[Solved (kinda)] Firefox Web Browser-Plugin Check & Updates

[Bobby Sodastream]

Evening all, I am currently experiencing a slight niggle, which I hope a kind soul can help me with.

Typically, when I start my 'puter up and open up Pale Moon, a secondary tab will open, namely Firefox Web Browser-Plugin Check & Updates. The first time it happened I duly updated the plugins that showed out of date, including my Java plugin, which I had disabled a couple of days earlier on Moonchild's advice.

Okay, everything is hunky-dory now, I thought, so closed the update tab and carried on with my browsing. The next day, I started my 'puter, opened Pale Moon and the same tab opened up, this time no plugins needed updating. I was truly aghast! Okay, not that dramatic, so thought searching around for a solution would be a good idea.

What I have tried;

Applied all required updates to my plugins, described above.

Changed the following, in about:config, from 'true' to false'.

plugins.hide_infobar_for_missing_plugin;false

plugins.hide_infobar_for_outdated_plugin;false

The above seems to have had no effect. Does anyone know of a solution?

Thank you.

[Blacklab]

This has come up before so have a look at: http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1548 but it looks as if there wasn't an immediate fix. If the last post on that thread is right it would be worth doing searches in Mozilla Support and mozillaZine forums to see if anyone has come up with a definitive answer?

[Kenny]

I also had this problem as well. Started as soon as I updated to version 15.4. Tried to fix it by changing the following preferences in about:config -

extensions.blocklist.enabled: false
plugin.scan.plid.all: false

Both had no effect. Finally reverted back to version 15.3.1 and problem solved! I'm perfectly capable of understanding how to actually check if my plugins are up to date. Very annoying when a web browser chooses to do it for me. Not sure if this is considered a feature, but as far as I'm concerned it's a BUG. At the very least, this should be as an option for the user to check when/if they choose to do so.

[Blacklab]

It's obviously a fairly common problem - 159 "me too" on this Mozilla Support thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/833109 and several suggested solutions and further links amongst the 24 replies! Plenty of similar topics on mozillaZine: http://www.google.com/cse?cx=0032583250 ... r%20starts

Not seen this one myself - please post if you find a solution that does the trick?

[Bobby Sodastream]

I have looked at the links posted above, thank you. There does not seem anything untoward with my settings.

I would like to add that tonight I experienced a browser crash, which closed Pale Moon, and a pop-up window appeared stating "a plugin container has stopped working". When I restarted my restored browsing session the "Firefox Web Browser-Plugin Check & Updates" tab opened up again. I can not say if the crash had anything to do with the update tab, but thought I'd share my experience all the same.

I shall further browse mozilla support, other than that I may revert to 15.3.1 to see if that fixes things, thus confirming a tenuous bug!

[Bobby Sodastream]

Blacklab slipped a post in. I will look at that link, too!

[Apollo702]

It probably is something in your environment. I have PM installed on several machines. 2 have identical setups and the others have slightly different environments and none of them are experiencing this issue.

From what I have seen this version of PM is the most stable yet. Aside from the initial installation conflict with IMF it has been nothing but smooth sailing since then.

[Bobby Sodastream]

In about:config, I deleted the url assigned to plugins.update.url;

So far so good. I cleared the cache, ran CCleaner, rebooted and opened up Pale Moon - a single tab opened, the update tab did not rear its ugly head!

[chumley]

I have had the same problem on 3 different computers. It started happening as soon as I updated to PM version 15.4, so something definitely changed in PM 15.4 which introduced this problem. For me the behavior is inconsistent between multiple accounts on the same computer - some of my accounts were affected, some weren't. Disabling all plugins did not make the problem go away. On 2 machines I was able to fix the issue by resetting PM to the default settings (Help--> Troubleshooting Information --> Reset Pale Moon to default state). On the 3rd machine that did not fix the problem.

On one machine, before I reset the profile, I tried setting plugin.scan.plid.all to false. That did make the problem go away, but later I found that it also causes problems with Flash where websites can't check if you have the correct version of Flash installed. Be careful with that setting.

[Bobby Sodastream]

I have just booted up. A secondary tab opened, this time it was just a "new tab" as opposed to the update page, obviously because I deleted the url in about:config.

[Bobby Sodastream]

The new tab reverted back to the update tab. I reset Pale Moon to default, that didn't work. I uninstalled 15.4 and tried 15.3.1, same sheet, I am back to 15.4.

[Moonchild]

The information here may help: https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/833109

EDIT: this one may help as well: https://support.mozilla.org/fr/questions/832793

[Bobby Sodastream]

Thanks for all your links, guys! Although they do take you round in one big circle, with links linking to links, linking to links!

A couple of thoughts ...

On the Java test-page it returns my Java as not working, stating "something is wrong". Is that what the Firefox plugin page is picking up as needing updating?

