InformAction Forums

general.user.agent.override may break things?

Somehow (I guess it was me ), somewhere along the line, I had set a Pref:

general.user.agent.override;Lynx/2.9.2

AFAIK, that is not even a "correct" Pref (as it should be more like; general.useragent.override).
AFAIK, that correct Pref is not even valid (any longer) in FF (115 ESR).

Nonetheless, that wrong Pref, general.user.agent.override, does seem to affect... something, NoScript included?

---

Create a new Profile
Install NoScript
Set Yahoo.com to Default (in NoScript)
about:config, set; general.user.agent.override;Lynx/2.9.2
about:preferences, set; General | Startup, Open previous windows and tabs

Load https://www.yahoo.com
- JavaScript is blocked

Quit.
Restart FF.

Load https://www.yahoo.com
Set all on this page to Temporarily TRUSTED
- note the NoScript icon - looks wrong; note that yahoo.com is Temp. TRUSTED, yimg.com is TRUSTED, all else is DEFAULT.
- note that the page, www.yahoo.com, did not load correctly

about:config, delete the Pref; general.user.agent.override

Quit.
Restart FF.

Load https://www.yahoo.com
Set Yahoo.com to Temp. TRUSTED (in NoScript)
- yahoo.com is set to Temp. TRUSTED, the page reloads, & displays as expected

-

Win7 x64
FF 115.34.0esr


What is happening here is similar to what I saw with, Mozillazine.org, Allowed but not getting past Anubis.

Not seeing this here in FF 148.0.2, "general.user.agent.override" doesn't seem to affect NoScript or anything else AFAICT?

Is "general.user.agent.override" special here? What happens if you change another "wrong"/nonexistant string pref instead?

therube wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2026 5:00 pm What is happening here is similar to what I saw with, Mozillazine.org, Allowed but not getting past Anubis.

Could you please clarify the difference?

therube wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2026 5:00 pm it should be more like; general.useragent.override).
AFAIK, that correct Pref is not even valid (any longer) in FF (115 ESR).

That correct pref works in FF 148.0.2

That correct pref works in FF 148.0.2

Well I'll be. It does work.
I thought FF had gotten rid of that, & forced you use an extension.
Oh, so they must have left that, but they do force you to use an extension for per domain overrides.

Could you please clarify the difference?

In the most general sense, in that something is not right.
The icon display is not right, it is the same as in the other thread.
The domain list shows that particular domains are (temporarily) Allowed, yet being so does not result in a correctly displayed page.

Is "general.user.agent.override" special here?

Well I'm not sure?
(I was actually chasing a different issue, where "thumbs" stopped "animating", but that looks like it will be something related to page Zoom level, 200% as it was - where there had never been an issue in the past. And I kind of tracked that down to content-prefs.sqlite. But now, I'm think it might also be site related...?)

Anyhow, in trying to diagnose "thumbs", I'm comparing prefs.js - existing vs. newly created, trying to find why thumbs stopped working (animating), & I'd pretty much ruled most everything else out, & during the compare, this "general.user.agent.override" stood out cause I knew it was the wrong Pref name (to begin with) & I have (obviously) forgotten that the correct Pref name even (still) worked, so when removed general.user.agent.override as a Pref, & nothing more, I could no longer duplicate the issue here. (Likewise, I add that Pref back in, & I can duplicate.)

I threw in r3dfox, 148.0.2, & I cannot seem to duplicate the issue.
(I've never used this thing before just now, & won't be able to look further until later in the week...)