Problems uploading pictures with Firefox

[ReedAndWeep]

I have a query running about a particular concertina, and attempted to upload some pictures.  This failed as what was shown was a textured block of colour, rather than an image.

A very similar outcome is experienced when attempting to upload an image to image search engines such as google, yandex, and bing.

I use the Firefox browser (102.0 64 bit) running on Linux.  The browser is kept up-to-date, and uses most of the Mozilla authorised and suggested privacy, non-tracking settings.

I discovered that GIF images uploaded to concertina.net without problem (as seen on my "hexagon" profile picture).

To cut a very long story short - and to help any others who may run into this issue - the problem is with the HTML5 usage of "webcanvas" to upload and edit images.  "Canvas" is a major privacy leak, and so is one of the things that can be disabled in the Firefox browser by the user.

Switch Canvas support back on for the particular upload/on-line edit - and you should be OK.  As you have to be logged in to the site to post or upload pictures, there is not so much of a privacy/tracking issue.  Switching it back on for google etc. image searching however is a different matter. 

 

I think the way GIFs slip through - not using HTML5 Canvas - is probably a bug rather than a feature, and should not be relied upon in the long term.  The format does not support photographic type images as well as JPEG, JPG, or PNG anyway.

Another work around (that currently works)  is to use  a photohost such as imgur, that does not require  HTML5 Canvas to upload/edit/trim, and link to that 3rd party hosted image. 

[Peter Laban]

You can insert images in a post by either linking them from  another (hosting) site, using img tags or by adding attachments to your posts and inserting those. JPEGs are probably the more common format to use.

 

You seem to be overthinking a very simple issue.

[ReedAndWeep]

Hello Peter ...

Would that it had been so simple...

I now know the work arounds, if HTML Canvas is disabled, so I can share this image with you:

https://imgur.com/a/LXhkViI

 

As you can see, what happens is that just a block of colour gets uploaded, rather than any useful image.

[DaveRo]

Are you using this addon?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/web-canvas/

If so it sounds like it's breaking Firefox.

[ReedAndWeep]

Hello DaveRo,

No canvas addons/plugins - though I'll be taking a look at the one you mentioned. 
( Whilst I have concerns about the privacy/anonymity/persistent tracking capabilities of using HTML 5 Canvas, the actual technology and potential is of interest)

The problem (such as it is ) is entirely of my doing - I have followed Mozilla's own instructions about disabling Canvas, and am discovering the impact of that choice.  Currently that includes problems uploading to concertina.net, images.yandex.com, images.bing.com, and sometimes images.google.com. 

At the moment there is no issue uploading to imgur.com, so one of the many work-arounds is to upload to imgur, and then use that static URL as food for the image search engines, or as embedded links in online forums.

Had image uploading broken straightaway I think I would have made the Canvas connection sooner, what has happened is that site managers/developers have been slow to embrace the potentials of HTML 5, as have the developers of the APIs they use.  As support becomes more common, more breakages will occur.

The clever thing would be for the APIs and host sites to test for Canvas support (trivial) and if not enabled then fallback to a simple HTTP POST, similar to limited jscript functionality handling for embedded devices, phones, ereaders.

[DaveRo]

I'm not recommending that addon - I know nothing about it. I was trying to understand your reference to 'webcanvas'.

21 hours ago, ReedAndWeep said:

I have followed Mozilla's own instructions about disabling Canvas

Where exactly are these instructions?

 

If you turn things off in about:config, it will often break something!

[ReedAndWeep]

DaveRo>  I was trying to understand your reference to 'webcanvas'.

Not the most readable, but a useful reference:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/canvas

 

There's a linked tutorial on that page if you want to have a go yourself.

 

DaveRo>  If you turn things off in about:config, it will often break something!

Indeed! The interstitial page for about:config used to have an image of a dragon!

DaveRo> Where exactly are these instructions?

 

mainly on https://support.mozilla.org,  but be wary, quite a lot of the discussions are about the way it might have been enabled,  and inclusion in nightly builds, before the adoption of the Tor Browser  code.  Here's a relevant link from some years ago:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/11/04/0040213/firefox-borrows-from-tor-browser-again-blocks-canvas-fingerprinting

 

Eventually people will just have to make their own compromises between functionality, convenience, privacy, commercial value/worth.  Meanwhile it's interesting to watch how it plays out "inside" the browser, and the implications for the user.  Uploading to forums such as ours included.

[DaveRo]

13 minutes ago, ReedAndWeep said:

mainly on https://support.mozilla.org,

OK. But SUMO answers are not 'Mozilla's own instructions'. I've been a contributor there myself.

 

Anyway, vanilla Firefox works OK with concertina.net, that's the main thing.

 

If you know usenet you might like to discuss browser fingerprinting on alt.comp.software.firefox

[ReedAndWeep]

DaveRo> If you know usenet ...

 

That takes me back .... I'd thought that once google had acquired Deja that usenet had gone the way of gopher and bitnet.  Another rabbit hole opens up!   Probably emerging at the back of the shed sofa ...  I may be some time.  Listen for the strains of the concertina

[David Barnert]

13 hours ago, DaveRo said:

If you know usenet...

10 hours ago, ReedAndWeep said:

That takes me back .... I'd thought that once google had acquired Deja that usenet had gone the way of gopher and bitnet.  Another rabbit hole opens up!   Probably emerging at the back of the shed sofa ...  I may be some time.  Listen for the strains of the concertina

 

Remember rec.music.makers.squeezebox ?

[DaveRo]

2 hours ago, David Barnert said:

 

Remember rec.music.makers.squeezebox ?

No, but I used uk.music.folk for years. About a dozen posts a year still in those two, and rec.music.folk, mainly people talking to themselves but the occasional genuine enquiry. There are still active groups, some with hundreds of posts a week.

 

Web forums killed usenet. Facebook is killing web forums -and ordinary websites to some extent: folk clubs and artists often don't bother to maintain their websites.

[DaveRo]

On 7/17/2022 at 4:27 AM, David Barnert said:

Remember rec.music.makers.squeezebox ?

Following your remark, I subscribed to that group. Nothing much there, but I left it subscribed.

 

But to my surprise a new thread appeared yesterday - only the fourth this year. And it's a question about the Hayden system!

[David Barnert]

19 hours ago, DaveRo said:

Following your remark, I subscribed to that group. Nothing much there, but I left it subscribed.

 

But to my surprise a new thread appeared yesterday - only the fourth this year. And it's a question about the Hayden system!

 

I haven’t had a way to access any usenet groups for years. I stopped paying attention to rmms when I joined concertina.net (about 20 years ago).

Edited August 21, 2022 by David Barnert
typo

[DaveRo]

Well you can read that usenet group (though not all groups) via Google Groups

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.makers.squeezebox/

 

But it's inadvisable to post via GG because many usernet users ignore Google posts - they're mostly spam. However, the enquirer about Wicky vs Hayden fingering probably posted on GG.