The elephant is still there...

[RDaneel]

... or it could be a different one - they all look big and gray, right?

After installing the latest from Builds By Bill(tm) - the 64-bit version of "2.53.18b1pre.en-US" - my Modern theme was marked as incompatible and disabled, with the current default theme running at that point.

I tried a couple of different things, with either explicitly removing the disabled theme from the Add-Ons manager or just going straight to installing the "modern@themes.mozilla.org.xpi" from SM's extensions directory - in both cases, I am told that the Modern theme will be "updated" when I restart SeaMonkey.

This is not what happens.

What does happen is that I am left with the default theme running, and a messed-up Add-Ons manager themes page: it shows both as being installed, with no indication of which is actually the current theme in use.

Maybe Frank (and Cat) are making some progress with unearthing and rehabilitating Mostly Crystal?

[TPR75]

... or it could be a different one - they all look big and gray, right?

After installing the latest from Builds By Bill(tm) - the 64-bit version of "2.53.18b1pre.en-US"

And what did you tested with that unofficial pre-beta version? Because you did realized it's not final release for "every day use", right? Stick with latest official release at least for your old "data rich" profile. If you want to test official beta or unofficial pre-beta then create separate profile for such activity. Or YOU CAN LOOSE all your precious data in your old profile (someday).

[RDaneel]

Um... I wasn't registering a complaint, and am certainly aware that data loss is always a possibility with "beta" software - and hopefully rarely, with production code also.

Good thing we have the ability to perform full backups of our profiles - I made and used one today so that I could examine this issue over a couple of different sequences of operations - and it is in fact "stable", as I indicated above, whether I did the explicit uninstall of [the disabled] Modern before the new .xpi install or not.

In any case, one of the reasons for running pre-release software is so that things like this can be found and shared, both with other "testers" and [the few] developers working on our favorite browser suite.

[frg]

I am unable to confirm this. Just works for me. Something seems to be gong wrong with the addon db. What Windows Version. Latest 10? Could you test with a clean test profile 2.53.17 and .18 are still profile compatible so you can reinstall 2.53.17b1 pre and update to .18 with a new profile.

[frg]

Also if there is a button to Remove Modern please do. It might have been copied into your profile. I just tried again and updating 2.53.17b1 pre to 2.53.18b1 pre with Modern active worked like a charm.

[RDaneel]

Hi, f-r - you have mentioned this "addon db" before - is there any way I can remove it / rebuild it / repair it?

Windows 11 "Insiders" - build shows as, rats, not sure - I am being forced to do another update before it will even show me the precise build#.

No, no Remove - that is kind of the point of my posting - the interface is really not like usual. My recent posts were about a new build just silently killing Modern and replacing it with Default, but I was still able to cleanly re-install Modern with the XPI sitting there in extensions. It seems likely that the first update that killed Modern (for me) is what corrupted my "addons db".

But now, sure, you can do a "Remove" ONCE - after that, it is just like I said - themes shows Default and Modern sitting there, NO "Remove" button - and NO indication that either is active, even though it is clearly running with Default.

[Frank Lion]

Maybe Frank (and Cat) are making some progress with unearthing and rehabilitating Mostly Crystal?

Yep, finished that at the start of June and sent it off for the betatesting stage since then. Looks good.

[RDaneel]

Well, back up on "Modern" again... but it was a strange journey.

1) it looks to me like "addons.sqlite" in the root of the profile is no longer used? In any case, it has really old stuff no longer in my system referenced, like (sniff) MostlyCrystal and NoScript? Can I just delete it?

2) the file "extensions.json" looks like what is currently meant by "addon db"? For sure, it had BOTH the Modern I had installed as well as an entry for the Default theme, with BOTH marked as active and neither disabled... I physically deleted that [Modern] chunk of "extensions.json"

3) ... which then let me explicitly "Install From File" once again the Modern XPI file - EXCEPT it's now GONE!

4) examining the latest Bill Build(tm) for Windows x64, I notice after installation, the "extensions" folder at the root of the installation directory is missing a number of the XPIs that used to be there, including "modern@themes.mozilla.org.xpi" - it is just GONE from the installed folder, so I had to grab it from a 3 days ago Windows x64 install package (really, not kidding)

5) ... and then I had to manually tweak the contained install.rdf to allow it to go in Bill's "2.53.18"

So, finally, after hacking the "extensions.json" file AND locating and tweaking a "modern@themes.mozilla.org.xpi", I am now back to a couple of days ago in terms of a running and [apparently] "clean" installation / profile.

And by "clean", I mean my Add-Ons Themes page shows a) the Default theme is disabled, and b) Modern has a Remove button.

BUT, frg et [any] al might want to check into why some of the XPIs have been dropped from the [Windows x64] installer? Was this intended?

[frg]

Packaging would fail if the modern theme or anything else is missing. I just downloaded the latest unofficial 2.53.18b1 pre and the modern theme. xpi is both in the x64 zip and the exe (renamed it to .7z and looked inside it) under extensions. Installed it in a Windows 11 22621 vm and it ends up there too with the latest date.

Given that no one else sees the problem I would check your system. Might be that Microsoft not so smart screen, Defender or any of the other now helpful MS cr*p deletes stuff. Or rights or an insider build problem.

[RDaneel]

You are [of course] absolutely correct that the extensions folder in the installer package is properly populated - but more than one of these (including Modern) did NOT end up in the installation's extensions folder.

Given my already-documented broken "addons db" (as you call it) - which looks like it is actually in extensions.json - I could believe any number of installation failures.

Now that I have "healed" extensions.json - at least in terms of the obvious breakage relative to Default and Modern - I will eagerly await the next install, and will see what gets placed into the installation extensions folder.

Going looking for really strange things with Windows seems a stretch...

CAN I delete addons.sqlite? It really doesn't seem to be carrying current information at all. And are there likely to be any other "fossil" files like this in my profile?

[frg]

It should be safe to delete addons.sqlite. key3.db and cert8 db are the old nss dbs and these can go too if present. Migrated to key4.db and cert9.db.

If a reinstall does not place the modern theme in extensions I would uninstall SeaMonkey and do a reboot. Might be an internal problem with the Windows installer files. "C:\Program Files\SeaMonkey" should be deleted also if left on disk before installing new.