11 ms·

Iceraven – Firefox for Android fork with more add-ons and configuration options

187 points by mmwelt 5y ago

therealmarv 5y ago
Containers in Iceraven, somebody got them working? How can I open a new container tab? I cannot figure out on how to use them on this mobile browser. Maybe this extension + a mobile Firefox is not compatible to each other.
- exhilaration 5y ago
  I guess it doesn't work? Containers are the biggest missing feature on Firefox Mobile IMHO.
causality0 5y ago
If I can have a genuine user agent switcher I'll throw you a damn parade.
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  There are two addons in the fork's whitelist that allow you to change the UA.
- bordercontrol 5y ago
  That's possible. Install Firefox Nightly, create a custom addon collection on the Firefox addon site, add an user agent switcher to the collection, add the collection to Firefox Nightly. You now owe me a parade.
NikolaeVarius 5y ago
Why the hell would you use this product. It has caveats a mile long
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  To use a stable version of Firefox with about:config and more than the ten addons that Mozilla have supported in the last two years. I'm not sure if this is the fork you want, but to get some of the features that Firefox used to have for years you can't use the normal stable build anymore.
- webmobdev 5y ago
  It mentions that it is an alpha version - that's why the long list of caveat. And as Firefox becomes a spyware / adware, forks like these are welcome news.
  - kadoban 5y ago
    What leads you to call (or predict?) Firefox spyware/adware?
    - webmobdev 5y ago
      Firefox’s address bar has ads now - https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-search-ads-browser https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-...
      - morsch 5y ago
        So does the new tab page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sponsor-privacy https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sponsor-privacy And of course they've always sold access to the list of default search engines.
      - kadoban 5y ago
        Thanks. As long as they can be turned off easily, I personally don't mind that much, but yeah, hard to argue against your wording given that.
- tyingq 5y ago
  An android browser that supports extensions is hard to find. I assume the ones you can find all have caveats.
jsmith99 5y ago
If you just want extension support without a whitelist, Firefox Nightly for Android lets you supply a custom list of extensions (called an AMO) which you can add any extension to. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...
- gkoberger 5y ago
  Small nitpick, but AMO is just our internal acronym for addons.mozilla.org, which is where all the extensions come from!
- joecool1029 5y ago
  You can also use Iceraven's custom extension collection on firefox nightly. userid: 16201230 name: What-I-want-on-Fenix
  - JeremyNT 5y ago
    I loved this idea, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I can browse a long list of extensions at this collection on the web [0], but FF Nightly only shows a small subset of them. Is this a pagination issue or something? [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/16201230/What-I-want-on-Fenix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/1620123...
- m4rtink 5y ago
  Thats a lot of fragile manual steps, not to mention needing a user account and being dependent on Mozilla infra. Hardly straightforward + not to mention addons on Android Firefox overall still barely working in the new Android version, with no visible progress to fix that.
- asimops 5y ago
  The question is, why I would want to install a nightly just for add-ons? To my knowledge you f.e. need an add-on to block a specific cookie, because FF Android doesn't have this option... The question is when/if the product manager at Mozilla will realize the state of the browser at some point :/ I can just say that as far as I am concerned, the only thing that is keeping me with FF Android is the vendor lock-in with FF Sync.
asimops 5y ago
If you are rooted, you can also force your own add-ons into stable firefox like so: USER=16201230 COLLECTION=What-I-want-on-Fenix cd /data/data/org.mozilla.mozilla.firefox/files curl -o mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json "https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v4/accounts/account/$USER/collections/$COLLECTION/addons/?page_size=50&sort=-added" touch -a -m -t 203012300130.00 mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json edit: remove fennec fdroid because TIL that it already has the same add-on override that the FF nightly has. So there is no need for this hack if you have fennec.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- tadfisher 5y ago
  You can do this without root in Firefox Nightly, just tap the logo seven times in the About screen.
  - speedgoose 5y ago
    Wait, the sacrifice of the virgin goat was unnecessary?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- nathan_phoenix 5y ago
  Tested just now and can confirm that it works. You don't even need root if you are using lineageOS, just enable the root debug shell in android settings. Thank you!
toastal 5y ago
Fennec exists and its already on the F-Droid. Goals are different but probably close enough. The biggest thing I miss is full add-on support. Not having CleanURLs and an AMP redirector suck despite add-ons existing for desktop that don't really need a mobile UI.
- asimops 5y ago
  For half of what CleanURLs does, you can use uBlock Origin. It has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc. It will not however clean links on copy.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >It has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc. Which filter list is this? I didn't realize ublock has link rewriting functionality.
    - asimops 5y ago
      It's AdGuard URL Tracking Protection under privacy. This uses https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1356 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1356
- worble 5y ago
  If you're on Fennec you can already use a custom addon collection where you can add anything you want.
  - brnt 5y ago
    I use Fennec but have no idea what a 'custom addon collection' is. I'd like to install one particular addon thats currently not available.
    - input_sh 5y ago
      The way supported add-ons work right now is that there's a list (AKA a collection) of supported add-ons maintained by Mozilla that you see on a phone by default. You can create a custom collection on a desktop and then override that Mozilla's collection within mobile Firefox's settings: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio... You can install any add-on available on the desktop like that, but your mileage may vary of course.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
