Other Firefox Dynasty - Firefox for OS X 10.8+ (Also, Web App Templates!)

[maverick28]

I'm encountering a problem running Firefox Dynasty.

My 2007 MBP 3,1 used to run it well with v. 137.02, but since downloading v. 138.01 the application won't launch. And, now I can't roll back to 137.02. Even deleting everything - and I mean everything I could find, including app caches and the app support folder from Library - makes no difference. Any version I download, whether using @Wowfunhappy's pref pane or straight from Github, hangs on launch now.

I've tried watching in Console while attempting to launch the app, and I've looked at crash reports, but I've found nothing to enlighten me as to the cause. Which may be because I'm not understanding what I'm seeing, but I did try.

It's not a hardware problem. I'm running Pale Moon, Sea Lion, and Chromium Legacy without issue.

It shouldn't be an OS-level software problem. For unrelated reasons, I recently wiped this MBP and reinstalled Mavericks fresh. But I'm still having the same problem with Firefox Dynasty. It worked great for me when it worked, but now I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

You haven't disclosed the operating system you're running. If it's older than Mavericks, then the 2007 MBP isn't supported unless you've installed DosDude1's patch. Skimming through the issues on the project's GitHub page reveals reports of it crashing on Lion and Snow Leopard. I cannot claim this since it's a speculation on my part; however, if the ported Firefox installs modified system-level components on these two systems, just like Chromium Legacy Downloader does by putting a custom-developed kext, even completely wiping off Firefox may retain these components. To make sure you're reinstalling Firefox from scratch, you should reinstall the OS or figure out whether these leftovers are an actual thing.

If launching Firefox fails, you probably haven't removed everything. You may want to run the command below in the Terminal. It will attempt to output every relevant path. You can then issue another command to delete these objects.

List Firefox paths:

echo your_admin_password | sudo -S find -Ex / -iregex '.*(org\.mozilla\.firefox.*|firefox(.*|.*\.app))' ! -iregex '.*(contents|resources|frameworks|develop|mail|documents|pictures|movies|music|downloads|guest|shared|safari|tor.?browser|chrom(e|ium)|pale.?moon|sea.?lion|\.trash|\.[jp][en]?g|\.[gt]if{1,2}|\.pdf).*' -prune

Remove Firefox paths (moves them to the Trash):

echo your_admin_password | sudo -S find -Ex / -iregex '.*(org\.mozilla\firefox.*|firefox(.*|.*\.app))' ! -iregex '.*(contents|resources|frameworks|develop|mail|documents|pictures|movies|music|downloads|guest|shared|safari|tor.?browser|chrom(e|ium)|pale.?moon|sea.?lion|\.trash|\.[jp][en]?g|\.[gt]if{1,2}|\.pdf).*' -prune -exec cp -R {} .Trash/ \; -exec rm -R {} \;

Before running these commands, you can check Firefox for broken dependency (dylb) links:

app=$(mdfind -onlyin /Applications/  "kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox.app' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox.app'") ; find "$app"/ -type f -perm +111 -exec otool -L {} \; | grep 'not found'

NOTE. otool requires Xcode to be installed.

 

[Grumpus]

My 2007 MBP 3,1 used to run it well with v. 137.02, but since downloading v. 138.01 the application won't launch.

FIREFOX_138_0_1_RELEASE is really 138.0.2, according to Firefox->About Firefox. I installed it on a 2008 MacBook running Mavericks, after dragging 137.0.3 to the Trash, and it seems to be working fine.

In addition to everything under /Applications/Firefox, Sun Knudsen's app-cleaner.sh script offers to delete the following files. Maybe you could try moving them aside to see if that helps.

