Firefox 24 - 52 for ME and 98

[jumper]

On 1/6/2026 at 4:44 AM, woi said:

No, an exception is the furthest I could get (if SystemFunction036 is disabled, I don't need to touch that) but FineSSE lacks any details. That's why I ask for FineSSE updates.

Seems like Jumper is about to test Mypal68, only time will tell if he manages to figure out the cause of the issue.

I was unable to get any browser later than FF28 to load (and even that crashed at exit), so I wrote a small test app to raise various exceptions. I've added to Finesse basic support for several new continuable exception types, but still need to add detail reporting and make it all more robust.

 

[woi]

1 hour ago, jumper said:

I was unable to get any browser later than FF28 to load (and even that crashed at exit), so I wrote a small test app to raise various exceptions. I've added to Finesse basic support for several new continuable exception types, but still need to add detail reporting and make it all more robust.

 

I created a separate VM for plain KernelEx 2022 (.18 and later updates + Kex22) with no modifications to Kstub and Firefox 29 works there with XP mode. Unsure if it's your non-SSE2 hardware, more likely related to how you setup KernelEX.

Also you might need to take a look at sqlite 3.50.1 issue thats happening on Roytam1 browsers post-2025.05.31, those break "Restore Previous Session, Recently Closed Tabs and Recently Closed Windows" and history (if transferred from XP) on 98/ME.

Edited February 11 by woi

[schwups]

OK, too bad. I can't remember any useful information about testing with hardware from around 2000. Unfortunately, I haven't had such a 370/slot1 motherboard or something similar to test for a long time.
Since there is probably no one here who knows KernelEx better than you jumper, the hardware could probably play a role. Maybe it's more the graphics card and its drivers, which in my experience can be a factor. My oldest boards have chipsets Via P4M800, PT880Ultra or Intel 915 - Graphic cards are NV 5900XT / 6600GT AGP for the VIA boards with drivers 82.16 or 82.69 . RT's browsers work here using these boards, but the browsers are extremely slow with this hardware.
The speed becomes useful by suppressing advertising or deactivating Javascript.

RAM (VRAM)? Mozilla recommended 512MB. This applies to XP. As is well known, it is said to have a more robust memory management than 98SE/ME. I read repeatedly about browser crashes due to low/little memory, that of course also applies to other operating systems. Perhaps we need to define a higher limit?

SSE2 Processors were required since Firefox 49. So I'm assuming that this isn't important here.

 

Edited February 11 by schwups

[schwups]

It's not getting any better. On start latest Serpent 55 causes an error in Kernel32.dll, due to a change in gkmedias.dll. Strangely enough, it affects neither 52.9 (20260314) nor Newmoon (20260314).

[schwups]

I checked latest versions Serpent 55/52 and Newmoon 20260502.

First of all I've no clue to run them with the roll back of Xul.dll and mozsqlite3.dll 20250531 (nss3.dll in case of Serpent 55) without exchanging more files, that doesn't make much sense. So I ran them without changing any files. Of course, I replaced API RaiseException by GetLastError in mozjs.dll.

They run mostly stable with the mentioned additional issues.
I would also like to add that "Verify Integrity" - about:support > Places Database - doesn't work anymore (OK up to version 20250531). I also had a very annoying problem, that images didn't appear. This was a real killjoy! Fortunately, images are displayed in the new versions.

Mentioned again for Newmoon "Restore Previous Session, Recently Closed Tabs and Recently Closed Windows" work, but URL input in the Location bar doesn't. So use the search engine to open the URL. History and Bookmarks don't work at all (Serpent and Newmoon). The only solution I know is PlainOldFavorites.

The password manager is also affected by the sqlite update. The passwords aren't saved anymore. It has to be typed every time.

Edited May 7 by schwups

[defuser]

On 5/15/2022 at 1:27 PM, defuser said:

Greetings. I have a very similar problem. There is sound in Windows ME with the WDM driver, but if you install the VXD driver, the sound disappears. And in Windows 98 there is no sound at all, both with the VxD and with the WDM driver. At the same time, there is sound in the system itself in all cases. Sound is also available in older versions of Firefox (<14 and some early nightly alpha builds of 14). Starting from version 15, the sound is no longer available in all that I managed to try at the moment. I don’t know what to do with this problem, so far I see the option of installing a separate sound card with WDM drivers, especially for browsers, or looking for some purely software sound card emulator based on WDM drivers. And the fact that you have CMI8738 sound under Windows 98 SE, with installed WDM drivers is a very good sign (In terms of WinME is not required in this case). Because I have sound on SoundBlaster16 only in WinME and only with WDM drivers. This may mean that the WDM driver for CMI8738 has some key files that give sound to Windows 98 SE (not only in WinME, as in my case).

I have finally managed to fix this audio issue in Firefox 15 (and later versions) browsers on Windows 98  FE. As previously mentioned, you need to switch to an audio card that uses WDM drivers (VxD is not  compatible with any compatible OS) in the Multimedia settings before launching the browser. In addition,  I also had to update the "KMIXER.SYS" file located in the "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS" folder to  version "4.10.2222" (I haven't tested other versions yet). After updating this file and then rebooting,  the sound works fine in all browsers (I tested it using an online video on YouTube.com).

In addition, I also tested a simple USB audio card for just five euros, and surprisingly, Windows 98 FE  found it and automatically installed all the necessary WDM drivers (it requested the Windows 98 FE  installation CD during the process), and now, after replacing "KMIXER.SYS" with the above version, the  sound works in all browsers with this USB audio card as well.

So if you prefer VxD drivers and Windows 98\98SE\ME, you can also purchase a USB audio card specifically  for browsers as an additional option. You can also try the new WDM driver for integrated audio  solutions: https://msfn.org/board/topic/187713-native-wdm-hd-audio-driver-for-windows-98seme/