Firefox >

This post should obsolete Backing up Firefox.

This is a thorough documentation of a complete profile creation, with the import of all of my preferences.

I hope to note every broken default, necessary configuration and customization, extension and extension configuration I need to set.

This document will absorb all existing notes.

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To process:

• Firefox -- tweaks and tips and a general cleanup.

  • Review all associated items. Also search the whole blog for anything firefox-related.
• Firefox add-ons and extensions integration into Firefox extensions and their configuration
• Firefox customization into here or somewhere.
• Tweaking Firefox
• Firefox dark themes

• Firefox about-blank dark

After everything is complete, fold it all back into Firefox to make it an index. Or just have the firefox page give an appropriate search tag like I've done elsewhere.

Notes ∞

For every additional update, I will list the Firefox version I performed it on. Perhaps a default changed, or perhaps it's a nuisance I didn't know how to solve from an earlier version.

Firefox 29.0 ∞

Tested 2014-05-24 on Lubuntu 14.04 amd64, updated recently. Firefox 29.0, provided in the default repository.

• Taskbar blink bug

  • After installing an addon, the final restart popup does not appear. The taskbar will begin to indefinitely blink. Restarting lxpanel does not solve this. fbpanel shows the same problem. tint2 does not. Restarting Firefox resolves it. I'm not sure how to reproduce this issue.
  • The final restart popup does appear once I click the Firefox window.
• There is no clear recent history functionality in private browsing mode. The user is forced to exit.

• There is no non-hotkey to clear recent history.

The basics ∞

• Create a fresh profile.
• Open the fresh profile.
• Resize the window so it's as large as it can be.
• Maximize the window.
• Open the old profile.

• Export bookmarks from the old profile.

  • Control-Shift-O > Import and Backup > Export Bookmarks to HTML

• Import the bookmarks into the new profile.

  • Control-Shift-O > Import and Backup > Import Bookmarks from HTML
  • FIXME - This process will hang the browser while it works. Bad programming.

• View the bookmarks in the sidebar: Control-b

  • Widen the sidebar.
  • TODO - I tweaked things to allow a much wider sidebar.
  • Confirm the bookmarks are there.
  • Favicons should also have been imported, which is probably most of the sluggishness of the import process.

• Move imported bookmarks from the import-created "Bookmarks Toolbar" into the actual browser's Bookmarks Toolbar.

  • FIXME - Items I drag become objects under the mouse, preventing me from seeing where I'd like to drop them.

• Delete extra folders

  • Most Visited
  • Recently Bookmarked
  • Recent Tags

• Delete supplied bookmarks

  • Getting Started
  • The Mozilla Firefox folder and bookmarks within it.
  • Ubuntu and Free Software Links and bookmarks with it.
  • There may be some equivalent for other distributions.

Earlier, and probably very old, notes:

1. exit firefox
2. back up your own places.sqlite
3. copy the places.sqlite from the other source
4. start firefox
5. export your bookmarks as html
6. restore your old places.sqlite

7. import the bookmark html

Firefox preferences ∞

See Firefox preferences. This includes modification of the UI like moving icons around.

Other firefox changes ∞

Always show the menu:

• Alt-v > Toolbars > Menu Bar

  • I'm not sure how else to do this. What would a user do if they didn't know about alt keys to access the menu?
  • The default is bad. When the menu is interacted with, the page being moved down is jarring.

Firefox chrome files ∞

See:

• chrome/userChrome.css
• chrome/userContent.css

• I have not explored chrome/userChrome.js

Firefox about:config customization ∞

See Firefox about config customization

Firefox extensions and their configuration ∞

See Firefox extensions and their configuration

TODO - Greasemonkey user scripts ∞

See Greasemonkey

Stylish user styles ∞

See Stylish

Todo ∞

• Transplanting flash cookies/data.
• Transplanting Greasemonkey and Stylish|Greasemonkey scripts or Stylish styles]].

• Identify any themes in B . Install them in A .

User Preferences (prefs.js) ∞

unchecked

The preferences within the regular preferences dialogues is located in prefs.js .

about:config customization is located in prefs.js .

How to migrate your passwords between installations ∞

This may be very old, v2 or even v1.5!

In the profile directory, it is these files:

signons*.txt
key3.db

Firefox 31.0 - I now see signons.sqlite