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
~/Library/Caches/Firefox
~/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
~/Library/Saved Application State/org.mozilla.firefox.savedState

 

[Raging Dufus]

You haven't disclosed the operating system you're running. If it's older than Mavericks, then the 2007 MBP isn't supported unless you've installed DosDude1's patch. Skimming through the issues on the project's GitHub page reveals reports of it crashing on Lion and Snow Leopard. I cannot claim this since it's a speculation on my part; however, if the ported Firefox installs modified system-level components on these two systems, just like Chromium Legacy Downloader does by putting a custom-developed kext, even completely wiping off Firefox may retain these components. To make sure you're reinstalling Firefox from scratch, you should reinstall the OS or figure out whether these leftovers are an actual thing.

If launching Firefox fails, you probably haven't removed everything. You may want to run the command below in the Terminal. It will attempt to output every relevant path. You can then issue another command to delete these objects.

List Firefox paths:

echo your_admin_password | sudo -S find -Ex / -iregex '.*(org\.mozilla\.firefox.*|firefox(.*|.*\.app))' ! -iregex '.*(contents|resources|frameworks|develop|mail|documents|pictures|movies|music|downloads|guest|shared|safari|tor.?browser|chrom(e|ium)|pale.?moon|sea.?lion|\.trash|\.[jp][en]?g|\.[gt]if{1,2}|\.pdf).*' -prune

Remove Firefox paths (moves them to the Trash):

echo your_admin_password | sudo -S find -Ex / -iregex '.*(org\.mozilla\firefox.*|firefox(.*|.*\.app))' ! -iregex '.*(contents|resources|frameworks|develop|mail|documents|pictures|movies|music|downloads|guest|shared|safari|tor.?browser|chrom(e|ium)|pale.?moon|sea.?lion|\.trash|\.[jp][en]?g|\.[gt]if{1,2}|\.pdf).*' -prune -exec cp -R {} .Trash/ \; -exec rm -R {} \;

Before running these commands, you can check Firefox for broken dependency (dylb) links:

app=$(mdfind -onlyin /Applications/  "kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox.app' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox.app'") ; find "$app"/ -type f -perm +111 -exec otool -L {} \; | grep 'not found'

NOTE. otool requires Xcode to be installed.

Thanks, I appreciate your suggestion. I did mention in my initial post that I'm running Mavericks, and also that I'd re-installed it:

For unrelated reasons, I recently wiped this MBP and reinstalled Mavericks fresh.

But I'm having the same problems after the fresh install that I had before. So I'm guessing leftover components aren't the problem, since the fresh install of Mavericks would have wiped all that out.

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[Raging Dufus]

FIREFOX_138_0_1_RELEASE is really 138.0.2, according to Firefox->About Firefox. I installed it on a 2008 MacBook running Mavericks, after dragging 137.0.3 to the Trash, and it seems to be working fine.

In addition to everything under /Applications/Firefox, Sun Knudsen's app-cleaner.sh script offers to delete the following files. Maybe you could try moving them aside to see if that helps.

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
~/Library/Caches/Firefox
~/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
~/Library/Saved Application State/org.mozilla.firefox.savedState

Thanks for your suggestion. I did delete those folders before, except for the Saved Application State. It made no difference. The reason I didn't delete that last one is, as you can see in the attached image, no firefox subfolder appeared in the Saved Application State folder. I can only assume it's not there because I haven't been able to successfully launch Firefox Dynasty since the fresh install of Mavericks.

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[Raging Dufus]

For anyone interested, I've attached to this post the System Diagnostic Report from my most recent attempt to launch Firefox Dynasty. I obtained this from the Console app. I can't say I recommend reading it, because it's miles and miles of mostly gibberish, at least to me. I can't make heads or tails of much past the first page. But if you can understand it, there it is. Thanks everyone again for trying to help!

 

[Grumpus]

Thanks for your suggestion. I did delete those folders before, except for the Saved Application State. It made no difference.

