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TenFourFox Frequently Asked Questions

This page is for frequently asked questions about TenFourFox (or, as we abbreviate it, 10.4Fx). Some of these are also answered on the main site and other places in Google Code, but are also provided here for convenience.

Questions answered in the FAQ are generally pertinent only to the most current version of 10.4Fx although notes about earlier versions are also included for reference.

What is TenFourFox?

TenFourFox (hereafter 10.4Fx) is a port of Firefox to the Power Macintosh, running either Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5.

Why make 10.4Fx?

Mozilla stopped supporting Power Macintosh and Mac OS X v10.4 with Firefox 4/Mozilla 2.0, both of which remain important and in our humble opinion viable platforms, particularly for people who need to run older software or use Classic. We fall into this category. This is our attempt to rectify the disparity.

Why isn't it called Firefox?

10.4Fx is not called Firefox because technically it isn't, and therefore legally it can't be. Mozilla's trademark conditions require that builds named Firefox be based on unmodified source, and 10.4Fx is modified.

What modifications were made to 10.4Fx?

See TechnicalDifferences for the current set. In broad strokes, however, 10.4Fx contains modified widget code to work with OS X Tiger, contains modified font code to remove Mozilla's dependency on CoreText, disables graphics acceleration and WebGL (which are not compatible with Tiger), and includes AltiVec- and PowerPC-specific code such as its own JavaScript JIT accelerator and WebM decoder. There are other smaller changes due to the older build system available to 10.4.

What is the difference between the stable and unstable branches?

(This question does not apply to version 9.0 and earlier.)

The stable branch of TenFourFox is based on the Firefox 10 extended support release, otherwise known as the Firefox ESR. The ESR receives bugfixes and security updates from Mozilla, but no new Firefox-general features. The unstable branch of TenFourFox is based upon the current version of Firefox.

The stable branch, despite its name, does receive selected new TenFourFox features and does have "betas" for testing them, but does not receive other feature updates from Mozilla. Although it is not as technologically advanced as the unstable branch, it is based on tested and stable code and receives security updates, and therefore the stable branch is the recommended version for most users.

Because the unstable branch is not a release-quality version, it frequently has known bugs, and therefore is only recommended for developers and advanced users. Nevertheless, we encourage technically proficient users to help us develop and keep the PowerPC Firefox port viable. If you are interested in helping to test the unstable branch, please visit the TenFourFox Development blog.

Are there other PowerPC builds of Firefox?

Yes, at least three other ones known to us as of this writing (El Furbe, MonkeyBoy, Xabaris and probably others). These are based on unmodified source to the best of our knowledge, and therefore may legally be called Firefox. However, they require Leopard 10.5, and they do not contain the additional PowerPC-specific features in 10.4Fx. That said, they may have better compatibility, especially with regard to 10.5-specific features such as AAT font rendering. If you have 10.5 and require these features, you might consider trying them. We do not endorse any specific build (other than 10.4Fx, of course), and these builds may not be current with the most recent version of Firefox.

Why are there four different versions? Which one do I pick?

10.4Fx comes in processor-tuned variants to give you the best speed on your particular Macintosh. The G4 and G5 versions include AltiVec code, for example, and the G5 JavaScript accelerator is tuned differently for better performance on the PowerPC 970. If you are using a G3 or a G5, you should use the G3 or G5 version, respectively. If you are using a G4, see WhichVersion for whether you should use the 7400 or 7450 build.

I started up TenFourFox and it doesn't work/won't start. Don't you even test your software?

No, we don't use the browser we write, at all. :P

The first thing to try when the browser won't work or won't even start is to try to start in safe mode -- hold down the Option key as you start 10.4Fx. This will disable any problematic extensions and themes and certain other browser features. If this fixes the problem, you should attempt to find which extension or feature is the problem. Some older extensions may cause serious issues with the browser.

If this doesn't fix it, you should try starting with a blank profile instead of your earlier Firefox profile. Profiles created by versions of Firefox prior to 3.6 may corrupt or be unreadable to 10.4Fx. If you upgraded from a very old version of Firefox (such as 2.x, 3.0 or 3.5) directly to TenFourFox, your profile probably won't work. You should try to upgrade to versions inbetween if you want to keep your profile so that information is properly upgraded at each step. See Will 10.4Fx use all my Firefox settings? below for more information. You may be able to keep the profiles separate if you are unable to do this, though it is not recommended.

If you want to open a support ticket, please include any output from Console.app that appears when you start the application (don't cut and paste everything, just what is new).

Mozilla's Firefox OS X support pages also have other suggestions for fixing startup problems.

Also, see if the suggestions in the next question help you: ...

10.4Fx says that it is "not supported on this architecture."

