ηMatrix/eMatrix support thread

[vannilla]

But some of the code served by websites is.
Even if you are not paranoid about privacy, only allowing the strict necessary scripts will certainly save you a lot of bandwidth and processor cycles.

[adesh]

only allowing the strict necessary scripts will certainly save you a lot of bandwidth and processor cycles.

Off-topic:
That's the main reason I block these scripts. Most people don't understand this and fight. Privacy is also a fair point but I'm not too worried about that.

[KlarkKentThe3rd]

Yes, and mine is a 2012 Macbook, a "very well built and very powerful machine with CPU and RAM to spare".

[Falna]

I switched over to ηMatrix when I built a new profile a couple of weeks ago.

One peculiarity is that when I reboot the browser, the ηMatrix button doesn't appear. It's not in the 'customize toolbar' dialog, just hiding. Disabling and re-enabling ηMatrix - either once or twice - brings it back again. If it takes two attempts, then on the 1st attempt the adjacent buttons move apart slightly, but not enough for the button to reappear. I did move it from it's default position - as I have with many other buttons - but it's the only one that has ever misbehaved, and there is no sign of any other problems or instability despite daily extensive use. Uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't help. I'm going to try some other experiments when I get time.

Any ideas why this might be, and what might cure it?

[vannilla]

It's a known bug and I'm not aware of any solutions aside from "leave it as the last button of the toolbar".

[moonbat]

It's a problem common to all 'restartless' extensions whose buttons get dynamically added to the toolbar, and is a limitation of the extension technology with regard to Pale Moon. Disabling and re-enabling the extension fixes it.

[vannilla]

Disabling and re-enabling the extension fixes it.

It doesn't. Having to do that every time you restart is not a fix, it's a pain in the butt.
The only "fix" (notice the quotes) is to keep it last, so when the UI finishes initializing it simply places itself at the end and it's done.

[Moonchild]

The only real fix (no quotes) is to stop using crappy bootstrapping and make it an overlay extension As Extensions Were Originally Meant To Be™

[vannilla]

I tried, but the existing codebase can't be converted that easily. There are too many parts that actually depend on being bootstrapped.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Seems to help somewhat if you can create the UI as an overlay and get the overlay dynamicly loaded early enough in the window creation. Not perfect but should allow xulstore a chance to operate more properly.

Contract using observer on the main window to load the overlay.

[Deadgye]

ηMatrix seems to break youtube videos. I get a black screen with the loading circle for the skip duration of the ads and then the same for the actual video. If I disable the extension and refresh the page I am able to watch the video.
I'd be happy with simply disabling the extension functionality on a per-site basis, or perhaps even enabling it on a per-site basis. But I do not in any way understand the rules syntax or how I might accomplish either of these solutions/workarounds.

[vannilla]

Yeah, this extension might not be suited for you, sorry.
You should explore the extension, or just use something else.

[moonbat]

By design, every site will break because the extension blacklists all 3rd party content by default and you have to explicitly allow content for it to work. Takes a while to set up by using trial & error combined with common sense (allow content from CDNs used by the site, for example) and hence not for users who don't have the patience to set it up. For youtube you have to allow content from googlevideo.com.

[vannilla]

Just a reminder that the same thing, though with less details about sites and more on the UI, is written in the description on the addons site.
I urge anyone installing the extension to read it before clicking download.

[Deadgye]

By design, every site will break because the extension blacklists all 3rd party content by default and you have to explicitly allow content for it to work. Takes a while to set up by using trial & error combined with common sense (allow content from CDNs used by the site, for example) and hence not for users who don't have the patience to set it up. For youtube you have to allow content from googlevideo.com.

Just a reminder that the same thing, though with less details about sites and more on the UI, is written in the description on the addons site.
I urge anyone installing the extension to read it before clicking download.