Could it be a certificate problem? I ask, because it's working for me on Mavericks and I had updated the root certs some time ago:

#!/bin/bash -e

curl 'http://x1.i.lencr.org' > /tmp/ISRGRootX1.pem && sudo security -v\
    add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain\
    /tmp/ISRGRootX1.pem

curl 'http://x2.i.lencr.org' > /tmp/ISRGRootX2.pem && sudo security -v\
    add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain\
    /tmp/ISRGRootX2.pem

Aside from that, I don't have much else to offer at the moment.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Could it be a certificate problem? I ask, because it's working for me on Mavericks and I had updated the root certs some time ago

I can't imagine it would be, since every other browser works fine with the certs I have from the fresh install of Mavericks. Besides, a certificate problem shouldn't prevent the browser from launching.

Thanks again!

 

[wicknix]

Have you tried rolling back to even older versions, like maybe 135 or older? I’d try a few of those and see if any launch. If successful, then something may have changed that b0rks newer releases from running on certain hardware/installs. If the older versions run maybe they will work some sort of “behind the scenes” magic that will allow newer versions to run. Worth a shot anyway.

If it's older than Mavericks, then the 2007 MBP isn't supported unless you've installed DosDude1's patch.

Works fine on a 2007 mac mini running 10.7 without any dosdude patches. Just requires a simple symlink of a framework that got moved to a different location in 10.8 and up. Screenshot of it here. Symlink found here.

 

[Grumpus]

Besides, a certificate problem shouldn't prevent the browser from launching.

Yes, you're right, and also Firefox appears to keep its own certificate store including root certificates.

 

[Xde]

I use Dynasty from 135 onwards on Mavericks (what is and remains my main system).
I never had problems with Dynasty. I have exported the bookmarks before, then uninstalled/deleted all old Mozilla components before installing Dynasty. With every update I copy the new app and overwrite the old one.
I have 2 profiles in the profiles folder, one at the first start it seems, and another while using it. This remains like it is.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Success! I took @Grumpus's suggestion of deleting the Firefox-related folders from Library. Then I used @maverick28's suggested Terminal commands to thoroughly broom any remnants. Then I took @wicknix's suggestion to try even earlier versions, and - - I'm pleased to report that I'm posting this from a newly installed Firefox Dynasty v. 135.01. Thanks everyone for your help!

Of note: when first launching my new Firefox installation, I got the following warning:

Using an older version of Firefox can corrupt bookmarks and browsing history already saved to an existing Firefox profile. To protect your information, create a new profile for this installation of Firefox.​

​

The above message window gave me two options: "Create New Profile" or "Quit" - obviously I chose the former, and was then greeted with my finely functioning Firefox.

[Aside: Can we not post images here anymore? I saved an image of the above with Grab, then tried uploading it into this post, but all MR would allow me to do is attach it - meaning anyone viewing the post could only view the image if they downloaded it. Did something change, or is my head further up my rear than I thought?]

 

[Raging Dufus]

UPDATE: Well, crap. I'm right back where I started

I didn't mention above that I downloaded v. 135.01 directly from Github, which is what I did. I just now used @Wowfunhappy's pref pane - which I did not remove prior to installing 135.01 - to try upgrading to v. 137.02. And now, it's right back to hanging on launch.

I don't believe the pref pane could be the problem, because I've used that before without issues. However, I suppose it's possible it got corrupted somehow by whatever is preventing 137.02 from launching.

Here's what I'm going to do: Repeat the steps I tried above, which resulted in a working 135.01. This time I will also delete the pref pane. Then I'm going to get 135.01 directly from Github again, and if that works, I will try updating incrementally to 138.01 also via Github downloads. Then I'm going to wipe all that, reinstall the pref pane, and try the same process except downloading everything using the pref pane. That should isolate the problem enough to determine whether it's something my machine isn't liking about Firefox itself, or about the way the pref pane installs it.

Thanks everyone for sticking with me on this, I have a busy weekend ahead and it will take me a few days to try all these steps. I'll report back on my progress as soon as possible.

