Portable (Windows) - Extensions Break On Path Change (addonStartup.json.lz4 Problem)

[ForkedLightning]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0.1 Waterfox/56.0.1

Problem:
On Waterfox Portable in Windows, changing the path will cause extensions to break (tested with Classic Theme Restorer and Greasemonkey) .

Solution:

1. The problem lies with addonStartup.json.lz4 that specifies the full path (not relative!) to the extension. Manually changing the path contained in it will allow it to start as normal, but not done easily due to proprietary MozLz4 format. (See Issue Request: Remove Lz4 compression (.json.mozlz4, bookmarks, etc.) #330 . The WaterfoxPortable.exe NSIS script can change this if it was plain text.)

2. Changing the paths in extensions.json will only take effect after Waterfox is started twice. First start will be "broken" because of invalid path in addonStartup.json.lz4 (some addon settings like toolbar placement in CTR will be lost), but it will generate a newaddonStartup.json.lz4 for the next run.

[crazy-max]

@ForkedLightning I have fixed this using Portapps if you want to take a look.

[grahamperrin]

Maybe related:

• Mozilla bug 1429838 - After restoring profile to a different location, paths in extensions.json are incorrect