Thank you for the hand-holding.
In hindsight I tripped myself up. First I had the misconception that only youtube was being broken, as the handful of other sites I was using were still functioning normally; Second I had installed the extension and disabled it a month ago so I wouldn't forget to try it out, forgot what is stated on the addons site, and then failed to find my way back to said addons page to re-read the description that was there. Searching for matrix, ηMatrix, or eMatrix in about:addons returns no result. And I didn't expect the addons page to be more descriptive and verbose than the readme on the gitlab site. (The readme does have a direct link to the addons page, but to be fair it's under the "Install" section.)

To "unbreak" a site, you need to operate on the per-site popup matrix that ηMatrix makes available from its toolbar button. You just need to click on each cell to enable (green) or disable (red) a particular feature.

This was the key thing I was missing. I did not have the toolbar button added to the UI and had completely forgotten it existed. I thought the dashboard and logger in the extension's options were the only configuration-related interfaces available.

Any tips for how I might modify the individual toolbar button, or where I could look to learn how to do so? It's practically perfect if I configure toolbars to show icons only, but I do not want all of my toolbar buttons to be icon only. I want 'icons and text' for everything I currently have except for the eMatrix toolbar button. The use case being that all of my other toolbar buttons are at the top of the browser, but I want the eMatrix button to be at the bottom right of the browser in the status bar.

[vannilla]

If you open the context menu on the toolbar (not the buttons) you will see a "customize" entry. Just hit it and move the widgets around.
As for the minimal README, during the times that were (i.e. when I started the eMatrix project), I pretty much copied uMatrix and edited it only to include the link to the add-on site.
Maybe one day I'll expand it with more infos (or just more links), but for a number of reasons this extension had to be placed down the priority list quite a bit, so it'll be done "eventually".
I know it's an easy edit, but first I have to decide what to put there and that takes time.

Anyway, always remember that eMatrix requires a lot of commitment and some knowledge of how the contemporary web works, so if at some point in time you feel like it's too much work or you just can't get sites to "unbreak", there's nothing wrong with giving up in favour of other "fire and forget" solutions.
The main purpose of eMatrix is to block unwanted requests, not to hide certain elements like adblockers or uBlock do, so if you approach this extension like you would do with the others you're going to hit a wall sooner or later.

[coffeebreak]

While you explore the extension, please take note that it links to extensive documentation:
eMatrix Dashboard -> About tab -> uMatrix links -> Documentation

eMatrix-abouttab.png

Searching for matrix, ηMatrix, or eMatrix in about:addons returns no result.

The search box in the Add-ons Manager does not return results for extensions that you already have installed, since it's there precisely to search for things to install. You needed to search directly on the add-ons site, which it would be wise to bookmark.

I want 'icons and text' for everything I currently have except for the eMatrix toolbar button.

You can remove the eMatrix button label by adding the following to your userChrome.css file which is in the chrome folder in the browser profile, then restarting the browser:

Code: Select all

#ematrix-button .toolbarbutton-text {
  display: none !important;
}

Read the linked articles for "how-to" details, or search the forum for posts on userChrome.css (there are many).
(if you haven't used it before, you'll find a file in the chrome folder named userChrome-example.css . copy that file and rename the copy userChrome.css .)

[moonbat]

I want the eMatrix button to be at the bottom right of the browser in the status bar.

When the customize toolbars dialog is open, you can drag and drop to rearrange icons wherever you want - including the status bar. Simply drag the extension's button to the status bar and that's it.

[vannilla]

I pushed a small update to the extension and while I was at it I changed the README file a bit.
There is now a quickstart section right at the beginning.

[Deadgye]

You can remove the eMatrix button label by adding the following to your userChrome.css file which is in the chrome folder in the browser profile, then restarting the browser:

Code: Select all

#ematrix-button .toolbarbutton-text {
  display: none !important;
}

Read the linked articles for "how-to" details, or search the forum for posts on userChrome.css (there are many).
(if you haven't used it before, you'll find a file in the chrome folder named userChrome-example.css . copy that file and rename the copy userChrome.css .)

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed to do. It's a wonder how I've gone this long without using a custom css, despite being so particular and stubborn.