zauguin 5y ago
Do the new configuration options allow accessing the list of trusted CAs? Or if doubting the CA trust decisions from our Mozilla overlords is considered too much blasphemy, can we at least see details of the certificate for the current site?
colordrops 5y ago
I've gone the opposite direction and installed Firefox Focus. I found myself accumulating 100s of tabs that I would supposedly get back to, and it was causing anxiety. Firefox focus is ephemeral and your tabs will disappear. It doesn't permanently store cookies. It has a built in ad blocker. It's perfect to keep me "focused" on the task at hand.
- user_7832 5y ago
  The repeated "accept cookies" pop ups are what make me switch back every time I use FF though. Is there any fix for it?
  - brnt 5y ago
    Skip those user hostile sites.
    - brink 5y ago
      It's only 95% of the internet.
- donio 5y ago
  Firefox on Android has an option to auto-close tabs after a while, I have that set to "close after a day" to keep things tidy.
  - lelandfe 5y ago
    For Safari iOS: Settings > Safari > Close Tabs > After One Day/Week/Month
- dendrite9 5y ago
  I use incognito for most browsing, every so often I lose my tabs. And it is ok. If I care, and remember the site, I'll open it normally and make a bookmark. If not it isn't the end of the world. I keep about 20 tabs open in normal browsing for easy reference. Incognito for most browsing. And Firefox Focus for even more ephemeral stuff, copied links I don't want to touch my other browsing, and screenshots. It sounds a little crazy to write it out, but it works for me.
nick__m 5y ago
About a year ago, I used to use Iceraven but I switched back to FF nightly when support for custom addons list was added back. Even though I like the project, I consider that it's what FF for Android should have been, I returned to FF because nowadays a browser needs frequent security updates and Iceraven is not staffed to have frequent releases.
- LanternLight83 5y ago
  It's a shame that this is the case for 99% of alternative browsers and forks. Sometimes I think the only solution would be to embrace something like Gopher, where hostile sites aren't feasible and browsers are free to diversify without constant maintenance.
xanaxagoras 5y ago
Does "more add-ons" mean it's still a whitelist? I'm trying to find a mobile browser I can use floccus with. So far I've only been able to find Kiwi which is not privacy oriented.
danielEM 5y ago
nice, but what I really need now for my mobile with display port is a 1 to 1 desktop Firefox browser
_rdvw 5y ago
I maintain the Mull fork and also help maintain Fennec F-Droid. (Currently compiling 96.1.0 as I type this). Both are fully compiled from source and available on F-Droid. I personally cannot recommend Iceraven as it is consistently behind updates, something you don't want for a browser. https://divestos.org/misc/ffa-dates.txt https://divestos.org/misc/ffa-dates.txt
igorstellar 5y ago
Perhaps offtop, Is there at least 1 browser for Android that supports per-page zoom? Safari does it on iOS with a super simple setting, but the only way to increase font size in ANY of Android browsers is to increase scale in Accessibility which will break some websites with larger fonts. I feel like this is super basic feature that I can't find.
phreack 5y ago
All I want is a browser with text reflow that's as good as Opera's, that's also not Opera. It's apparently a tall order and not many people ask for it, I wish I had enough time to do it myself or to make it part of my job but alas. Opera it is for the foreseeable future.
commoner 5y ago
Since Mozilla isn't willing to allow more than 18 pre-selected add-ons on the release and beta channels of Firefox for Android, forks like Iceraven fulfill an unmet need for users who want access to more add-ons, but don't want the occasional instability of the nightly channel. One thing that is still missing from Iceraven, Mull, etc. is the ability to sideload add-ons that are not published on addons.mozilla.org. Currently, anyone who wants to use a private Firefox add-on that is not suitable to be published on AMO must install v68 of Firefox or v68 of a fork like Fennec F-Droid. Edit: In one of the Iceraven issues on GitHub (https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/371#issuecomment-987666123 https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/...), someone recommended a Firefox for Android fork called SmartCookieWeb-Preview for sideloading .xpi add-on files into Firefox from arbitrary URLs: https://github.com/CookieJarApps/SmartCookieWeb-Preview/ https://github.com/CookieJarApps/SmartCookieWeb-Preview/. The preview app is not available on F-Droid yet, but I'm going to try it out. Edit 2: It worked in SmartCookieWeb-Preview. I had to go into about:config and set "xpinstall.signatures.required" to "false" before sideloading the add-on in the settings (Advanced settings > Sideload XPI). I hope this app makes it into F-Droid soon.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- paulryanrogers 5y ago
  FWIW you can install outside AMO. They must just be signed and reviewed by AMO first. Having done it I wouldn't say it isn't onerous.
  - commoner 5y ago
    How would you install outside AMO on Android? When I click on a link to any .xpi file (signed or not), or navigate to its URL, Firefox just prompts me to download the file with no option to install the add-on. Unlike v68 and earlier, the current version of Firefox for Android (any channel) doesn't offer an action to open the .xpi in Firefox when I open it from my file manager. It doesn't seem to matter whether I have "xpinstall.signatures.enabled" disabled or not. The other part of the issue is that I don't think I should have to ask Mozilla for permission to use a private add-on in Firefox on my own device, or show Mozilla the source code to the add-on before I can install it. What I do in a web browser on my device is not really Mozilla's business. Mozilla lists privacy as Principle 4 in its manifesto, so I think they should be able to understand this reasoning: > Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/
cutler 5y ago
Just what Firefox needs in its bid to stop Chrome from becoming the new Internet Explorer - a fork.
mmwelt 5y ago
Iceraven also has an option to prevent frequent tab reloading[1], a problem that many users of Firefox have on Android[2]. [1] https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/115 https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/... [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12731 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12731

