Pale Moon 28.8.0: any user agent string related changes? Topic is solved

[KNTRO]

Hello all,

Happy New Year 2020 to every Pale Moon user!

I'm back here because I'm facing an issue with Pale Moon. I updated to Pale Moon 28.8.0 (Windows, 64-bit) and this problem appeared.

In previous versions of Pale Moon I was able to spoof the user agent string with the old User Agent Switcher add-on, by Chris Pederick. Beginning with Pale Moon 28.8.0, a few websites doesn't work right when spoofing the user agent string. OK, I first thought it was a problem of this add-on, so I tried another one: Eclipsed Moon. I got the same results. What results?

Well, for instance, this YouTube link won't load fully. It will load this way:


At start.me, this marked button won't work:


I was using this user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:70.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/70.0

Mozilla Firefox 71 on Windows works fine. So I think something related to user agent string was changed in Pale Moon 28.8.0, and that's why these both add-ons doesn't work with these websites. I'm not sure if this thing is related to this one.

Any help, please?

Thanks for reading.

[Moonchild]

If your extension overrides the site-specific user-agents we have in the browser, it will cause issues.
e.g. a Firefox 70 UA on YouTube will fail because it will be using an incompatible version of its site code. This is why we have a site-specific override for youtube in place.

[Night Wing]

I don't use an extension for YouTube. Are you using Windows 10 or Windows 7? I use as a backup Windows 7 so I'll list the code for 7 and linux in 64 bit and the link you left works for me in YouTube. Just restart you browser.

Code: Select all

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0 (Pale Moon)

Code: Select all

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0 (Pale Moon)

[KNTRO]

Moonchild,

I manually set the override setting to "false". Anyway, that start.me button is not working.

Night Wing,

Thanks, I'll try that!

[vannilla]

If the problem persists, try safe mode temporarily.
If the websites work as expected while in safe mode, then the only solution is to ditch user agent spoofing extensions (or disable them when a site breaks.)

[KNTRO]

vannilla,

Thanks for your reply.

So I guess I won't be able to spoof my user agent string when using Pale Moon. I mean, it's not a big deal, but I will miss it a bit if this won't work any more in Pale Moon (and Basilisk).

[doofy]

So I guess I won't be able to spoof my user agent string when using Pale Moon.

Depends.
If your spoofing breaks a site, seems a bit silly to be spoofing.
If you're using Eclipsed Moon, then set a static ff u/a and turn it off if a site like yt breaks.

Be aware that fingerprinting algorithms rely on a lot more than u/a's.

[moonbat]

You don't need to spoof anything for Youtube. The default UA override works fine with it.

[KNTRO]

moonbat,

Hello!

Yes, the default UA override works fine for YouTube. My question is a bit different though.

My question is: if I tell YouTube that my agent is Firefox 70 over a 32-bit Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu/etc, why it doesn't load that page normally? This doesn't even work if I tell YT that my agent is Firefox 70 over macOS 10.14, but if I use a real MacBook with a real Firefox 70, YouTube will load normally. This is the same case for that start.me button and for another website I can't remember now.

As I said, the setting general.useragent.site_specific_overrides is set as false by me manually, so when I spoof an UA, I do it for any website.

[Moonchild]

I already answered the question why it doesn't work. Youtube will send code that is incompatible with Pale Moon if you tell it that it's Firefox 7. In detail: Their layout design "polymer" (version 2 of it) requires DOM features we don't have (yet), specifically the Chrome-specific shadowDOM spec and Custom Elements v1. YouTube is a Google product these days and they target Chrome specifically as their client to use.

As I said, the setting general.useragent.site_specific_overrides is set as false by me manually, so when I spoof an UA, I do it for any website.

You shouldn't do that, because you are killing known-needed workarounds for a number of sites, Youtube included.

[gepus]

So I guess I won't be able to spoof my user agent string when using Pale Moon.

You can spoof your UserAgent in Pale Moon as you like, at least as long as you know what you're doing.
In case you don't know what you're doing there are good chances that you'll manage to break some sites like you did with YT.

Also be aware that spoofing your UserAgent without any need is silly to say the least.
In case you care about privacy, your UserAgent should be the very last thing to be concerned about.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Except KNTRO dosen't know what he is doing and hasn't since I have known him. I really wish he would stay ragequit'd actually.

[KNTRO]

Off-topic:
Rule "1.a" (yeah, the very first one):
if you can't make any sort of constructive comment, then please don't reply.

[Moonraker]

The OP links for youtube work perfectly fine for me.No changing of user agents etc.I use puppy linux.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Off-topic:
Rule "1.a" (yeah, the very first one):
if you can't make any sort of constructive comment, then please don't reply.

Don't quote rules to me.

[Admin]

Off-topic:
Rule "1.a" (yeah, the very first one):
if you can't make any sort of constructive comment, then please don't reply.

If you won't follow simple instructions like "don't do X", then don't ask for help with the fallout of your own actions.

Also,

Rule 1.c Don't start or fuel flame wars.

Closing for PEBCAK