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!
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.
Could be useful to try that out to at least see how the process works. Thanks!
it works on unbranded (“Nightly”) builds, the “Developer” build, and also the ESR build but doesn’t work on normal/default firefox. afaik you can still load it temporarily in about:debugging or something. I personally just use ESR.
edit: i see you’re on windows… i tend to use this firefox fork there. https://github.com/e3kskoy7wqk/Firefox-for-windows-7
patched to be compatible on win7, but it works fine on 10/11 and supports unsigned addon
Since I mostly use the extension to download videos from various sites (currently YT is broken but I use yt-dlp with SponsorBlock for that). It might be fine to just load it with the debugging option as needed. I already use the Zen fork a lot, so another fork may just be overkill (though I am glad you shared one I wasn’t aware of). Thanks for the info!
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.
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 :)