187 points by mmwelt 5y ago

Containers in Iceraven, somebody got them working? How can I open a new container tab? I cannot figure out on how to use them on this mobile browser. Maybe this extension + a mobile Firefox is not compatible to each other.

exhilaration 5y ago
I guess it doesn't work? Containers are the biggest missing feature on Firefox Mobile IMHO.

causality0 5y ago

If I can have a genuine user agent switcher I'll throw you a damn parade.

jeroenhd 5y ago
There are two addons in the fork's whitelist that allow you to change the UA.
bordercontrol 5y ago
That's possible. Install Firefox Nightly, create a custom addon collection on the Firefox addon site, add an user agent switcher to the collection, add the collection to Firefox Nightly. You now owe me a parade.

NikolaeVarius 5y ago

Why the hell would you use this product. It has caveats a mile long

jeroenhd 5y ago
To use a stable version of Firefox with about:config and more than the ten addons that Mozilla have supported in the last two years. I'm not sure if this is the fork you want, but to get some of the features that Firefox used to have for years you can't use the normal stable build anymore.
webmobdev 5y ago
It mentions that it is an alpha version - that's why the long list of caveat. And as Firefox becomes a spyware / adware, forks like these are welcome news.
- kadoban 5y ago
  What leads you to call (or predict?) Firefox spyware/adware?
  - webmobdev 5y ago
    Firefox’s address bar has ads now - https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-search-ads-browser https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-...
    - morsch 5y ago
      So does the new tab page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sponsor-privacy https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sponsor-privacy And of course they've always sold access to the list of default search engines.
    - kadoban 5y ago
      Thanks. As long as they can be turned off easily, I personally don't mind that much, but yeah, hard to argue against your wording given that.
tyingq 5y ago
An android browser that supports extensions is hard to find. I assume the ones you can find all have caveats.

