My TenFourFox About:Config tweaks - and my addons

[eyoungren]

I forgot to say...
No I don't know anything about Leopard Webkit, what is that?

I might wait for someone to reply about uMatrix before i go trying anything else just yet. What is the purpose of NoScript?

I'm using version 1.0.0.

You can find it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/versions/

Or for a manual install, download and then add via the addons section in the browser: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2g8pnx2t30mraxd/umatrix-1.0.0-fx+sm.xpi?dl=0

 

[sawpits]

It is installed but when I click on the icon, nothing appears, no grid, just the icons across the top. I have a funny feeling I've got the wrong version installed. What version of uMatrix are you running?

Bare in mind, I'm using the latest stable release of TFF, which is version 10, not 11. Hopefully that shouldn't make a massive difference.

Since copying egoungren's prefs.js file, I think I have noticed a difference, but only subtle. Typing a post on the forum, still has the text catching up with me on screen.

I'm working with a G4 1.5gz & 2GB ram

Something else must be going on. I am on a PowerBook G4 1.67 with 1GB RAM and no lag when typing. I have a few of the more important preferences, the ones Eric recommends most. or seem to the most worthwhile.

I increasingly do find more websites that don't load well, I think we may be reaching a limit as to what Kaiser can accomplish with TFF, at least with a G4.

This site, no problems.

 

[Haemoglobin]

Turns out I had version uMatrix 1.3.6 :-/

Version 1.0.0 now installed and suddenly pressing the icon i see a grid of information

I think my machine must have been busy earlier, I did have itunes running. Right now there is no lag typing.
[doublepost=1543271803][/doublepost]

Something else must be going on. I am on a PowerBook G4 1.67 with 1GB RAM and no lag when typing. I have a few of the more important preferences, the ones Eric recommends most. or seem to the most worthwhile.

Could I possibly trouble you for a little more info? Which additional pref options did you opt for?

**Update**

Hells bells, after I posted the above, I decided to visit deviantart. I had to enable some blocked items, but what do you know. I'm on DA and it's actually usable! This is a historic first, thank you guys, thank you! truly!

 

[mrkapqa]

I stumbled upon this thread earlier today whilst looking for tips on speeding up TFF on my G4 1.5Ghz Powerbook. Even on the forum here, it seems to run a bit sluggish. So could I trouble someone for a little advice where I might start?

i do run TFF 17 with QTE (QuicktimeEnabler) 1.16 for everyday task and latest TFF only for newer task where it needed.
Besides, i do disable .webm playback.
Plus, on Safari, i run Ninjakit extension on 10.5.8 plus ViewTube script and GreaseKit (requires SIMBL installed) on 10.4.11, again with ViewTube script.
Worked very well on 1,67 Powerbook G4 with 1GB of Ram.


EDIT : TFF 17 is the latest edition that would still allow plugins to be enabled.

 

[Lastic]

@eyoungren

I've just completed a clean install on a 2nd partition and noticed that the user.js from here
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ks-and-my-addons.1838393/page-7#post-22991563

is no longer on Dropbox.

Since I still had an offline copy , find it herunder.

I do have to state that TFF would be unusable without your tweaks, the before and after tweaking is a world of difference in speed.

 

[eyoungren]

@eyoungren

I've just completed a clean install on a 2nd partition and noticed that the user.js from here
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ks-and-my-addons.1838393/page-7#post-22991563

is no longer on Dropbox.

Since I still had an offline copy , find it herunder.

I do have to state that TFF would be unusable without your tweaks, the before and after tweaking is a world of difference in speed.

Thanks, I will note that on the initial post.

I'm glad these tweaks are still being found useful.

 

[eyoungren]

Some days this is all confusing to me.

Was watching my CPU hover around 20-30% while idle, which is not what this should be doing. The whole point of my tweaks is to reduce CPU usage.

Turns out that two of my addons (Force Images into Cache and Load from Cache) were conflicting with Better Cache which I had recently installed again. In my mind I was thinking that both of these would work together. Not.

Since Better Cache can do what both these tweaks do, I disabled them and my CPU has reduced back to what it should be.

So, if you run into this, just double check that you don't have a couple of conflicting addons.

 

[timidpimpin]

I have a question that I don't feel is worth creating a thread for... but what do you feel is the best adblocking solution for TFF in 2019?

 

[Dronecatcher]

I have a question that I don't feel is worth creating a thread for... but what do you feel is the best adblocking solution for TFF in 2019?

