There used to be a command line option for the *.paf.exe file to install silently, without user interaction. This was /S /destination=path\ - where path was the full path to the target directory (which would not be appended with "FirefoxPortable"). This isn't working any more since version 3.0.5 or so. Is this intentional? Otherwise, could the functionality be restored? (There was an old forum thread about this.)
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silent install no longer possible?
March 5, 2009 - 10:05pm
#1
silent install no longer possible?
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Silent installs bypassed the free space check (all), license agreements (Thunderbird and Sunbird) and component selection (apps where you can pick to install additional languages like GIMP, Pidgin, etc). So, it causes some pretty bad support and install issues.
It was never meant to be enabled, it was left enabled as NSIS's built in switch by accident. That was fixed in a later release.
We may be introducing unattended (but not silent) installs in conjunction with the PortableApps.com Updater in a later release. More installer code and checks need to be written first.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks for the response, John. I’m the maintainer of a Firefox/Tor combination (not the official Tor Browser Bundle) and have put quite some thinking into updates, as well as Cross-OS functionality. For this, I wrote a start program that unpacks a Firefox distribution automatically if the “archive” is just left in the root folder. This used to work for all three OSs, now just Mac OS X and Linux where I can use the official Firefox versions. It provided a very nice replacement for the problems you have with automatic Firefox updates (I’m watching the Mozilla bug). So I’m sad to lose that option now, but I can see your point. I’d be grateful if the functionality will come back somehow, not just for updates to the whole suite as I obviously would need something that works with an isolated Firefox installer. Oh by the way, my results are at privacydongle.de but unfortunately I haven’t had the time to translate that large page from German.
Did you get Mozilla's permission to repackage Firefox? Otherwise you're violating their trademark agreement and can't distribute it as Mozilla Firefox. You'd have to recompile it as IceWeasel or something.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
We’re not distributing or packaging Firefox, only our profile and start programs, plus we give instructions how people can add a copy of Firefox downloaded from the official places to get the working Firefox/Tor combination.