Changing Firefox update notification behavior?
Hi!
There seem to be two kinds of Firefox update notifications -- the polite little box that appears in the upper right corner from time-to-time, and then the giant covers-what-you're-doing one that you need to click cancel on if you're in the middle of something and can't upgrade right that second (very annoying if you happen to be in the middle of working on something when it steals your mouse and keyboard focus!) I've noticed this for the last several Firefox versions and updates.
I think what I'm describing as "the polite little box" might be Firefox sending a message via libnotify, but I could be wrong.
The giant interrupts-what-you're-doing one has interrupted me at just the wrong moment and caused me lost work one too many times, and I have to turn it off (with one tool I regularly use, losing mouse focus in the middle of selecting an image region means you have to start over). However, I'd rather not lose update reminders all together, because I do appreciate knowing when there's a new release out that I should install. Is there some tweak in "about:config" that would let me turn off the big interrupts-what-you're-doing update notification, but keep the polite little one, or some other method to receive update notifications in a way that doesn't steal keyboard and mouse focus?
All Replies (9)
I do use Mozilla & other builds of Fierfox myself.
This forum is for support of Mozilla's Firefox. On Windows Mozilla's Firefox may be set to Automatically update
On Linux things differ some what. Your install of Firefox would appear to be from your Linux distro (e.g. Canonical build if Ubuntu, rebranded as IceWeasel if Debian). It is possible to install Mozilla builds. See also.
You should discuss this on your Linux support forum. What you see will depend on your distro, the Desktop Environment, and your package manager.
Thank you for your reply!
I am on Debian, but I am not using the Iceweasel package, I am using the .tar.gz releases downloaded from mozilla.org/firefox . Because these are untarred under /usr/local it can't auto-update (running as a user it wouldn't have the permissions).
I'm fine with continuing to update it by hand -- I'm just hoping there's a way to get rid of the big disruptive update message without getting rid of the smaller non-focus-grabbing one.
I may need to leave this for someone else to answer. My Debian install on this machine needs reinstalling and that is not a priority at the moment, and that only has iceweasel anyhow. You could attach screenshots of the two notifications.
Your UAS appears to be
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0
I think I was expecting a Mozilla build to show a different UAS
That is pretty much a normal UA of a 64-bit Linux build of Firefox 35.0 from www.mozilla.org/firefox/all
32-bit Linux UA is Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0
What do you have it set in Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Update
Hello,
I have attached a screenshot of my update settings, and of the "big" update reminder message.
I haven't been able to get a screenshot of the "little" update reminder message, because it only appears for a few seconds at a time, however I was able to find something that looked extremely similar (same megaphone, layout, etc.) on Google image search, so I have attached that as well.
Again, my goal is to get rid of the "big" update reminder (because it steals keyboard/mouse focus at inopportune moments) but to keep the "little" one because it is useful to be reminded when updates are available. Is there a way to do this?
That reminder appears when Firefox has a pending update but hasn't been restarted in over 24 hours. Simply close Firefox down at night/lunch/dinner/whenever you sleep and you'll avoid this problem.
Thank you, but I prefer leave things running overnight so they're ready to go in the morning.
If necessary, I can just turn update notifications off entirely -- I'm just hoping there's a way set things up that keeps the "little" notification while getting rid of the "big" one.
If that's the case, just close and re-open Firefox every once in a while. Easy fix.
Closing and re-opening is not an easy fix when you tend to have work-in-progress in multiple tabs/windows.
Is there a way to keep the "little" update notification while disabling the "big" one, or do I just need to turn update notifications off entirely?