Version: 25.5.0 (x64) breaking web forum logins

[markfilipak]

Version: 25.5.0 (x64)

Any one else having the following difficulties?

I can no longer log into IMDb (Internet movie database) at all. I had trouble at Charles Schwab involving 3rd party cookies, but fixed it. I had trouble at the Total Commander user forum, but flushing the cache & history & cookies seems to have cured that. But I can no longer log into Sourceforge hosted forums. Well, that's not completely true. Let me explain...

I can log in when I'm on Sourceforge proper. But when I browse to a Sourceforge user forum I discover I'm apparently not logged in and can't post. I go back to the main Sourceforge page and I've been logged in all the time.

At IMDb, I attempt to log in and a login popup appears and immediately disappears. I attempt to add a comment about a movie and IMDb says I'm not logged in. But if I try to log in, the login popup appears and disappears. When I try to register (as a test), the registration says I'm already logged in. Some parts of my user profile work, and some parts don't.

This is really driving me nuts. I was persistently logged in to all these sites. But when I updated PM, I lost the persistent logins and had to re-establish my log in. That's when the trouble started.

So my continuing troubles are IMDb and Sourceforge. I can't use either of them.

PS: Safe mode doesn't bring joy.

[squarefractal]

Please try with a clean profile.

[markfilipak]

Hi squarefractal,

Please try with a clean profile.

I want to be very careful to do what is both safe and responsive to your help, for which I'm very grateful. To that end I ask: What does "clean profile" mean? What is a "clean profile"? How do I create a "clean profile"?

Thank You!

[x-15a2]

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8240

[markfilipak]

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8240

You can open it by typing palemoon -p in your Windows startmenu...

I'm running PM in Linux.

PS: I'm running a new profile right now. Bottom line: My symptoms have not changed. I can log-in at IMDb, but then it thinks I'm not logged in.

Another strange thing: When I installed PM, it came with 4 or 5 plugins already installed. But when I started this new profile, it has no plugins.

PPS: Now... I'm not only running a new profile, I've also reverted to a completely stripped HOSTS file. None of this has solved the problem. I can't log in at IMDb, or CNet, or SourceForge. I think the problem is the new Pale Moon.

How do I revert to a previous version. I'm running Linux.

Thank You.

[SvenG]

How do I revert to a previous version. I'm running Linux.

Not recommend to do that unless its for testing.

1. Download Pale Moon version matching your architecture (32 or 64 bit) from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pm4linux/files/25.4.1/ e.g. to your Downloads folder
2. run sudo rm -rf /opt/palemoon in the terminal
3. run sudo tar -xvf <palemoon_archive> -C /opt, e.g. sudo tar -xvf ~/Downloads/palemoon-25.4.1.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2 -C /opt for the 64 bit version downloaded to Downloads

Another strange thing: When I installed PM, it came with 4 or 5 plugins already installed. But when I started this new profile, it has no plugins.

By "plugins" you mean real plugins (Flash, Java, etc.) or extensions (Adblock, NoScript or the like)? The first would be totally fine cause on most systems, Pale Moon should find the stuff that is installed. The latter would be odd, unless you already had Pale Moon installed earlier. Please try to be more specific with such things (e.g. tell what exactly was there).

[markfilipak]

Hi Sven,

How do I revert to a previous version. I'm running Linux.

Not recommend to do that unless its for testing.

I just can't function with browsing that's so broken. I need to communicate on web forums that are increasingly malfunctioning.

I run PM in Windows, but ONLY to do on-line banking. My main PM is in a Linux Mint virtual machine (VirtualBox).

I'm going to delete the test profile I created a couple of days ago. Going to my key forums from that profile didn't seem to help.

1. Download Pale Moon version matching your architecture (32 or 64 bit) from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pm4linux/files/25.4.1/ e.g. to your Downloads folder
2. run sudo rm -rf /opt/palemoon in the terminal
3. run sudo tar -xvf <palemoon_archive> -C /opt, e.g. sudo tar -xvf ~/Downloads/palemoon-25.4.1.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2 -C /opt for the 64 bit version downloaded to Downloads

Well, I don't understand why you recommend that I not revert to a previous version, but then you tell me how to do it. But I'm new to Linux, so perhaps I'm misunderstanding something.

I last updated PM using 'pminstaller.sh'. It seems strange, (and it seemed strange at the time, but then, as I said, I'm new to Linux.) The size of 'pminstaller.sh' is 94.9 K-bytes, and except for the initial 550 bytes (below), it looks like a binary file.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
unset CDPATH
if [[ ! "$(sed -r s/[a-f0-9]{64}// "$0" | sha256sum)" =~ 54e56c09a3588021ec56e2288d7a22b2a8ae21f9cac75921e1ec0ba7949c5858 ]]; then
echo "The installer is damaged! Please redownload the installer and try again."
exit 2
fi
case $(uname -m) in
i?86)
a1=i686
;;
x86_64)
a1=x86_64
;;
*)
echo "Unsupported architecture."
exit 1
;;
esac
a0=$(mktemp -d /tmp/pminstaller.XXXXXX)
tail -n +25 "$0" | tar -xJf - -C "$a0" || exit 2
PATH="$a0/bin/$a1:$a0/tools:$PATH"
runasroot "$a0/installer.sh"
rm -rf "$a0"
exit

That "exit" above is followed by 94.5 K-bytes of binary. Another thing that's strange is this: I get 4ebb4508f4dc428a7930ef5a51282dc4f142eda3b3bfc4769eb039ac6e7d54e6 as the sha256 -- for the 94.9 K-byte file -- but the script is checking sha256sum, and perhaps that's different.

