1647160 - Add warning when opening about:config on Fenix

Status: NEW

(GeckoView :: General, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Filip Š]

Currently, Firefox Preview (Fenix) only enables about:config on nightly and beta version, but not in stable release. There is already an issue on Fenix GitHub repository to open it on all versions.

The reason why it is not currently enabled everywhere is probably because changing some preferences without knowledge could result in problems or non-working browser. Because of this it is probably only enabled on beta and nightly which are supposed to be "development/debugging builds for users who know what are they doing." But not all preferenses are for "debugging purposes." There are a lot of other useful things that can depend on about:config. For example, changing some more advanced settings, enabling/disabling some APIs (could be also used for security/privacy reasons), as well as other things. That's why it would be good to enable it on all versions.

However, unlike on desktop which has about:config on all versions, there is no warning for unexperienced users that changing preferences can break things. Because of this, I suggest implementing warning, similar to desktop one, which warns users that changing some preferences may be dangerous. Then Fenix could probably enable about:config on all versions without too much danger for unexperienced users, but that's another issue.

Displaying warning should probably be configured by GeckoView's runtime settings. For example, stable Fenix releases could have enabled warning, while beta, nightly or other third-party browsers may not have it. Additionally, users should be able to dismiss the warning forever, like they can on desktop.

Comment 1

[Hiroyuki Ikezoe (:hiro)]

(In reply to Filip Š from comment #0)

Displaying warning should probably be configured by GeckoView's runtime settings.

What about adding a new runtime setting to enable/disable about:config and exposing the setting in Fenix setting menus? And even if it enabled once, once after the setting was reset to "disable", all preference values which have been changed in about:config will be reset to default values.

Comment 2

[Filip Š]

Isn't there already setting which enables/disables about:config but it is not exposed in settings?

I now think that additional setting to configure warning should not even be needed, because if it is done in the same way as on desktop, warning can be configured with browser.aboutConfig.showWarning preference. Then Fenix can have it by default and warning will show, while Nightly or other browsers can set it to false by default and warning will not show.

Comment 3

[Filip Š]

If configuring warning the same way as on desktop (with browser.aboutConfig.showWarning preference) is ok, I can submit implementation patch for it this week. I have already implemented it and manually tested it in GeckoView Example App (and it seems to work), but I still need to write some automated tests.

Comment 4

[Filip Š]

Attachment: Bug 1647160 - Add warning when opening about:config in GeckoView r=snorp

Comment 5

[nemo]

So... the only solutions at present for bug workarounds or opting into fixing dubious default security configuration settings right now is installing beta?
I was kinda trying to avoid having a beta as my default browser. For one thing, it updates a lot.

I saw there was another issue for an about:config extension - would that be a decent compromise for a deliberate user opt-in?

Also, is the concern that I flip a switch that breaks everything? there's always clear local data, or some "refresh" option. But I thought that was always covered by the "at your own risk" part.

It's the paternalistic "no, you can't do this" part that's annoying - even if a lot of the UI options do belong to the desktop irefox.

Comment 6

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, so the assignee is being reset.

Comment 7

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Enhancements should have severity N/A.