howto: _THE_ Firefox howto

[notos]

- 9/7/2005 : Updated to make it easy


Enable Extensions
If you want to install some extensions from addons.mozilla.org (needed for this howto) you should fix yourself the bug 10681

1.- open Firefox
2.- type in the address bar: about:config
4.- find general.useragent.vendorSub
3.- Set it to 1.0.4


Flash Player
I had to do a reset to my system now I'm running very stable with the repo plugin now to install it you type

sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Java Plug-in
May be one of the most useful plugin (after flash) for playing games on firefox, you should install the sun-j2re1.5
simply by

sudo apt-get install sun-j2re1.5

some times it (for unknow reason) does not install the mozilla plugin so if it is your case (ie. you cant view java applets after apt-get sun-j2re1.5 [LOOK AT: about:plugins ) you can do it by hand

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/j2re1.5-sun/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

Media
reference: HOWTO: Get Streaming Media Working In Firefox, without M-Player!?
in place of installing all the media plugins i will go for a more elegant way to view stream media

frist if you dont have the codecs you cant view videos even on a media player so

 sudo apt-get install w32codecs
 sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-plugins
 sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-lame
 sudo apt-get install lame
 sudo apt-get install sox
 sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
 sudo apt-get install mjpegtools
 sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
 gst-register-0.8

install VLC, MPlayer, Xine-ui, Totem-xine, or any other Media player you want you can even install them all

also for audio I recomend beep-media-player as it uses the GTK2 Engine (XMMS uses the ugly GTK1 :P) and its actualy a fork its almost compatible with XMMS:P

 sudo apt-get install beep-media-player #for audio player beep-media-player
 sudo apt-get install vlc #for vlc
 sudo apt-get install xine-ui #for xine-ui
 sudo apt-get install mplayer-i386 #for MPlayer*

*reference to other posts in this forum, or beter compile it

now install realplayer for rm (Real Media) files

 sudo apt-get install realplayer

Go To: https://addons.mozilla.org/extension...nfo.php?id=446
And Install the MediaPlayerConnectivity plug-in for Firefox restart firefox and it will run the auto config automaticaly (duh) you may want to configure it yourself to fit your needs

Acrobat Reader
Maybe the painless plugin instalation

 sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread

done ... you dont think its a joy things just works? :P


Tweak
Reference: HowTo: Tweak Firefox!
Frist of you may want to install ChromEdit to make your life Easier

now go to http://www.testingreflections.com/node/view/1549 and copy whenever fit your needs :P
http://flickr.com/photos/notos/19842994/


Unstable FireFox
Reference: Firefox randomly dying

If you, AND ONLY IF, have experienced Bad Performance (Like Crashing or random-Dying) Of Firefox ITs not normal Firefox makes this ... even any other APP (if you come from win like me you may say "bah a crash i only restart it") but not.
if a progran any program crash you can report it or ask if any one experiences any thing like that so developers can build a better more stable system.

Now If FireFox crashes its because a bug a error if you have Update 2 of the kernel you may downgrade to original Ubuntu Hoary Kernel. DO this

1. Open Synaptic.
2. Do a search for Linux.
3. Click the little button above the boxes that show you what's been installed.
4. You should see one or two "linux-headers-2.6.10-5" (one with an extra -k7 after it as well, if you're on an athlon.) You should also see one or two "linux-image-2.6.10-5" (one with -386, possibly, and another with -k7)
5. Click on the first one in the list (for me, it's linux-headers-2.6.10-5) so that it is highlighted.
6. Go to Package->Force Version...
7. In the drop-down box, choose 2.6.10-34 (hoary)
8. Click on the "Force Version" button.
9. Do the same thing for the other ones in this list, "linux-headers-2.6.10-5-k7," "linux-image-2.6.10-5-386," "linux-image-2.6.10-5-k7." Until all of them are marked with a "downgrade" box (little arrow pointing down.)
10. Click Apply.
11. When finished, reboot.

after that you may want to put the kernel on "HOLD" mode so it does not upgrade
just type

 echo packagename hold | dpkg --set-selections

for each kernel package that you downgraded

so for me it was

echo linux-headers-2.6.10-5 hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo linux-headers-2.6.10-5-686 hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo linux-image-2.6.10-5-386 hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo linux-image-2.6.10-5-686 hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections

when you want to un-hold the kernel images/headers (ie when the new patch is relased or when you upgrade to breeze) just change "hold" with "install"

this fixed my firefox no more crashes for me, so no more Opera or Links :P

Other HowTo
HOWTO: Totem embeded with mozplugger (At Last!)
SCRIPT: Take back the Firefox & Thunderbird logo
HOWTO: Nice firefox forms.
HOWTO: Set up Java Runtime Environment with Firefox autopackage
Mozilla Firefox - ubuntuforums.org search plugin



Well this concludes my short (?) way to tweak and personalize Firefox i hope it helps you if any question... ask (duh)

Also i will be updating this as i find interesting things to do, if you think i should add some thing ask for it or PM me

note:Sorry for my engrish ... engrish not my natural languaje :( if you want help me fix my poor-english PM me

[Dax0r]

good job

[notos]

thank you i hope it helps

[rider343]

Very good work

[luca_linux]

Great! Very good job!

[nickless]

nice thread, but there is something missing to be the "complete guide"

How do I get Firefox to open a new tab when I click a link?

Edit the file /etc/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefoxrc and change the line that reads FIREFOX_OPEN_IN="window" to be FIREFOX_OPEN_IN="tab". There is a comment about this on the line above.

Found it in the ubuntu FAQ

edit: actually it didn't work for me, but I found out, that one can also change this in firefox

[mike998]

nice thread, but there is something missing to be the "complete guide"

How do I get Firefox to open a new tab when I click a link?

Edit the file /etc/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefoxrc and change the line that reads FIREFOX_OPEN_IN="window" to be FIREFOX_OPEN_IN="tab". There is a comment about this on the line above.

Found it in the ubuntu FAQ

edit: actually it didn't work for me, but I found out, that one can also change this in firefox

Alternately, Middle click on a link...

[PMO6022]

The easiest way to get tab options is to:

type: about:config in the address bar
search for browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs
double click the result which will set the value to true

Now when you go to edit->preferences->advanced there will be more options under tabbed browsing, of particular interest is "force links that open new windows to open in a new tab" Selecting that will essentially give you single window browsing. Links should no longer spawn new instances of firefox.

[Williams477]

Hey, I get everything working fine until this step: enter and type /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox.

The terminal just comes up and says it's a directory. For example:

tony@ubuntu:~/workdir/install_flash_player_7_linux$ /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox
bash: /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox: is a directory

I also get this:

tony@ubuntu:~/install_flash_player_7_linux$ sudo ./flash-player-installer
sudo: ./flash-player-installer: command not found

[geearf]

Hello,

my firefox seems a bit unstable :
- sometimes it crashes when using the mediaplayer plugin or a certain java webpage
- i cannot click on the button of this page :
http://roxy.en.norvege.free.fr/index_2.php?page=photos

while i have no problem with konqueror.

I tried with my profile and a new one of course.
Also i feel like FF is very slow, and sometime it takes a huge amount of RAM.

Thanks for any information,