This morning when I started my computer Firefox (Firefox version 66.0.3) had disabled the following privacy extensions:
(a) HTTPS Everywhere {EFF Technologists}, (b) Privacy Badger {EFF Technologists}, (c) uBlock Origin {Raymond Hill}.
and the following productivity extensions:
(i) Zotero Connector {www.zotero.org}, (ii) Unpaywall {Impactstory team} [used together with Zotero].
I am now using Brave (thanks to @Wimpy for making the discovery and installation so easy {it is in the Internet section of the Software Boutique}).
I installed the Zotero Connector for Chrome and it seems to work.
So, I downloaded Waterfox. I had no need to "install". I don't know if this is because I already had Firefox installed.
This is what I did:
Downloaded and extracted Waterfox folder and placed in my home folder
Double clicked the Waterfox executable file in the folder.
Waterfox GUI opened and asked if I wanted to import settings from another browser. I chose Firefox to import from.
Waterfox browser opened with all of my extensions that were previously disabled in Firefox, fully installed and enabled. Plus, they had also all remembered all of their individual settings.
As I wrote earlier - other possibility is to use Firefox ESR 52.9.0 - all my installed extensions are in place (even after reboot) including LEGACY ones. This Firefox version did not receive security updates, but works as I expect:
Oh, it's easy: just open a new tab and go to about:config and filter on signatures.required and double click both of them to turn them from true to false:
and the nasty red turns into a fine yellow:
Which allows me to move on (for the moment until a signed version of both addons is released)
Updates:
just tested the above fix, it works with my Firefox ESR 52.9.0, I can install addons from addons.mozilla.org.
Using Firefox ESR 52.9.0 is my personal preference, use it only if you need LEGACY addons and VLC plugin.
restarted due to new Linux Kernel 5.0.12 installation at about 12:00 PM (GMT), all extensions were working
Did I miss something? Not that I really miss the issues reported here
Please do not understand me wrong: I'm sure there were a lot of users affected by the issue but presumably not all. Don't panic, the issue will be solved soon / is already solved. No need to switch browsers in a hassle
The fix is coming. In the meantime, here's what I did...
The check and disabling seems to occur if Firefox is open. If you're lucky enough to not yet been disabled, copy ~/.mozilla and restore it to get extensions back for a while. It's like a snapshot before extensions were disabled. I get about 5 minutes.
EDIT: Yep, enabled Studies and just waited. It eventually fixes things.
The fix did not work for me, and on twitter they said that the fix is not working well for every one and they are still on it.
Anyway what I did and worked like a charm to find back ALL my extention and the theme
in about:config I set xpinstall.signatures.required to false then all addons were back and just re-enable my theme
Done
I will set back xpinstall.signatures.required to true when they will have the problem fully fixed which should be in 24h-2 days..
OK, issue started on my PC
Set xpinstall.signatures.required to false as a workaround.
Will set xpinstall.signatures.required to true once the issue is fixed.
So new improvement and it worked for me:
Mozilla patches via the studies channel, so what I did now (to be able to set back xpinstall.signatures.required to true) I went in my Prefrences / Privacy & Security (or just copy this in the url = about:preferences#privacy ) and I checked the "Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla"
Then I closed Firefox, wait 1 minute, open it again and wait that the "MATE Netspeed" (the applet which give you the internet upload and download speed) shows 0B/s in download (as when I re-open FF it automatically uploaded the fix via "studies")
Then I set back xpinstall.signatures.required to true and what a good surprise, everything stayed (all my addons and theme).
Personally, I have disabled the studies ("Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla") after that, as I will get the final fix via the usual update's channel of FireFox
If you have implemented some workaround as I did in the beginning ( for example xpinstall.signatures.required), don't forget to set them back to their default setting
