FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

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Clueless in Seattle
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FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

I also foolishly responded to yesterday's alert from Mozilla that my ESR installation was subject to attack, and allowed the installation of the update to proceed. But I didn't restart Firefox at that time. I usually just wait until boot up on the following day to restart the updated version.

Well this morning when I booted up my PC I found my bookmarks toolbar messed up, my tabs forced to the top of the window, my "Tile" add-on had disappeared, and a new harsh color scheme for the tabs. When I checked the version number of the updated version I learned that I am now the proud owner of Firefox Quantum. (I wish I could have been been warned of that in advance. I'm an old guy in failing health and am only able to spend a few minutes a day sitting up at my PC, so I need to plan ahead for the time it takes to adjust to major changes like this one).

I'm hoping that I'll eventually find ways to get my UI back to the way I liked it. After all, wasn't that one of the main selling points of Firefox ESR in the first place, i.e. a stable user interface? Or if the UI can't be tweaked I figure that I'll eventually just learn to grin an bear it.

But, it turns out that I have a second machine still running my previous version of of Firefox ESR, so I suspect that if I were willing to take the risk, I should be able to import that old installation onto my main PC. Is that assumption correct?

If so, is there anyone out there who could point me to the instructions for accomplishing that?

P.S. I tried to post this to the topic "FF ESR 60.2.0 backout?" which was posted yesterday http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3041493. But that topic was closed after being open for only three hours. So maybe an administrator could reopen that thread and then append this message to that thread. In the meantime I'm afraid I've used up my ration of sitting up time for this morning, so I'm heading back to bed where I'll be web-surfing away on my hand-me-down tablet hunting for help in trying to figure out how to straighten out the can of worms that my Firefox UI has become. Always the optimist, I'm trusting the process will be straightforward and simple enough to accomplish once I figure out how to do it.
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Will in Seattle
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Clueless in Seattle
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

P.P.S. OK, I've had three hours of bed rest during which I cogitated on what to do about the trashing of my settings when I blindly undated from Firefox ESR 52.2.0 (32-bit) to Firefox to Quantum 60.2.0esr (32-bit). It occurred to me that I wouldn't really don't need to try to go back to the old version. All I would need are the *settings* from the old version.

So, since I still have my old installation of Firefox ESR 52.2.0 (32-bit) on another machine, isn't there some way I could import the settings from that version into Firefox to Quantum 60.2.0esr (32-bit)? Or use them as a template for recreating them in Firefox Quantum 60.2.0esr (32-bit)

Which settings do I have in mind? you well may ask.

Well, two for starters:

1. Tabs on the bottom
2. No folder icons on Bookmarks Toolbar

These are both minor cosmetic UI tweaks that should be simple to import or simply recreate, but which make a huge difference for me in the usability of UI.

Am I on the right track here?
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Will in Seattle
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Brummelchen
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by Brummelchen »

There is nothing wrong with my answer in linked thread. Pls read again and then you will find answers. For style search here for usechrome.css. dont consider to use old settings, this is a real warning!

To answer a question: mozilla is NOT responsible for consequences when user modify its product. Using esr is by purpose, there known major jumps eg v38 to v45 to v52. And now v60 which was long ago announced. Esr usrs should not say: i did not know about. Thats a true lie.
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therube
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by therube »

In general, you're not going to get 60 ESR to "be" 52 ESR.

Yes there are "tweaks" that may accomplish some of what you want, but... But it's not like there is some extension that you can install (there used to be) that all you had to do was select what you wanted... If you're into creating & editing CSS files, or finding some that someone has written that meets your needs...

So...

If you had a backup of your Profile, from before, you could revert...
If the Profile from your other computer is sufficient, you could start with that...
If you do revert to 52 ESR, you would want the latest 52 ESR which is 52.9 (not the 52.2.0 which you say you have).
You would also need to disable updates in 52.
And be aware that there will be no more updates, security or otherwise, for 52.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
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Clueless in Seattle
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Hi Brummelchen! Thanks for the reply!

I'm afraid I'm just an ordinary everyday user of Firefox and don't have any technical computer training or experience, so I had trouble understanding what you wrote in both your reply to me and in your reply to iamme99. It all just went right over my head. The only language I understand with any facility is standard English. Technical jargon is as impenetrable to me as an exotic foreign language.

But I've been through this experience of losing all or most all of my Firefox settings with each upgrade many times before. That's what finally prompted me to switch to ESR a long while back. It cut down on the frequency of those annoying losses of useful features, so that I could just use Firefox as a browser and not have to keep spending time fiddling over and over trying to recover lost settings.

The one thing that I did understand from your posts is your stern warning to not try to revert to my old version or even to try to import settings from my old version. So thanks for that heads up. I'll forget about trying to go back to my old version or trying to recover my old settings, and instead muddle through, yet once again, the tedious process of trying to remember or relearn how to tweak the settings in this new and alien looking version to make it look and act as much like my old versions as is feasible.

Thanks again for reading my posts and for warning me off trying something that might make matters even worse.

So, I'd say this thread is dead and can be closed or deleted.
Last edited by Clueless in Seattle on September 8th, 2018, 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Will in Seattle
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jscher2000
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by jscher2000 »

Did you get a userChrome.css rule for this:
Clueless in Seattle wrote: 2. No folder icons on Bookmarks Toolbar
I think this is the selector but I haven't tried this myself:

Code: Select all

#PlacesToolbarItems toolbarbutton[container="true"] .toolbarbutton-icon {
  display: none !important;
}
Note that [container="true"] will also match "smart bookmark folders" which return query results (e.g., Most Visited).
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Clueless in Seattle
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by Clueless in Seattle »

Thanks a million jscher2000! That did the trick!

Do you know how to tweak the code so that the contents of the bookmark toolbar will be centered?
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Will in Seattle
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Re: FF ESR 60.2.0 backout? Redux

Post by jscher2000 »

Clueless in Seattle wrote:Do you know how to tweak the code so that the contents of the bookmark toolbar will be centered?
I do not, but someone else might.
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