Share your browser prefs.js!

bgstack15 — Wed, 13 May 2020 12:47:10 GMT

The advances users of Mozilla-based web browsers tend to have a large set of preferences. Let's start a trend of sharing them! I throw all my settings into one prefs.js that gets distributed through my various means to the system directory. That's why you see pref() here instead of user_pref(). Not all of these options apply to each browser, but the extra ones do not hurt. So these could affect Waterfox, Palemoon, or Firefox web browsers.

// file: /usr/lib/waterfox/browser/defaults/preferences/bgstack15-waterfox-prefs.js
// last modified 2020-04-15
// reference:
//    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig
// Turn off updates. I use my package manager for browser updates.
pref("app.update.auto",                     false);
pref("app.update.autoInstallEnabled",       false);
pref("app.update.enabled",                  false);
pref("extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault", false);
// Disable previews of tabs. I just do not like the feature
pref("browser.allTabs.previews", false);
pref("browser.ctrlTab.previews", false);
pref("browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder", false);
// Old-style backspace action to navigate backwards through browsing history.
pref("browser.backspace_action", 0);
// Do not prompt for download location. Just use ~/Downloads.
pref("browser.download.useDownloadDir", true);
// Show blank page on a new tab.
pref("browser.newtab.choice", 1);
pref("browser.newtabpage.enabled", false);
pref("browser.newtabpage.storageVersion", 1);
// Do not suggest similar searches when typing into the bar. 
pref("browser.search.suggest.enabled", false);
// Disable these by choice.
pref("browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled", false);
pref("browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled", false);
// Hide this search plugin.
pref("browser.search.hiddenOneOffs", "DuckDuckGo");
// Do not automatically check for updates to search plugins.
pref("browser.search.update", false);
// Do not show separate widget in navigation bar.
pref("browser.search.widget.inNavBar", false);
// Load all tabs when starting browser. I hate load-on-demand, which is when it loads only when you switch to that tab.
pref("browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand", false);
// Do not check if this is the OS default browser.
pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser",   false);
// Set my home page.
pref("browser.startup.homepage",            "data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://start.duckduckgo.com/");
pref("browser.startup.page", 3);
// Closing the last tab does not close the browser window.
pref("browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab", false);
// Obviously I did not type this one myself. This controls the layout of the buttons on the navigation bar.
pref("browser.uiCustomization.state", "{\"placements\":{\"PanelUI-contents\":[\"edit-controls\",\"zoom-controls\",\"new-window-button\",\"e10s-button\",\"privatebrowsing-button\",\"save-page-button\",\"print-button\",\"history-panelmenu\",\"fullscreen-button\",\"find-button\",\"preferences-button\",\"add-ons-button\",\"developer-button\",\"sync-button\"],\"addon-bar\":[\"addonbar-closebutton\",\"status-bar\"],\"PersonalToolbar\":[\"personal-bookmarks\"],\"nav-bar\":[\"urlbar-container\",\"bookmarks-menu-button\",\"downloads-button\",\"home-button\",\"jid1-n8wh2cbfc2qauj_jetpack-browser-action\",\"ublock0_raymondhill_net-browser-action\",\"_f73df109-8fb4-453e-8373-f59e61ca4da3_-browser-action\"],\"TabsToolbar\":[\"tabbrowser-tabs\",\"new-tab-button\",\"alltabs-button\"],\"toolbar-menubar\":[\"menubar-items\"]},\"seen\":[\"jid1-n8wh2cbfc2qauj_jetpack-browser-action\",\"ublock0_raymondhill_net-browser-action\",\"_f73df109-8fb4-453e-8373-f59e61ca4da3_-browser-action\",\"developer-button\"],\"dirtyAreaCache\":[\"PersonalToolbar\",\"nav-bar\",\"TabsToolbar\",\"toolbar-menubar\",\"PanelUI-contents\",\"addon-bar\"],\"currentVersion\":6,\"newElementCount\":0}");
// Use dense view.
pref("browser.uidensity", 1);
// Do not hide the http and colon-slash-slash elements of a URL in the url bar.
pref("browser.urlbar.trimURLs", false);
// Disable enlarged-upon-selected url bar.
pref("browser.urlbar.update1", false);
// Allow me to see ssl error messages (and the ability to continue past them).
pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", false);
// Do not use webcam for this feature.
pref("camera.control.face_detection.enabled", false);
// Null-route these URLs
pref("captivedetect.canonicalURL", "http://127.0.0.1:9999/");
pref("devtools.devedition.promo.url", "https://127.0.0.1:9999/");
pref("dom.push.serverURL", "wss://127.0.0.1:9999/");
pref("security.ssl.errorReporting.url", "http://127.0.0.1:9999/");
pref("services.settings.server", "http://127.0.0.1:9999/");
pref("webextensions.storage.sync.serverURL", "http://127.0.0.1:9999/");
// Metadata that is not very important but it ended up in my copy-paste work.
