Mozilla Firefox 10.0.1 Update About To Be Released

Mozilla, developers of the popular Firefox web browser, have just released an update for the browser’s stable branch that moves the version to 10.0.1. The release may come as a surprise to users of Firefox 10, who were updated to that version only ten days ago.

This is not the first occurrence that a critical update is released shortly after a major version upgrade of the web browser. Similar updates had to be delivered after the release of Firefox 9 and Firefox 8.

Firefox 10.0.1 fixes critical issues that came to light shortly after Firefox 10 had been released to the public. This includes at least one startup crash when the browser is opened by the user, and one Java related issue that is causing text fields to hang in the browser. Firefox users can resolve that issue manually by minimizing or resizing the browser. The patch released later today will fix the issues permanently though.

The product planning summary lists additional issues that the developers are currently looking into. This includes issues with AVG’s SafeSearch extension that is blocking the enter key from functioning correctly in the browser’s address bar. While it it possible to click on the go button to be taken to the site, it is a issue that the developers want to resolve as quickly as possible.

Other issues mentioned in the summary are additional crashes, and incompatibilities with Norton products and RealPlayer Video Downloader.

The release is already available on the Mozilla release ftp server and on third party download portals such as Softpedia. It is likely that the new version will be pushed to all users later today. At that point it will also be offered for download on the Mozilla website and as an update in the browser.

Please note that both the standard Firefox 10 build and Firefox 10 ESR will receive the update to Firefox 10.0.1.

How Mozilla Intends To Speed Up Firefox’s Update Process

We do know at this point in time that Mozilla is investigating means to update Firefox more effectively. Back in October we revealed that Mozilla was planning to add a silent update process to the browser to streamline the process and make it more comfortable and unobtrusive. Firefox engineer Ehsan Akhgar is now discussing another method on the Future of Firefox blog.

He first describes how Firefox is currently applying updates to the browser. Updates are downloaded into a special directory during runtime. The browser on next start up will check for updates in that directory and if any are found, will apply them to the browser. This process is visualized to the user with the dreaded Firefox Update: Firefox is installing your updates and will start in a few moments message.

The updater restarts the browser after the update as been completed.

The new idea is not fundamentally different. Updates will be applied to a copy of the browser files in the background while the browser is running. When the user restarts the browser the updated version is copied over the old version of the browser, a process that is noticeably faster (as there are no prompts and copying is faster than applying those updates during browser start).

Now, the reason that this approach fixes the problem is that swapping the directories, unlike the actual process of applying the update, is really fast. We are effectively moving the cost of applying the update to right after the update has been downloaded while the browser is running. This leaves only the really fast copy operation to be performed the next time that the browser starts up.

A long document is available here that details the background updates process.

• Firefox finds an update
• The update is downloaded
• Updater is launched in the background with the UI disabled
• The existing installation will be copied to /firefox/updated/
• The patches are applied to the copied version of Firefox
• Update will be aborted if errors are encountered, e.g. read write errors, running out of disk space

What about changes that you make to the browser in that time? What about add-ons that you install or configuration changes? Those in theory should not be a issue as they are stored in the profile directory and not in the Firefox directory on the system.

I can still see issues here, like high cpu, ram or disk usage when the updates are applied.

What’s your take on the new updating proposal?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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How To Turn Off Automatic Updates For Individual Firefox Add-Ons

Automatic add-on updates can be a fine thing. You save some time and make sure that your add-ons are always up to date. That’s great to resolve security or stability issues as soon as possible. It can however also mean that you get feature additions that you did not want or expect. I just read about the Download Statusbar add-on fiasco over at Donation Coder and the add-on’s reviews page at the official Mozilla website. According to information posted on both sites, the popular Firefox add-on Download Statusbar turned adware for a period of time before it was pulled from the add-on repository only to be reinstated without the sponsorship mechanism.

Regardless of that, it shows that automatic updates can cause problems. Sometimes you may want to block add-ons from being updated automatically. Maybe because you know that a new version that is already out is causing issues on your system or adding unwanted features, or because you want to research each update before you install it.

The Firefox web browser has two options for users who want to customize the automatic add-on updating mechanism of the browser. The first option is to disable automatic add-on updates completely. This is done under Options > Advanced > Update. Here you need to remove the checkmark of the Add-ons listing under Automatically check for updates to.

For extra protection, make sure that Ask me what I want to do when updates to Firefox are found is enabled.

Sometimes you want to make sure that only some installed add-ons do not update automatically, or that some do if you have selected the do not check for automatic updates option mentioned earlier in this guide.

Open the Firefox add-on manager. You can do that by entering about:addons in the address bar. All installed add-ons are displayed under Extensions there. To configure automatic updates for a specific add-on do the following. Click on the More link next to the add-ons description.

Look for the Automatic Updates listing on the page. Default means that it will use the global automatic update options of the Firefox options. You can set automatic updates to on or off instead. It is furthermore possible to check for updates manually with a click on the link of the same name.

You can also click on the settings button at the top to perform various operations, including a check for updates, reseting all add-ons to update manually or enabling or disabling add-on updates automatically.

To paraphrase. Firefox users can keep automatic updates turned on and turn off updates for specific add-ons only, or turn off automatic updates and turn them on for trusted add-ons instead.

Firefox users who have set their add-ons to update manually only will see a new listing in the add-ons manager. Available Updates list the available updates for all add-ons set to update manually.

Have you set your Firefox add-ons to update manually or automatically?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Mozilla Talks Silent Updates, Plans Firefox Service

One of the issues that I hear over and over again when I talk with other Firefox users about the rapid release process is that users are tired of updating the browser every six weeks, and especially so if the update turns out to be another “under-the-hood” update where no changes can be spotted right away. Another common complaint is add-on compatibility, and here in particular the problem that add-ons may be considered incompatible by the web browser whenever a new version of it gets released by Mozilla.

Brian Bondy addressed one of the issues in a post entitled “Mozilla Firefox and silent updates” on his personal blog. In it he mentions that Windows’ User Account Control is a minor annoyance for Firefox users considering that the prompt will be displayed whenever the web browser is updated.

His plan is to find a way to bypass UAC prompts during updates after it has become clear that the user has enough permissions on the system to install and update the web browser.

Mozilla is currently experimenting with a Windows service approach. According to Brian, the Mozilla Application Updater service would be an “optional component” that users of the browser could install to automate the “software update process better”.

Those of you who follow the development of the Chrome browser may now think that this is exactly what Google is doing to update their web browser. And while both techniques have similarities on first glance, there are fundamental differences under the hood. The Firefox service for one is an optional component which Firefox users can uninstall or disable at any time. Firefox will receive updates in the future even with the service uninstalled, stopped or disables. The browser will simply switch to the old way of updating.

Mozilla tries to tackle the frequent update fatigue issue from other angles as well. The organization plans to make add-ons default to compatible during updates in the first quarter of 2012. This basically means that Firefox will no longer assume that add-ons do not work with an updated version of the browser. The benefit here is that fewer users will see the update prompt. Firefox for some time now downloads new versions of the web browser in the background and will install them as well unless add-ons are found to be incompatible. This can be changed under Firefox Options > Advanced Update.

Other methods include showing the What’s New page less frequently, increasing the time it takes before users receive notifications that an update has been downloaded and needs to be installed and to apply updates on shutdown.

If you read the comments under Brian’s post you will notice that nothing’s set into stone yet. The basic idea behind all proposals and plans is to make the updating process more comfortable to the user.

What’s your take on the development? Would you install a Firefox service on Windows for the updating of the browser?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: Firefox, firefox updates, mozilla, Mozilla Application Updater, mozilla-firefox, silent updates