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.

Well, seems I was a bit premature in marking the thread as "solved". While I can access the internet with Firefox, it won't allow me to access sites like "Facebook". It states, "JavaScript Required". I checked "about:config", and found that JavaScript is enabled. So, I dunno what's up. It does work in Safe Mode, of course. Well, time to try the Refresh again.

Okay, I've refreshed it a couple of times over, and each time it goes and reinstalls all the old addons again, starting by going to this site here:
It's "Facebook Flash Video Player". And then all the addons are installed, and then, while I can connect to the internet, JavaScript supposedly is disabled (it's not disabled, actually).

Which addons do you have enabled?

Well, when in doubt, throw it out. So, I'm going to toss both /usr/local/firefox and /home/mark/.mozilla.

Have you tried removing all your extensions, with a fresh install of a barebones Firefox instance? I know you've been working with Safe Mode. The no Javascript error seems suspicious.

I suspect it was an old Flash Player install that was borking things. Regardless, I just got rid of Firefox Quantum and went back to Firefox ESR from the repositories. So, my bookmarks are gone and passwords are gone (I have records of passwords for sites I commonly use -- the rest was just clutter). I did remove the file /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so. I'm not going to bother with a new Flash Player.

Stuff seems to be working okay now. It asked me to sign into the Firefox site (or Mozilla site, or whatever) where it promised that I could sync everything on all devices to what I had previously. I declined to do this. I just installed the uMatrix addon. I used to have NoScript as well, but I think uMatrix on its own will be fine.

Anyway, stuff is now working.

I definitely recommend a password manager. Not something that lives on a company server, like 1Password or Last Pass, but something in which you can keep passwords locally: pass

Awesome. Glad it worked out. Sometimes bleeding edge isn't the best route.

Thanks. pass looks like a good program.

Yeah, for Debian it's best to stick with what's offered in the repositories.

I saw on Reddit that other people were having this issue with Firefox 67 too, and other people were not. I think it depended on what addons and plugins people had. Anything deemed unsafe resulted in being blocked from the internet (a rather extreme decision on their part, IMO). I'm not exactly sure what was going on in my case, though I did have a whack of addons and some unnecessary plugins. For me now, it's back to a just a couple of addons and the default "OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco" which Mozilla itself installs.

I recommend https://keepass.info/ - you might want to have a look before deciding which one to use.

Cool. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

There are extensions that connect to pass for Firefox and Chrome.