1486575 - Firefox 60-ESR stops me from installing an addon

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[traumschuleriebau]

(Tested with 60.1.0esr and Tor Browser 8.0a10)

- I went to ​https://github.com/RequestPolicyContinued/requestpolicy/issues/754
- and tried to install ​https://requestpolicy.256k.de/requestpolicy-nightly.xpi
referenced there.

- When i click on the link a popup says:

> Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer.
> Don't Allow / Allow

When I open the xpi link in a new tab i see

> Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer.
> Ok!

(Sidenote: This addon does not work with this version of firefox.)

It is inconsistent.

This is a bit too protective. I am interested in installing this plugin.
Please let firefox allow me to install correctly signed addons from a xpi link.

Also I would like to be to disable installing addons this way temporarily. Is there a setting available via about:config or the preferences menu?

Comment 1

[Dana Keeler (she/her) (use needinfo) [:keeler] (on leave)]

This may or may not be the right component, but hopefully someone here will be able to point this in the right direction.

Comment 2

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

You've reported several different things here, but I don't think there's anything new.

The strange wording of the notification is covered by bug 628041.

That notification does not actually prevent you from installing an addon, it is meant to alert you that the site you're on (or the link you've followed) will be permanently installing an addon that alters how the browser behaves.  But if you click through (ie, click "Allow") you will be allowed to install the addon.

If you want to disable the installation of addons, set the preference xpinstall.enabled to false.

Comment 3

[Georg Koppen]

(In reply to Andrew Swan [:aswan] (on PTO until 8/28) from comment #2)
> You've reported several different things here, but I don't think there's
> anything new.
> 
> The strange wording of the notification is covered by bug 628041.
> 
> That notification does not actually prevent you from installing an addon, it
> is meant to alert you that the site you're on (or the link you've followed)
> will be permanently installing an addon that alters how the browser behaves.
> But if you click through (ie, click "Allow") you will be allowed to install
> the addon.

But that's not possible, if I open the .xpi link in a second tab which is the second scenario described above. The first bug here is that this behavior is inconsistent with the direct click on a link. The second bug is that it actually does prevent me from installing the addon while a direct click allows me eventually installing the add-on.

Reopening for that part as I guess that's not expected?

Comment 4

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

The new tab case is covered by bug 1328036.  That bug is well-summarized by https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1328036#c4