Multirow not working in new FF ESR 140

[schurigh]

Describe the bug
Firefox ESR updated to version 140 and now I have only 1 tab row. Other settings (tab size, colour) seem to work.
I tried the Quantum Nox Patcher, not working for me. I saw the updated PacificViking fork but there is no release to install.
Any tips/hints what I am missing? I really love the feature set of paxmod and would like to continue it further, but it looks quite dead.

Environment
Win 11, FF 140, paxmod 1.36

[VanessaE]

Same problem here (Debian "Trixie", though)

[P-ropa]

I guess Mozilla changed something again so have to wait for Quantum Nox Patcher update.
I Copy/pasted this to "Custom CSS" window in paxmod options on ESR and tab rows started to work again https://github.com/PacificViking/paxmod/blob/e7a39256a18345ec277291211f09342d44a1b2d0/src/browser.css

Do not copy past row 61 or compact tab grid option in paxmod stops working and stays always compact and minimize/maximize/close buttons dissappear. Not tried other options so maybe something other breaks too if you c/p past row 61.

[VanessaE]

I Copy/pasted this to "Custom CSS" window [...]
Do not copy past row 61

Perfect! That fixed it for me, and I didn't even have to mess with any kind of patcher tools or whatever.

[P-ropa]

I Copy/pasted this to "Custom CSS" window [...]
Do not copy past row 61

Perfect! That fixed it for me, and I didn't even have to mess with any kind of patcher tools or whatever.

Tried pinned tabs and they are broken. Added CSS from row 106 to 114 and pinned tabs are working again.

[VanessaE]

Tried pinned tabs and they are broken

Oh I don't use that feature, didn't notice.

Maybe this CSS or some variant of it will be added to the extension officially at some point, though it's been a few years since the last commit (is this repo dead?).

[P-ropa]

Maybe this CSS or some variant of it will be added to the extension officially at some point, though it's been a few years since the last commit (is this repo dead?).

Doubt that. Last update was on Oct 18, 2022 and actually worked until around December 2024. After that Mozilla constantly started changing something that breaks multirow after updates.
I've been using Quantum Nox Patcher ever since. It fixes Paxmod everytime but the last update was in July. So that repo might go silent too https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Customizations/releases
Unless Numirias comes back or someone will fork this like https://github.com/PacificViking/paxmod after long hiatus.

There's MrOtherGuy CSS for multirow but it's troublesome to install and was updated 3 months ago. I would rather have Paxmod https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks/blob/master/chrome/multi-row_tabs.css

There's also Firefox fork Floorp that has multirow built in and Floorp creator was paxmod contributor at some point
https://github.com/Floorp-Projects/Floorp
https://floorp.app/en-US

Just sad that multirow tabs never took off even after being around for like 20 years. I've been using them since tabmixplus extension and tree-style tabs feel wrong and foreign.

[VanessaE]

I only just started using multi-row late last year (until then, I spread my tabs across multiple windows according to overall subject/usage) but now it's just plain indispensable.

@numirias wake up! 🙂

[P-ropa]

but now it's just plain indispensable.

Yeah. Can't live without my multi-rows.

[schurigh]

@P-ropa Thanks for the quick fix, the custom CSS fixed it for me, too. I even copied the entire browsers.css with all lines and it works just fine, pinned tabs also. So i really hope that @PacificViking continues to update this fork.
We could all (I already did) star and follow this fork so that he gets some love for his effort there. Maybe this motivates him ;)
Just like you I can't live without multi-row since I discovered that last year.

[VanessaE]

There is still one bug, which I dunno if it's in that .css or if it's in paxmod: trying to drag a tab somewhere mostly doesn't work now. The tab just gets deposited somewhere random, usually on the top row but sometimes on the bottom (in my case there are four rows), instead of wherever it spot was you were aiming. Often, trying to drag the tab triggers Firefox's dumb grouping feature.

If dropping the tab would fail, you can tell beforehand because that little blue "it'll insert here" indicator won't appear.

Workaround: drag the offending tab off the window so that it forms its own, let go, then grab it again and drag it to where you wanted it.

[schurigh]

Yeah, I have that too now. Probably a new thing, I think with FF 128 and default paxmod I havent had this issue. Sadly I dont event have a "it'll insert here" indicator, I remember I had that in the default setup before.
But hey, if that is the only bug, I can live with it :)

[P-ropa]

Same here. Dragging tabs are not working correctly.
Some good news. I tried Quantum Nox again and noticed that it selects wrong profile for ESR. That's why it wasn't working! https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Customizations/releases
Manually select your ESR profile to patch it. If you don't need any other options just select "Multi-row Tabs, scrollable rows"
Everything works as before again, it displays spacer icon at the beginning of the tab when moving and tab moving works.
Delete previous CSS from "Custom CSS"
Izheil, author of Quantum Nox made a post where you can report if multirow breaks again
Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Customizations#155

Pinned tabs get messed up again. They don't fold compact displaying only icons but are like normal wide tabs.

Copy rows from 109 to 113 to Custom CSS to fix that.

https://github.com/PacificViking/paxmod/blob/e7a39256a18345ec277291211f09342d44a1b2d0/src/browser.css#L109

[VanessaE]

Well I'm not one to run patching tools or any other such things -- asking a user to run a random binary from an unknown source is a bad idea. That's how you get exploits, regardless of OS (and is probably why the patcher's author made mention of antivirus conflicts in that release page).

Plus, as my Firefox came from Debian's repository, that would mean running that patcher as root/admin, and I don't need to say how bad of an idea THAT is.

Sorry, that's a big nope from me. I'd rather put up with the drag/drop bug.

[P-ropa]

Sure, everything can have malicious code. You are running Paxmod for example, it can be malicious too.
Maybe Numirias is silently collecting your passwords. By this logic you already must run Firefox with Paxmod in virtual sandbox just to be sure.
Nothing can be guaranteed to be 100% safe.
Quantum Nox has been around for 8 years.

See about antivirus issue here pyinstaller/pyinstaller#2501
It's a well known problem with Python on Windows https://medium.com/@markhank/how-to-stop-your-python-programs-being-seen-as-malware-bfd7eb407a7

Using patcher is not mandatory.

Manual installation is available too. This way you can open and review all of the code that is copied https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Customizations/tree/master/Multirow%20and%20other%20functions/JS%20Loader

Multirow-tabs code https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Customizations/tree/master/Multirow%20and%20other%20functions/Multirow%20tabs

I don't see how is this different vs Paxmod.

[VanessaE]

I don't see how is this different vs Paxmod.

Paxmod doesn't run as root, and it isn't a binary executable.

Like any other extension (as far as I understand it), Paxmod's .xpi file is just a zipped collection of javascript, json, css, html, and images, which means any attack it could make on my system would be limited to just what the browser can *already* do without the extension.

Unlike a lot of people, I use my computer for more than just browsing the web. 🙂