The latest Pale Moon release, please correct me if I'm wrong, runs on Firefox 12 framework, with advice from Mozilla suggesting updating to Firefox 18 will fix the plugin update page and prevent it from opening. Thus an underlying issue may exist in the latest version of Pale Moon?

The above thoughts are highly speculative and I'm out of my depth here really!

Anyway, I have a fix that seems to work! I was reading this thread on techguy.com. The last post, from a guy with over 58,000 posts, not only recommends Pale Moon, but mentions "extensions.sqlite-journal". Up until Pale Moon 15.4, I had been using places cleaner, which is another of Moonchild's recommendations that vacuums the places database, and has something or other to do with sqlites! During my upgrade to 15.4, I somehow lost that add-on, so after reading the thread over on techguy.com I reinstated placescleaner, ran it, closed my browser, done a little dance, opened up my browser again and hey presto - only one tab opened!

Perhaps if anyone else with the same issue could try the above to see if it works?

Thanks again, I hope this problem is now solved, I will be back if it isn't!

[Moonchild]

Glad to hear it got solved for you!

To be clear on one question you have: No, Pale Moon 15.* is based on the Firefox 15 rendering engine version, not 12 - since it is the closest to Firefox 15 and add-ons check application version (not gecko version) I've kept the major version of pale Moon equal to the gecko version used. The UI theme may be closer to version 12, but that makes little difference otherwise for the underlying engine or add-ons.

[Arctic]

Hello All,

I have also been having this problem of the Check Plugins page opening in a new tab when I start Pale Moon. This problem started upon updating to 15.4.

The past several days I have been reading posts on the Mozilla forum, this board, and searching for Google trying to find a solution. Nothing I have tried has worked (with the exception of changing the value of the URL in plugins.update.url to something more acceptable then "https://www.mozilla.org/%LOCALE%/plugincheck/").

Some of the steps I have taken:

1. Completely removed Pale Moon and reinstalled version 15.3.1
2. Re-updated to 15.4
3. Created a new profile
4. Started in safe mode with all add-ons disabled
5. Modified various entries in about:config as suggested in the Mozilla forums
6. Installed the Places Cleaner add-on

Each and every time after performing one of the steps above, I closed Pale Moon and restarted. The Check Plugins tab opened on every occasion. Extremely frustrating.

If anyone has a solution that "really" works, I would love to hear about it.

Unfortunately, Chromium is looking better all the time. Don't understand Mozilla's intent of cramming this Plugins check page down our throats. Especially when so many people clearly do not want it and trying to eliminate it.

[chumley]

Not solved for me. I tried places cleaner on 2 different machines that are experiencing the issue, and it removed nothing on either machine. I also didn't find a solution in the referenced mozilla support threads. Deleting the plugin check url in the config will of course mask the problem, but not a real solution.

[Moonchild]

Very peculiar - I'll have a closer look at the source code involved in this arbitrary check-on-startup and see if I can fix/disable it.

EDIT: Can you please let us know if the following fixes your issue? Since I can't reproduce it myself, it's a little hard to troubleshoot.

1. Download the attached .zip file.
2. Unpack the zip, this gives you a single file called nsBrowserGlue.js
3. Close down Pale Moon, and put this file in the components\ subfolder under your Pale Moon installation folder (e.g. "c:\program files\pale moon\components"), overwriting the file of the same name
4. Start Pale Moon and see if the plugin check is gone

[Bobby Sodastream]

Looks like the PlacesCleaner solution was a red herring - apologies for that.

I did try a System Restore back to before I experienced the problem, which worked for a short amount of time, but then the update tab reappeared, I think after clearing the cache.

I have also tried Moonchild's nsBrowserGlue, which has not worked for me either.

[Arctic]

The nsBrowserGlue.js fix is working for me so far!

I've closed and restarted a few times and the Plugins check tab has not reappeared.

In addition to just closing Pale Moon, I also 'Cleared Recent History' and restarted; as well as closing Pale Moon and running CCleaner on my system and restarting. Guess I'd be back if anything changes, but for now, rather happy with this fix!

THANK YOU!

[chumley]

More info:
PM 15.4 on Win 7 with admin account, plugin check appearing at every startup . . .

- Installed tweaked nsBrowserGlue.js. Result: No change
- Uninstalled and reinstalled PM, keeping user data. Result: No change
- Uninstalled and reinstalled PM, deleting user data. Result: Plugin check gone
- Reinstalled extensions (adblock plus, ietab 2, download statusbar, keefox, history button, bug582139). Result: plugin check still gone, restarted PM several times to verify.
- Later, after making no more config changes, plugin check came back at every startup. Restarted PM several times to verify.
- Restart PM in safe mode with plugins disabled. Result: No change, still getting plugin check.
- Installed tweaked nsBrowserGlue. Result: plugin check gone, restarted PM several times to verify.
- Restored default nsBrowserGlue. Result: Plugin check still gone, restarted PM several times to verity.

I don't know what to conclude from this. The issue seems unpredictable. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes back again. I'll update this post if it does.

Edit: Yep, it came back.