My Browser Builds (Part 3)

[UCyborg]

On 12/2/2021 at 12:16 AM, UCyborg said:

What it does can be accomplished with a simple user script (GreaseMonkey for Pale Moon required). It tells YouTube through parameters passed via URL to enable mobile version, so no user agent spoofing required.

Updated it so it doesn't break embedded YouTube videos.

But since it forces mobile site with no way to get back other than to mess with cookies, I wrote another script with GUI to select layout. GUI can be triggered while on YouTube from GreaseMonkey's User Script Commands menu.

19 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

Unfortunately, Pale Moon's add-on site doesn't let you download add-ons to a directory of your choice. AFAICS all you can do is click "Install Now."

Right click on the install button->Save Link As... Old trick.

19 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

P.S. For the real experts around here, I'd love to know why Moon Tester Tool didn't work. I actually went to the trouble to find the downloaded .xpi in the browser cache (not easy), rename it pmplayer.xpi, and use the "Test Add-On from file" option, and it still said it was incompatible!

It sees that Pale Moon GUID already exists so it leaves it alone. Wasn't programmed to change existing entries' target version.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

8 minutes ago, UCyborg said:

I wrote another script with GUI to select layout. GUI can be triggered while on YouTube from GreaseMonkey's User Script Commands menu.

Nice!

[VistaLover]

20 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

To access them, you have to "pretend" to be "official" Pale Moon or Basilisk with a SSUAO. Here's one I use in New Moon:

general.useragent.override.addons.palemoon.org;Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:4.8) Goanna/20211001 PaleMoon/29.4.0.2

That pretends to be Pale Moon v29.4 on 64-bit Windows 7. Once you set the SSUAO, the Pale Moon add-on page will give you the "Install Now" button.

20 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

let's try Serpent 52. The SSUAO (courtesy @VistaLover) is

general.useragent.override.addons.basilisk-browser.org;Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Goanna/4.8 Firefox/68.0 Basilisk/52.9.2021.07.19

Now, go to the Basilisk add-on site above and you'll have the "Install Now" button.

... You do know who the admin of those two repos is, don't you? ...  FWIW, for years all the dev members behind MPC/BinOC protested, in a most vocal fashion, about how many, popular, websites treated their browsers unfairly (i.e. shutting the door to them), solely based on UA-sniffing rather than feature-sniffing; and now, they're practising themselves exactly the same thing they used to criticise... 

They're even blocking access to parts of their "legitimate" user base (PM+Bk) if, for some reason, they happen to be on some previous version...  
Yes, they currently only support the very latest "official" browser versions (29.4.2.1/52.9.2021.11.14 at this time) and, on occasion, one or two versions prior to latest; 
say, e.g., that you are troubleshooting a PM 28.10.0 installation (regression of an extension/browser feature/etc...) and you start with a fresh profile; well, NO, you can't install extensions on it via the official repo, because the "Install Now" button would show up as "Update Pale Moon"; this, in practice, negates the availability on the repo(s) of extension versions compatible with older browser versions ["Add-on Releases (Version History)" on the right sidebar...] .

My point really is that the quoted SSUAOs should better include the latest app versions, just to be on the safe side , and will also have to be manually updated accordingly, when newer official releases are announced  ...

[Mathwiz]

5 hours ago, George King said:

general.useragent.override.addons.basilisk-browser.org
	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Goanna/4.8 Firefox/68.0 Basilisk/52.9.2021.07.19

 

I would like to include this settings in my Serpent SFX, do you know where Serpent save user settings? App folder is untouched after this settings. Any idea where are these setting stored?

Serpent indeed stores settings in your profile folder as @NotHereToPlayGames said. Open about:profiles to see where that is; every installation will be different because the name of the folder under profiles\ is random.

But if you want to pre-configure settings like the one quoted above, you can put a .js file (e.g., myuseragents.js) into the defaults\pref\ subfolder of the browser's installation folder. The syntax is a little different than the prefs.js file in your profile, though; you use the pref JS function instead of the user_pref function used in prefs.js:

// ===| Site Specific User Agent Overrides |===================================
pref("general.useragent.override.addons.basilisk-browser.com","Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Goanna/4.8 Firefox/68.0 Basilisk/52.9.2021.07.19");

 

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I'd have to jump through the hoop of recreating an St52 or St55 portable file structure to test, because I really don't "keep" them around, but I wonder if this would work --

general.useragent.override.addons.palemoon.org;Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 66.6; Win64; x64; rv:6.6) Goanna/26660606 PaleMoon/66.6.6.6

Edited December 8, 2021 by NotHereToPlayGames

[NotHereToPlayGames]

3 minutes ago, Mathwiz said:

because the name of the folder under profiles\ is random.

