633797 - Firefox recommends an incompatible Flash Player 10.2 update on PPC

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Websites :: plugins.mozilla.org, defect)

Description

[Glenn Schaffer]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13

The Add-ons/Plugins update function isn't smart enough to recognize that my older CPU was not compatible with the new Flash Player 10.2 update. The Firefox Updated web page, which appears following a new Firefox upgrade to 3.6.13, also exhibited the same lack of sophistication.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Select Tools | Add-ons
2. Select Plugins tab
3. Click Find Updates
Incompatible version of Flash Player is recommended on the resulting web page.

The Flash warning also appears on the Firefox Updated page when a Firefox 3.6.13 upgrade is first installed. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.13/whatsnew/
Actual Results:  
The "Firefox Updated" page's warning was extremely alarmist, "YOU SHOULD UPDATE ADOBE FLASH PLAYER RIGHT NOW." Selecting the Adobe link fully enables downloading of an incompatible version (10.2). Although the Flash download site does allow previewing system requirements, they are on another linked page and are easily missed if the user is in a hurry and fervently believed what Firefox told him to do. You don't find out that it's incompatible until you've downloaded the big installer and tried to run it on your PowerPC Mac. 

Expected Results:  
Everything worked "properly" in a narrow sense. The updater function just wasn't smart enough to know that the recommended update was incompatible with the user's machine.

As of February 2011, Adobe did not release its last Flash update for PPC Macs and has apparently ceased development of Flash for MacOS on PPC. Firefox diligently warns of the outdated Flash version and links to Adobe for the latest update, which is, of course, incompatible.

It would be most convenient if Firefox would provide a reminder/warning that Flash is vulnerable, but in less strident terms and NOT recommending an update. Firefox should provide more careful checking of update recommendations, to include OS version and CPU platform.

I realize that this level of back-end checking may be burdensome, but you smart folks may be able to figure out a way to make the plug-in updater function a whole lot smarter, even if you have to collaborate with major plug-in authors like Adobe. Thanks and good luck!

Comment 1

[kitchin]

If you could test at
http://www.stage.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
and report back at Bug 630468 that would be helpful.

Comment 2

[Scoobidiver (away)]

Glenn, does it work for you now that bug 630468 is fixed?

Comment 3

[Glenn Schaffer]

Sorry, been on the road and it took a while to get back to my G4.

The plugin check is modest (nice, polite pop-up with more info!), although it still presents an active red-orange "Update Now!" button linking to Adobe's incompatible update. That's still inappropriately alarmist.

I queried Adobe about specifics of any PPC vulnerability (bug 630468 contained a comment that PPC is not vulnerable(?)). Will let you know how Adobe answers, if they do.

Semi-related (haven't deep-checked bugzilla archives): the Firefox Plugin check reports my QuickTime as v7.6.6 (with a yellow update button), even though I installed 7.6.9 (current) some time back. Apple configuration issue or a Mozilla issue?

Comment 4

[Scoobidiver (away)]

For QuickTime on PPC, see bug 617560.

Comment 5

[Kev Needham [:kev]]

This was resolved on plugincheck, which is no longer available.