Get Ready for the Firefox 17 ESR
I just want to remind people that read my blog that Firefox 17 is the next Extended Support Release for Firefox. It's currently available in the beta channel. You should be testing with this. A lot. (I would hope you started testing when Firefox 17 was in the Aurora Channel).
The Firefox 10 ESR will be supported for 12 weeks after Firefox 17 to give you time to test and deploy, but if there are major issues you need to find them now.
PLEASE don't put off testing Firefox 17 until the ESR is released.
You also need to know about some Firefox changes that will affect you.
- Customized preferences file should go in defaults/preferences, NOT defaults/prefs. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating.
- It is no longer possible to prevent the safe mode dialog via the method I posted here. There is no way to prevent a user from entering safe mode. A bug has been opened.
- Changing application.ini no longer works. I know people were using it to disable the crash reporter. They were also using this method to modify Firefox to coexist with another Firefox (different profile directory, appname, etc.). There are workarounds for this, but they involve passing a parameter when you start Firefox. Take a look at bug 723493 for more details.
- The ability for a user to switch to tabs on bottom has been removed completely, but it can still be done via a preference (browser.tabs.onTop).
I will be updating the CCK Wizard soon to make sure it works properly with Firefox 17.
Are there any numbers on the usage of the ESR?
You should ask on the enterprise list. Maybe Mozilla will answer.
Will addons in distribution/bundles still get loaded during safe mode?
> Will addons in distribution/bundles still get loaded during safe mode?
Yes. That's one of the reasons I recommend extensions that are required for corporate installs to be located in that directory.
I am astonished, that so called ESR releases, which are directed at enterprises do not have features that very same enterprises do use. Steps backward with every new ESR release is not a good motivation to continue to use Firefox, especially when magic hackery things have to be used.
The goal with the ESR releases is only stability. Enterprise features will only make it in to an ESR if they go into Firefox and unfortunately enterprise outs not a focus area for Mozilla.
I just started testing deployments to update ESR 10, and I was disappointed to see that defaultPref() in the local config file is still not functioning properly with Firefox ESR 17b1. I thought it had been fixed in some version between 10 and 17. It works for some preferences, but I can't get it to work for example on "signon.rememberSignons". LockPref() works fine.
I'll check into this. Last I checked, it was working.
Hi! Have you found time to check it?
Mike, was hoping you could help me, i am trying to deploy Firefox within our organisation but i am having issues with the CCK Wizard. I have managed to get one CCK package to work how i want (by setting and locking certain preferences) but if i try to update or edit the package, it doesn't seem to work and loses all the previous preferences. I have started from scratch, but still get the same result. Do you have any idea what i am doing wrong? Thanks for creating this wizard though!
I'm sorry I missed this. Are you still having these problems? Is there something I can help with?
FF 17 was released today. Is there a new CCK Wizard release to go along with it?
Just tried FF17 ESR on Solaris. CCK seems to work for most things however I noticed my custom Toolbar Bookmarks are not created for new profiles anymore.
Can you check the latest CCK and see if this is still a problem?
http://code.google.com/p/ff-cckwizard/downloads/list
Hi Mike,
Sorry, same problem with 1.4b1. Method was installed new CCK wizard, imported my config from the previous version. Went through the wizard and left all settings the same including the bookmark toolbar links. Copied the generated folder to $FIREFOX_HOME$/bundles/. Removed my ~/.mozilla directory and restarted firefox. All customizations work except the bookmark toolbars. Version is firefox 17.01 for Solaris 10 from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.1esr/
First off, I really appreciate your blog, thank you very much!
I built a basic Firefox 17.0 setup for W7 x64.
Unfortunately, there are a still several flaws:
It seems I can't manage to get a pre-defined homepage address configured (with pref("browser.startup.homepage", "https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=de"); throwing an error at startup and the alternate defaultPref("browser.startup.homepage", "data:text/plain,... obviously being ignored), another attempt was using the file \core\distribution.ini for it, but again, to no avail.
As a start, I used that distribution.ini:
http://dxr.allizom.org/mozilla-central/browser/components/places/tests/unit/distribution.ini
Bookmarks is the 2nd important issue:
I've customised a bookmarks.html within \core\defaults\profile to be empty, i.e. deprived of default Mozilla links. For the ease of customisation I want to set bookmarks separately, leaving the html as a simple structure (just hope that's feasible).
Do you have any idea in mind how to fix these issues?
Best regards.
I apologize for missing this post. Are you still having these problems?
Is there something I can still help you with?
Hi Mike,
This may not be the most appropriate place for this post, but here it goes. I am a computer novice looking for a solution to a FF issue. I currently use add-ons to restrict my FF usage, and the publicfox addon to password protect any add-on changes. I recently discovered that you can bypass addons by starting FF in safe mode. I understand that you previously posted a solution to remove the safe mode option but that the solution no longer works. Do you have any suggestions to prevent easy bypass of ff addons, even it is just password protected? Thanks.
I did a new post that shows how to disable safe mode.
http://mike.kaply.com/2013/01/11/disabling-safe-mode-in-firefox-17/
Your other option is to disable add-ons using an autoconfig file. This isn't overridden by safe mode.
http://mike.kaply.com/2012/03/16/customizing-firefox-autoconfig-files/
How come Firefox 17.0.2 is not available for Solaris 10 (sparc)?
The lastest in the 17.0.x series is 17.0.1
I would recommend asking this question on the ESR list.
Hi Mike
Unfortunately even with the latest CCK wizard i am unable to get bookmarks on the toolbar or even the in the bookmarks menu on Mac OSX 10.8.2
i am putting my extention in Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/distribution/bundles/
everything else works as desired except the bookmarks
Tim, When you say latest, what's the version? I haven't officially released the latest. I just haven't had time. It's here:
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/downloads/list