firefox 3.6.4 upgrade

[Michael Pardee]

I have some questions/concerns about the impending Firefox 3.6.4
upgrade for all current versions of Ubuntu.

When firefox is run for the first time after this upgrade a window
pops up saying:
"15 new add-ons have been installed"

For the average home user, that is probably not a big deal, although
they might be suspicious and think their machine is compromised.  (End
users only expect security updates, not major version and
functionality changes, so I would hope end users will be notified of
this major policy change somehow.)

But in a large fully automated deployment (like a public library/call
center, etc.) this is going to be a major problem unless the upgrade
can be fully automated and transparent to the end user.  I couldn't
find anyway in Firefox to disable that "new add-ons" window.  I'm sure
I can figure out a way to script changes to ~/.mozilla/firefox files
to recognize the new versions so the window doesn't pop up, but I will
need to know exactly when this update is released to make sure the
changes go in at the same time as the new firefox version.  You could
switch over to using the PPA version ahead of time and make the
~/.mozilla/firefox file changes at the same time, but will there be
changes between the current PPA and the final release that will
re-trigger the "new add-ons" window?

Will there be a schedule published at least a few days in advance,
telling us exactly when the packages will be released to the main
archives?

Thanks,
Michael Pardee
Open Sense Solutions LLC
http://open-sense.com
888-323-1742



On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 6:40 AM, Ara Pulido <ara at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> We need Karmic users to test our latest Firefox Upgrade!
>
> *Background*
> As I wrote in a previous email[1], Firefox 3.0 and xulrunner 1.9 are now
> unsupported by Mozilla. We are going to release Firefox 3.6.4 as a minor
> update to the 3.6 series in Lucid. This will also be rolled out to
> Hardy, Jaunty and Karmic (along with xulrunner 1.9.2.4). The update for
> Lucid is quite trivial, but the update in Hardy, Jaunty and Karmic is
> not quite as simple. As part of the upgrade, we are also releasing a set
> of langpacks.
>
> Before releasing these updates to the public, we need testing in
> Firefox, the extensions in the archive and distributions upgrades after
> those updates. We have published all these packages in a PPA [2] and we
> will track test results before moving anything to the archive. If you
> are using Firefox localised in your local language, please, make sure
> that the langpacks didn't break Firefox and that the translations are OK.
>
> We now need people running *Karmic* (Jaunty will see a similar call for
> testing in the following days) in bare metal or a virtual machine. If
> you are willing to help, you can follow the instructions below:
>
>  1. Add the Mozilla Security PPA to your software sources
>
>  You need to manually edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and add the
> following lines:
>
>  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu karmic
> main
>  deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu
> karmic main
>
>  After saving the file, you have to run:
>
>  sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7EBC211F
>  sudo apt-get update
>  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>
>  2. You have to have an account in our tracking system. Go to
> http://mozilla.qa.ubuntu.com and click on "Log In" and "Create New Account"
>
>  3. To know what to test and how to report back, please, read our
> instructions in our testing wiki:
>
>   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Firefox3.6.4Upgrade
>
> Also, we have added a new testcase "XulRunner Applications" aiming to
> test that the applications using xulrunner keep working correctly after
> the update. These applications need to be tested both in Hardy and
> Karmic. A list of these applications can be found in the wiki:
>
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/Lucid/FirefoxNewSupportModel/xulrunner-list
>
> Thanks!
> Ara.
>
>
> [1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-June/030811.html
> [2] https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ppa
>
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