Ubuntu Sharing » firefox

Speed up Firefox by moving cache into RAM in Ubuntu

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:27:37 +0000

By default Firefox puts its cache in your home partition.You can speed up Firefox and reduce disk writes by moving this cache into RAM if you have 1GB RAM or more.

1.Edit /etc/fstab,open terminal from Applications->Accessories menu and type:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Add following into this file and close it.

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noexec,defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs noexec,defaults,noatime 0 0

2.Edit /etc/sysctl.conf:

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

add this line and save it:

vm.swappiness=1

3.
Type about:config in firefox address bar and click I'll be careful,I promise!.Right click on blank area and create a new string value called browser.cache.disk.parent_directory,set its value to /tmp

Now,reboot your system and experience the performance.
Original text:HOWTO : Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop on Solid State Disk (SSD)

Share Firefox bookmarks/history/tabs between Ubuntu,Windows 7/Vista/XP

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:00:22 +0000

If you installed dual boot systems in your machine,you may want to share firefox web browser bookarks,histories,tabs and other configuration files between the OSs in your machine.

Note:Firefox add-ons maybe incompatible in different system.
First of all,you need to know where is the firefox configuration file in ubuntu,Vista,XP and Windows 7:

Windows Vista:Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox

Windows XP/2000/2003 ocuments and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Windows 7:Users//AppDate/Local/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles
Ubuntu Linux:~/.mozilla/firefox

Following shows how to share firefox configuration file from Windows XP to Ubuntu.

Step1:In ubuntu system open up terminal from “Applications/Accessories/Terminal”,type following to open firefox configuration interface:

firefox -profilemanager

Step2:In previous screenshot click on “Create Profile…” to creat a new profile,then type a name and click on “Choose Folder” to select to Windows XP firefox configuration file(the file with .default extension).My XP partition is mounted on /mnt,so it’s”/mnt/Documents and settings/Administrator/Application Date/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/…”

Step3:Once finish,choose this profile(“Windows XP” in my case) and click “Start Firefox”.You can check “Don’t ask at startup” to keep this settings whenever your startup firefox web browser.

Tips:
Step 1 in Windows:Navigate to Start->Run,and type “firefox.exe -profilemanager”(without quotes)

Weave-Firefox add-on,synchronize historys/bookmarks/tabs between desktop, laptop and mobile

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:20:37 +0000

The Weave Sync add-on lets you securely take your Firefox experience with you to all your Firefox browsers. You can now surf the Web on your PC, get up and go, and have everything waiting for you on your phone: your history, open tabs, bookmarks, the Awesome Bar – just as you had left it.

Weave Sync currently supports continuous synchronization of your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs.

* Get the same results on the Smart Location Bar on each of your Firefox browsers, so you can get to your favorite sites with just a few keystrokes
* Continue what you were doing: have the ability to open any tab you have open on any of your Firefox browsers
* Keep the same list of bookmarks on all of your Firefox browsers
* Easily sign in to all your favorite sites using your saved passwords (this is especially handy on mobile phones, where it’s hard to type in complex passwords)
* Do it all securely: Weave Sync encrypts user data before uploading it to Mozilla’s servers, so that only you can access your data
This add-on is a part of the Mozilla Labs Weave project which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser

(original from mozillalabs)
Install weave

Weave works for Firefox 3.5 or higher versions,and now is a beta version.
Get this add-on from:https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10868
Get start using weave

After installation,restart firefox and you will get this screen in first use.Click “Create Mozilla Weave Account” and login use this account.

In Tools->Weave menu,click on “Sync Now”.

Weave starts synchronizing historys,bookmars,opened tabs and so forth.

Now,in your other firefox web browsers login weave use this account.Select an way in following screen and weave start syncing at right-bottom of window (just as you see in previous screenshot).

How to Configure proxy settings for Opera/Firefox web browser

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:07:47 +0000

For visiting some special web sites or setting local DNS,you may need to use a proxy server in your web browser.This tutorial shows how to add proxy settings for Opera and Firefox.

1.In firefox window,go to Edit->Preferences(or Tools->Options).Select Advanced->Network tab,click on Settings

then,configure proxy settings in this window:

2.For opera,go to Tools->Preferences.Advanced->Network tab,click on Proxy Settings

View PDFs and save web pages as PDF files in Firefox

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:26:59 +0000

PDF Download is an add-on for Firefox that you can view PDFs directly in Firefox as HTML, and use the all-new Web-to-PDF toolbar to save and share Web pages as high-quality PDF files.