You do know TFF has adblock built in under prefs? Other than that I use an edited hosts file that works system wide.

http://pointhope.de/tips&tricks/no_place_like_localhost.html

 

[eyoungren]

I have a question that I don't feel is worth creating a thread for... but what do you feel is the best adblocking solution for TFF in 2019?

I'm using uMatrix.

@Dronecatcher prefers other options but that is the one I like.

 

[timidpimpin]

You do know TFF has adblock built in under prefs? Other than that I use an edited hosts file that works system wide.

http://pointhope.de/tips&tricks/no_place_like_localhost.html

I'm aware... but I was just asking what people felt was the best option. I have not really used TFF in 2-3 years.

 

[Raging Dufus]

Another vote for uMatrix.

Blocking ads is great, but it's scripts that really bog down your computer. uMatrix is perfect for managing those, as well as blocking ads and other nasty things. It also gives you really fine control over what to allow or block, and you can make and save those changes on a site-by-site basis. I use uMatrix on every Firefox variant I run, whether it be on PPC, Intel Mac or Windows.

I haven't tried the hosts file route, but would likely still use uMatrix even with that.

 

[z970]

TenFourFox can run uMatrix 1.1.4.

https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases?after=1.1.6

Choose the link with "firefox" in it. You can save the file, and just drag it onto any window of a new TFF installation to install.

In Arctic Fox, I've also found turning "network.prefetch-next" to "true" and setting both "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", and "network.http.pipelining.max-optimistic-requests" to 80, plus having "network.http.max-connections", "network.https.max-connections", and "network.websocket.max-connections" on "800" to make a very noticeable difference in rendering speed, so everything is much faster now. I'll bet the same could be said for TFF if applied there.

 

[eyoungren]

In Arctic Fox, I've also found turning "network.prefetch-next" to "true" and setting both "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", and "network.http.pipelining.max-optimistic-requests" to 80, plus having "network.http.max-connections", "network.https.max-connections", and "network.websocket.max-connections" on "800" to make a very noticeable difference in rendering speed, so everything is much faster now. I'll bet the same could be said for TFF if applied there.

All of which you name here is covered in the first page of the thread (and some updates later on). I just tend to use some more 'aggressive' values.

For some additional response you might look into ngpaintdelay. That particular setting controls when the browser delivers content to your screen. The default Firefox/T4Fx setting is for the browser to wait until the page is rendered and doing so 'locks' you out (so to speak) from interacting with the browser.

Changing ngpaint delay to deliver content the moment it has it can make a difference. You get an occasional page reflow as the engine re-renders certain content it's already given you, but that's better than staring a blank frickin' screen until everything is rendered.

 

[z970]

All of which you name here is covered in the first page of the thread (and some updates later on). I just tend to use some more 'aggressive' values.

I was just adding to your points. Instead of making pipelining '64', I got more mileage out of '80'. Same for max-connections with '800' instead of '512' (which makes sense, given newer versions of Firefox put max-connections at '900'). I also found that turning prefetch-next on made a big difference in loading websites.

I would probably say to anyone running a G4 to turn prefetch-next off, but if you have a G5, it might well be beneficial to turn on.

 

[eyoungren]

TenFourFox can run uMatrix 1.1.4.

https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/releases?after=1.1.6

Choose the link with "firefox" in it. You can save the file, and just drag it onto any window of a new TFF installation to install.

In Arctic Fox, I've also found turning "network.prefetch-next" to "true" and setting both "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", and "network.http.pipelining.max-optimistic-requests" to 80, plus having "network.http.max-connections", "network.https.max-connections", and "network.websocket.max-connections" on "800" to make a very noticeable difference in rendering speed, so everything is much faster now. I'll bet the same could be said for TFF if applied there.

I was just adding to your points. Instead of making pipelining '64', I got more mileage out of '80'. Same for max-connections with '800' instead of '512' (which makes sense, given newer versions of Firefox put max-connections at '900'). I also found that turning prefetch-next on made a big difference in loading websites.

I would probably say to anyone running a G4 to turn prefetch-next off, but if you have a G5, it might well be beneficial to turn on.

I tested these tonight (although I made mine 900 for the socket connections). Seems to be a decent improvement so I've added them as an edit to the first page.

Nice mods, thanks!

 

[z970]

I tested these tonight (although I made mine 900 for the socket connections). Seems to be a decent improvement so I've added them as an edit to the first page.

Nice mods, thanks!

Excellent!

 

[z970]

For anyone looking for better YouTube performance:

Change the User Agent to Internet Explorer 11. This will revert the UI back to its old format, pre-August 2017. Don't forget to turn annotations off for maximum playback.