pref("distribution.stackrpms.bookmarksProcessed", true);
// Disable Mozilla experiments.
pref("experiments.activeExperiment", false);
// This plugin is probably uBlock origin.
pref("extensions.enabledAddons", "%7B972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd%7D:28.3.0");
// Tell the browser that we already showed the user the page for "Select your addons" so it does not bother the user.
pref("extensions.shownSelectionUI", true);
// Already assume these plugins are enabled. This can help suppress the warning, "An admin added these plugins. Please choose to enable them or not."
pref("extensions.webextensions.uuids", "{\"uBlock0@raymondhill.net\":\"7f64930e-0e43-4813-97c3-6fcb8a82e63b\",\"jid1-n8wH2cBfc2QaUj@jetpack\":\"5b1c5018-34cd-4778-902b-08741e3d0002\",\"{f73df109-8fb4-453e-8373-f59e61ca4da3}\":\"b7ece467-f6eb-4254-a815-1029330a9793\"}");
// Select "Highlight all" for the find function.
pref("findbar.highlightAll", true);
// Miscellaneous
pref("gecko.handlerService.migrated", true);
pref("marionette.prefs.recommended", false);
pref("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
pref("privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs", true);
// Do not warn me when entering about:config
pref("general.warnOnAboutConfig", false);
// Disable geolocation functions
pref("geo.enabled", false);
// Trust my domain for Kerberos authentication
pref("network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris", ".ipa.example.com");
pref("network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris", ".ipa.example.com");
// Disable the captive portal detection logic.
pref("network.captive-portal-service.enabled", false);
// Disable dns prefetching (exactly what it sounds like).
pref("network.dns.disablePrefetch", true);
// Disable whatever these are.
pref("network.predictor.enabled", false);
pref("network.prefetch-next", false);
// Disable requiring HSTS. Use at my own risk!
pref("network.stricttransportsecurity.preloadlist", false);
// Disable Reader mode.
pref("reader.parse-on-load.enabled", false);
// More personal ssl choices. Use at my own risk!
pref("security.cert_pinning.enforcement_level", 0);
// Hide these search plugins. Somehow the Debian package search keeps getting re-enabled so I need to work on this one.
pref("services.sync.declinedEngines", "");
// Startup home page (if I were to choose the option "Load these pages at startup," which I did not)
pref("startup.homepage_override_url",       "");
pref("startup.homepage_override_url", "");
// Hm, there should be more of these, particularly toolkit.telemetry.enabled = false
pref("toolkit.telemetry.reportingpolicy.firstRun", false);
// Trust these domain names for installing extensions: none!
pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add", "");
// Control DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR).
// More about DoH: https://github.com/bambenek/block-doh
// https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/06/01/improving-dns-privacy-in-firefox/
// https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuring-networks-disable-dns-over-https
// https://wiki.mozilla.org/Trusted_Recursive_Resolver
// 0: Off by default, 1: Firefox chooses faster, 2: TRR default w/DNS fallback,
// 3: TRR only mode, 4: Use DNS and shadow TRR for timings, 5: Disabled.
pref("network.trr.mode", 0);
// Disable Pocket and null-route the URLs.
pref("extensions.pocket.enabled", false);
pref("extensions.pocket.api", "http://localhost:9980");
pref("extensions.pocket.site", "http://localhost:9980");

Package for devuan: waterfox

bgstack15 — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:23:08 GMT

In my Internet searching I have not found a Devuan-centric Waterfox classic package. So I decided to bundle it myself! You can see the build info for it in OBS, as well as use the nice download page to get it for yourself. This build is for Devuan Ceres. It excludes pulseaudio and dbus, which is why I call it "Devuan centric." While the Open Build Service only offers Debian builds, the package will install just fine on Devuan ceres. If you are the more paranoid type, you can examine my sources and even build the package yourself on Devuan!

Shoutouts

I follow a number of people on the Internet to learn packing tricks for dpkgs, or for how to build Waterfox. I know basically nothing about real software development, but I can build scripts pretty well, especially when I can follow good examples.

Hawkeye116477 seems pretty close to upstream Waterfox development, as well as builds his own KDE-focused Waterfox packages. https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox
Steve Pusser who is a maintainer for a number of MX Linux packages. He compiles other Mozilla-based browsers and has a much deeper knowledge of building dpkgs than me. https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:stevenpusser/palemoon

Knowledge Base (Posts about waterfox)

Share your browser prefs.js!

Package for devuan: waterfox

Shoutouts