3.6.12 is out

[DragonHawk]

3.6.12 is released as of Wed 27 Oct 2010. The only advertised fix is for a single security vulnerability. Reportedly the vulnerability was discovered as part of an investigation into a security compromise, so I guess that's a big "yes" for "Is it being exploited?".

• Release notes
• Security advisory MFSA 2010-73

[m0gely]

I just want to say I appreciate the work DP does on this. I have no idea how long it takes him to create all those builds, but as there are delays usually of a few days, I'm sure this is a lot of work. He is faithful in his releases. The vast majority of people here get this for free, and I am so thankful someone is doing it. That being said, it must suck when these releases come out back to back and he's probably waist deep in getting .11 done then .12 comes out and time is wasted on the previously unfinished release. Grrr...

[dbunn]

Just would like to know the timeline for release of 3.6.12

[DraconPern]

Yes, I am skipping 3.6.11 and churning out 3.6.12 instead. Plus there is also a new flash version.

[jpa]

Now "churned" and available on the download page. I am testing. FYI the flash version is 10.1.85.3 rather than the latest 10.1.102.64.

[anthonymel]

Is this the final version? Or will you release another one with the Flash update?

[jpa]

Judging by recent history DraconPern won't release an updated version except for the packager version if its users ask for it.

I have noticed while testing that the 3.5.10 and 3.5.12 version uninstall routine clobbers the HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/shell\open\command values in the registry. The path to Internet Explorer is lost. This breaks Explorer URL shortcut handling so Desktop URL shortcuts show a "Windows cannot open this file" dialog and typing a URL in the Run box gets you an "Application not found" dialog box. This is annoying and I should have caught it when testing 3.5.10. Since I did not I'll probably need to script up something to fix the problem. I should probably just go back to the default EXE installer with all the trouble the MSI has given me.

[DragonHawk]

FYI the flash version is 10.1.85.3 rather than the latest 10.1.102.64.

FWIW, I highly recommend installing and managing Flash separately from Firefox. Flash gets updated even more often then Firefox most of the time. Adobe publishes MSIs for both the ActiveX and NSPlugin flavors of Flash. They're basically "drop in" installs. I then exclude "Flash" from the install of the FrontMotion MSI. That's easily done by dropping the corresponding row from the "Features" table changing the "Level" column from "3" to "6" for the corresponding row in the the "Features" table.

[Antti]

I can confirm that the Flash plugin is the old one. I tried dropping the mentioned F_Flash from the Features with an mst file. That resulted in an error (2711), so I skipped it. I tried this once earlier, it was 9.smth version of Flash (back then I modified the msi directly) and it was mostly successful but resulted in an error on a couple of workstations. Not touching it for now. Hopefully the new plugin is available in the Packager soon.

[DragonHawk]

I can confirm that the Flash plugin is the old one. I tried dropping the mentioned F_Flash from the Features with an mst file. That resulted in an error (2711), so I skipped it.

Hmmm, just checked our notes, and it appears I misspoke. We don't drop the row. We change the "Level" column from "3" to "6". Our install level for this package is never higher than 5, so the feature doesn't get installed. I'm guessing removing it completely still leaves something else trying to reference it, hence the 2711 error. Sorry for the bad information.

[synthor]

Hi DragonHawk,

first of all: thank you for your great work for us!

2nd: I also tried to remove the flash-row with Orca and got the same error (2711).

3rd: Then downloaded the free edition of »InstEd« ( http://www.instedit.com/download2.html? ... .12.21.msi ) and removed the feature with its dependencies and it'll install w.o. errors and flash.

You're the best mate!

[Antti]

We change the "Level" column from "3" to "6". Our install level for this package is never higher than 5, so the feature doesn't get installed.

Thanks!

[Antti]

-> DraconPern. Including the latest Flash in the packager would still be very much appreciated.

[SamErde]

Hmmm, just checked our notes, and it appears I misspoke. We don't drop the row. We change the "Level" column from "3" to "6". Our install level for this package is never higher than 5, so the feature doesn't get installed. I'm guessing removing it completely still leaves something else trying to reference it, hence the 2711 error. Sorry for the bad information.

Would it be reasonably easy to produce one MSI with Flash included and another MSI without Flash?

Thanks,
Sam

[DragonHawk]

Would it be reasonably easy to produce one MSI with Flash included and another MSI without Flash?

Personally, I think FrontMotion should get away from packaging Flash with their standard MSIs. (The custom packager service is another story.) Flash updates too often, and on a different schedule vs Firefox. Bundling Flash really just greatly increases the workload on FrontMotion. It's also inefficient for sys admins to update Firefox every time Flash updates. Better to leave Flash out of the FrontMotion MSIs, and point people at the stand-alone Flash MSIs Adobe distributes. Again, my opinion.