This action may have other unseen benefits across other websites.

 

[timidpimpin]

For anyone looking for better YouTube performance:

Change the User Agent to Internet Explorer 11. This will revert the UI back to its old format, pre-August 2017.

This action may have other unseen benefits across other websites.

Good to know. Your solution seems like a good alternative to this extension, which requires modern Firefox, and won't work on TFF.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-classic/?src=search

 

[eyoungren]

Just some interesting news to note here. T4Fx14b1 has been released. This particular beta has introduced a frame rate for the browser. Apparently Mozilla was toying with the idea, so Kaiser actually included it.

Generally, the browser on our older systems tries to send as many frames as possible and can get behind. This cap prevents that. Kaiser has suggested the default be 30fps (the actual default is -1, which I assume means 'disabled').

In any case, I've set it to 30fps and we'll see what happens.

 

[sawpits]

Just some interesting news to note here. T4Fx14b1 has been released. This particular beta has introduced a frame rate for the browser. Apparently Mozilla was toying with the idea, so Kaiser actually included it.

Generally, the browser on our older systems tries to send as many frames as possible and can get behind. This cap prevents that. Kaiser has suggested the default be 30fps (the actual default is -1, which I assume means 'disabled').

In any case, I've set it to 30fps and we'll see what happens.

From a note:

[ChrisT.] layout.frame_rate: The feature works as advertised. You can test this by setting it to 1 per second and then observe the result I set it to the European TV standard of 24 frames and didn't notice a difference compared to the default of 30 frames. However, setting it to 15 I got the (unscientific) impression that the browser is actually doing additional work to enforce this limit (?) and thereby getting slower than it needs to be. At least the UI seemed a slower to react to clicks.

And the response was leave it at 30 for now.

 

[z970]

Typing from FPR14 in Tiger, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference in general usage, though video playback appears to be slightly faster.

Though, I'll bet Leopard might have a more obvious difference, being it has QT 7.7 and newer web technologies than 10.4.

And that's all there is to say.

 

[z970]

I only now installed the new MP4 libraries in TFF (d'oh), and playback performance appears to be about the same, though I no longer see any errors about playing video. So it appears that the MP4 libraries are integral to watching YouTube on TFF in modern day.

In other news, I've taken to switching all my TFF user agents to iOS Safari (iPad). YouTube now works much snappier, and defaults to 360p in-browser, with little to no lag. If higher resolutions are desired, I can just activate QuickTime Enabler in 480p, 720p, or 1080p.

A nice added benefit to this, is that you retain the speed controls, can view the video in its native resolution in an empty browser or QuickTime window (which greatly helps performance), and now have the option of directly downloading the video MP4 file, via "Save Video As...", all from the context menu. It's really, really nice.

So, my new recommended strategy for YouTube playback is to install QuickTime Enabler and the MP4 libraries in FPR14+, and activate the iOS Safari (iPad) user agent in the application preferences, under the TenFourFox pane. Afterward, you have the freedom of playing around with the video window and choosing exactly how you want to watch it. On top of this, uMatrix and our TFF tweaks continue to do their part for performance contributions, but even so...

We've come a long way.

 

[Dronecatcher]

We've come a long way.

TFF has had these features for a while...when they work. I've never had any luck with QTE - if I use a modified prefs.js file it doesn't even load and with a clean file it more often than not won't play the video. Regardless, clicking on a video - even if you're going to launch it in Quicktime, locks up the browser, pushes CPU to 100% and revs the fans on my Powerbook 1.33.
I consider TFF and Youtube only viable on Powermac G5s.

 

[eyoungren]

…if I use a modified prefs.js file it doesn't even load and with a clean file it more often than not won't play the video.

I can explain that, at least in the context of these tweaks.

One of the major hurdles I tried to get around so many years ago was media. I browse a lot and back then I was on Facebook. All that autoplay video on news sites and in my (then) Facebook feed was crippling my Mac.

So I searched for and turned off/blocked every tweak option I could find that was related to media. I didn't want it playing, I didn't want it visible or referenced. Hell, I didn't even want any part of it to load at all. I disconnected all of it.

Of course some of that is irrelevant now because those things got deprecated, but some parts are still active. When I watch video I do it in another app or another (faster) browser.

So this is why with my prefs file media doesn't work and why if you use the clean prefs it hits the CPU hard. It's either been blocked period (my prefs) or hasn't been tweaked at all (clean prefs).

I'd be open to maintaining a link to a prefs file (or customization thread) that optimizes this for T4Fx but not a project I'm interested in taking on myself.