Basilisk - 2018.04.24 - "Incompatible" Add-Ons

[pintorama]

Upon installing the new "forked" version I received a message that two of my add-ons/extensions were incompatible and that's what it showed in the drop down menu. It turned out that reinstalling the current version of the add-on resolved the problem, so there was no need to revert to a previous version to make the add-on compatible with the new forked version of Basilik.

[adesh]

Yes, this is covered in the announcement.

[pintorama]

A better solution seems to be to initially dismiss the incompatibility add-on prompt when first loading the new version. When I went back and tried this, with my saved profile, things were just fine with the two add-ons that had previously been marked as incompatible, and they continue(d) to work.

[rodndtube]

Here is a list of Add-On utilities that were disabled upon updating Basilisk:

Non-Compatible_ExtensionsAdd-Ons.png

The following reinstalled with no problem
S3.Translator
uBlock Origin

The following presented issues:
Back To Top for Firefox (WE): Presented problems but was sketchy at times before. I installed Back to Top v8.01 by Chuck Baker and it works like a charm.

Cite This! v0.24: This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 54.0a1). You are using Firefox 52.9. I have installed another utility, "BibItNow!" by Langenscheiss, which is useful, but "Cite It!" provides some unique features.

Google Scholar Button v2.0: This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 55.0). You are using Firefox 52.9. I would like this Add-On back.

Is there an easy way to install Cite This! and Google Scholar Button?

[pintorama]

This should work. For instance, for Google Scholar, go to the Google Scholar add-on page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... /versions/ . Scroll down to Version History/See All Versions. Click on that. You should see a previous version that should install. In this instance, that version should be: Version 1.1.1-signed.1-signed . Once you've added the older version, make sure you disable automatic update of any add-on you revert because of incompatibility.

[rodndtube]

Pintorama, thanks for the suggestion and I did so for both Add-Ons. Are there any other workarounds? I didn't think the latest update to Basilisk was that new for an Add-On to be rejected as a WebExension or such, and do not recall this issue with my last version of Firefox v55.0.3.

Well, I checked FF v55.0.3, on my laptop, and I did have the older version of Cite This! installed and Google Scholar was not installed (but will need to check the desktop as that is where most of my research is done).

So, for the layman's understanding, are Basilisk users dependent upon the Add-On author to make a change or can Basilisk authors do something to enable the current versions of Add-Ons to be installed?

[pintorama]

No, I have no other suggestion for you. I am not a coder or anything, but I am starting to wonder if there is something in the present code for Basilisk that breaks what you have broken and what I now have broken, the search bar and the Firefox extension Brief. Boys upstairs, please take note of my hypothesis.

[Smokey20]

Luckily, I switched to my older Windows 8 Pro computer before trying the new version that now is causing websites to complain because of an "old" UA string - the same sites that complain about my Fx 52.7 ESR browser. At least general user agent override works in Basilisk about:config. It doesn't work in Fx 52.7 ESR. I don't look forward to all the complaints that I will now get from sites because of the UA string. I guess I need to get a user agent switcher extension on Basilisk now like I have to use on Fx 52.7 ESR.

As to extensions, I had several that were flagged and were ok once I got the newer versions. However, one extension, Disable HTML5 Autoplay, was removed...not just disabled but removed. It's an important extension and there is no substitute as far as I know as Fx 52.7 ESR drives me crazy because there is nothing that works on it to disable HTML5 autoplay at sites and now what I had for Basilisk that required Fx55 will not work on the current Basilisk.

Basilisk flagged a favorite extension, Screengrab, but said it would check to find a compatible version. It found the wrong version! It installed a version from 2010 that was compatible but didn't work at all. I had the newer version on earlier Basilisk but it requires Fx55 and above. However, there IS a version that the author expressly points users of Seamonkey, Fx older versions and Pale Moon to: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... on-0.99.12. Basilisk installer should have found this version.

[Moonchild]

addons.mozilla.org is to blame for you being served a 2010 extension, no extension at all, or other non-solutions.

