I posted a couple of days ago about making, or forcing, Firefox plugins to work for 3.5 when they were only compatible up to the 3.0.x series. I mentioned that breakage could occur and, while it took some work, I was able to get all of the plugins I had with 3.0.11 working with 3.5 as you can see in the screenshot below. Unfortunately, you can also see something was amiss.

shiretoko_all_plugins_enabled

While I was apparently on Google’s homepage, the address bar was still under the impression that I was at the Google Reader page. It was also not immediately displaying my home page when Firefox 3.5 launched. It turns out that ubufox, the Ubuntu Firefox Modifications plugin, isn’t quite compatible. Only after disabling it did Firefox 3.5 return to operating normally. All of my other plugins seem to function as expected.

Some other interesting tidbits from the screenshot:

  • I am not the author of the ubufox plugin. I was still trying to figure out how Firefox handled plugins and used my troubleshooting skills by changing its name in order to show if I had made any progress.
  • There is no version 2.02.00 of the Fast Video Download. I changed the version number for the very same reason I added my name to the ubufox plugin.

Things I learned in the process:

  • Firefox keeps a record of the plugins in an extensions.rdf file located in the profile directory. Even after making changes to the necessary plugin files for both ubufox and Fast Video Download, Firefox 3.5 still wouldn’t allow me to enable them. It wasn’t until I removed the extensions.rdf file, which was later auto-generated by Firefox 3.5, that Firefox 3.5 finally recognized the version changes.
  • The ubufox plugin is a global plugin and isn’t kept in your local profile directory. It’s install.rdf file is located at /usr/share/ubufox/install.rdf and is owned by root. The idea is still the same by locating the maxVersion and changing it to 3.5.* but using sudo instead. Unfortunately, it still prevents Firefox 3.5 from functioning normally.

Until a suitable replacement is made of the ubufox plugin, I recommend against changing its install.rdf file’s maxVersion entry. Since it’s a global plugin, any new user that is added to your computer will get a broken Firefox 3.5 setup.

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