Not always.  Mine have specific names.  But yes, the default profile creation is random.

[VistaLover]

1 hour ago, UCyborg said:

21 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

Unfortunately, Pale Moon's add-on site doesn't let you download add-ons to a directory of your choice. AFAICS all you can do is click "Install Now."

Right click on the install button->Save Link As... Old trick.

 You actually beat me to it by some minutes...  Yes, this has been a long-standing practice in order to archive XPIs off of the "official" extension repo(s), but I bet some still remember a time (possibly a year ago?) when even that "trick" was intentionally disabled  (by you-know-whom) via javascript; extension users had to first properly install the extension in their browser, then hunt it down (via Extension ID) in the Extensions directory of the browser profile, to be able to get their "hands" on an XPI (provided the add-on did not unpack upon installation); of course, no good a process if you're not even able to install the add-on in the first place... 

 As you'd imagine, that change in an established behaviour caused un uproar in the official forums, nevertheless the person who implemented it remained adamant (as you'd expect  )...
 It was when good ol' JustOff came to the rescue with WebInstall Ninja that the draconian measures imposed were able to be circumvented and users were, once again, able to store add-on XPIs without first installing them (and that was one more chapter in the "Bad History book" between JustOff and MAT...).

... At a later date, possibly after another "Add-ons Repo" overhaul, the "old" behaviour/trick was silently reinstated...
The "Only in Pale Moon/Basilisk", UA-based, block was implemented a short while before the devs switched to Private code repositories... 

Edited December 8, 2021 by VistaLover

[NotHereToPlayGames]

30 minutes ago, VistaLover said:

You do know who the admin of those two repos is, don't you?

Stopped following LONG ago - is that "fight" still going on?

I would hope by now "they" would learn how TINY this crowd really is and how time is best spent on focusing on other tasks.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

2 minutes ago, VistaLover said:

Yes, this has been a long-standing practice in order to archive XPIs off of the "official" extension repo(s), but I bet some still remember a time (possibly a year ago?) when even that "trick" was intentionally disabled

I remember those days.  So an easier trick was to just copy the Firefox extension URL into Chromium v49 and it would give you the download link just by clicking on the .xpi and Chromium v49 having no clue what to do with it so it just downloaded it instead.

[Mathwiz]

9 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

American Water is the quasi-monopoly that supplies water/sewage services to California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinios, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

For those counting, that list is 16 states.  16 out of 50 is 32%.

But thanks to the Electoral College, we have an easy way to look at that based on POPULATION.

538 total Electoral College votes  --  CA 55, GA 16, HI 4, IL 20, IN 11, IA 6, KY 8, MD 10, MI 16, MO 10, NJ 14, NY 29, PA 29, TN 11, VA 13, WV 5.

That's 257.

257 out of 538 is 47.77%.

So I am in the same boat as basically 48% of the entire population of the USA....

Not to nitpick, but for a more accurate estimate, use the size of the states' Congressional delegations. So subtract 2 from each state's Electoral College votes, or a total of 32: 257-32=225, then divide by 435: 51.7%.

That's probably a bit too high, because it omits DC and the territories, but you can see it's probably at least half the US population!

9 hours ago, VistaLover said:

I don't use St55 myself very often (only for testing), frequent users (e.g. @Mathwiz) can share more with regards to WebCompat-issues and the "recent" (Chromium-centric) web... 

Yes, it has me in quite a quandary. St55 has better WebExtension add-on support, but St52 and the other UXP browsers are compatible with more sites. So I can either lose some add-ons or browse fewer sites.

There are a few prefs you can toggle to improve things a bit too. But at the end of the day, I still have to use 360Chrome for a growing number of sites.

1 hour ago, UCyborg said:

It sees that Pale Moon GUID already exists so it leaves it alone. Wasn't programmed to change existing entries' target version.

Ah - so it only works on add-ons that never worked on PM (or NM) to begin with. Pity; I was hoping to avoid the silliness of having to manually edit install.rdf for every NM add-on!

46 minutes ago, VistaLover said:

My point really is that the quoted SSUAOs should better include the latest app versions, just to be on the safe side , and will also have to be manually updated accordingly, when newer official releases are announced  ...

Maybe they should be added to one of the first few posts on the thread, and kept updated there.

1 hour ago, UCyborg said:

Right click on the install button->Save Link As... Old trick.

I should've tried that, but many sites disable the right-click menu on site buttons, and as VL noted, MCP has a rather bad attitude, so I just assumed it wouldn't work!