jsmith99 5y ago

If you just want extension support without a whitelist, Firefox Nightly for Android lets you supply a custom list of extensions (called an AMO) which you can add any extension to. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

gkoberger 5y ago
Small nitpick, but AMO is just our internal acronym for addons.mozilla.org, which is where all the extensions come from!
joecool1029 5y ago
You can also use Iceraven's custom extension collection on firefox nightly. userid: 16201230 name: What-I-want-on-Fenix
- JeremyNT 5y ago
  I loved this idea, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I can browse a long list of extensions at this collection on the web [0], but FF Nightly only shows a small subset of them. Is this a pagination issue or something? [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/16201230/What-I-want-on-Fenix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/1620123...
m4rtink 5y ago
Thats a lot of fragile manual steps, not to mention needing a user account and being dependent on Mozilla infra. Hardly straightforward + not to mention addons on Android Firefox overall still barely working in the new Android version, with no visible progress to fix that.
asimops 5y ago
The question is, why I would want to install a nightly just for add-ons? To my knowledge you f.e. need an add-on to block a specific cookie, because FF Android doesn't have this option... The question is when/if the product manager at Mozilla will realize the state of the browser at some point :/ I can just say that as far as I am concerned, the only thing that is keeping me with FF Android is the vendor lock-in with FF Sync.

asimops 5y ago

If you are rooted, you can also force your own add-ons into stable firefox like so: USER=16201230 COLLECTION=What-I-want-on-Fenix cd /data/data/org.mozilla.mozilla.firefox/files curl -o mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json "https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v4/accounts/account/$USER/collections/$COLLECTION/addons/?page_size=50&sort=-added" touch -a -m -t 203012300130.00 mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json edit: remove fennec fdroid because TIL that it already has the same add-on override that the FF nightly has. So there is no need for this hack if you have fennec.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
tadfisher 5y ago
You can do this without root in Firefox Nightly, just tap the logo seven times in the About screen.
- speedgoose 5y ago
  Wait, the sacrifice of the virgin goat was unnecessary?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nathan_phoenix 5y ago
Tested just now and can confirm that it works. You don't even need root if you are using lineageOS, just enable the root debug shell in android settings. Thank you!

toastal 5y ago

Fennec exists and its already on the F-Droid. Goals are different but probably close enough. The biggest thing I miss is full add-on support. Not having CleanURLs and an AMP redirector suck despite add-ons existing for desktop that don't really need a mobile UI.

asimops 5y ago
For half of what CleanURLs does, you can use uBlock Origin. It has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc. It will not however clean links on copy.
- gruez 5y ago
  >It has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc. Which filter list is this? I didn't realize ublock has link rewriting functionality.
  - asimops 5y ago
    It's AdGuard URL Tracking Protection under privacy. This uses https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1356 https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/1356
worble 5y ago
If you're on Fennec you can already use a custom addon collection where you can add anything you want.
- brnt 5y ago
  I use Fennec but have no idea what a 'custom addon collection' is. I'd like to install one particular addon thats currently not available.
  - input_sh 5y ago
    The way supported add-ons work right now is that there's a list (AKA a collection) of supported add-ons maintained by Mozilla that you see on a phone by default. You can create a custom collection on a desktop and then override that Mozilla's collection within mobile Firefox's settings: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio... You can install any add-on available on the desktop like that, but your mileage may vary of course.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

zauguin 5y ago

Do the new configuration options allow accessing the list of trusted CAs? Or if doubting the CA trust decisions from our Mozilla overlords is considered too much blasphemy, can we at least see details of the certificate for the current site?

colordrops 5y ago

I've gone the opposite direction and installed Firefox Focus. I found myself accumulating 100s of tabs that I would supposedly get back to, and it was causing anxiety. Firefox focus is ephemeral and your tabs will disappear. It doesn't permanently store cookies. It has a built in ad blocker. It's perfect to keep me "focused" on the task at hand.

user_7832 5y ago
The repeated "accept cookies" pop ups are what make me switch back every time I use FF though. Is there any fix for it?
- brnt 5y ago
  Skip those user hostile sites.
  - brink 5y ago
    It's only 95% of the internet.
donio 5y ago
Firefox on Android has an option to auto-close tabs after a while, I have that set to "close after a day" to keep things tidy.
- lelandfe 5y ago
  For Safari iOS: Settings > Safari > Close Tabs > After One Day/Week/Month
dendrite9 5y ago
I use incognito for most browsing, every so often I lose my tabs. And it is ok. If I care, and remember the site, I'll open it normally and make a bookmark. If not it isn't the end of the world. I keep about 20 tabs open in normal browsing for easy reference. Incognito for most browsing. And Firefox Focus for even more ephemeral stuff, copied links I don't want to touch my other browsing, and screenshots. It sounds a little crazy to write it out, but it works for me.

nick__m 5y ago

About a year ago, I used to use Iceraven but I switched back to FF nightly when support for custom addons list was added back. Even though I like the project, I consider that it's what FF for Android should have been, I returned to FF because nowadays a browser needs frequent security updates and Iceraven is not staffed to have frequent releases.

