Firefox extensions installation
 

Hello,

When I was using Mozilla, I used to install extensions as root, so that those get installed system-wide (for all users).
Now I'm using Firefox. I installed a number of extensions as root, but instead of getting installed under /opt/firefox-1.0.1/, those got installed under ~root/.mozilla/firefox/!

Is there a way to "move" the installed extensions so that they are system-wide?
Or at least, is there a different for doing this, so that I can install the extensions system-wide? Maybe I should download the XPI files, but them, what command will install a XPI system-wide?

Thanks,
Yves.

I believe that you could simply install the same extensions again as normal user, and then they should be available to all users if you make the /opt/firefox-1.0.1 directory usable by all users. I am assuming you trust all the users--your family for example, or friends.

If Firefox complains that the extensions are already installed, if it were me, I would just delete the /root/.mozilla/firefox/ directory, because I never run applications such as Firefox as root anyway.
(I believe you meant to type a / rather than a ~ before "root" in that path.)

I thank you for your answer.
The problem is, that I shouldn't have to install those extension for each user. /opt/firefox-1.0.1 is usable by all users, as this is the place where my firefox is installed, hence it is the place that is actually used by all users... except for preference, which are (conformant to Unix tradition) in a hidden directory in each user's profile: ~/.mozilla/firefox/...

(FYI, "~root" means "home-directory of root" (you can use that for any user). And for me, that's not always /root.)
Like you, I usually don't use applications like firefox as root. But I thought that was the way to install the extensions system-wide, as it was with old Mozilla. As obviously it is not (any more), I don't mind deleting ~root/.mozilla entirely, but before that, I'd like to try and move the already-downloaded extensions.
If this is not possible, it does not matter. Those extensions are not that big, and I can download them again, if someone (please ? :)) tells me how those can be installed system-wide, ie: under Firefox' installation prefix (namely for me: /opt/firefox-1.0.1).

Yves.

I finally found that installing a previously downloaded .XPI file is as simple as opening it in Firefox. Better than nothing... at least I don't have to download again for each user.

I'd still be interested, though, in knowing how to directly install the XPI system-wide.

If someone knows...

Yves.

Extensions are stored in each Firefox users profile. You can set it up to share the same profile, but then you are also sharing bookmarks, saved password, etc.

They are usually stored somewhere along the lines of: .mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/extensions


The easiest way would be to:
"How can I share a fixed profile, such as on dual-boot machines?(Not quite what you are needing to do)
This is very easy. Supposing your profile exists for one particular instance of a Mozilla product, you need to make use of the Profile Manager for the other instance of this application in order to inform it of where your existing profile is stored. Simply choose to create a new profile from within the Profile Manager; when prompted for the installation folder browse to and select your existing profile folder. Rather than creating a brand new profile, your application will instead recognize the existing profile and allow you to use it"
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Roaming_profile

No no no! That's a very Windows-ish way of doing things. Surely I'm not the only one here with multiple users, and surely not the only one also to know that Unix applications always have system-wide settings under /etc or $PREFIX/whatever, and user settings under ~/.whatever.
So should Linux version of Firefox, or else it is just a bad adaptation of the Windows version.

Yves.

I think your last sentence hit the nail on the head.

While Thunderbird has its own ~/.thunderbird directory, Firefox for whatever reason known only to its developers has not got its own settings, etc. directory, but depends on the ~/.mozilla directory. I cannot for the life of me see the advantage of this, but I can certainly see disadvantages.

Well, on my system the user profile is under /home/craig/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxx.default

While the system wide profile is under /etc/mozilla-firefox/profile
and root has a profile at /root/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxx.default/
I think Firefox was written for Linux after the windows version and the devs only changed enough of the code for it to work. The whole profile thing is what screws things up.