Docs/Desktop/Browsers/Firefox
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[edit] True Type fonts and Sub Pixel Hinting in Firefox and Mozilla on 9.2, 10.0 and 10.1
Want better looking fonts in your Firefox or Mozilla browser? Especially on a laptop? Try this
- Open a browser window.
- type about:config in the URL bar.
- In the filter box at the top of the page enter FreeType2 (case Sensitive)
- The lines font.FreeType2.autohinted and font.FreeType2.enabled need to be changed to true from false (do this by double clicking on the line it will auto change.)
- It will now use hinting to show the fonts. Much nicer I might add.
[edit] Speed up Rendering of Pages
By default, Firefox doesn't try to render a web page for 250 milliseconds, because it's waiting for data. If you add the code below to your user.js file, Firefox immediately tries to render the page, even without complete data. The drawback is on slower machines where doing a "reflow" may actually cause the total page load time to be longer.
// Last value in milliseconds (default is 250)
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
Note:Although doing the following is talked about in a number of sites as well on mozilla.org itself at the link below. YMMV on how much it speeds you up (It won't make a 56K modem fast no matter what you do *grin*. The claim is that using this might make some sites unreachable. I haven't found any site yet that fails. With one exception, Using flash. The result of hitting a flash enabled site with pipelining is an immediate crash.
[edit] Enableing piplining
Pipelining is an experimental feature, designed to improve page-load performance, that is unfortunately not well supported by some web servers and proxies. To try it out, add the following code to your user.js file:
// Enable pipelining:
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 100);
[edit] More Tips N Tricks
Want more? Want to know how to redo the menu bars and more: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips
[edit] How to get Sun's java plug in to work with Firefox under Mandriva Linux
Note : this documentation is obsolete with Mandriva Linux 2008.0, just install java-1.7.0-icedtea-plugin (works with Firefox 2.0.0.8 x86_64)
The following is presumed:
- Using Mandriva Linux with KDE desktop environment
- Minimal Linux knowledge.
- Firefox was installed from the mozilla-firefox RPM package provided by Mandriva.
- Firefox is used to download the file from sun.
- Firefox downloads files to the desktop.
- The file downloaded from Sun is not already executable.
I suggest use of Software Installer from within the GUI or urpmi from the command prompt to facilitate proper package management.
Go to http://java.sun.com to download the java package. There are two versions available, J2SE-5.0 or J2SE-1.4.2. Both work OK in Firefox, but as far as I know, only the 1.4.2 version is recognized by Konqueror.
Navigate to the downloads page for the version you want. Make sure to select the link Linux RPM in self extracting file. This will download a .bin file containing the java RPM package. There is also a .tar file available, but I do not recommend it since the package management system does not support this file type.
You have to extract the RPM package from the .bin file in a terminal window. To execute the extractor in the .bin file, you have to make it executable.
[edit] Make the .bin file executable, then extract the RPM package
Open a terminal window and execute the following commands:
[username@domain~]$ cd Desktop ## For J2SE(TM) Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 4: [username@domain~]$ chmod +x ./jre-1_5_0_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin [username@domain~]$ ./jre-1_5_0_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin ## For Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition 1.4.2_09: [username@domain~]$ chmod +x ./j2re-1_4_2_09-linux-i586-rpm.bin [username@domain~]$ ./j2re-1_4_2_09-linux-i586-rpm.bin
You should read their terms. To extract the RPM, Enter yes when asked to accept.
After the RPM file has been extracted, you can install it using Software Installer from within KDE filemanager.
Keep the terminal window open. You will need it later.
In filemanager, navigate to ~/Desktop:
- Alt-Click the RPM package.
- Move the mouse cursor to Open With .. in the context menu
- Select Software Installer in the pop out menu.
- Click the Install button
- Enter your root password when requested.
The Software Installer will install the java package for you.
Click the Done button.
Java is now installed on your computer.
[edit] Create a link between the java plug in and Firefox as root using the terminal window
Execute the following commands:
[username@domain~]$ cd /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox-1.0.6/plugins [username@domain~]$ su - ##For J2SE(TM) Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 4_, create the link: [username@domain~]$ ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so ##For Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition 1.4.2_09_, create the link: [username@domain~]$ ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_09/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
The next time you open firefox, java should work correctly.
You can delete the .bin and the RPM files since they are no longer needed. I check the Sun WEB site about once a month for updates. If you choose, you can keep the RPM file in a location of your choice to avoid re-downloading the same package in the event of calamity.
[edit] Firefox and Multimedia Plugins
Here is a brief howto on getting multimedia working in Firefox. Please note that there are many ways of getting this done but I will concentrate on what works for me. Also this tutorial assumes that you have urpmi configured for all online sources (main,contrib,plf-free,plf-nonfree etc) using the website http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
Install mplayerplugin using the command :
# urpmi mplayerplugin
Also install mplayer-gui using the command
# urpmi mplayer-gui
Now install the win32 codecs using the following command
# urpmi win32-codecs
Now you should have the plugin mplayerplug-in.so installed in your /path/to/mozilla/plugins folder. Check to see if this plugin is available by typing
about:plugins
in the Firefox addressbar. If yes, test the plugin by watching any trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers
You can also install the following programs;
- Real Player: Upon install, running it the first time as su should ask you if you want to create a mozilla helper plugin which should create two files nphelix.so and nphelix.xpt in your /path/to/mozilla/plugins folder. Check to see if this plugin is available by typing about:plugins in the Firefox addressbar. If yes, test the plugin by watching/listening to any stream at http://www.bbc.co.uk
Alternatively, install the packages (from PLF non-free) helixplayer-real-codecs and helixplayer-mozilla-plugin.
If you are using an upstream (mozilla.org) version of Firefox, you need to either copy the plugins in /usr/lib/mozilla-plugins/ to the installation directory's plugin directory or you can create symbolic links to them from there.