Another strange thing: When I installed PM, it came with 4 or 5 plugins already installed. But when I started this new profile, it has no plugins.

By "plugins" you mean real plugins (Flash, Java, etc.) or extensions (Adblock, NoScript or the like)? The first would be totally fine cause on most systems, Pale Moon should find the stuff that is installed. The latter would be odd, unless you already had Pale Moon installed earlier. Please try to be more specific with such things (e.g. tell what exactly was there).

I don't know. (I did disable Java. ..."Ice tea" is what it's called.) The others were "Extensions", I think. I didn't recognize them, so I deleted them. ...Let me clarify: This was in Linux, when I abandoned Firefox and first installed PM.

[SvenG]

Well, I don't understand why you recommend that I not revert to a previous version, but then you tell me how to do it. But I'm new to Linux, so perhaps I'm misunderstanding something.

Technically and for testing if it solves your problem it is okay to downgrade. For productivity using an old version of a browser isn't recommended. That's what I meant.

I last updated PM using 'pminstaller.sh'. It seems strange, (and it seemed strange at the time, but then, as I said, I'm new to Linux.) The size of 'pminstaller.sh' is 94.9 K-bytes, and except for the initial 550 bytes (below), it looks like a binary file.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=8602

[markfilipak]

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=8602

I ran tail -n +25 "Pale Moon updater = pminstaller.sh" | tar xJ -- note that when I first downloaded it, I renamed 'pminstaller.sh' to a more descriptive name: 'Pale Moon updater = pminstaller.sh'.

I now have this file:
'installer.sh'.
It's also a script. It's 7.8 K-bytes. So.... I don't "get" it.

'pminstaller.sh' (94.9 K-bytes), which is a 550 byte script, creates 'installer.sh' (7.8 K-bytes). So a total of 8.3 K-bytes of code in a file that's 94.9 K-bytes. And the rationality of that is what?

[SvenG]

pminstaller.sh is not just a simple script, it consists of a script part and an archive part. The script parts checks whether the file is correct via checksum (the trick is here that first the result is remove via sed command and then the checksum is calculated). If the file is okay, it removes the script part and extracts the archive. This archive contains the actual script and a few resources, e.g. Yad which creates the graphical interface. This way pminstaller has virtually no dependencies. The screenshot shows what is inside the archive

[markfilipak]

installer.png

What is this? I see 'pminstaller.sh' and 'README' (which you have highlighted) and above them, 'installer.sh'. What's the rest? (Doesn't look like it's inside either of the '.sh' files.)

Oh, I think I get it. Those directories and files are in the 'binary' part of 'pminstaller.sh', right?

This is a very bad practice. Is this common in Linux? How would anyone ever check this sort of thing for viruses?

[SvenG]

Everything that is not highlighted is inside the archive part of pminstaller.sh, that's why the file is that "large".

[markfilipak]

Everything that is not highlighted is inside the archive part of pminstaller.sh, that's why the file is that "large".

Thanks so much, Sven. I hope this doesn't sound "stupid", but ...why doesn't the stuff inside LOOK like it's inside? What are you "viewing" it with?

[squarefractal]

This is a very bad practice.

I await your PR at Github which enforces good practice.

How would anyone ever check this sort of thing for viruses?

And how exactly do you check binaries for malware? (Also, if you don't trust the binary, don't run it in the first place.)

I wonder what happened to your profile issues -- if I were you, I certainly would not have the time for reverse engineering binaries.

[SvenG]

pminstaller is certainly not perfect but it's about the best you can do, to get an installer that is universal, simple and beginner friendly. If you don't like it, you can still install Pale Moon manually which is also fairly easy with a bit of Linux knowledge, updating manually is almost trivial.

[markfilipak]

Thanks, Sven,

Before i reply, I want to share this: My access is really falling apart. Now, even though I'm already logged in, I'm now being asked to log in on this forum when I hit this thread's notification link in Thunderbird. Then, when I do log in, and I'm redirected to this thread, I'm no longer logged in. In order to post a reply, I have to go to 'View your posts' and select this thread... then I can post to this thread. My browsing is noticably deteriorating on each day.

pminstaller is certainly not perfect but it's about the best you can do, to get an installer that is universal, simple and beginner friendly. If you don't like it, you can still install Pale Moon manually which is also fairly easy with a bit of Linux knowledge, updating manually is almost trivial.

Hahahahaha... It's not a matter of liking 'pminstaller.sh' as it is a matter of understanding 'pminstaller.sh'. It seems to be unnecessarly obfuscated. Was this done to make it smaller?

[SvenG]

It seems to be unnecessarly obfuscated. Was this done to make it smaller?

Well, no, that is not the main problem, it was done to ensure that it runs on virtually every not too ancient Linux system. What it does is fairly simple on a single selected system (if you would make your own basic installer script, you need 10 to 20 lines of code) but it has to do that on every system it gets downloaded to. You could pack it in a different way but that wouldn't result in a single easy to use file.

In fact it is not different from the stub installers you find on windows.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

That is exactly what it is. It is a stub installer. You can always grab the tarball or build for your self if you do not want to use the installer script.