Firefox ESR updates (91.4, Oct ESR 102.3)

[Member greyowl]

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When I run “antiX Updater” on my antiX 21 laptop, it upgrades FF esr from 78 to 91.

When I run “antiX Updater” on my antiX 19 laptop, it does not upgrade FF esr from 78 to 91.

I am wondering why there is a discrepancy between antiX 21 and antiX 19.

Dell Latitude D620 laptop with antiX 22 (64 bit)

[Member blur13]

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They use different software repositories.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Seems like the Debian packages page I linked to about firefox-esr is wrong.
firefox-esr in Debian 11/antiX-21 has been updated to 91.4.1

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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anticapitalista wrote:

Seems like the Debian packages page I linked to about firefox-esr is wrong.
firefox-esr in Debian 11/antiX-21 has been updated to 91.4.1

Again, whether we have the ‘right’, most up to date packages pointed to by our repository or not, I’ve previously linked to the site where you can find ANY of the versions we have discussed. The Firefox ESR pages point, not only to the 78 and 91 series, but they at least mention, if not directly access, any versions from the past 5-6 years AND the main Firefox pages include current and test releases. Anyone willing to put in the time and effort CAN get whatever release they want, and I have assisted in the research by providing direct links to several of the versions under discussion.

The rest is for the users desiring something else.

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Brian Masinick

[Member greyowl]

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blur13 wrote:

They use different software repositories.

blur13 wrote:

They use different software repositories.

Will the firefox-esr in Debian 11/antiX-21 repo be updated to 91.4.1 in the future? If so, when would you expect this to happen?

Dell Latitude D620 laptop with antiX 22 (64 bit)

[Member blur13]

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Greyowl,
Sorry, I don’t have the answer to that. You’re better off asking Debian (https://www.debian.org/contact)

Brian,
You are of course right that a user can download any desired version of Firefox from the mozilla website. If you stick to the “stable” packages from the Debian repositories, you’ll get security support. It might be that an independent install of Firefox “auto-updates” in which case, security-wise, both approaches are similar.

[Member greyowl]

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@blur13

Thanks for the information.
I am also thinking that I would prefer to get the FF upgrade through the repos so that it is updated whenever I do a “antiX Updater”.

Dell Latitude D620 laptop with antiX 22 (64 bit)

[Moderator caprea]

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@Robin, the firefox-esr version 91.4.1-esr on antiX21 comes from the bullseye-security repos.

$ apt-cache policy firefox-esr
firefox-esr:
  Installiert:           91.4.1esr-1~deb11u1
  Installationskandidat: 91.4.1esr-1~deb11u1
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 91.4.1esr-1~deb11u1 500
        500 http://security.debian.org bullseye-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     78.15.0esr-1~deb11u1 500
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages

It should be possible to downgrade on your antiX21 with
sudo apt install firefox-esr=78.15.0esr-1~deb11u1

Might set it to hold for now.Don’t ask me about security but it’s also still used in buster.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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FYI, the Firefox release updates are complete as of today. Firefox 96.0 was in functional freeze since January 4; today, January 11, Version 96.0 is the current stable release.

Similarly, the Firefox Extended Support Release was also updated; it’s now listed as Version 91.1.5.

Beta and Nightly versions are now regularly updating until the next functional freeze. The schedule link that I previously shared contains the details of this information.

I have not seen the Debian repository updates to reflect either 91.1.5 ESR or 96.0; a few Linux distributions already started pulling in Firefox 96 late yesterday.

I noticed a copy and paste issue that still affects the new versions, unfortunately. I overcame the issue by copying things I wanted to paste into an external text editor (instead of the contents of another tab), then pasted the contents from the editor, then the defect of copy/paste between tabs did not resurface).

Note that if you DO want any of these updates, they’ll have to come from Mozilla sources until either Debian or antiX picks them up in their repositories.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member DaveW]

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For what it’s worth, Firefox 91.4.1esr installed okay, with Synaptic, on my AntiX 17 system.
It works okay. Had to reset privacy settings and such.
My previous version was FF 68.10.0esr.
The new version seems a bit balky in some functions (eg., printing, as noted below).

