PM28 Red Cats Green Flavor theme doesn't

[JoeyG]

Does anyone know why the Red Cats Green Flavor theme (v. 6.0.0 and 6.1.0) is incompatible with PM 28?

Thank you.

P.S. Fortunately, I can get it to work with MTT.

[Goodydino]

Are you saying that Theme Compatibility Provider does not work?

[JoeyG]

Are you saying that Theme Compatibility Provider does not work?

Thank you for your reply. I have Theme Compatibility Provider installed on both PM28 and the latest unstable build.

It appears to work somehow in the background. Whatever it does, it doesn't seem to be working in this case.

As I've written, the only way I'm able to get Red Cats Green Flavor to install is with Moon Tester Tool.

[SpockFan02]

If the theme itself works but you just can't install it, you should open it up and target Pale Moon in install.rdf. Then Pale Moon will recognize it as compatible.

Also, it seems that Red Cats (green flavor) 6.0.0 is supposed to work with Firefox 4.0 - 45.*, while 6.1.0 is intended to work with Firefox 41.0a1 - 56.*; without knowing how it worked with both Australis and the earlier UI that Pale Moon inherited, the target version numbers would make me want to stick to 6.0.0 for Pale Moon.

[riiis]

1. Choose Red Cats (green flavor) version 6.0.0 to install. Files needed for Pale Moon 28 have been removed from Red Cats (green flavor) version 6.1.0.
2. Use archive software to extract the "red_cats_green_flavor-6.0.0-fx.xpi" archive file (I use the archive program "7-zip")
3. Find the chrome.manifest file in the extracted "red_cats_green_flavor-6.0.0-fx" archive folder. Using a text editor (such as "notepad" or "notepad++"), modify chrome.manifest to the following. These changes result in the red cats theme, designed for Firefox 34, to be used in Pale Moon.

Code: Select all

skin browser	  RedCats_g chrome/browser/
skin communicator RedCats_g chrome/communicator/
skin global       RedCats_g chrome/global/
skin mozapps      RedCats_g chrome/mozapps/
skin os_target    RedCats_g chrome/os_target/win/4/           os=WINNT
skin os_target    RedCats_g chrome/os_target/mac/osx/4/       os=Darwin
skin os_target    RedCats_g chrome/os_target/mac/maverick/4/  os=Darwin osversion>=10.9
skin os_target    RedCats_g chrome/os_target/linux/4/         os=Linux
skin app_version  RedCats_g chrome/app_version/34/ 

4. Using your archive software, re-zip/archive the files in the extracted "red_cats_green_flavor-6.0.0-fx" archive folder. Change the archive's file type from "zip" back to "xpi" if needed.
5. Install the modified "red_cats_green_flavor" xpi file in Pale Moon, using Moon Tester Tool. MTT modifies the install.rdf file in the "red_cats_green_flavor" xpi file, making Pale Moon a target application.
6. Add the following to your "\chrome\userChrome.css" file in your user profile. If "\chrome\userChrome.css" folder and/or file does not exist in your profile, you need to create it (observe upper and lower case when creating the "\chrome\userChrome.css" folder and/or file.

Code: Select all

@import url("chrome://global/skin/hacks/small_icons.css");

7. Enjoy

[JoeyG]

If the theme itself works but you just can't install it, you should open it up and target Pale Moon in install.rdf. ..."

Thank you for your reply. I know what you mean, but I don't know how to "target Pale Moon in install.rdf".

What do I have to type in?

Again, thanks very much.

[JoeyG]

1. Choose Red Cats (green flavor) version 6.0.0 to install. Files needed for Pale Moon 28 have been removed from Red Cats (green flavor) version 6.1.0....
7. Enjoy

Thank you very much for your detailed, extensive reply.

Please excuse me, but perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Using MTT, the theme installs and works fine.

My question was rather how to install it without MTT.

Again, thank you very much, and I'm sorry if my previous posts weren't clear. I realize you put a lot of time and effort into your reply, and I sincerely appreciate it.

[SpockFan02]

...

My question was rather how to install it without MTT.

Again, thank you very much, and I'm sorry if my previous posts weren't clear. I realize you put a lot of time and effort into your reply, and I sincerely appreciate it.

Unzip the theme like riiis explained, and open install.rdf with a text editor. Add this block to it:

Code: Select all

    <em:targetApplication>
      <Description>
        <em:id>{8de7fcbb-c55c-4fbe-bfc5-fc555c87dbc4}</em:id> <!-- Pale Moon -->
        <em:minVersion>28.0</em:minVersion>
        <em:maxVersion>28.*</em:maxVersion>
      </Description>
    </em:targetApplication>

Save install.rdf, re-zip the theme's files back into a XPI, and install it.

[JoeyG]

Save install.rdf, re-zip the theme's files back into a XPI, and install it.

Thank you very much.

It works , but the PM AM still says [FIXED], which is the same as when I used MTT.

Can someone explain to me in simple terms what the difference is between what I did and what happens when I use MTT?

It's sort of been my understanding that there's something "fundamentally bad" about hacking add-ons and that using MTT is really a last resort.

In this case, it's now clear that the theme works just fine with PM (including v. 28), but that the theme's dev apparently didn't know about the update to PM, so the latest version isn't mentioned in the install.rdf

The information SpockFan02 kindly provided clearly rectified this.

It should be noted that PM28 identifies v. 6.0.0 of the theme on the Mozilla website as being compatible.


Anyway, is it somehow "better" to use the fix provided by SpockFan02 than MTT?

Thanks again to everyone who's contributed so far.

[Lootyhoof]

I will get a Theme Compatibility Provider out at some point that actually supports v28, but I assure you there will be compromises that have to be made to achieve something considered "workable".

At this point I really don't recommend trying to use a theme made for Firefox on Pale Moon without expecting issues. There's too much that's changed for that.

[JoeyG]

...At this point I really don't recommend trying to use a theme made for Firefox on Pale Moon without expecting issues. There's too much that's changed for that.

Thanks for your reply.

As I've written, I haven't noticed any "issues" with this particular theme so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And what about the modified-install.ref fix as opposed to using MTT?

Thanks again.

[Goodydino]

To fix install.rdf, what I did was to copy the information for the Pale Moon target info from another theme. To make a theme installable and workable without using Theme Compatibility Provider all the time, I copied the theme's .xpi file from the profile and renamed the filename back to the original to make it easy to recognize again. Then I got rid of Theme Compatibility Provider.

[JoeyG]

To fix install.rdf, ...

Thanks for your reply.

In your PM Add-ons Manager, does it say [FIX] in front of the name?

[Goodydino]

To fix install.rdf, ...

Thanks for your reply.

In your PM Add-ons Manager, does it say [FIX] in front of the name?

No, at least I never saw that. What I did (not with Red Cats, but with another theme) was to tweak the install.rdf file first to substitute Pale Moon info for Firefox info, then install with Theme Compatibility Provider running, then copy and rename the .xpi file from the profile, get rid of TCP, change some settings in the extracted theme, and reinstall it.

[JoeyG]

No, at least I never saw that. What I did ...

Thanks very much. It's OK now.