Firefox 91 ESR in Debian and some tweaks

[sunrat]

After a little consternation from the Debian community about the long wait to upgrade from 78 ESR on Bullseye, it finally arrived as a security upgrade!

$ apt list -i firefox-esr
firefox-esr/stable-security,now 91.4.1esr-1~deb11u1 amd64 [installed]

 

Two things bugged me about it straight away, changes from the old version,  but can be easily fixed:
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For the unbearable annoyance of having tab bar above the other toolbars, it's easy to fix with a userChrome.css file as described in the top post here (don't read any other posts there):
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1339095
I changed the supplied

--tab-min-height: 40px !important;

to

--tab-min-height: 35px !important;

 

as 40px left a bit of wasted unused space. YMMV.

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How to change dummy search box in New Tab page to restore old behaviour of a real search box:
Go to about:config and change

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar

 

from true to false

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I did shrink the size of the tabs somewhat when I first started using the newest versions of FF in Slackware. I didn't have to worry about this with the previous "antique" ESR version. Although, I did keep the tabs above the toolbar. I did this because I was just lazy. I've gotten used to it now; actually prefer it.

 

You other tip re: the dummy search... now that's a winner. That is something that has annoyed me since it started. I mean why have a search box on the new tab page if it doesn't do anything but redirect to the address bar? I will definitely be trying your fix above soon. Thanks! :)

[V.T. Eric Layton]

13 hours ago, sunrat said:

How to change dummy search box in New Tab page to restore old behaviour of a real search box:
Go to about:config and change

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar

 

from true to false

 

YAY! That works! :)

[sunrat]

Here's another tweak to reduce the padding in the Bookmarks menu toolbar dropdown. Add to your ~/.mozilla/firefox/<profilename>/chrome/userChrome.css file:

 

/*** Tighten up drop-down/context/popup menu spacing (updated 9/8/2021) ***/

menupopup:not(.in-menulist) > menuitem, 
menupopup:not(.in-menulist) > menu {
  padding-block: 2px !important;
  min-height: unset !important; /* v92.0 - for padding below 4px */
}
:root {
  --arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 4px 8px !important;
}

 

Now you won't have to scroll (so much) to see all your bookmarks.

 

And other one to make bookmark folders outline a pretty lime color. Edit to taste, takes standard css colours or hex afaik:

/* Change the individual color of folder icons, WON'T WORK with global change of folder colors */

.bookmark-item[container]{fill: lime !important}

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Fortunately for me, I'm not a disorganized slob. My bookmarks are in folders and sub-folders, so I never have to scroll too much.

 

Also, padding on bookmarks toolbar is OK for me as is.

 

Neat tweaks, though, Sunrat. Thanks for posting. :)

 

[crp]

I just wonder who they tested the extra padding on.

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

My girlfriend needs extra padding... when she drinks too much wine. She has a tendency to fall down. I've threatened to get her one of those inflatable Sumo wrestler suits.