Unfortunately, they are always making unnecessary “improvements”. The new print page function was awkward and got bogged down. Here is how to switch back to the classic behavior (it still stutters a bit on my system, but works okay):

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste print.tab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the print.tab_modal.enabled preference is bolded and has a value of true, double-click it to restore the default value of false (the old layout)

[Member grey_rat]

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For SSE, for Firefox 78 must be set to
media.cubeb.sandbox false
security.sandbox.content.level 2
webgl.disabled true

ublock max 1.16.20 (without wasm)

preferably:
dom.ipc.processCount 1
layers.async-pan-zoom.enabled false
browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory true
browser.tabs.remote.warmup.enabled false
layers.acceleration.force-enabled true
layers.max-active 1 or 2 (if a green window instead of a video)
gfx.webrender.force-disabled true

browser.safebrowsing.allowOverride
browser.safebrowsing.blockedURIs.enabled
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.enabled
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.enabled
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_dangerous
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_dangerous_host
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_potentially_unwanted
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_uncommon
browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled
browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled
false

For Firefox 91 should work gfx.webrender.force-disabled true , but i don’t know how to do it.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by grey_rat.

[Member Robin]

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@caprea Many thanks for your reply. I do know how to downgrade to 78.15 manually. I managed to downgrade by using
sudo apt-get install firefox-esr-l10n-de=78.15.0esr-1~deb11u1
but it complained about being downgraded not allowing to use my original profile anymore. And it came up still in English language. Something must be wrong with the language packs also. Localisation only worked from within firefox preferences, there is a section which allows to select the language of firefox gui, after which it downloads the localisation again from somewhere. Then after restart localisation works again.

caprea wrote:

Don’t ask me about security but it’s also still used in buster.

Exactly this is what concerns me most when setting it to hold. Firefox is one of the programs in direct contact with the open internet. So it is never a good idea to have unpatched security holes left open when setting it on hold (or use an outdated version as brian had proposed some posts above).

Being used in buster doesn’t mean the 78.15 gets the security patches in bullseye also. They have switched to 91 series, so probably they don’t give a damn about whether 78 still gets patched or not in bullseye.

Unfortunately no other browser in recent version (recent for security reasons) would install. And from my experience I noticed most browsers won’t get accepted by the webpages. Even Universities won’t accept non mainstream browsers. So theoretically there might be some other browsers, put practically it boils down on either making firefox-esr run in recent version with all security patches, or stop using this PC for internet access due to this arbitrary design decision they have taken at mozillas. There is obviously no striking technical reason why a browser should not work anymore on this class of machines with modern internet pages, since 78.15 does still work, and nobody can tell me my PC with more than 3300 bogmips is not good enough anymore from one day to the other. No, it is a clear decision to let us sit in the rain simply. Wouldn’t have thought to see something like this happen in open source linux world, but everything is possible, obviously.

Still hoping there will come a fix for this for debian ff 91 esr versions…

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member blur13]

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The new FF 91.5.0esr (64-bit) hit the Debian buster repos today. I’m actually really impressed by how much faster it is at rendering websites compared with the old ESR release. Makes me wonder if its better to use the non-ESR version to get constant updates and improvements. It seems to make a real difference in terms of speed and efficiency.

[Member ModdIt]

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Robin wrote: making firefox-esr run in recent version with all security patches, or stop using this PC for internet access
due to this arbitrary design decision they have taken at mozilla.

Problem is at present Linux, Moz continues to offer 32 bit windoze support. As long as that is the case it should remain possible
to compile for 32 bit machines.

Regarding the speed increase of latest ESR, stripping out of telemetry and pinging madness gives maximum performance. Plus block ads
and scripts wherever possible. Rename crash reporter, pingsender etc, remove hidden browser features especialy screenshot hidden extension
which can be remotely used by bad actors.

The Latest firefox version has the disadvantage of not being as controllable, using enterprise policy tools is limited to LTS.

Just a reminder that in nightly all the telemetry and monitoring is default on and can not be turned off by users.

Transporting all the crap through the internet for monetizing user data in real time advertising auctions is an environmental desaster
as well as costing users through provider and electricity company bills. On top driving us nuts with blinking flashing junk on screen.

A lot of Librewolf changes are good in LTS fox, that includes userchrome css to change the interface form awesome bar to something less insane.
My fox pretty tame now.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by ModdIt.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Was surprised when I checked my versions. I’ve fixed it by going into synaptic and just telling firefox-esr to upgrade by itself. After starting it. I was grinning at the antiX 21 reference in the help tab on firefox when it comes to upgrading. Oh what a tangled mess we weave. 😀

Been doing this on my antiX 19 boxes.

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