There are several causes for this message:

• You accidentally downloaded Firefox, not TenFourFox. Firefox is an Intel-only application and will not run on a Power Mac.
• You accidentally downloaded the wrong architecture version. A Power Mac G3 will not run anything but the G3 version; the G4 or G5 versions will either give you this message or not run at all.
• The tool you used to unzip 10.4Fx corrupted it. Do not use Zipeg to open the .zip file; it will corrupt the application. Use the native OS X archive utility that comes with Tiger and Leopard (it is in /System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper.app).

Can 10.4Fx run on an Intel Mac with 10.4?

Yes, 10.4Fx is compatible with Rosetta. Note that performance will be slower (and the browser will perform worse than Firefox 3.6, which has native Intel code), but much of this performance penalty is paid on startup. Only the G3 version is tested under Rosetta. It also works with 10.5 and 10.6, but you could just use the regular Firefox for that. Please note that using TenFourFox on an Intel Macintosh, even though it should work, is officially unsupported.

Will 10.4Fx use all my Firefox settings?

Yes, because as far as your Mac is concerned TenFourFox is Firefox, so it will use your previous profile seamlessly including all of your old bookmarks, all compatible add-ons and all settings. However, if you are updating from 3.5 or earlier -- say, from Firefox 2.0 to TenFourFox 7 -- you may wish to install versions in between and upgrade through them so that your profile is correctly updated, such as from 2 to 3 to 3.6 to 5 to 7.

As a corollary in general, old versions of Firefox that are no longer supported will typically not be able to use profiles from later versions of Firefox, and may even corrupt them. That brings us to the next question:

I want to keep my Firefox and 10.4Fx settings separate.

If you must use different add-ons or keep different settings, you will need separate profiles. Mozilla explains how to start the Firefox Profile Manager at http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing-profiles. These steps will also work for TenFourFox; just substitute the correct application. Be careful: profile management, if done incorrectly, can cause you to lose your current settings and bookmarks. Follow the directions exactly. This is not recommended if you can avoid it.

Can I run 10.4Fx together with Camino, SeaMonkey, Safari or other browsers?

Yes. In fact, you can even run them at the same time. Even Gecko-based browsers like Camino and SeaMonkey coexist peacefully with TenFourFox. (We recommend OmniWeb over Safari if you want your WebKit fix, btw.)

Again, the exception is Firefox itself. Firefox 3.6 cannot be run simultaneously with TenFourFox, because as we mentioned above, to the Mac TenFourFox is Firefox. Also, do again remember that older versions of Firefox may cease to work after upgrading to TenFourFox due to incompatible profiles. You may wish to use specific profiles for these older Firefox versions if you must run them (but it is strongly advised you do not, as these versions of Firefox likely have security issues).

There is currently no problem switching back and forth from Firefox 3.6 and TenFourFox as long as you quit one before starting the other. This may not be the case in the future, however, as Mozilla no longer supports Firefox 3.6.

Does 10.4Fx support Firefox add-ons?

Yes, if they are compatible with the same version of Firefox and do not require an Intel Macintosh. For example, addons such as Adblock Plus, NoScript, Flashblock and OverbiteFF are all compatible. You can get them by going to Tools, Add-ons.

Tiger users should note that even if an extension works with PowerPC, some may require Leopard.

1Password does not work with 10.4Fx.

Users have asked Agile to support TenFourFox in 1Password and Agile has refused to support any non-Intel build of Firefox 4, including TenFourFox. If you are unhappy about this policy, please tell them so (especially if you are a paid user). In the meantime, if you absolutely require 1Password support, you are stuck with Firefox 3.6. There is no way, unfortunately, to force 1Password to work with TenFourFox from our end.

User Art McGee has suggested that you may be able to use 1Password Anywhere to get around this problem, although this will probably only work for Leopard users. We haven't tested this. Please report your results.

Gopher sites no longer work in 10.4Fx.

You can enable the Gopher protocol with the OverbiteFF addon.

Does 10.4Fx support plugins or Flash?

No. Plugins are disabled by default, and are no longer supported. 10.4Fx uses older compositing code to remain compatible with OS X Tiger, and the modified graphics stack in Firefox 4 is tuned for CoreAnimation, which Tiger does not support. More to the point, few if any PowerPC-compatible plugins remain updated, and Adobe no longer supports Flash on Power Macintosh.

When you visit a site with plugin content, an informational box may appear on the page where the plugin would normally appear. Sites may also tell you that you have no plugins installed. This is intentional, so that the site can try to present alternate content that does not require a plugin.

See PluginsNoLongerSupported for more information on this policy and ways you can access content without plugins.

Native video playback is too slow on my Mac.

