Firefox 48 - NoScript 5.1.0rc2 through 5.1.2rc3 disappear

[Schmye Bubbula]

^ I've had a different profile running for several hours, and my NoScript icons are still in the toolbar and contextual menu — while in my regular profile they've disappeared several times over the same duration. So I guess it's either something funky with my main profile, or else something about certain websites I visit that NoScript processes... or else — tell you what — I'll leave my main profile open for a time tomorrow and go out and run some errands, to rule-out an amount of time without doing anything as the symptom.

Oh, this is new: ever since I've been updated to 5.1.2rc2, when I first launch Firefox (set to start with a blank page), nothing happens when I choose a bookmark or enter a URL in the address bar. I have to close that initial window and open a new one before I can visit web pages. No other extensions have been updated since then, and if I disable NoScript 5.1.2rc1 then relaunch Firefox, it doesn't occur.
- -
Edit: correction: with the initial window upon launch, choosing a bookmark or clicking a bookmarklet does nothing, but actually entering a URL in the address bar freezes Firefox with the spinning beachball of death cursor icon, every time.

[Schmye Bubbula]

OK, the icons just disappeared in my new profile. I had let it stew for several hours while doing nothing, and it didn't happen, so I started surfing various web pages and eventually I looked at the toolbar and it was gone — missing from the contextual menu, too. So I'd say I can probably rule-out some detritus in my longstanding regular profile.... I just can't say yet whether it's only a certain webpage that triggers it; I get involved with what I'm doing and forget about it, then look at the toolbar and suddenly the icon is gone. I'll keep trying to catch it and see whether I can reproduce it on demand.

[Schmye Bubbula]

Ditto 5.1.2rc3.

Also, the inability continues (that began with 5.1.2rc2) to use bookmarks or enter URLs in the address bar until after the first window upon launch is closed (described two posts above).

[Giorgio Maone]

Can you confirm none of these problems happen if you reinstall NoScript 5.0.10? If that is the case, I'm leaning towards setting 52 as the minimum Firefox version for 5.1.x compatibility, since the changes from then on are entirely focused on Nightly support and WebExtensions migration: both things that users who stay on Firefox 48 because older Mac OS compatibility have no reason to worry about. Does it make sense?

[Schmye Bubbula]

^ I can't find a download link to 5.0.10 or earlier versions on the get it! webpage of your home site, or in the faq. But I will load it when I'm pointed in the right direction and confirm it, as you ask.

I'm pretty sure that the disappearing icons began with 5.1.0rc2. If what abruptly changed that accounts for these disappearing acts can be pinpointed between 5.1.0rc1 and 5.1.0rc2, and a way can be found for current and Firefox 48.0.2 to live together with NoScript, that would be great, because a lot other improvements & fixes have been and will continue to be made since 5.0.10, and we Snow Leopard (the last version of macOS that's worth a damn) holdouts sure would like to continue benefiting from the latest & greatest NoSctipt.

[barbaz]

^ I can't find a download link to 5.0.10 or earlier versions on the get it! webpage of your home site, or in the faq. But I will load it when I'm pointed in the right direction and confirm it, as you ask.

Old NoScript @
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/noscript/versions / https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/noscript/versions/beta
*or*
https://noscript.net/feed?c=100&t=a

[Schmye Bubbula]

^ Thanks! Stay tuned for my confirmation, as requested.

And let me add that, indeed, together with the third-party security patches for the bash and ntpd vulnerabilities, NoScript is prominent in getting us macOS 10.6.8 holdouts by, security-wise. Yes, other security vulnerabilities remain, but NoScript plays perhaps the most important role! By cutting-loose the last compatible Firefox 48.0.2, please don't forsake the milestone of the best, most trouble-free OS Apple ever released, and recognize the decline in macOS ever since, in terms of usability, functionality, ease-of-use, intuitiveness, and user-friendliness.

[Schmye Bubbula]

OK, after over 24 hours of operation, I formally confirm, as requested by Giorgio four posts above, that the NoScript icon disappearances from the toolbar & contextual menu don't occur with NoScript 5.0.10. But then again, they didn't occur between 5.0.10 and 5.1.0rc1, either, which is why I began this thread when the problem started with 5.1.0rc2.

Ditto, the business with not being able to use bookmarks or entering URLs into the address bar of the first window upon launch of Firefox 48.0.2 has gone back to normal.

