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Why unbranded firefox won't update to latest version?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by James

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Why unbranded firefox won't update to latest version?

Why unbranded firefox won't update to latest version?

All Replies (12)

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What do you mean by unbranded ?

If you have trouble with the upgrade, use this link; http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

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FredMcD said

What do you mean by unbranded ? If you have trouble with the upgrade, use this link; http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

By unbranded I meant unbranded. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#Unbranded_Builds

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tom3452 said

Why unbranded firefox won't update to latest version?

Because they are not normal Firefox Release channel builds.


tom3452 said

By unbranded I meant unbranded. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#Unbranded_Builds

from that page

How do the unbranded versions of Firefox work? They work just like Firefox, with two differences: they have a setting to disable mandatory signature checks, and they don't have the Firefox name and logo (instead using a generic name and logo). These builds are available in the en-US locale only.
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the purpose for these unbranded builds is more for testing and not use in production. a better option if you want to run unsigned extension would be to use firefox developer edition or firefox esr which will receive automatic updates.

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@James: bold text says nothing about updates. @philipp: developer edition is beta not stable as unbranded. ESR isn't a solution anymore since newest ESR versions require signed addons (and it's not the same as stable branch).

Modified by tom3452

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the toggle to disable addon signing is still present & supported in firefox 60esr

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philipp said

the toggle to disable addon signing is still present & supported in firefox 60esr

ESR isn't the same as stable branch though

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Hi tom3452

As mentioned above, the unbranded builds are designed for testing and developing add-ons.

If you are looking for something that is pre-Release but does get regular updates, you may wish to try a Nightly build from here.

Modified by Paul

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Seburo said

Hi tom3452 As mentioned above, the unbranded builds are designed for testing and developing add-ons. If you are looking for something that is pre-Release but does get regular updates, you may wish to try a Nightly build from here.

Thanks but I said no to beta so I would definitely say no to alpha. All I have asked about is update method for unbranded firefox. I assume that, for some incomprehensible reason, there's no updater in this version of firefox and all I can do is to keep track of new firefox versions and update it manually by coping profile folder, am I right?

Modified by tom3452

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Alright lets try this again.

The only versions that do get updates are Release, Beta, Developers Edition (Aurora), Nightly and the ESR branch channel builds. Mozilla does not provide updates to any third-party builds whether built by a individual or a Linux distro.

Release < Beta (b#) < Nightly (a1) and as you know Developers Edition is same as Beta but with additional developers features.

The unbranded builds are basically much like third-party builds as in they don't have the Firefox name and logo. It is not a mater of having a updater or not but whether there are .mar files for complete are partial updates and Mozilla does not provide such .mar files for either.

ESR currently has two branch 52 ESR and 60 ESR. The 52 ESR will be coming to a end soon as 52 9.0esr out on June 26 will be the last major update apart from any security and allowed stability fixes.

60.2.0ESR will then be the current in Sept as 52 ESR will be EOL.

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@James: It's maybe because my lack of english skills that we don't understand each other. I asked why unbranded firefox won't update itself. I assume it's because there's no auto updater built in this version and I have to do this manually. I'm not interested in any other firefox build because only unbranded meets my requirements of being stable version and allowing me to install unsigned addons (and getting new features normally not like in ESR).

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The normal channel builds of desktop Firefox gets .mar files for updates whether for Windows, Mac OSX, or LInux.

Here is an example of the updates for Win64 en-US version of Firefox 60.0 Release. https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/60.0/update/win64/en-US/

The unbranded builds are not even listed on places like https://archive.mozilla.org or https://ftp.mozilla.org and are unbranded like a third-party builds.

The Tinderbox builds for anything Firefox do not get updates as they have it's channel set as the generic default channel if I recall so no updates at all. https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/tinderbox-builds/


Not going to download a unbranded build just to see but you could type about:config with a : in the Location (address) bar and filter search for app.update.channel as I suspect it may have a channel of default.

You cannot change the channel it is on this way so do not bother trying to modify it.

Modified by James