[German]Brief information for users of the Fennec browser on Android. Ralf has just pointed out to me that version 142 from the FDroid store is causing problems – so it should not be updated for the time being.
Advertising
The Fennec F-Droid browser
The Fennec FDroid browser is based on the latest version of Mozilla Firefox and is available in the F-Droid store for Android. Proprietary bits and telemetry have been removed from the app.
However, the browser continues to connect to various Mozilla services that can track users. Hence the reference to "potentially unwanted content" in the screenshot above.
Notes on problems with Fennec version 142
Ralf Lindemann posted in the German blog's discussion area and pointed out a problem (thanks for that). Since I periodically delete comments from the discussion area, here are his notes:
A quick note for users who use Fennec (the F-Droid Firefox): If you haven't updated Fennec to version 142 yet, you should postpone the update. Fennec 142 has massive problems loading web pages when extensions such as NoScript or similar are enabled.
Ralf posted a link to the Gitlab entry Version 142 fails to load sites after first restart The entry was created this week and contains the following warning:
Advertising
When installing or updating fennec the first run of the app continues to work but after closing out and reopening the app links fail to load (both when searching or directly entering URLs) with a not secure warning and the progress bar stalling at about 20%
Steps to reproduce: Install fennec fdroid version 142.0.0 or update to that version, then open the updated app and enter a link. At that point links should work. Close the app using the app switcher and reopen fennec. At this point links will fail to load with the shield icon indicating an insecure connection and the progress bar will stall.
Attempted mitigations: Disabled enhanced tracking protection, system private DNS, changed system DNS, rebooted device, reinstalled app multiple times, connected to a different network, validated sites work using another device. All failed to resolve the issue. I've reverted my install to 141.0.2 for now to fix the issue until a patch is issued.
So, in summary: Fennec 142.0.0 still works when first launched. However, when the app is launched again, Fennec can no longer load links with URLs. An "unsafe" warning appears and the loading indicator gets stuck at around 20%. Unless I've overlooked something, there is no fix yet. Users must revert to version 141.x or stay there, or use the Firefox app, which is not supposed to have this problem.
Advertising
