Firefox-ESR 68.7 update check disable parameter

[webmoebius]

I was wondering if anyone knew what the ABOUT:CONFIG parameter is (perhaps of boolean value) to disable Firefox-ESR 68.7 update check nag notices. Thanks for any help on this.

[dickvl]

Why do you want to stay at Firefox 68.7.0 as that branch only receives minor security updates ?

Note that Firefox 68.9.0 is current for 68 ESR.
https://www.mozilla.org/security/known- ... oxESR.html

You would have to use a policies.json file to disable updating as there is no pref available apart form letting you decide whether to update.
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templ ... /README.md

[webmoebius]

My preference is to use Firefox-ESR as opposed to the general consumer release, due to additional features present in ESR, and I'd prefer not to be constantly nagged about every available incremental update because I check Mozilla's public archives for new releases semi-regularly. I don't want to keep updating for every single little patch. It's that simple.

The POLICIES.JSON solution worked properly once I've created the DISTRIBUTION folder within the Firefox ESR program folder and then created the POLICIES.JSON file placed within that folder, using the appropriate parameters. Thank you.

[therube]

(Heh. I had to check the dates of these posts.
dick is on 52 & web on 53. Me, you know where I am [I only wish I knew ].

Anyhow, what was pointed to is ESR.
And what comes in ESR... (drum roll) ... security updates (mainly).

Now that fact that FF 78 ESR is nearly upon us is a different matter.
And if you didn't want to update to that still does not negate that fact that you should be using the newest [68] ESR that is available.)

[4td8s]

The POLICIES.JSON solution worked properly once I've created the DISTRIBUTION folder within the Firefox ESR program folder and then created the POLICIES.JSON file placed within that folder, using the appropriate parameters. Thank you.

you will have to re-create the policies.json file and the Distribution folder each time you upgrade or install a newer Firefox ESR version on top of the older one.

btw, support for Firefox 68.x ESR will end in late summer 2020 with the upcoming FF 68.12 ESR release

[webmoebius]

you will have to re-create the policies.json file and the Distribution folder each time you upgrade or install a newer Firefox ESR version on top of the older one. btw, support for Firefox 68.x ESR will end in late summer 2020 with the upcoming FF 68.12 ESR release

Not a big deal. Just move the DISTRIBUTION folder out of the FF program folder prior to uninstallation, then uninstall the old version, install the new version and move the DISTRIBUTION folder back in. No need to recreate it. I never install over existing versions. I can't be bothered chasing after every little incremental minor version update release. I usually update software after more than one minor version release.

[webmoebius]

So it has been a number of months since I visited this subject and things seemed to work fine with suppression of Firefox-ESR 68.7, until I manually uninstalled it and then installed Firefox-ESR 78.71 not long ago, and moved the DISTRIBUTION folder with the required POLICIES.JSON back into the program folder. But now that Firefox-ESR 78.80 has been released, the existing 78.71 installation is nagging me again to update which I had to repeatedly decline. Not sure why the above method now doesn't work. The contents of that folder hasn't changed, as I moved it out of the Firefox-ESR 68.7 program folder prior to uninstallation 68.7, and then moved it back into the program folder after 78.71 was installed.

After doing some research, it seems that there are two different but equally effective parameters that could be included in POLICIES.JSON to disable auto update nagging. The first parameter is APPAUTOUPDATE which is to be set to FALSE, which is what I have in POLICIES.JSON at the moment that worked for FF-ESR 68.7. However, I understand that there is another possible parameter called DISABLEAPPUPDATE which should be set to TRUE, but have not used this parameter so far. I did enter ABOUT:POLICIES in the URL bar and FF-ESR 78.7 confirms that the value of APPAUTOUPDATE is false, so the policies.json file did read into the browser during start up. But auto update check / nag is still not disabled.

In ABOUT:CONFIG, I noticed these parameters are as follows:
app.update.auto = false (non-default value)
app.update.service.enabled = true (default value)

Should any of these values be adjusted?

[therube]

(Aside from the update issue itself, IMO, there should be no reason not to update - within a particular ESR series.
The only thing, essentially, that ESR updates get are security fixes.
So anything in the "78" ESR line should not cause you issue - as far as updates are concerned.
78.0.0 being the first, & 78.8.0 being the current. You should update from 78.7.1 to 78.8.0.
[Now, when the ESR level jumps from 78 to {whatever comes next} that is an entirely different story.])

[webmoebius]

(Aside from the update issue itself, IMO, there should be no reason not to update - within a particular ESR series.
The only thing, essentially, that ESR updates get are security fixes. So anything in the "78" ESR line should not cause you issue - as far as updates are concerned. 78.0.0 being the first, & 78.8.0 being the current. You should update from 78.7.1 to 78.8.0. [Now, when the ESR level jumps from 78 to {whatever comes next} that is an entirely different story.])

I'm not at all worried about rushing to the next FF-ESR update at all. In fact, I generally skip minor updates by a number of releases before even bothering to update, and all my updates are done manually with manual uninstall and then manual reinstall. But this doesn't really address my original query as to why update checks are still performed despite the correct use of POLICIES.JSON file in the DISTRIBUTION folder under the FF-ESR program installation directory.

I think the APP.UPDATE.AUTO is just that - it disables auto INSTALLATION of new updates. But that does NOT mean it does NOT CHECK for updates and nag you about it. Two different things. That's what I have come to realize. I would like the auto update check and nag to be completely disabled so I decide when I will check if there's a new version and install it or not.

[therube]

You might see what manually hacking channel-prefs.js does for you?
(You'd find it someplace like /programfiles/firefox/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js.)

Edit that file with a text editor, changing the "update channel" to something bogus.

from:
pref("app.update.channel", "esr");
to:
pref("app.update.channel", "DON'TBUGME!");

?

[webmoebius]

You might see what manually hacking channel-prefs.js does for you?
(You'd find it someplace like /programfiles/firefox/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js.)

Thanks for that tip. I must have missed your reply and only saw it just now.

Actually, I was wondering if anyone might know how to disable TOR 10.0.15 auto-update or disable auto update CHECK altogether. This TOR version is based on FF-ESR 78.90 though the program storage directory structure is very different from stock FF-ESR 78.90 installations and I have no idea if the DISTRIBUTION folder trick will even work. If anyone has tried and succeeded in disabling this version of TOR I'd be interested to hear about it. Thanks.

[webmoebius]

The ABOUT:CONFIG parameter to defeat the annoying Firefox update nag prompt is:

app.update.checkInstallTime.days

The default value is 63 days. This parameter is the number of days since the currently installed version of Firefox-ESR has elapsed before the update check process will proceed. Even if the DISTRIBUTION folder procedure described above is used, it still would NOT eliminate the update nag prompt, even though AUTO update is disabled with the DISTRIBUTION folder contents. By setting the above parameters to 256 days or 512 days, the browser will not proceed with update check nor the update nag prompt for 1 or 2 years, as per the user's preference. This essentially defeats the update nag prompt and allows full manual update decision by the user. There's also no accidental update when you don't want it, in case the wrong choice was clicked in the update nag prompt. The nag prompt got so annoying, it began to appear multiple times during a single FF-ESR session. I would suspect this fix would work for standard FF browser edition as well.

[webmoebius]

After playing around a bit further, the definitive method to completely disable Firefox-ESR from checking updates, nagging user to update with prompts, and the ability to even trigger updates within the browser, can be permanently disabled with the policies.json file containing the following code:

{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}

This completely shuts down the update system and even eliminates the manual update button within the SETTINGS page in the browser. This has been confirmed to work normally with the latest Firefox-ESR 91.1.0 release.