Deploy customized Firefox to new users [SOLVED]

[John Hupp]

On 1/7/2015 5:27 PM, John Hupp wrote:
> Hello, all.
>
> In Firefox for the initial user on a system, I want to customize it 
> (settings, add-ons, etc) and then propagate that setup to any new 
> users created.
>
> I was reading https://wiki.mozilla.org/Deployment:Deploying_Firefox, 
> but several of the add-ons and links of interest (e.g. 
> firefox.dbltree.com <http://firefox.dbltree.com> and CCK add-on 
> <https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/cck/>) no longer exist.
>
> Anyone know a way?
>
> --John
>
> P.S. Next on my to-do list is a close look at SystemBack, which will 
> perhaps handle this chore, but for the moment I was looking at 
> application-native methods of doing such things.  For instance, for 
> certain purposes I can modify the files installed by 
> lubuntu-default-settings.  I have also had a little look at /etc/skel 
> and /etc/profile.d, though those two seem to have limited use in Lubuntu.

The above article from wiki.mozilla.org would seem to be the definitive 
info but in fact is obsolete.  My search questions must not have been 
well-formed enough and I got sidetracked on the interesting but also 
dated Mike Kaply articles.

Here's the good stuff: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installing_extensions. 
For all the extensions I wanted, pasting the ID-named XPI's into 
<installation directory>/browser/extensions for a Global Installation 
does the trick, both for existing and new users.

SOME DETAILS:

In Lubuntu, <installation directory>/browser/extensions symlinks to 
usr/lib/firefox-addons/extensions.

-----------------
How-To:
At http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ and http://eff.org, 
right-click the Add to Firefox button or the HTTPS Everywhere link, 
choose Save Link As, and save the XPI somewhere e.g. ~/Downloads.

$ gksudo pcmanfm /usr/lib/firefox-addons/extensions &

Open a second tab to ~/Downloads and cut/paste the XPI’s to the 
extensions folder.  For each, R-click: Archive Manager, open install.rdf 
with leafpad and copy the <em:id> tag contents (the extension ID).  
Close leafpad and Archive Manager and rename the XPI with the ID.
-----------------

This will install the extensions for existing and new users.  It does 
not prompt to install as the KB indicates (Do you want to install 
them?), but simply installs them.

However, it does display the same welcome/newly-installed page that 
installation of each extension produces for a single-user installation.  
There are probably configurations that would disable these, but I don't 
currently know what they are.

LEFTOVERS:

My original question also covered global settings, and I don't have a 
final answer on that yet, but it is likely something like 
http://mike.kaply.com/2012/03/15/customizing-firefox-default-preference-files/ 
+ 
http://mike.kaply.com/2013/05/13/more-major-changes-coming-in-firefox-21/ (for 
which I probably want to find a current reference at mozilla.org or 
mozillazine.org).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/lubuntu-users/attachments/20150110/fbb45625/attachment.html>