Linux firefox plugins directory

Currently, FireFox looks for all profiles, extensions, etc. under my home directory in «

My corporate work directory is network mounted to a very remote server and our routers can’t keep up with the traffic. So I need a way to completely move the .mozilla directory to a local disk partition.

Google searches are only turning up how to move new profiles to a different directory. I’d really like to change the whole .mozilla directory.

/.mozilla». My corporate work directory is network mounted to a very remote server and our routers can’t keep up with the traffic. So I need a way to completely move the .mozilla directory to a local disk partition. Google searches are only turning up how to move new profiles to a different directory. I’d really like to change the whole .mozilla directory. Thanks.

Modified December 6, 2013 at 6:35:24 PM PST by dlpatri

Chosen solution

You can only move the profile folder and not the other directories and files in the

/.mozilla directory. Since you do not have root access, you also can’t make Firefox find plugins and possbile globally installed extensions elsewhere.

All Replies (11)

Operating System discussions and deployment of Firefox on networks is not within the scope of this forum, but I think I can provide the info you need to solve this problem.

The hidden folder .mozilla is not critical. It will work if relocated or with a different name. It contains some Firefox related Files and importantly the profile. I have a standalone Ubuntu machine with multiple versions of Firefox and multiple profiles.

That is why you are mainly finding articles on moving the firefox profile. That is critical. As is the file profiles.ini and their locations in respect to one another. The profiles ini file stores the locations of the profiles. Note this is the file that the profile manager acts on, although with care it may be edited manually. (not recommended, and keep a backup)

In fact removing or renaming profiles.ini forces Firefox to create a brand new clean profile. That in itself is handy sometimes. If your local copy of Firefox has no access to profiles.ini it will attempt to re-create both profiles ini and a new profile.

You need to remember though Firefox expects to find for instance the bookmarks database (places.sqlite) within the profile.

Here are some useful links

As for your home directory etc you choose their locations when setting up or modifying your filesytems. My /home & /usr are on their own separate partitions, with separate Firefox program directories on each. I do not always keep active profiles within /.mozilla

If instead of asking about Firefox you are asking about Linux that is definitely out out of the scope of this forum and you need to discuss on a suitable Linux forum but these links may be useful as a general hint

P.S. You appear to be posting using Firefox 10 on Windows. That is seriously out of date. You should be on Fx25.0.1 on a household computer, and probably Fx17esr or Fx24 ESR at work.

Maybe you can create a hard link or a soft link to this folder.

@john99, This is not an OS question. This is a question about how to change the location of a hidden directory that FireFox uses in a particular type of OS. The OS and Firefox versions were provided in hopes that a solution for that combination could be found. The network mounted home directory was mentioned to provide the rationale for moving the hidden .mozilla directory.

Also, as I mentioned in the question, the computer I’m having an issue with is a corporate computer. One that I do not have root, or sudo, access to, nor do I think that I can get the fundamental problem of having a network mounted home directory resolved. I also do not have any control as to the version of Firefox, or OS, that I’m using.

To re-phrase the question: Is it possible to tell FireFox to use a different directory than «

/.mozilla»? If it is, how do I do that?

/.mozilla»? If it is, how do I do that? Thanks.

@cor-el, I did definitely think about doing that. However, the problem there is that the link still needs to be accessed from my home directory. I would much prefer a solution that completely divorces Firefox from my home directory.

you can launch firefox with certain command line arguments to force it to use a profile located in a certain path.

@philipp, That’s starting to get closer to what I’m looking for.

I’m assuming that by default the profile path points to «

/.mozilla/firefox». But what about extensions, found in «

/.mozilla/extensions», or xulrunner applications?

(I found an eclipse folder in .mozilla. Based on the libs in there, I’m guessing that it’s a xulrunner app).

I have found arguments that seem to allow me to install «global» extensions. But I don’t have admin privileges, and looking at what it does, I’m guessing that manually installing xulrunner apps won’t work either.

/.mozilla/firefox». But what about extensions, found in «

/.mozilla/extensions», or xulrunner applications? (I found an eclipse folder in .mozilla. Based on the libs in there, I’m guessing that it’s a xulrunner app). I have found arguments that seem to allow me to install «global» extensions. But I don’t have admin privileges, and looking at what it does, I’m guessing that manually installing xulrunner apps won’t work either.

