Firefox 10.0.3 global extension installation problem
After much searching and trying I still can not install extensions globally any more so I have come to you all for help.
I have just upgraded from FF 3.6.28ESR to FF 10.0.3ESR and now can no longer install extensions globally. From reading the forums I understand that this feature is disabled in FF by default now, and can be turned back on, but for some reason I can not get it to work for me.
From what I have read, configuring "extensions.autoDisableScopes" should work, but did not for me. Here is a simplistic breakdown of steps I have taken:
1) I logged in as an administrator.
2) I downloaded and installed "Firefox Setup 10.0.3esr.exe" (it upodated over my old v3.6.28 FF).
3) Using Notepad, I created a file called ""C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\prefs.js" and placed into the following 2 lines:
pref("extensions.autoDisableScopes", 0);
pref("extensions.enableScopes", 15);
4) I placed the file "noscript-2.3.7.xpi" into "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions".
5) But when opening FF, the "noscript" extension did not even try to install, and the file "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\noscript-2.3.7.xpi" file still remained in the directory (in FF 3.6.x it would have been converted to a cryptic directory name when it gets installed, so clearly it never tried to install).
Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?
Extra Background: I am using WinXP. For global installation of extensions using FF 3.6.x I simply dropped the "*.xpi" file for the extension into the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions" directory, and then the extension installed just fine next time FF started. After upgrading to FF 10.0.3ESR this method of global extension installation stopped working.
Thanks
Modified by quietstreet
All Replies (3)
The file name needs to be the ID of the extension as listed in the instal.rdf file, so you need to rename the file.
- {73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.xpi
Thank you very much for the help Cor-el as it worked, but I have one follow up question.
I did as you suggested and renamed the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\noscript-2.3.7.xpi" file to "{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.xpi", and sure enough the Noscript extension then installed and is working in multiple user accounts, which is perfect.
I noticed though that the renamed file "{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.xpi" did not create a directory and then get deleted as I would have expected based on Firefox 3.6.x experience. Previously with Firefox 3.6.x when I copied an XPI file into the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\" directory, the XPI file would vanish and a directory would be created with the same name as the cryptic "id" that was in the XPI's "install.rdf" file (ie: "noscript-2.3.7.xpi" would create directory "{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232} and then delete the file "noscript-2.3.7.xpi"). But when I did as you suggested and changed the name of "noscript-2.3.7.xpi" to "{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.xpi", it did not convert to a directory but merely stayed as an XPI file even though it did load Noscript into Firefox. Is this the new normal expected behaviour of Firefox 10ESR for globally installed extensions from now on (leaving the XPI file there rather then converting it to a directory?), or should I have done something different than I did?
Extensions are no longer unpacked by default to speed up loading (one file loads quicker than multiple files).
Only extensions that have an unpack flag (<em:unpack>true</em:unpack>) in the install.rdf file are unpacked.
Dictionaries are a category that needs unpacking.
Quote from https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Installing_extensions
In Firefox 4 you may also just copy the extension's XPI to the directory and name it <ID>.xpi as long as the extension does not require extraction to work correctly.