Warning: This extension should only be used if you are using/testing nightly builds and/or betas.
Note: This extension is not hosted on Mozilla’s Firefox Add-Ons, but I have deemed this extension and its source as trustworthy.
At some point I downloaded a milestone version of Gran Paradiso (Firefox 3.0a1) which caused me to no longer get the Minefield nightly builds. I really didn’t want to go digging through the Mozilla FTP, download and install the nightly, so I thought I could go into about:config and change the app.update.channel setting to nightly. Of course this seemed too easy, change the setting and I would get start getting the nightly builds again. Turns out that was too easy, doesn’t quite work that way. What I needed to do was get the Update Channel Changer extension. The extension allows you to change your update channel to one of the following:
- release: The release channel will provide stable release versions, including security updates (e.g. Firefox 2.0, 2.0.0.1, etc. and their release candidates).
- beta (milestone): The beta channel lets you receive every beta, release candidate, and release version of the product (e.g. Firefox 2.0.0.2 beta 1, Firefox 2.0.0.2 RC 1, Firefox 2.0.0.2, etc.).
- nightly: The nightly channel allows you to update to every nightly test build that is produced. There are nightly channels for the trunk, and the Mozilla1.9a2 branch.
- default: This channel is used when there is no channel information, for example if you build Firefox or Thunderbird yourself. There are no updates on this channel.
Once installed you will need to restart Firefox and then select via the Help Menu, Check For Updates. Firefox will check for updates on the current update channel and if there are none will display “There are no new updates available”. At that point a new option, Change Update Channel will appear in the box.
After I installed the extension and restarted my Gran Paradiso 3.0a1 build I was able to download the current nightly for Minefield 3.0a2!
Information Source: mozillaZine