But now there's a curiosity that's got me bewildered: the additional third disappearance of the NoScript entry from the Mac Firefox menu bar Tools menu that began also with 5.1.0rc2 has continued after my downgrade to 5.0.10!! Huh? What's up with that? I just now double-checked my NoScript > Options > Appearance > Show... to see if there is a user preference for showing in the Tools menu, but there's not; only a choice for the Status bar label and Contextual menu. Is there some other place in Options to set that? If not, then I can only conjecture that whatever changed in 5.1.0rc2 that broke the appearance of NoScript in the Firefox 48.0.2 toolbar & contextual menu might have left lingering damage that now affects earlier versions before the problem began.

I'm curious about whether what abruptly changed in 5.1.0rc2 that started all this has been identified, and whether both ways can still be conditionally supported simultaneously. NoScript is too important for continued use of Snow Leopard — the last macOS that truly makes a Mac the Mac — to be thrown under the bus, deprived of ongoing bug fixes & new features... until the whole stupid Firefox self-destruction completes.

[barbaz]

Snow Leopard — the last macOS that truly makes a Mac the Mac

I notice you keep repeating that sentiment, as if you think your only choice is running the best version of Mac OS or running the latest Mac OS.

I, too, once thought as you did.

[Schmye Bubbula]

I've had Macs since 1985. Macs aren't Macs any more. Why do you abide it now, when once you didn't?

[barbaz]

Why do you abide it now, when once you didn't?

Abide what?

Let me be clear, I agree with you about Mac OS. Snow Leopard is undisputably awesome. 10.8 "Mountain Lion" and up clearly show the decline of Mac OS, IMO.

That's why, two years ago now, when my must-have software dropped support for my version of Mac OS, I dropped Mac OS almost entirely.

Now, I'm not suggesting you drop Snow Leopard. I realise that it may not be possible for you, and you probably don't want to anyway (well, I wouldn't in your situation ). But you might find some Linux distributions worth a look, either in virtual machine (safer if you have sufficiently powerful hardware) or as a dual-boot (this is more or less what I do now, although I almost never boot Mac OS anymore).

I personally prefer Ubuntu (more specifically, Xubuntu). But there's a whole world of Linux distributions out there. Explore it and enjoy the latest and greatest again.

[Schmye Bubbula]

^ Agreed; anxiously awaiting "Linux on the Desktop." Meaning when the multitude of Mac apps will run on it, or at least when a multitude of the same kind of apps will run on it. Meaning apps with the same consistent #UX #UI #uxdesign #uxdesigner #GUI #MacHumanInterfaceGuidelines #fuckFocusGroups #usabilityTestingBaby. What we need is the equivalent of the Wine libraries for Mac apps under Linux — then I'd jump ship so fast it'd make TheWormyFruit's™ head spin!

(And the decline actually began with 10.7, when Apple tried to remove Save As...)

I'm pleased that you're an actual Mac user, so at least you "get it." But my fear is that Giorgio may not be, and won't grasp the significance of the 10.6 milestone in the history of computing, and won't appreciate the responsibility for the prominent role NoScript plays in maintaining what is not just another "legacy" OS, but instead the state-of-the-art.

[therube]

(I haven't read through here, but I'll chime in...)

> Got automatically updated to NoScript xxx

No update, simply opened browser.
NoScript was there yesterday, not there today.

> NoScript disappeared from my Status Bar, from the menu bar Tools menu and from my Contextual menu

Ditto.

> Add-ons Manager shows it loaded and active

Ditto.
Error Console also notes some NoScript Actions.
Shortcut keys are ineffectual.
Presumably NoScript is there & working, "simply" unable to effect changes in it (like to allow a site ).

FF 56.0 x64
NoScript 5.1.2rc3

[therube]

Adding NoScript 5.1.2rc4 ...

brought the icon back
brought the context menu back

shortcut key (Ctrl+Shift+\) is reflected in the NoScript icon, but no page refresh results, so the allow (or disallow) is ineffectual - kind of

a manual page refresh is required


FF 56.0 x64


This was... nothing more then opening earlier session from Session Restore (defaults to do that). At that point, no updates, changes had occurred.

Now with 5.1.2rc4, nothing more then a (restartless) install of the new #dev version.

[therube]

And with a manual restart...

shortcut key is ineffectual and the NoScript icon no longer reflects any (supposed) change

A change from the NoScript icon itself (like Temporarily Allow a domain) does work.

So maybe its "just' the shortcut key that's gone awol.


Probably spamming the Error Console.

Code: Select all

NoScript could not disable scripts for system global [System Principal] WinScript.js:13:11

(This FF style Error Console really sucks, IMO.)