19 minutes ago, VistaLover said:

It was when good ol' JustOff came to the rescue with WebInstall Ninja that the draconian measures imposed were able to be circumvented

JustOff for the win, again! I'll be downloading that add-on later tonight.

16 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

So an easier trick was to just copy the Firefox extension URL into Chromium v49 and it would give you the download link just by clicking on the .xpi and Chromium v49 having no clue what to do with it so it just downloaded it instead.

I actually tried 360Chrome, but because of the user agent issue, it didn't work. (Haven't gotten around to installing a UA switcher add-on in 360Chrome yet.)

[VistaLover]

23 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

rename it pmplayer.xpi, and use the "Test Add-On from file" option, and it still said it was incompatible!
(removed)
 I opened the .xpi with 7-Zip and edited install.ridf as usual - and the bloody thing refused to update, saying it was "read-only!"

... This has happened to me as well, several times... 
The reason is the local .XPI file is being locked by the browser process after the initial, failed, installation attempt, and thus modifying it with 7-zip fails, too... 
Don't ask me for details  , but if you first exit the browser, the local XPI file will be "released" and should be again modifiable with 7-zip, as expected... 

1 hour ago, Mathwiz said:

so it only works on add-ons that never worked on PM (or NM) to begin with.
Pity; I was hoping to avoid the silliness of having to manually edit install.rdf for every NM add-on!

Cases for using MTT are basically two:
1. Install Jetpack SDK add-ons in Tycho-derived browsers, e.g. NM27 (these type of extensions were intentionally disabled in Tycho)
2. Install "legacy" Firefox-only extensions in official Pale Moon versions >= 29.2.0 (for which the dual-ID system was revoked); BTW, MTT doesn't install out-of-the-box in official PM (it's inside MCP's extension blocklist).
AFAIK, NM28 has retained dual-ID and thus is able to still accept "legacy" Firefox-only extensions (red-dot inside the AOM).

The "issue", if you will, with NM28 is that it's an "alpha" dev-channel app, as reflected in its appVersion (e.g. 28.10.4a1), so when an official-PM add-on has a <em:minVersion>28.0.0</em:minVersion> in its install.rdf file, it will still NOT install in NM28, because 28.10.4a1 < 28.0.0 ... 

Edited December 8, 2021 by VistaLover

[Mathwiz]

The add-on that started this whole mess was PMPlayer, which @IXOYE suggested as a way to play videos on BitChute.com. I just tested it in both NM and St 52. It works, although once I saw BitChute.com's content, I honestly cannot say it was worth it! Ugh....

Anyway, PMPlayer targets Pale Moon, Basilisk, and Borealis Navigator. Works fine in Serpent 52 and (with the proper install.rdf edit) NM 28. Haven't tried BNavigator. I did try installing it in IceApe-UXP and it did not work on that browser.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

6 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

So subtract 2 from each state's Electoral College votes, or a total of 32: 257-32=225, then divide by 435: 51.7%.

6 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

But at the end of the day, I still have to use 360Chrome for a growing number of sites.

Agreed.  That is where I found myself a little over a year ago and I really do prefer ONE browser for EVERYTHING that I do online.

6 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

I actually tried 360Chrome, but because of the user agent issue, it didn't work.

I guess I'm not surprised.  It worked a year ago but the "devs" spend way too much time with trivialities such as this as opposed to spending real time on real browser enhancements.

Which has me even opting AGAINT "those" browsers even on my OS's that are still "supported" by said "devs".

Chrome will continue to Win the Browser Wars if all of the non-Chrome "devs" insist on fighting Petty Fights instead of focusing on the Bigger Picture.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

3 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

although once I saw BitChute.com's content, I honestly cannot say it was worth it!

Too Funny!

I've not actually visited BitChute (and this post only amplifies that initial assessment).

Here in the States, "biatch" (mispelled to avoid censor) is a derogatory term, so why visit a website with "biatch" double entendre right in its name?

[msfntor]

7 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

many sites disable the right-click menu on site buttons

Chrome extension which works good is "Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy" here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/absolute-enable-right-cli/jdocbkpgdakpekjlhemmfcncgdjeiika?hl=en-US

 

7 hours ago, Mathwiz said:

I actually tried 360Chrome, but because of the user agent issue, it didn't work. (Haven't gotten around to installing a UA switcher add-on in 360Chrome yet.)

Chrome WORKING User-Agent extension is "Random User-Agent" here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/random-user-agent/einpaelgookohagofgnnkcfjbkkgepnp?hl=en-US

I did not find the other working user agent extension in the store...