CCK Wizard and Firefox?

[monosodium]

I am kind of late to the party for managing firefox preferences the right way and I keep seeing references to this mythical CCK Wizard. All references to it I can find are broken links or "page does not exist". As far as I can tell it was a firefox plugin that allowed you to directly modify the about:config... which sounds great! Anyone know how I can get access to it? I dont see any references to it since about 2014.

Bonus: Tips for managing Firefox/Chrome settings in general are appreciated!

[thoule]

That plugin appears to have been written by Mike Kaply. He has a tool called CCK2 (https://mike.kaply.com/cck2/) which may be what you're looking for...?

[tnielsen]

I have been down this road of despair... here's all I can share in a im-too-busy-but-iwant-to-help manner.

[apizz]

I also just started down this road, @monosodium. I couldn't find CCK2 through Mozilla, but did find it here, as @thoule mentioned.

While I was able to go through all the steps to create our distribution, I'm not seeing a distribution folder after unzipping the autoconfig.zip file. So I'm stuck.

[monosodium]

@aporlebeke Yeah, the distribution folder is just missing from mine as well... what the heck? Following a guide that is specifically for this: http://www.amsys.co.uk/2014/08/locking-firefox-cck-2/ and am in the same boat as you.

[zmkaylor]

I'm not sure what's causing your CCK troubles, but...to manage Chrome I used Chromium's 'Mac Quick Start' to develop MCX settings for Chrome. Then I used Tim Sutton's mcxToProfile to build a profile out of the MCX settings.

[mikeh]

As mentioned by @thoule , you'll want to use the CCK2 plugin available from Mike Kaply's website. He's no longer distributing it through the Firefox add-in directory, due to changes in add-on security.

I've been using the CCK2 for basic configuration of Firefox (turn off auto-update, set home page, etc.) fairly successfully.

@aporlebeke : The distribution folder in the autoconfig may no longer exist. I think some changes in app signing was causing problems for Mozilla's conception of enterprise configuration, which forced Mozilla to change the layout of the Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/* structure, which then caused changes to CCK2... Anyway, everything goes into Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/Resources now. Unzip the autoconfig.zip file and cp -R /path/to/unzipped-autoconfig /path/to/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/Resources (I think; I'm away from my build machine.)

[apizz]

Apparently this is a known thing - Since Firefox 40 it appears the distribution bundles are gone. Got these links from Kaply support in just a few minutes after posting a ticket.

https://mike.kaply.com/2015/05/19/distributionbundles-directory-gone-in-firefox-40/
https://mike.kaply.com/2015/06/16/cck2-2-1-is-officially-available/

[mkaply]

The distribution directory was removed by Mozilla. See:

https://mike.kaply.com/2015/05/19/distributionbundles-directory-gone-in-firefox-40/
https://mike.kaply.com/2015/06/16/cck2-2-1-is-officially-available/

The functionality works the same, I just use different directories.

The only thing missing is that you can no longer disable safe mode.

As mikeh said, you just unzip the ZIP into Resources. Everything works the same.

[sean]

Hmm, same, but different!

We just use AutoPKG to get the latest Firefox and then drop this behind our preferences package above. There's been a couple of times where file locations have moved, but like anything a simple repackage does the job. The docs provide the change of file location:

Firefox Enterprise Deploymentt

[apizz]

I ended up not getting CCK2 to work in applying my configurations, so I went a different route, following the Firefox Enterprise Deployment page instructions. Just involves creating a JS file to point to your configuration file and then creating a CFG file. I used the vi editor in Terminal to do both.

There are some examples of how to set and lock certain preferences on the deployment page, but typing auto:config in the Firefox URL bar was very helpful in finding the preferences I was looking to set. Here's what we ended up with:

##########
// Disable updater
lockPref("app.update.enabled", false);

// make absolutely sure it is really off
lockPref("app.update.auto", false);
lockPref("app.update.mode", 0);
lockPref("app.update.service.enabled", false);

// Don't show 'know your rights' on first run
pref("browser.rights.3.shown", true);

// Don't show WhatsNew on first run after every update
pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone","ignore");

// Don't show Welcome page
pref("noWelcomePage", true);

// Set default homepage - users can change
// Requires a complex preference
defaultPref("browser.startup.homepage","data:text/plain,browser.startup.homepage=https://faweb.themastersschool.com");

// Disable health reporter
lockPref("datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled", false);

// Disable all data upload (Telemetry and FHR)
lockPref("datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled", false);

// Disable crash reporter
lockPref("toolkit.crashreporter.enabled", false);
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/toolkit/crash-reporter;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsICrashReporter).submitReports = false;

// Disable Default Browser check
lockPref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);

// Sets browser search code
pref("browser.search.countryCode", "US");

// Sets browser region
pref("browser.search.region", "US");

pref("browser.newtabpage.enhanced", true);

// Disables importing bookmarks
pref("browser.bookmarks.restore_default_bookmarks", false);

pref("pref.browser.homepage.disable_button.bookmark_page", false);

// Removes Firefox default Smart Bookmarks
pref("removeSmartBookmarks", true);
pref("removeDefaultBookmarks", true);

// Disable share page
lockPref("disableSharePage", true);

// Display Bookmarks Toolbar
pref("displayBookmarksToolbar", true);

// Disable 3rd party search engine installs
lockPref("disableSearchEngineInstall", true);

// Disables developer tools
lockPref("removeDeveloperTools", true);

lockPref("disableResetFirefox", true);

pref("noUpgradePage", true);

lockPref("removeSetDesktopBackground", true);

lockPref("browser.search.defaultenginename.US", "Google");
lockPref("browser.search.defaultenginename", "Google");

pref("browser.search.order.1", "Google");
pref("browser.search.order.2", "Yahoo");
pref("browser.search.order.3", "Bing");

// Don't ask to install the Flash Plugin
pref("plugins.notifyMissingFlash", false);

lockPref("services.sync.enabled", false);

// Locks Network Proxy settings to default
lockPref("network.proxy.type", 5);

// Disables Remote DNS checkbox in Network Proxy settings
lockPref("network.proxy.socks_remote_dns", false);

// Disables Remote authentication checkbox in Network Proxy settings
lockPref("sigon.autologin.proxy", false);

[monosodium]

@aporlebeke Hmm, I am trying your preference file and can't get Firefox to actually use it. Following the instructions from the page you linked, but am wondering if something is outdated. Here is what I have:

• The "autoconfig.js" file is located at /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/defaults/pref. It contains:

  pref("general.config.filename”, "mozilla.cfg");
  pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

• I then have the "mozilla.cfg" file located at /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources. And it contains what you posted exactly just for testing purposes.

I have just been working with the same firefox install on a test VM. Is there anything else I need to do to get this working?

I appreciate the help!

[monosodium]

@aporlebeke I didn't use Vi to edit it and used textWrangler. Would that matter?

[apizz · Accepted solution]

@monosodium, unfortunately I'm not familiar with textWrangler. I only used vi because it doesn't add any additional formatting to the text file. Not super intuitive, but what you see is what you get in the actual file you create.

Did you delete your existing Mozilla and Firefox directories in ~/Library/Application Support/ ? That may be messing with your configuration. Every time I made changes to the mozilla.cfg file I re-copied it into the Resources folder and then deleted the App Support folders from ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla and ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox.

[monosodium]

@aporlebeke That was it! Which makes sense that there would be some plist probably that is holding onto that information. After I reverted to a previous snapshot and redeployed it worked like a charm.

Thanks!

[apizz]

@monosodium woot!