Install this add-on from this page

Restart Firefox,and at top-right window you will get a PDF button that you can save/view/share web page as PDF.

ChatZilla-Chat client add-on for Mozilla Firefox

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:16:16 +0000

ChatZilla is a clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client, built on the Mozilla platform, which provides all the usual features: multiple servers, a built-in list of standard networks, easy searching and sorting of available channels, logging, and DCC chat and file transfers, plus easy customization with JavaScript plug-ins and CSS styling.
ChatZilla is also available in Catalan, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Install:

Go to this page and click to install this add-on.
Restart firefox,launch this from Tools->ChatZilla.You’ll get this help about how to use this chat client.

Customize Firefox 3.5 shortcut keys with keyconfig

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:34:37 +0000

keyconfig allows you to change keyboard shortcuts in Firefox.keyconfig adds the ability to create new or modify existing shortcuts defined by a element, but only changing those which itself call a function has an effect.
For firefox 3.5,download the latest version from:
http://mozilla.dorando.at/keyconfig.xpi
Edit “install.rdf” file in XPI and make a change like this:
change:

http://mozilla.dorando.at/keyconfig/update.rdf

into:

https://mozilla.dorando.at/keyconfig/update.rdf

and change:


{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
2.0.0.17
3.1.0

into：


{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
2.0.0.17
3.*

Now,install this extension and restart firefox.Click to Tools->Keyconfig,customize shortcut keys in this screen:

Optimize and make FireFox running faster than Google Chrome

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:34:42 +0000

Firefox is always the faster browser than IE.Since Google Chrome released,Mozilla Firefox became the tortoise in The Hare and The Tortoise rather than “fire fox”.This tutorial shows to how to optimize Firefox and make this faster than Google Chrome.

1.Install BleachBit which is an open-source program can be used to free disk space.You can install this from Synaptic(System/Administration/Synaptic).
2.In address bar type “about:config”(with no quotes),click on “I’ll be careful,I promise!”.Create an Integer by right clicking on anywhere of the window,and select New/Integer.The name is”content.notify.backoffcount” (no quotes)and value is 5.

Create another Integer:
Name: nglayout.initialpaint.delay
Value: 0
3. Optimize history. Also in “about:config” window,search “browser.history_expire_days” in Filter area.Change its value to 7.This will change how many days history will be stored.
search “browser.history_expire_days_min”,change its value to 7(or an other number).
search “browser.history_expire_sites” ,change its value so the max number of sites stored in history will be changed.
4.Speed menus. Create new Interger(in “about:config” window):
Name: ui.submenuDelay
value: 0
5.Disable IPv6: In “about:config” window,search “network.dns.disableIPv6″ in Filter and change its value to True.
6.Enlarge cache space. Assuming you have a 2GB RAM,you can enlarge your cache.In “about:config” window,right click on anywhere of the window,navigate to New/Integer.Type in name :browser.cache.memory.capacity,value:32768.
7.Use TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. In “about:config” window,search “javascript.options.jit.chrome” and “javascript.options.jit.content”,change their values to True.
8.Optimize TCP. (not support in some servers)
In “about:config” window,create following keys:

browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs – true
network.http.max-connections – 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server – 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy – 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server – 4
network.http.pipelining – true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining – true
network.http.request.timeout – 300
content.notify.ontimer – true
trim_on_minimize – true (Windows only)
content.interrupt.parsing – true
content.max.tokenizing.time – 2250000
content.maxtextrun – 8191
content.notify.interval – 750000
content.switch.threshold – 750000

Remove advertisements and banners from Firefox with Adblock Plus

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.
Install Adblock Plus add-on from here

When you have this installed,right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu – the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or you select a filter subscription when Adblock Plus starts up the first time, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

DownThemAll-A Download Manager extension for Mozilla Firefox

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:30:38 +0000

DownThemAll (or just dTa) is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want.
DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it’s fully integrated into your favorite browser!

Install this extension,just click install in this page and restart your firefox.

Right click on firefox page,and there will be the two options:

Click here for more details