Maybe instead of asking about

You should instead read and consider

You can point Firefox at «

/.mozilla/firefox» using a command, a shortcut, or a modification of profiles.ini : either by direct editing, or by use of the built in or a standalone profile manger. This is done so Firefox may find the profile files.

You are placing undue emphasis on the name and location

/.mozilla/firefox You already mentioned researching moving profiles. It is standard Linux practice to use

/.mozilla but Firefox will not object to

/.mozilla is the default location for the Firefox directory. Firefox does not mandate and force you to use that location for the Firefox Directory.

It may not be wise or practicable but Firefox would not prevent you using tmp/any-name/firefox as the Firefox Directory

I suppose you could have just

Asked your IT dept. to sort out the problem.
Or just installed Mozilla Firefox as an additional browser
- see Install Firefox on Linux

You would then be able to customise the location of the installed files and if necessary multiple profiles choosing when or if to run the current network profile.

/.mozilla»»» You should instead read and consider * http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bypassing_the_Profile_Manager#Creating_a_profile_that_is_not_listed_in_the_Profile_Manager ** and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox You can point Firefox at «

/.mozilla/firefox» using a command, a shortcut, or a modification of »profiles.ini» : either by direct editing, or by use of the built in or a standalone profile manger. This is done so Firefox may find the profile files. You are placing undue emphasis on the name and location »’

/.mozilla»’/firefox You already mentioned researching moving profiles. It is standard Linux practice to use »’

/.mozilla»’ but Firefox will not object to

/.mozilla»’ is the default location for the Firefox directory. Firefox does not mandate and force you to use that location for the Firefox Directory. »’N.B. Read:»’ http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Viewing_profile_directory_structure_from_above
Which explains »Viewing profile directory structure from above» »Up one directory from your profile is the Profiles directory which contains one or more profiles, and one directory above that is the Firefox directory which contains Crash Reports directory, Profiles directory, and profiles.ini file. The profiles.ini is a map of profiles used by the Profile Manager. » It may not be wise or practicable but Firefox would not prevent you using tmp/any-name/firefox as the Firefox Directory ——— I suppose you could have just * Asked your IT dept. to sort out the problem. * Or just installed Mozilla Firefox as an additional browser ** see [[Install Firefox on Linux]] You would then be able to customise the location of the installed files and if necessary multiple profiles choosing when or if to run the current network profile.

Regarding undue emphasis, all the answers received so far have been putting too much on the profiles. The .mozilla directory contains more than profiles. I want everything moved somewhere else and have Firefox find it.

You said: «It is standard Linux practice to use

/.mozilla but Firefox will not object to

I want to know how to tell Firefox to use «/any/path», instead of the default. None of the answers or links have described this yet.

From the command-line I can, of course, move the folder anywhere I want. But Firefox is just going to re-create the standard directory where it expects it, and not find my pre-existing profiles, extensions, or apps.

Even if I downloaded and installed my own version of Firefox, I’m pretty sure that it’s still going to use the standard directory in my «home» folder.

I get how profiles work. I’ve already moved my profile to a local partition and it has helped. But I would really like to find a solution where Firefox isn’t using my home directory for anything.

/.mozilla but Firefox will not object to

/any_name/firefox». I want to know »how» to tell Firefox to use «/any/path», instead of the default. None of the answers or links have described this yet. From the command-line I can, of course, move the folder anywhere I want. But Firefox is just going to re-create the standard directory where it expects it, and not find my pre-existing profiles, extensions, or apps. Even if I downloaded and installed my own version of Firefox, I’m pretty sure that it’s still going to use the standard directory in my «home» folder. I get how profiles work. I’ve already moved my profile to a local partition and it has helped. But I would really like to find a solution where Firefox isn’t using my home directory for »anything». Thanks.

Hi again, please try to read some of the articles

I run multiple copies and versions of Firefox with multiple profiles and do so on Windows and Linux. I am well aware there are files besides the profile which is why I quoted http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Viewing_profile_directory_structure_from_above.

Yes but you also said

That is why I suggested installing Mozilla (or Distro) Firefox in a location you may have control of.

I also wonder why you do not consult your corporate IT department. Especially as you apparently have problems at work with network traffic caused by the existing setup you describe.

I want to know how to tell Firefox to use «/any/path», instead of the default. None of the answers or links have described this yet. The easiest method is the Profile Manger or a commandline. If necessary Firefox creates the profile and files needed at the new location. You must have write access to your profiles.ini file to modify it either with profile manager, or manually edit. You may alternatively create a launcher, or a commandline philipp has already provided the link or see the link in my previous post.

