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Old 01-15-2021, 12:44 PM   #31
heathcliff36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boughtonp View Post
Short answer, nothing to worry about - more detailed answers below.


This is basically the deb installation package that Apt has downloaded.

It should not contain any form of state relating to your installed Firefox

If you want to be paranoid, it is safe to remove - it (or a newer verion) will be redownloaded when you next ask Apt to install Firefox.



A HTML file within LibreOffice Help - here is the online version of that file: https://help.libreoffice.org/6.2/en-US/text/shared/optionen/persona_firefox.html

The "persona" part is an unusual abbreviation of "personalization" (rather than a reference to the word persona, which could be mistaken for a synonym of profile).

It mentions Firefox because: "You can customize LibreOffice with the same themes available for Mozilla Firefox."

Removing it may or not break LibreOffice Help system. (Wouldn't surprise me if it had no effect and was re-created on next upgrade.)



A PNG is an image file, and in this example an image used for an icon.

There's zero reason this file would contain any settings/cookies.

If you only have firefox.png within 22x22 path and not in the other six (16,24,32,48,256), my guess would be that this file was in use when uninstalling Firefox before.

Again, if you want to be paranoid, you could move/rename the file as backup, but I'd expect it to return when you install Firefox again.
Thank you very much.

I will re-install FF and see if the browser will retain cookies or remove them as it's supposed to do.
 
Old 01-15-2021, 01:15 PM   #32
shruggy
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The png file won't be reinstalled if you reinstall Firefox because it's not coming from Firefox, but is part of the package gnome-accessibility-themes:
Code:
$ dpkg-query -S /u*/s*/i*/H*/22*/a*/fir*.png
gnome-accessibility-themes: /usr/share/icons/HighContrast/22x22/apps/firefox.png
 
Old 01-15-2021, 01:54 PM   #33
boughtonp
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shruggy View Post
The png file won't be reinstalled if you reinstall Firefox because it's not coming from Firefox, but is part of the package gnome-accessibility-themes:
Code:
$ dpkg-query -S /u*/s*/i*/H*/22*/a*/fir*.png
gnome-accessibility-themes: /usr/share/icons/HighContrast/22x22/apps/firefox.png
Ah, I intended to mention/check "dpkg-query -S" when I started my reply, but couldn't remember the command and forgot about it by the time I wrote the LibreOffice bit.

It's still odd that only 22x22 is there - "dpkg-query -S firefox.png" tells me I have six different sizes within HighContrast directory; I would expect an SVG file with PNGs as cache for just the themes+sizes used, but instead there's a few thousand different sized PNGs. Meh.

 
Old 01-15-2021, 01:57 PM   #34
ondoho
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heathcliff36 View Post
I will re-install FF and see if the browser will retain cookies or remove them as it's supposed to do.
Do that.
Please keep in mind the differences between doing things as root and as a "normal" user.
Don't be root unless you have to.
And don't run GUI apps as root, esp. not web-facing ones.
 
Old 01-19-2021, 11:27 AM   #35
heathcliff36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ondoho View Post
Do that.
Please keep in mind the differences between doing things as root and as a "normal" user.
Don't be root unless you have to.
And don't run GUI apps as root, esp. not web-facing ones.
I have done the following:
Code:
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.mozilla/firefox
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.cache/firefox
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.cache/mozilla/
I then deleted old copies of firefox before deleting the browser:
Code:
/var/cache/apt/archives/firefox-esr_78.5.0esr-1~deb10u1_amd64.deb

apt purge firefox-esr
This deleted FF browser and its dependencies (I believe).
I then re-installed FF - I didn't change any browser setting.
But when I deleted all cookies, logged out and logged back in again - the cookies were not set to zero.

This time the 'Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed' is not faded out with this new install of FF.
But even when that option is ticked I still get cookies appearing when I re-open FF.

is it the case that others using FF delete their cookies and when they close the browser and re-open their cookies are set to zero?
This is not happening on my Debian 10 OS.
 
Old 01-19-2021, 12:50 PM   #36
v00d00101
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A stop gap measure is to create a small tmpfs drive and use it for all cache, cookies, etc. When you switch the computer off it wipes out everything. I honestly don't trust FF to wipe data, so I ensure it is done by a different process.
 
Old 01-19-2021, 01:23 PM   #37
ondoho
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heathcliff36 View Post
Code:
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.mozilla/firefox
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.cache/firefox
# rm -rf /home/heathcliff/.cache/mozilla/
The "#" suggests you are doing this as root. Why? Are you root when you start FF, too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by heathcliff36 View Post
This time the 'Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed' is not faded out with this new install of FF.
But even when that option is ticked I still get cookies appearing when I re-open FF.
Scroll past that in the preferences, to "History", and choose "Use custom settings for history", then check "Clear history when Firefox closes" and make your choices in "Settings" to the right of it.

BTW, how are you checking for existing cookies after startup, and which cookies are those?
Do you have any addons installed?
 
Old 01-19-2021, 02:32 PM   #38
heathcliff36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by v00d00101 View Post
A stop gap measure is to create a small tmpfs drive and use it for all cache, cookies, etc. When you switch the computer off it wipes out everything. I honestly don't trust FF to wipe data, so I ensure it is done by a different process.
Yes but FF is free and open-source (FOSS).
And that's because Netscape made it FOSS just before it was destroyed:
Code:
In February 1998, approximately one year prior to its acquisition 
by AOL, Netscape released the source code for its browser and created the Mozilla Organization
So shouldn't we trust FF more over other browsers?
 
Old 01-19-2021, 07:50 PM   #39
v00d00101
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Each person is welcome to make their own choice on whether to trust a company that makes software or not. I personally trust them about as much as I trust Google, Microsoft, Apple. But at the same time I trust Edge, Chrome and most other browsers less, apart from maybe lynx or links.

So no i dont trust them. I don't trust anyone that makes software or hardware particularly.

FOSS/Open Source is an acronym or two words. It does not imply trust. I think the only way you can trust software 100% is if you made it yourself.

As to your problem. My solution makes the files less likely to be recovered and costs you a little bit of ram. It may not be the solution you are looking for, but if you persevere, you may find one that works for you.
 
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