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

if the ported Firefox installs modified system-level components on these two systems, just like Chromium Legacy Downloader does by putting a custom-developed kext

There's nothing like that for Firefox Dynasty. At one point Dynasty did require a kext to be installed on Lion (only) but that requirement was removed, and nothing has ever installed it automatically.

 

[maverick28]

UPDATE: Well, crap. I'm right back where I started

I didn't mention above that I downloaded v. 135.01 directly from Github, which is what I did. I just now used @Wowfunhappy's pref pane - which I did not remove prior to installing 135.01 - to try upgrading to v. 137.02. And now, it's right back to hanging on launch.

Have you run the last command I suggested in my reply?

P.S. Check the "Insert" option in the message editor to embed images in the post's body.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Have you run the last command I suggested in my reply?

No, because I didn't have Xcode. But I will install Xcode and give that a shot, thanks.

P.S. Check the "Insert" option in the message editor to embed images in the post's body..

Thanks, don't know how I missed that! Seems my head is further ensconced in my rear than I supposed. Which may be the root of my problems... my username is unfortunately my username for a reason 😵‍💫

 

[Grumpus]

No, because I didn't have Xcode. But I will install Xcode and give that a shot, thanks.

If you want a smaller download, otool is included with the xcode command line tools.

Several of the 'dynasty' libraries use the @executable_path construct. I don't know if 'otool -L' will be useful for finding missing references for those, since @executable_path can't be expanded until firefox is actually running. Maybe @maverick28 has some thoughts on that.

 

[maverick28]

Download Xcode 6.2 (macOS 10.9 and later) | Apple Developer

Command Line Tools for Xcode 6.2 and macOS 10.9 | Apple Developer

Alternatively, if you aren't afraid of the Terminal:

xcode-select --install

It will open a dialog prompting you to install the command line tools or Xcode.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

If Firefox was missing a dependency it would crash with an error message, not hang!

 

[Raging Dufus]

@maverick28, I installed Xcode command line tools and used this command from your first reply to me above:

...you can check Firefox for broken dependency (dylb) links:

app=$(mdfind -onlyin /Applications/ "kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemFSName == 'Firefox.app' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox' || kMDItemDisplayName == 'Firefox.app'") ; find "$app"/ -type f -perm +111 -exec otool -L {} \; | grep 'not found'

Terminal did not return any information following this command, it simply advanced to another command line (preceded by the name of my machine w/$ sign at the end, as per usual). For some reason it did this twice.

I don't know what that means, but it provided me no useful information. Which, maybe is a good thing? ...meaning, I don't have any broken dependency links?

EDIT: FWIW, executing the above command made no difference in launching Firefox Dynasty, it still hangs. I realize the purpose of the command was to identify a problem, not solve it; but just to be thorough: FD still doesn't work.

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[maverick28]

As I said, these were speculative ideas of mine. I suggest you save any Firefox-related Console messages as a .txt file and open a new issue on the project's GitHub. The developer presumably knows the ins and outs of the code. There are too many variables to poke at. It could be the network, your Mac user account (have you switched to another Mac account to rule that possibility out?), profile or the add-ons.

What happens when you launch it with the Network connection off?
If it launches, what is the chance of the syncing feature being the culprit?
If 137, 135 or 130 were OK, the difference between them and 138 made it worse. If it cannot be resolved, use the last working version: we can safely assume the difference is not critical web-surfing-wise.

 

[Raging Dufus]

I do appreciate your suggestions. I won't bother the developer with this, I'm sure he's got better things to do than provide free support for a product he's already providing for free. Anyway, seems to be just my problem, as no one else has brought it up here or anywhere else I've found. I'll either suss it out with the help of this community - which has already been a lot of help! - or just live with it.

I'm not doing anything mission-critical with this MBP or with Firefox Dynasty; it's basically just a spare machine I have laying about, and other browsers work fine for anything I do with it. But I just can't stand a mystery, and figured the problem might interest others here.

