Firefox 67 (Quantum) will not access the internet
 

Hello. I use Debian Stretch. I installed the latest Firefox from the Mozilla site (Quantum, version 67), rather than using the version that's packaged for Debian (Firefox-esr 60.7).

This morning Firefox stated it was updating, and then I was unable to access anything on the internet. I am able to access the internet with both the Konqueror browser and with Chromium (which I'm currently using). I have no idea why this is happening. If anyone has a suggestion, do please share.

Do you have any kind firewall or anti-virus programs that could block Firefox from accessing the Internet?

I have Gufw Firewall, version 17.04.1, installed and running. I turned it off, but that made no difference. And, I suspect if it was the firewall, that I wouldn't be able to access the web with any browser (which isn't the case).

I did notice something unusual about the addons. Beside all the active ones, I see a notation that says "ALLOWED IN PRIVATE WINDOWS" (see attached image). I tried opening Firefox in a private window, but this did not make a difference.

Check the Network Settings within Firefox

Edit -> Preferences General scroll down to Network Settings. Settings... button

Note: That change to add-ons is new with 67.0 per the message box at the top of that page.

Interesting. Let's try installing Firefox NOT directly from Mozilla. Perhaps you could try this method?

That's just Firefox saying the addons will work in Private Windows. They didn't before.

My installation of 66.x that got automatically updated to 67.0 was installed directly from Mozilla with no problems at all.
I am not running debian...but I fail to see how that would matter. (I could be wrong. It has happened :) )
Not exactly...before they did work in private windows and had to be manually disabled and enabled if one switched between non-private and private windows...now they can be configured by the user to work or not as they want.

I guess my "They didn't before" comment was a gross oversimplification. But I do remember none of my addons even appearing when I switched to a Private Window. Might've been from a long time ago.

No worries. I'm making assumptions myself. ;) I just know that Ad-blocker worked in private windows before this release. Just before...I'm too old to remember things from a long time ago :)

Let's keep this thread on track.

mark_alfred, any updates?

Well, I tried messing with the network settings, as suggested in a post above, and that didn't work. I think I'll simply try to get rid of Firefox Quantum, and go back to Firefox ESR from the Debian repository. The only reason I installed the new one was to get the Facebook Container addon, though really I don't think I need that addon (however, I quite like uMatrix, and hope to keep that going). I'm not sure how to remove Firefox Quantum, though. It's located at /usr/local/firefox, so maybe I can just remove that. Something I'll look at later (like tomorrow).

There is a Facebook Container addon you can install. However, I'm not sure if it's strictly for Quantum. I didn't see anything on the page that said otherwise.

Okay, I have made some progress. I restarted Firefox in Safe Mode, as suggested at the following Firefox internal site:
I got the idea to do this from here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...refox-profiles

So, I'm now removing some of the old addons I had. I think I just had too much clutter.

Cool. Starting from a barebones Firefox should help. It the issue originated from an addon, I wonder which one.

Well, not from the ones I removed, apparently, since restarting Firefox in normal mode didn't work even after tossing a few of the addons. I then tried disabling all the addons and it still wouldn't work. It did work when I started it in safe mode, however. It must be something else. Well, I'll now try "Give Firefox a tune up Refresh Firefox...", since I can't figure out what to fix when it's in "safe mode".

Hmm. So, I pressed "Refresh Firefox..." from the "about:support" page, and it refreshed everything, removing all the addons, and then it reinstalled all the addons (including those I had supposedly removed while it was in Safe Mode). So, it's working now and is back to how I had it, which, oddly, kinda creeps me out. Apparently I have a "Firefox Account", since there's a menu item on Firefox which says I have such an account (I can't recall creating it, though I must have at some point). Anyway, seems they know my exact setup. Regardless, it is now working. So, it's solved.