Q4OS Forum

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,305

Firefox 49 automatically installs FLASH

Hi Team

Have been concerned about the overall sluggish behaviour of Firefox ESR so I decided to install the Release version via Software Centre

Without my permission it went and installed Flashplugin nonfree on my machine - which is about as close to a virus as you can get in my book.

Please add a huge warning on the installer - or better still unhook the 2 so this never happens to any unsuspecting user.

Fortunately I'm about to do a rebuild so I can get rid of that evil monster. It's a vector for all sorts of malware advertising and other garbage and is slowly but surely being expunged from the world.

Dependencies are one thing, but Firefox does not depend on Flash to run.

Sorry if I seem a little upset but this has really bugged me - thank you for listening.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,284

Website

Re: Firefox 49 automatically installs FLASH

Yes, Firefox installer depends on 'flashplugin-nonfree' package from the standard Debian repository. The Flash plugin is not enabled by default in Q4OS, user have to confirm to activate it. You can easily get rid of the plugin:
$ sudo apt-mark manual firefox
$ sudo apt-get remove firefox-q4os flashplugin-nonfree

We want to make an option to disable Flash installation from the Firefox installer in the future. Sorry for the inconvenience.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,305

Re: Firefox 49 automatically installs FLASH

Thanks for the feedback - the problem is that once the plugin is installed, even if it is removed the 'missing plugin' box pops up where once the content played using html5 - I also use Chromium and Seamonkey so the plugin poisons multiple wells

As I said, no big deal as I'm rebuilding.....

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,284

Website

Re: Firefox 49 automatically installs FLASH

As I said, no big deal as I'm rebuilding.....

We suggest you to consider to install FF from the official Debian Mozilla repository https://mozilla.debian.net/ , rather than building it from sources, as you will get automatic updates and perfect integration into the Debian/Q4OS environment.