To answer your questions/comments:

It could be the network, your Mac user account (have you switched to another Mac account to rule that possibility out?)

I only have the one account on this MBP, so no I haven't tried switching accounts. I also have only one profile AFAIK, and have not installed any add-ons or extensions.

What happens when you launch it with the Network connection off?

Nothing. Same behavior, it just hangs until I force quit it.

If it launches, what is the chance of the syncing feature being the culprit?

It doesn't launch, so I can't say; but I've never used Firefox's sync feature anyway, so seems unlikely that's the cause of this situation.

If 137, 135 or 130 were OK, the difference between them and 138 made it worse. If it cannot be resolved, use the last working version: we can safely assume the difference is not critical web-surfing-wise.

Yeah, that's the plan. As mentioned previously, I seem to have hit on a combination of measures that results in success with at least v. 135.01. If that's the best I can do, then that's what I'll do.

Thanks again for your help!

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[GalacticStag]

There's nothing like that for Firefox Dynasty. At one point Dynasty did require a kext to be installed on Lion (only) but that requirement was removed, and nothing has ever installed it automatically.

would initial releases of it in Snow Leopard (currently hoping it's able to be done quickly and without much fuss) require a kext similar to the one used in Lion?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

would initial releases of it in Snow Leopard (currently hoping it's able to be done quickly and without much fuss) require a kext similar to the one used in Lion?

Probably not. On Lion there is a specific bug in the kernel which Firefox was triggering. The bug is still there (and it probably does exist on Snow Leopard too), but i3roly found a way to avoid triggering it.

This type of thing is an absolute last resort when there appears to be no other option. Obviously for Firefox Dynasty there was another option, but we didn't know that at the time.

 

[Raging Dufus]

OK, my solution from post #111 above wasn't just a one-off fluke. I've repeated the same steps used there, and again have a working Firefox Dynasty v. 135.01.

Of note this time, I deleted the Dynasty downloader pref pane prior to downloading/installing 135. For whatever reason, this time I did not get the warning about the "older version of Firefox" prompting me to create a new profile. Dynasty just launched without any warnings whatsoever. I can't say that had anything to do with the absence of the pref pane, but its absence was the only difference here. Further testing should illuminate us.

@Wowfunhappy, though I can't imagine it's significant to this problem, I noticed something while removing all the Firefox components from my system prior to downloading Dynasty again: your Chromium Legacy Downloader pref pane apparently created its own folder in ~/Library/Application Support, but your Firefox Dynasty Downloader pref pane did/does not. It's just curious to me, I'd assumed they both worked the same way.

EDIT May 15, 2025: This issue has been resolved. See Post #138.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

@Wowfunhappy, though I can't imagine it's significant to this problem, I noticed something while removing all the Firefox components from my system prior to downloading Dynasty again: your Chromium Legacy Downloader pref pane apparently created its own folder in ~/Library/Application Support, but your Firefox Dynasty Downloader pref pane did/does not. It's just curious to me, I'd assumed they both worked the same way.

The Chromium Legacy PrefPane has accumulated tons of patches and workarounds for various things. By contrast, Firefox Dynasty just doesn't need that much. The Firefox Dynasty PrefPane also doesn't support automatic updates (because the way i3roly versions releases is somewhat inconsistent) and doesn't cache previous downloads (which was a nice feature but more trouble than it's worth), so there's no need to keep anything in Application Support.

My Firefox Dynasty PrefPane basically does four major things:

1. Makes it possible to roll back to a previous of the web browser if the current one is completely broken and you have no other web browsers that can access GitHub installed on your Mac.
2. Fixes a long-standing Firefox bug (which exists in mainline Firefox as well) around custom keyboard shortcuts.
3. Changes the app icon.
4. Changes some default Firefox preferences to align with 2013-era Apple design guidelines. (But these are just defaults and you can change them back.)

I have some more things I'd really like to do, such as integrate the history and bookmarks with spotlight search a la Safari.