Tiny Core Extensions > TCE Tips & Tricks
Firefox removed "Never check for updates" option
Rich:
It used to be that the Updates section of the Preferences page of Firefox had 3 choices:
* Automatically install updates (recommended)
* Check for updates but let you choose to install them
* Never check for updates (not recommended: security risk)
I always selected Never check for updates since a .tcz can't be written to anyway. I recently installed Firefox 79.0 and
found they removed choice #3, so I went with choice #2. Then yesterday I started seeing a little pop-up in the upper
right corner of Firefox informing me that they had updates they wanted to install.
I did not like that behavior. So after a lot of searching, here's how I dealt with it:
--- Code: ---sudo mkdir -p /etc/firefox/policies
--- End code ---
In this directory I placed:
--- Code: ---tc@E310:~$ cat /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}
tc@E310:~$
--- End code ---
Then:
--- Code: ---echo "etc/firefox" > /opt/.filetool.lst
--- End code ---
and run a backup.
After restarting Firefox, the 3 choices in the Updates section were replaced with:
* Updates disabled by your system administrator
That same message now also appears under Help->About Firefox.
I found other answers that said to place the file under the installation directory (firefox/distribution) which did not work.
nick65go:
Hi Rich, it is a good trick, thank you. I used google search for keyword DisableAppUpdate and I "discovered" a good documentation with more options here:
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md
nick65go:
in firefox address-bar i typed about:config and i searched for update keyword. many interesting string could show-up:
app.update.checkInstallTime.days =9999
app.update.download.attempts =0
app.update.service.enabled = false
or if search for telemetry, things like:
toolkit.telemetry.server = 127.0.0.1 (instead of https://incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org)
many settings like these can be created in a user.js file and "incorporated" in the already wonderful tool get_firefox.tcz script
Rich:
Hi nick65go
Yes, that's where I finally found the answer that worked:
--- Quote ---On Linux, the file goes into firefox/distribution, where firefox is the installation directory for firefox, which varies by distribution or you can specify system-wide policy by placing the file in /etc/firefox/policies.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Rich on August 29, 2020, 11:12:36 PM --- ... I found other answers that said to place the file under the installation directory (firefox/distribution) which did not work.
--- End quote ---
I wonder if Firefox followed the link from /usr/local/firefox/firefox back to /tmp/tcloop/firefox/usr/local/firefox/firefox when
determining its "installation directory". That could explain why placing the file under /usr/local/firefox/distribution/ did not work.
--- Quote from: nick65go on August 31, 2020, 07:48:51 AM --- ... https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md
--- End quote ---
For Firefox 79 the correct URL is:
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/v2.1/README.md
To find the correct README.md for other Firefox versions, go to:
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/releases
If you enter this in the address bar:
--- Code: ---about:policies#documentation
--- End code ---
It will list the policies your version of Firefox supports. If you click on the policies description, it will expand to display an example or
the data type required (Boolean, string, etc.). If you click on the Policy Name it will take you to the Github syntax examples.
Rich:
Hi nick65go
--- Quote from: nick65go on August 31, 2020, 09:01:49 AM ---in firefox address-bar i typed about:config and i searched for update keyword. many interesting string could show-up ...
--- End quote ---
If you enter this in the address bar:
--- Code: ---about:about
--- End code ---
it will list most of the about pages available.
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