Portable Firefox

What is this?

Portable Firefox places the Firefox with its configuration files in a folder to utilize it without installation in the Puppy space(pupsave).

The Firefox, and most of the browsers, are lage, and makes large cash, consuming your pupsave. Downloading a large internet files fills up the pupsave/Puppy space and may crash Puppy.

The Portable Firefox holds the Firefox code, its settings, cache and downloads in the same 'firefox-portable' folder, so that they are free from the 'Puppy space' and not limited by the pupsave size.

Tested on Precise-571JP. May works with most of Puppy 5.x. Recent Firefox does not run on Puppy 4.x. Firefox17 may work.

The flashplayer is not included. Install the most recent flashplayer or the previous version, flashplayer10, as your need.

How to use?

I. Installation

1. Extract firefox-portable-*.tar.gz at somewhere under /mnt/home, or under some mounted point like /mnt/sdb1. No mater the file system of the partion, ext2/3/4, f2fs(if the kernel can handle), ntfs or vfat. You can remove the archive *.tar.gz after extracting. A folder 'firefox-portable-*' is made. You can move this folder anywhere under /mnt, '/mnt/home/apps/firefox-portable' for example.

   Do not change the root name of the folder other than 'firefox-portable'. For example,'firefox-portable', 'firefox-portable-new' are both valid.
   
   The firefox-portable-* folder works as a ROX application. It is seen as an icon with a gear. Unfortunately it does not work as a ROX applicition on NTFS file system. The icon shows normal folder in this case.

2. Click firefox-portable-* folder if the icon shows a gear . Or, open the folder and click the executable firefox-portable. A GUI opens.
3. Click 'OK' to install firefox. The installer automatically downloads the most recent firefox for your language.
   If you want to use older version of firefox, Get the tarball from the web, and drug the tarball on the GUI entry. The Firefox17 may work on Puppy 4.x.
4. Importing old bookmarks
   You can import previous bookmarks if you were using Firefox or SeaMonkey on the Puppy before. Importing from the Windows is available with v0.7 and later.

II. Launching Firefox

After the installation finishes, the firefox-portable works as a launcher.

If you register the firefox-portable on the Puppy menu, the Firefox(portable) appears on the Puppy menu. If another Firefox was built-in, it shows in the menu in parallel. You can register the firefox-portable as the default browser. To launch the firefox-portable from a virtual terminal, type 'firefox-portable'.

You can click the firefox-portable folder or the executable to launch the Firefox, no matter registererd or not. If the firefox-portable folder is under /mnt/home, you can make a desktop icon dragging the firefox-portable folder or the executable on the desktop.

The firefox-portable is registered on the Puppy Package Manager. You can uninstall it from the PPM and then the Firefox(portable) is removed from the Puppy menu, but the Firefox in the firefox-portable folder is still there.

You can remove the firefox-portable folder with the installed Firefox. But the menu entry is stil in the Puppy menu. You need to uninstall the firefox-portable using PPM to remove it from the Puppy menu.

III. The configuration files

The configuration files of the Firefox is in the hidden folder .mozilla/firefox in the firefox-portable folder. Move the whole firefox-portable folder if you want to move or backup. All the bookmarks and cookies are within it. All the bookmarks and cookies are lost if you remove the firefox-portable folder.

Normal pluguns folder is /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, in which most of browsers, firefox, seamonkey, opera and etc., look up. You can place the plugins in .mozilla/plugins folder under the firefox-portable folder instead of /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, so that your pupsave keeps slim. Note that the plugins in this folder are effective only for this firefox.

IV. Updating Firefox

• Once you install the Firefox, it is automatically updated when the new release is available. Ensure the setting from the firefox menu bar > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Software Installation. You can also do manually update from the firefox menubar > Help > About Firefox.
• Or, right-click the firefox-portable folder and select 'Build'. Or, open the folder and click the executable 'Build'.
• Or, you can download the new tarball from Firefox web page using any browser, and drag and drop it on the firefox-portable folder.

V. Using on another Puppy

The installed Firefox can be run on another Puppy with the same settings and bookmarks. To registor on the new Puppy, right click the firefox-portable folder and select 'Register on the Puppy menu' if you want to. Or click the executable 'Registor' in the folder.

Recent Firefox does not run on Puppy 4.x. Firefox17 may work.

VI. Cache location

The Firefox makes cache under /root/.chache/mozilla/firefox as the default. The firefox-portable changes the location to Cache in the firefox-portable folder. Ensure the setting from the firefox menubar > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Cache. You can change the setting if you want to.

VII. Download location

The Firefox downloads internet files to '/root/Downloads' as the default. Because this is in the Puppy space(pupsave), downloading large files may crash Puppy.

The firefox-portable changes the 'HOME' environment variable, so that the download files to the 'Downloads' folder in the firefox-portable folder. You can make a link to this folder at /root/Downloads. You need to remake this link if you move the firefox-portable folder.

You can change the download location in the Firefox settings.

Feed back

Here me your report at the topic in the Puppy Linux Discuttion forum.

2014-06-16 firefox-portable 0.7
2014-02-15 firefox-portable 0.3
Shinobar http://paper.cup.com/