Some of my about:config changes make long strings in short text fields not drag/scroll.

asked 2015-03-20 07:47:50 +0300

rdmo gravatar image

updated 2015-05-03 20:52:25 +0300

tldr; Changing your about:config settings (without undo capability) makes it moderately easy to make your browsing experience less than it could be.

It is possible to edit or remove prefs.js, though. This command will undo all your changes to about:config and make your customisations a file whose preference customisations you can reintroduce incrementally to detect where problems occur:

$ mv /home/nemo/.mozilla/mozembed/prefs.js /home/nemo/.mozilla/mozembed/prefs.j_

...

user_pref("accessibility.mouse_focuses_formcontrol", true); user_pref("accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly", false); user_pref("accessibility.warn_on_browsewithcaret", false); user_pref("alerts.disableSlidingEffect", true);

...

user_pref("services.push.enabled", true); user_pref("svg.marker-improvements.enabled", true); user_pref("toolkit.osfile.log", true); user_pref("toolkit.telemetry.previousBuildID", "20130329080 257"); user_pref("ui.click_hold_context_menus", true); user_pref("ui.click_hold_context_menus.delay", 800); user_pref("ui.scrollToClick", 1); user_pref("ui.touch.radius.enabled", true); user_pref("ui.use_activity_cursor", true); user_pref("view_source.editor.path", "/bin/vi"); user_pref("view_source.wrap_long_lines", true); user_pref("webgl.min_capability_mode", true); user_pref("zoom.maxPercent", 6000); user_pref("zoom.minPercent", 300);

Better though, is to up a git repository in an ancestor directory of prefs.js and do git add $relative_path/prefs.js to enable undo revisions on that file for when you go a fiddle too far with changes to about:config.

Sailfish could be Otherly by taking take of such things for the user in an audit-friendly way, meaning the user has more control, and has their information and meta-information available to them in an obvious way - automated git versioning of editable files like prefs.js: git-audit, aka. collection of merainfo megabytes per month used by Google, etc's Javascripts to siphon about your life online, etc.

Some of the older content:

Using the Filter input field in the about:config dialog was of limited use as I was unsure what to look for.

about:config

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Comments

I can't reproduce this. I can drag-scroll both long question titles and text boxes on tjc with Sailfish Browser, even with the caret on.

ssahla ( 2015-03-24 08:34:03 +0300 )edit

Maybe some other setting I changed in about:config causes my browser's whole page to scroll or zoom in when text input boxes have focus, instead of the text in the input box sliding about.

rdmo ( 2015-03-24 17:12:37 +0300 )edit
1

Giving useful about:config information is hindered because text cannot be copied from the about:config dialog. It's also impossible to do any other browsing when the about:config dialog is in use. This difference between Firefox and the native Jolla browser doesn't make this easier.

rdmo ( 2015-04-05 22:17:19 +0300 )edit
1

Caret browsing about:config set to off does not resolve the issue.

rdmo ( 2015-04-06 09:44:58 +0300 )edit

Added a tldr; to the Question to help users mitigate configs if this issue affects their browsing on the device. The specific about:config option would be a better answer, but that's more fiddling on the phone than I have time for. As mentioned, mods versioning, git automation, would be even better as a solution, maybe I'll git to that later.

rdmo ( 2015-04-24 08:50:00 +0300 )edit