10.4Fx supports WebM video, which is generally slower than H.264 video because no Power Mac has hardware acceleration for WebM. 10.4Fx does have AltiVec acceleration for WebM, however, and also offers multithreaded decoding on multiprocessor Macintoshes. For this reason, most G5 Power Macs can play WebM without issue but practically no G3 Macs can, due to the CPU power needed to decode, scale and composite the video in the browser.

As for G4 systems in the middle, many will play video with acceptable stuttering, but Macs slower than 1.25GHz are likely to perform badly. If you are in the upper G4 range, video plays back better if you play the video after it is done downloading and reduce the number of tabs open. Also, because decoded frames can be cached depending on available memory, playing the video a second time often performs considerably better than the first time. Finally, make sure the playback controls are not showing (move your mouse into and back out of the player window if they do not go away on their own), as compositing the controls against the video image uses additional CPU power.

Although 10.4Fx still supports Theora (VP3) video, much less content is available in this format than in WebM, and for this reason its playback is not as well optimized.

Improving video performance is an active area of development in TenFourFox.

Does 10.4Fx support Java?

No. Java is specifically disabled by default, and is no longer supported. Java on 10.4 requires the Java Embedding Plugin, and as mentioned, plugins are no longer supported either. More to the point, neither 10.4 nor 10.5 receive security updates to the JVM any more, and trojans such as Flashback have been able to escalate their privileges even on Power Macs using flaws in these older Java environments. For these reasons Java is no longer supported by TenFourFox, and we strongly recommend you only run signed Java applets from trusted sources on Power Macintoshes.

10.4Fx does not display some fonts (Tamil, Arabic, ...) correctly.

10.4Fx does not support CoreText, which is needed to use the typographic information in AAT-encoded fonts. Without this information, certain ligatures and glyph reordering rules cannot be utilized, and the font will appear but not quite correctly. The font renderer in 10.4Fx does support Arabic and other international scripts, but requires OpenType fonts for the special language-specific features. See  issue 5  and TechnicalDifferences.

Will 10.4Fx receive updates?

Yes. We will update the browser with regular security updates, which your browser will automatically prompt you to download when they become available.

New feature versions of 10.4Fx will also be released until it is no longer possible to compile Mozilla's source code (see SupportLevels). However, even when it is no longer possible, security updates will still occur.

The browser keeps saying I'm out of date!

You will get automatic prompts to update if the browser detects your version is not in sync with the version available. Sometimes this may occur even if you appear to be using the same version (we do not bump the version number between official releases to avoid getting out of sync with Mozilla, but the browser has a different build ID). If you are ever in doubt about the version you have, visit the TenFourFox Start Page, which will tell you if you are up-to-date.

Does 10.4Fx support WebM video?

Yes. However, video playback generally requires a G5 for best results. See above for suggestions on improving native video playback on G4 systems.

Does 10.4Fx support WebGL?

No. WebGL requires OpenGL 2, which is not supported on Tiger, and Mozilla does not support WebGL on 10.5 either.

Does 10.4Fx support JaegerMonkey JavaScript JIT acceleration?

Yes. An initial version was made available as an option in 9.0, and is now the default JavaScript compiler in 10.0. It replaces our old tracejit tracing compiler, which exists in 10.0 as a backup, and will not be in 11.0 or any subsequent version.

Does 10.4Fx support JavaScript type inference?

Yes ("JM+TI"). Type inference is not supported with tracejit, however.

Does 10.4Fx support language packs?

10.4Fx has slightly different strings than Firefox, so regular language packs need modification. Some enterprising users are already working on it. See issue 42.

Why do you make me test my bug reports against the current Firefox? I can't run it on my Mac!

Firefox 4 introduced many large layout and interface changes. Some of these changes were controversial, and there are almost certainly bugs even despite the protracted beta period; moreover, the new rapid release strategy Mozilla is using for Firefox 5 and beyond is certain to introduce more and more of them quickly. Fixing Mozilla bugs is out of our purview, and most of this app is still Mozilla's code. To keep us focused on our mission of keeping Firefox compatible with the Power Mac, we need you to make sure your bug does not also occur in regular Firefox. If it does, it's not our bug.

We realize that the whole point of TenFourFox is to run Firefox on systems that Mozilla no longer supports, so comparisons to any Tier 1 platform are accepted, including Windows, Linux, Linux PPC and Mac OS X 10.5+ on Intel. However, unless your bug report is clearly specific to 10.4Fx (and the template will guide you), if your bug report does not compare behaviour with stock Firefox, it will be marked invalid. We don't mean to be jerks, but we need to keep our heads above water and not spin our wheels -- or there won't be a TenFourFox in the future.

This document didn't answer my question.

Feel free to drop by the TenFourFox Development blog and the friendly people there might be able to help.

If you want to send an E-mail message (please, no bug reports via E-mail), you can send it to classilla at floodgap dawt com.