LanternLight83 5y ago
It's a shame that this is the case for 99% of alternative browsers and forks. Sometimes I think the only solution would be to embrace something like Gopher, where hostile sites aren't feasible and browsers are free to diversify without constant maintenance.

xanaxagoras 5y ago

Does "more add-ons" mean it's still a whitelist? I'm trying to find a mobile browser I can use floccus with. So far I've only been able to find Kiwi which is not privacy oriented.

danielEM 5y ago

nice, but what I really need now for my mobile with display port is a 1 to 1 desktop Firefox browser

_rdvw 5y ago

I maintain the Mull fork and also help maintain Fennec F-Droid. (Currently compiling 96.1.0 as I type this). Both are fully compiled from source and available on F-Droid. I personally cannot recommend Iceraven as it is consistently behind updates, something you don't want for a browser. https://divestos.org/misc/ffa-dates.txt https://divestos.org/misc/ffa-dates.txt

igorstellar 5y ago

Perhaps offtop, Is there at least 1 browser for Android that supports per-page zoom? Safari does it on iOS with a super simple setting, but the only way to increase font size in ANY of Android browsers is to increase scale in Accessibility which will break some websites with larger fonts. I feel like this is super basic feature that I can't find.

phreack 5y ago

All I want is a browser with text reflow that's as good as Opera's, that's also not Opera. It's apparently a tall order and not many people ask for it, I wish I had enough time to do it myself or to make it part of my job but alas. Opera it is for the foreseeable future.

commoner 5y ago

Since Mozilla isn't willing to allow more than 18 pre-selected add-ons on the release and beta channels of Firefox for Android, forks like Iceraven fulfill an unmet need for users who want access to more add-ons, but don't want the occasional instability of the nightly channel. One thing that is still missing from Iceraven, Mull, etc. is the ability to sideload add-ons that are not published on addons.mozilla.org. Currently, anyone who wants to use a private Firefox add-on that is not suitable to be published on AMO must install v68 of Firefox or v68 of a fork like Fennec F-Droid. Edit: In one of the Iceraven issues on GitHub (https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/371#issuecomment-987666123 https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/...), someone recommended a Firefox for Android fork called SmartCookieWeb-Preview for sideloading .xpi add-on files into Firefox from arbitrary URLs: https://github.com/CookieJarApps/SmartCookieWeb-Preview/ https://github.com/CookieJarApps/SmartCookieWeb-Preview/. The preview app is not available on F-Droid yet, but I'm going to try it out. Edit 2: It worked in SmartCookieWeb-Preview. I had to go into about:config and set "xpinstall.signatures.required" to "false" before sideloading the add-on in the settings (Advanced settings > Sideload XPI). I hope this app makes it into F-Droid soon.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
paulryanrogers 5y ago
FWIW you can install outside AMO. They must just be signed and reviewed by AMO first. Having done it I wouldn't say it isn't onerous.
- commoner 5y ago
  How would you install outside AMO on Android? When I click on a link to any .xpi file (signed or not), or navigate to its URL, Firefox just prompts me to download the file with no option to install the add-on. Unlike v68 and earlier, the current version of Firefox for Android (any channel) doesn't offer an action to open the .xpi in Firefox when I open it from my file manager. It doesn't seem to matter whether I have "xpinstall.signatures.enabled" disabled or not. The other part of the issue is that I don't think I should have to ask Mozilla for permission to use a private add-on in Firefox on my own device, or show Mozilla the source code to the add-on before I can install it. What I do in a web browser on my device is not really Mozilla's business. Mozilla lists privacy as Principle 4 in its manifesto, so I think they should be able to understand this reasoning: > Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

cutler 5y ago

Just what Firefox needs in its bid to stop Chrome from becoming the new Internet Explorer - a fork.

mmwelt 5y ago

Iceraven also has an option to prevent frequent tab reloading[1], a problem that many users of Firefox have on Android[2]. [1] https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/115 https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/issues/... [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12731 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12731