Firefox 10, add-ons are now considered compatible by default. However, those old add-ons would be flagged as incompatible anyway.

[vasa1]

...
I am using Aurora already and it is awesome. ...

Have you enabled SPDY in Aurora 11 (network.http.spdy.enabled)?

[lovinglinux]

Have you enabled SPDY in Aurora 11 (network.http.spdy.enabled)?

Oops, Firefox 10 moved to beta already, so I am not using Aurora. Forgot about that.

I didn't know SPDY was already available on 11.0. I am launching it...

[vasa1]

Oops, Firefox 10 moved to beta already, so I am not using Aurora. Forgot about that.

I didn't know SPDY was already available on 11.0. I am launching it...

This page has a couple of nice links to Aurora 11 features:
http://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/24/fir...t-has-changed/

[lovinglinux]

This page has a couple of nice links to Aurora 11 features:
http://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/24/fir...t-has-changed/

Running it right now. Cool, the 3D inspector feature was a third-party add-on called Tilt 3D: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tilt/

We featured this add-on last month. It should be appearing in the AMO Featured list soon.

[vasa1]

... the 3D inspector feature ...

This needs WebGL functionality. Is there some way to know if a computer's hardware supports WebGL?
This is what I see in "Troubleshooting Information":

Adapter Description  Tungsten Graphics, Inc -- Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
Vendor ID  Tungsten Graphics, Inc
Device ID  Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
Driver Version  2.1 Mesa 7.11
WebGL Renderer  Tungsten Graphics, Inc -- Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2 -- 2.1 Mesa 7.11
GPU Accelerated Windows  0

Not that I know what to do with the 3D Inspector
DOM Inspector is good enough for the modest CSS tweaks I need.

[lovinglinux]

This needs WebGL functionality. Is there some way to know if a computer's hardware supports WebGL?
This is what I see in "Troubleshooting Information":

Adapter Description  Tungsten Graphics, Inc -- Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
Vendor ID  Tungsten Graphics, Inc
Device ID  Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
Driver Version  2.1 Mesa 7.11
WebGL Renderer  Tungsten Graphics, Inc -- Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2 -- 2.1 Mesa 7.11
GPU Accelerated Windows  0

Not that I know what to do with the 3D Inspector
DOM Inspector is good enough for the modest CSS tweaks I need.

Try http://get.webgl.org/

Also https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/655279

I find the 3D Inspector easier to find exact node I need.

There is a "similar" add-on that doesn't use WebGL. See https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...-source-chart/

BTW, I don't see much difference with SPDY enabled. Loaded Gmail and Greader and they seem to load at the same speed.

[vasa1]

Thanks!

This works for me: https://cvs.khronos.org/svn/repos/re...pot/index.html
and this: https://cvs.khronos.org/svn/repos/re...anetsDeep.html

[mikodo]

Hi, I have the PPA's for Firefox-stable and Thunderbird-stable and from it I have FF 9 running. Recently, when on the web, my monitor goes grey, when hanging if changing to another page of a search, like from 1 -> 2 -> 3 and so on, only very briefly. Also if it sits on a page with no activity for a while, it will go grey, until I move the mouse. This is all very recent behavior.

To check, I disabled extra-effects (from compiz), disabled all my firefox addons (plugins, and extensions), stopped all web-pages from pre-loading when starting FF, all at no change of this behavior.

I haven't noticed this, with apps or pages native to my OS. I will have to watch closer, to be sure this isn't happening natively, though.

Is this behavior people have noticed with this version of FF?

I have no other browser, to test for this behavior with.

I am off to pick up some Christmas stuff, I will check in later.

Thanks.

EDIT: I use a quad-4 intel processor with 4 gigs of ram. I don't think the problem is related to resources.

[cap10Ibraim]

I always find Firefox faster and more stable when downloaded from Mozilla , and not prepackaged with a distribution