[fipsy]

But we need a solution! If websites complain with version 2018.04.24 that this Firefox is too old and refuse the service, then this is not a sustainable concept.

[Moonraker]

But we need a solution! If websites complain with version 2018.04.24 that this Firefox is too old and refuse the service, then this is not a sustainable concept.

Feel free to provide a solution then.!

[fipsy]

I'm not the developer. My solution is to revert to version 2018.03.21.

[Moonraker]

I'm not the developer. My solution is to revert to version 2018.03.21.

Thats not really a long term credible solution is it.
Its really a case of take what your given or do without.

[fipsy]

Thats not really a long term credible solution is it.

I would fully agree with you.

If I understood correctly, it is about implementing a newer XUL version, which is only available in the old Firefox 52.9. Wouldn't there be a way to port the newer XUL to the newer Firefox? And then the question arises whether the newer XUL is so important and significant that one obviously accepts the many disadvantages of the older Firefox version! Especially against the background that the current Firefox no longer supports XUL at all.

[rodndtube]

I just installed the update on my desktop (Windows 7, my laptop is Win 10).

A similar list of incompatible Add-Ons were listed. On the positive side, I had many, many more Add-Ons on my workhorse desktop machine but all except for one of those were compatible.

- Google Scholar Button 2.0 (Disabled, Incompatible): "This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 55.0). You are using Firefox 52.9."
- Wayback Machine 1.8.1 (Disabled, Incompatible)

What is confounding about the Google Scholar Button incompatibility is that it worked on my previous version of Basilisk, identified by the extension list dumper as shown below:
Application: Basilisk 55.0.2018.03.21 (20180321102243) (Google Scholar works)
Application: Basilisk 52.9.2018.04.23 (20180424091103) (Google Scholar does NOT work)

There must be an easy fix here!!! Help me out:
1) Do the masters of Basilisk need to make the fix?
2) Do the Add-On masters need to make the fix?
3) Or, can the end-user make the fix, and if so, how would that be done?

Thanks in advance!

[JustOff]

First of all you need to find the version of the add-on that works on Firefox 52 ESR and try it on Basilisk 2018.04.23.

[rodndtube]

First of all you need to find the version of the add-on that works on Firefox 52 ESR and try it on Basilisk 2018.04.23.

In the case of Google Scholar Button, the older version v.1.1.1 installs and works on this newer version of Basilisk. However, the newer version of Google Scholar Button 2.0 worked on the older version of Basilisk but not on the newer version.

As noted here:
Application: OLDER Basilisk, 55.0.2018.03.21 (20180321102243) (Google Scholar 2.0 works)
Application: NEWER version, Basilisk 52.9.2018.04.23 (20180424091103) (Google Scholar 2.0 does NOT work)

Why does the newer version of Basilisk have an "older" version number? Does this have anything to do with the incompatibilities?

[JustOff]

In the case of Google Scholar Button, the older version v.1.1.1 installs and works on this newer version of Basilisk.

Then just stick with it for a while.

However, the newer version of Google Scholar Button 2.0 worked on the older version of Basilisk but not on the newer version.

This is pretty expected.

Why does the newer version of Basilisk have an "older" version number? Does this have anything to do with the incompatibilities?

Please read the release notes carefully.

[Isengrim]

Why does the newer version of Basilisk have an "older" version number? Does this have anything to do with the incompatibilities?

It has to do with how the UXP platform (which is what Basilisk runs on) is being developed. It started as a fork of Firefox 55, but the developers eventually realized that Firefox 52 was a better fork point for a number of reasons and decided to re-base everything. It was not a decision that was made lightly, either, because they have had to redo a lot of their work since then, and as you and many others have found it has introduced some breaking changes into Basilisk - notably with add-on compatibility.

[rodndtube]

Thank you Isengrim and JustOff for shedding more light on the causes of the recent changes. For a non-coder/non-programmer techie these explanations were easier to follow than the recent explanatory note on the "Changes" page. That being said, I reinstalled Screengrab! for this "older fork." I wonder what else it out there that I might want again!?

Is it true that I could also change a config.about setting to install and run Google Scholar 2.0?