Why do I have English (South African) language pack installed in Firefox?
Hello,
I recently discovered that I have two language packs installed inside Firefox. I am sure that when I first installed the browser I only had English GB installed and I have never installed another by choice. Is this South African language pack installed by default and legitimate, or has my browser been compromised in some way? I can't delete it and I can't find a reference to it anywhere like the latest release notes. Maybe I just missed it somewhere? I would really appreciate someone telling me that I either have nothing to worry about or that I have a problem. Thanks very much for any answers to my questions. I will copy the link to the addon that I am talking about.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/english-south-african-language/
Chosen solution
Thank you very much that reply. No, I only used Pale Moon because I became very paranoid about using Firefox when I saw an addon that I had not installed. Pale Moon was just the browser on a Puppy Linux CD I had around.
You are correct, though. Firefox came with Linux Mint and has always been updated through the manager, but once I completely removed it (including configuration files) and downloaded Firefox from the Mozilla website there were no languages installed at all.
The strange thing is that once I reinstalled the latest version from the package manager there were again no languages installed and I could just add English GB.
Do you think this means anything bad? Could that language pack have been malicious in any way?
Thanks again for the help and I will take your advice and ask over at the Linux Mint forums as well.
Edit: The South African language pack comes with the English language pack for Firefox inside the package manager. If you actually click details then it says contains English translations for Firefox and does not specify English GB. Once i deleted this package and then added GB English from Firefox addons, everything was good. Thanks again for getting me to look in the right direction. I am pretty certain now that this was nothing malicious in any way.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (3)
Is this about PaleMoon, which you used to post here? If so, see their support forum for help with that 3rd party derivative based upon Firefox.
If you installed Firefox thru a Linux distro and are getting Firefox updates from a Linux repository, you have a version of Firefox that may have been modified from what Mozilla produces for Linux operating systems. I don't know if certain Linux distros may be automatically installing language packs
I don't use Linux currently and have never been more than a basic "keyboard operator", but there are a number of other Linux users around there who should be able to help you later in the day.
Time wise, it is probably best to check with the Ubuntu support fora - https://ubuntuforums.org/ - for help with that.
Chosen Solution
Thank you very much that reply. No, I only used Pale Moon because I became very paranoid about using Firefox when I saw an addon that I had not installed. Pale Moon was just the browser on a Puppy Linux CD I had around.
You are correct, though. Firefox came with Linux Mint and has always been updated through the manager, but once I completely removed it (including configuration files) and downloaded Firefox from the Mozilla website there were no languages installed at all.
The strange thing is that once I reinstalled the latest version from the package manager there were again no languages installed and I could just add English GB.
Do you think this means anything bad? Could that language pack have been malicious in any way?
Thanks again for the help and I will take your advice and ask over at the Linux Mint forums as well.
Edit: The South African language pack comes with the English language pack for Firefox inside the package manager. If you actually click details then it says contains English translations for Firefox and does not specify English GB. Once i deleted this package and then added GB English from Firefox addons, everything was good. Thanks again for getting me to look in the right direction. I am pretty certain now that this was nothing malicious in any way.
Modified by Kelade
You can check the install location of all extensions in the extensions.json file. You can open the extensions.json file in the Scratchpad and search for this extension. The descriptor field should list its install location.
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.
- Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox