Anyone using Waterfox on Win7? I have v. 3.2.1 and it's worked fine.
I updated to 5 on one machine and it was fine. On another machine
and can't get it to work. It keeps saying "Waterfox has stopped working"
when I try to run it after install. I tried multiple installs, tried both
5.0.1
and 5.0.2. I tried stripping out all the old folders from Program Files
and App Data. Nothing seems to work and the error message is useless.

There was also a security update some webpaage said I need. That
also didn't help. If I put back 3.2.1 it's fine, but that's fairly old.

On Sat, 5 Nov 2022 23:07:37 -0400, Mayayana wrote:
> Anyone using Waterfox on Win7? I have v. 3.2.1 and it's worked fine.
> I updated to 5 on one machine and it was fine. On another machine
> and can't get it to work. It keeps saying "Waterfox has stopped working"
> when I try to run it after install. I tried multiple installs, tried both
> 5.0.1
> and 5.0.2. I tried stripping out all the old folders from Program Files
> and App Data. Nothing seems to work and the error message is useless.
>
> There was also a security update some webpaage said I need. That
> also didn't help. If I put back 3.2.1 it's fine, but that's fairly old.

Possible reasons (most common, to least common):

- Interference from an anti virus or other security or intrusive utility
software.

- Missing specific Windows hotfixes.

- Broken or tampered system settings. Can be in the registry or a
configuration/database file.

- Windows hotfix incompatibility with another. A goof which Microsoft does
from time to time.

FYI, v5.0.1 x64 works fine in my Win7 SP1 x64.

https://i.imgur.com/6tQ5adM.png

On 11/5/2022 11:07 PM, Mayayana wrote:
> Anyone using Waterfox on Win7? I have v. 3.2.1 and it's worked fine.
> I updated to 5 on one machine and it was fine. On another machine
> and can't get it to work. It keeps saying "Waterfox has stopped working"
> when I try to run it after install. I tried multiple installs, tried both
> 5.0.1
> and 5.0.2. I tried stripping out all the old folders from Program Files
> and App Data. Nothing seems to work and the error message is useless.
>
> There was also a security update some webpaage said I need. That
> also didn't help. If I put back 3.2.1 it's fine, but that's fairly old.

The two enemies of browsers are:

1) Hardware acceleration (GPU) setting
2) Multiple process architecture (quantum)

Multiple process architecture, doesn't work on WinXP,
because they don't want it to.

I don't know how to track era for you with regard to GPU.
The "about:support" in a modern browser, shows you some
OpenGL and WebGL information. If the video card is old or
"a flake" in terms of buzzword compliance, then maybe
hardware acceleration should be switched off.

At one time, I believe there was a simplistic prefs.js
setting for this. They keep changing the names on this
stuff, making it harder to edit a dying browser back to life.

OpenGL has versions. And I don't know what a "too old" version
might be.

Windows 7 likely supports a quite-wide slew of machines,
so there could well be machines unfit for browsing. If
you wanted the latest trashy feature. These might be some
automatic detections, on my WSL2 web browser. The display
path for WSLg is missing some features as it bubbles through
Terminal Services. Yours might have nothing like this.

user_pref("gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl", 4);
user_pref("gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl.failureid", "FEATURE_FAILURE_SOFTWARE_GL");
user_pref("gfx.blacklist.vaapi", 4);
user_pref("gfx.blacklist.vaapi.failureid", "FEATURE_FAILURE_VAAPI_TEST_FAILED");

OK, here's an estimation of OpenGL version minimum.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1748819#c4

"does not support GL [OpenGL] 3.2 or GLES 3.0, which are required for HW Webrender.
It's blocklisted on all platforms (i.e. also Windows) so we don't try to create
a GL context (and log errors) but use SW-WR [Software-WebRender] directly.

gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled
gfx.webrender.software.opengl
"

You can never be too rich or have too many settings.

You would think all the relevant settings would begin with gfx.*
but actually there are other names for them. Like layers.*

And this can make it hard to spot the settings.

Even more difficult, would be cases where prefs.js does not
have a particular line, and the user is expected to enter it
manually.

*******

Here's an idea.

https://www.waterfox.net/support/WINNT/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration/

webgl.disabled: true

You can check some of your video card details.

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4452-gpu-z.html

https://www.realtech-vr.com/home/glview

GPU-Z (lower right corner) has a tick box next to "OpenGL 4.6" on mine.
And my video card is two generations from "current". My card
has no Ray Tracing for example (not that this matters, even to gamers!).

Paul

It happens that Mayayana formulated :
> Anyone using Waterfox on Win7? I have v. 3.2.1 and it's worked fine.
> I updated to 5 on one machine and it was fine. On another machine
> and can't get it to work. It keeps saying "Waterfox has stopped working"
> when I try to run it after install. I tried multiple installs, tried both
> 5.0.1
> and 5.0.2. I tried stripping out all the old folders from Program Files
> and App Data. Nothing seems to work and the error message is useless.
>
> There was also a security update some webpaage said I need. That
> also didn't help. If I put back 3.2.1 it's fine, but that's fairly old.

What flavor of Waterfox are you using Classic or Current?

Classic is for legacy systems and is there for only those who have
specific need for it. Current is the up to date version which works
best with websites and is for much newer systems.

I've been using the Current edition for quite a while with no prolems
on Win 7 Home Premium. It is now up to version G5.0.2.

Have you addressed this to Waterfox Support Group?

--
Zo

I don't have any taglines to give you.

"Zo" <homenet@newsbill.net> wrote

|
| What flavor of Waterfox are you using Classic or Current?
|

Just the regular. As I said, it's worked on anoher machine fine.
So I'm really looking for cases where people have had trouble
on Win7.

"Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote

| Here's an idea.
| |
https://www.waterfox.net/support/WINNT/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration/
| | webgl.disabled: true
| | You can check some of your video card details.

I'm assuming this isn't relevant since it won't run at all. I'm
not having display problems or crashes. It just shows the
error message when I try to run it. Only v. 3 works. v. 5 works
fine on another Win7 machine, but that one was home-made,
maybe 2015. The one where it's not working is a Dell 625 from
2009. Yet FF 102 ESR installed and works just fine. Win7 is
officially supported. Hardware insufficiency seems unlikely.

On 11/6/2022 12:42 PM, Mayayana wrote:
> "Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote
>
> | Here's an idea.
> |
> |
> https://www.waterfox.net/support/WINNT/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration/
> |
> | webgl.disabled: true
> |
> | You can check some of your video card details.
>
> I'm assuming this isn't relevant since it won't run at all. I'm
> not having display problems or crashes. It just shows the
> error message when I try to run it. Only v. 3 works. v. 5 works
> fine on another Win7 machine, but that one was home-made,
> maybe 2015. The one where it's not working is a Dell 625 from
> 2009. Yet FF 102 ESR installed and works just fine. Win7 is
> officially supported. Hardware insufficiency seems unlikely.

Have you started it from the command line ?

cd /d C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox # substitute whatever the Waterfox uses for this

firefox.exe -attach-console # For Firefox at least, this enables dumping status
# into the Command Prompt you're doing this in.
# And no, it does not have much to say, so
# this could be a dismal flop.

Even if you build a Debug version of programs like
this, it still does not have a lot to say.

The failing children on a Quantum era browser,
likely leave little trace. The parent might have
something to say, but it's usually statements about
some irrelevant but survivable graphics issue.
There is likely a problem, getting all the stdout
from the children, to go into the Command Prompt window.

Even manually adding "printf" commands to the source
code, won't work. There's a recipe you have to follow, to
do that kind of I/O.

Paul

"Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote

| cd /d C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox # substitute whatever the
Waterfox uses for this
| | firefox.exe -attach-console # For Firefox at least, this
enables dumping status
| # into the Command Prompt you're
doing this in.
| # And no, it does not have much
to say, so
| # this could be a dismal flop.
|

Interesting thanks. I'll give it a try. It can't
be less informative than "The program has closed."

"Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote

|
| cd /d C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox # substitute whatever the
Waterfox uses for this
| | firefox.exe -attach-console

No leads there. I tried Procmon. That didn't yield any clues.
Event viewer lists Waterfox errors with xul.dll. Others online
report similar, but none with a resolution. Very odd. It's SP1
Win7-64, same as the other computer where it installed fine.
The only difference I can think of is that the Dell XPS 625
where it won't run is older than the other computer, which
I built around 2015.

I may have to give up on this, but open to anyone with
other ideas.

On 11/8/2022 5:41 PM, Mayayana wrote:
> "Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote
>
> |
> | cd /d C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox # substitute whatever the
> Waterfox uses for this
> |
> | firefox.exe -attach-console
>
> No leads there. I tried Procmon. That didn't yield any clues.
> Event viewer lists Waterfox errors with xul.dll. Others online
> report similar, but none with a resolution. Very odd. It's SP1
> Win7-64, same as the other computer where it installed fine.
> The only difference I can think of is that the Dell XPS 625
> where it won't run is older than the other computer, which
> I built around 2015.
>
> I may have to give up on this, but open to anyone with
> other ideas.

Does the processor have SSE2 ?

Actually, it's worse than that. Waterfox needs SSE 4.2 .

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/10/20/waterfox-g4-sse4-2-processor/

"Waterfox requires a SSE4.2 compatible CPU

Waterfox G4 has a limitation... "

https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/qcxfb7/two_options_what_to_do_if_your_cpu_doesnt_support/

"SSE 4.2 emulation

If you still want to try running Waterfox G4, you can try looking into this direction

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2362590754

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/tool/software-development-emulator.html
"

Paul

In article <tkelvr$sco$1@dont-email.me>
"Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> wrote:
>
> "Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote
>
> |
> | cd /d C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox # substitute whatever the
> Waterfox uses for this
> |
> | firefox.exe -attach-console
>
> No leads there. I tried Procmon. That didn't yield any clues.
> Event viewer lists Waterfox errors with xul.dll. Others online
> report similar, but none with a resolution. Very odd. It's SP1
> Win7-64, same as the other computer where it installed fine.
> The only difference I can think of is that the Dell XPS 625
> where it won't run is older than the other computer, which
> I built around 2015.
>
> I may have to give up on this, but open to anyone with
> other ideas.

Jesus Christ! You people just aren't happy unless each day you
find another program to screw up your machines so you can post
endlessly about the same fu'kn problem.

Get a life!

"Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote

| Actually, it's worse than that. Waterfox needs SSE 4.2 .
|

Ah. Good sleuthing. Thanks. I never came across that
in my searches. Apparently AMD started supporting SSE4
in 2011. So Firefox is still OK but not Waterfox.