Even if I downloaded and installed my own version of Firefox, I’m pretty sure that it’s still going to use the standard directory in my «home» folder. Firefox normally uses certain defaults, but in Windows you are offered options as the installer runs to customise this.

In Linux you may need to consult the OS documentation and Distro documentation. But you should be able to install where you wish.

Источник

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

This article needs to be cleaned up in terms of style or formatting. Once it has been cleaned up, you may remove this message.

Introduction

This article applies equally to Firefox and SeaMonkey, and even to any browser using NPAPI plugins, which means practically anything except Internet Explorer. Don’t be put off by the fact that different sections were written by different authors using different browsers.

This article may be also be applied to users that use Firefox installers; it is unsure if the Mozilla Firefox uninstaller that is provided with the installer preserves your plugins directory.

When not installing Firefox from an installer, removing the Firefox installation directory and then extracting, instead of overwriting the Firefox folder, is a good idea. However, it removes your plugins in your «plugins» folder each time, unless you’re careful. Fortunately, the plugins in your «plugins» folder may be moved elsewere so that they don’t reside under your installation directory and so to make your manual uninstalling of Firefox easier.

Firefox searches a few locations for plugins such as Macromedia Flash and Java. One of these locations is in a «Plugins» folder a parent folder of your Mozilla profile, if one exists. This search is done even if you have no legitimate Mozilla profile. ç

The Workaround

To trick Firefox into searching your folder, locate where the Mozilla profile container folder should be (for example, «C:\Documents and Settings\ \Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\»). If this folder does not already exist, create it. Now there should be a path that resembles «. /Mozilla/Profiles» (where «. » is the actual path where «/Mozilla/Profiles» exists). Create a folder in «. /Mozilla» named «Plugins» so that now there is a «C:\Documents and Settings\ \Application Data\Mozilla\Plugins\» folder.

If Mozilla is installed, make sure that this is not the actual Mozilla installation directory. It should have «Profiles» folder directly underneath it; if you do find a «profiles» folder, but it is a «. /defaults/profiles» folder, then that is your installation directory and you will have to search further.

Now locate where Firefox is currently storing your plugins. It will be under a «plugins» folder in your Firefox installation directory (for reference, the default directory for a Windows Firefox installer is «C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins»).

On Mac OS X, your Firefox folder is usually in your Applications directory. However, to access it, you must Ctrl-Click the Firefox folder and select «Show Package Contents». Afterwards, you should be able to browser to your plugins folder, which should be located in «/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox/plugins». If all else fails, search for a «firefox» directory with a «plugins» folder on your computer using a file find utility. Make sure there is a «plugins» folder underneath the «firefox» folder, as Firefox also stores its profile in a directory named «Firefox». If you have plugins, this «plugins» folder should have more than just a «npnul32.dll» file or the likes.

Now cut all the plugins in the real Firefox plugins directory (without «npnul32.dll» file (file name may differ on Linux) — this file might be updated between Firefox builds, so it should be removed when manually uninstalling Firefox) and paste them into the fake plugins directory.

On Linux

On Linux, and presumably on Mac OS X, the plugins directory name is all in lowercase, and there is an even simpler workaround if all your plugins are in the same directory (possibly as symlinks pointing to the actual shared object). No need to cut and paste unless the

/.mozilla directory already exists and is not empty:

Locate where your plugins are located. (On my Linux64 system it is /usr/lib64/browser-plugins, where SeaMonkey normally doesn’t look.)
In the Mozilla folder (typically $HOME/.mozilla which will contain directories named firefox [with your Firefox profiles, if any], seamonkey [with your SeaMonkey profiles, if any], etc.) add a symlink, as follows:

cd

/.mozilla ln -sv /usr/lib64/browser-plugins plugins

and yes, the «from» goes after the «to» in that link command. (Of course, on a 32-bit machine, it will be under /usr/lib rather than /usr/lib64)

Then open your Mozilla browser (or practically any other GUI browser except Internet Explorer), browse to about:plugins, and lo! there they are, where formerly there was nothing. (In Firefox or SeaMonkey you can also go to the Plugins tab of about:addons, the Addons Manager.)

Источник

Linux firefox plugins directory

Где находится каталог плагинов Firefox?

Обновление для Firefox> = 52