How to copy all your Firefox settings from Windows to Ubuntu Linux
July 1st, 2008
Over the years you have probably accumulated a stack of bookmarks, passwords and security certificates in Firefox that makes you Internet browsing just a little more easy.
If you want to take all those Firefox settings from Windows XP to Ubuntu, then it’s a pretty straightforward process. All you have to do is copy a directory and all its files from your XP machine to your Ubuntu machine.
Here are the steps:
1. It’s a wise idea to make sure you are running the same version of Firefox on each machine. If I were you I’d make sure that both Windows and Ubuntu have Firefox 3.
2. Go into Windows and copy the directory C:\Documents and Settings\your_log_in_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\***.default to a USB drive or other portable media.
If there is more than one file with a .default extention in the Profiles directory, sort by date and copy the most recent one. An example of thew sort of file you should see would be ascjnmzh.default The beginning of the directory name is randomly generated by Firefox when the profile is first created.
3. Boot into Ubuntu and using the file browser tool, navigate to your Home directory (it lives under System). Make sure you have selected View hidden files in the options.
The .mozilla directory is a hidden directory and you won’t see it if you can’t view hidden files. You are looking for a directory called $HOME/your_log_in_name/.mozilla/firefox/
4. Copy the directory from step one into the directory $HOME/your_log_in_name/.mozilla/firefox/
5. There is probably another file with an extention of .default already there. Take a note of it’s name then rename it to old_file.default
6. Rename the directory you have just copied to the directory name that you just renamed.
7. Start Firefox.
With a bit of luck all your old bookmarks, passwords, X509 certificates and so on will now work in Firefox on your Ubuntu system. It’s probably a good idea to keep a copy of all your Firefox settings in a safe place anyway just in case your Windows system gets trashed.
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