[CLOSED THREAD] Portable Firefox

chris_s · Post by **chris_s** » June 30th, 2004, 6:31 am

One problem that I did run into by setting the environment variables in the .bat file was that downloading files did not work even set to ask every time these varibles seem to confuse things.

about using a .js script to start firefox if the only reason is to avoid the dosbox why not just create a shortcut on the desktop on your main machine you can add the -profile switch to the target line. The paths must be absolute so you cannot create a shortcut on the usb drive with a relative path so the .bat file must be used on other machines.

chris

big_gie · Post by **big_gie** » July 1st, 2004, 6:50 am

CritterNYC wrote:Javascript issue...

I think I'm going to hold off on using the .js file to launch firefox. I'm not sure how reliable it will be. On my system, a fresh install of WinXP Pro with all my development tools loaded, the default behavior with .js files is to open them in Dreamweaver. The only option in the menu to run it is to Open With Command Prompt, which gives us same window we get with a batch file. .bat files, on the other hand, are pretty much universal.

Regards,
John

Thats only a file association problem... But I understand that on some system .js execution is blocked for security reasons or for web editing...
I still consider it as far superior to batch file though.

big_gie · Post by **big_gie** » July 1st, 2004, 6:56 am

chris_s wrote:about using a .js script to start firefox if the only reason is to avoid the dosbox why not just create a shortcut on the desktop on your main machine you can add the -profile switch to the target line. The paths must be absolute so you cannot create a shortcut on the usb drive with a relative path so the .bat file must be used on other machines.

Thats what I'm using :) Since I use FF and TB at work and on 2 computers at home, I unzipped the french version of TB and FF on each computers and put a shortcut in the quicklaunch with the "-Profile <right driver letter>\..." parameter. So FF is ran from the HD but the profile on the usb. It is far more fast that way. I still have a FF and TB directory on the usb drive so if I'm not at home I can still run it. Thats why I still use the .js wich is on the root of the usb. Except if .js execution is disabled, it works great.

Alycobaba · Post by **Alycobaba** » July 2nd, 2004, 12:25 pm

Hey, I am trying to now take this project to the next level by trying to put Firefox on a CD and make it run from that CD. Modifying the code is not a problem for me. I have gone a different route by re-writing the main firefox.exe C++ source code (nsBrowserapp.cpp) to pass the profile parameter and profile location with relative paths like you would do with a .bat or javasript file. The problem I am having is that when you run firefox for the first time it creates some new files and folders. This is an obvious problem because you can't write to that CD. I tried running firefox.exe once so it created those files and then burned the directory to the CD. While looking at the taskmanager while i loaded firefox.exe from the CD i noticed the firefox executable did show up and it looked like it loaded completely then it vanished which means it core dump because it was trying to write to some file it couldn't. What I need is to understand exactly what gets written to what files so that what I can disable that functionality and so that it only reads or if it has to write it writes to memory. Does anyone have any leads on this topic, or specific information on what exactly gets modified in the profile directory? Thx

big_gie · Post by **big_gie** » July 2nd, 2004, 1:10 pm

@Alycobaba
Look at http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml for FileMonitor.

You won't see WHAT is written though, but you can see which file it is trying to access/read/write.

big_gie · Post by **big_gie** » July 6th, 2004, 7:24 am

CritterNYC wrote:After you install an extension, exit firefox, open your profile\extensions\extensions.rdf file and make the changes above.

Hum... there is no path in the profile\extensions\extensions.rdf. Everything is in chrome.rdf!!! Even the extensions!!!!!!!!!

FlashBanG · Post by **FlashBanG** » July 6th, 2004, 12:45 pm

big_gie wrote:
CritterNYC wrote:After you install an extension, exit firefox, open your profile\extensions\extensions.rdf file and make the changes above.

Hum... there is no path in the profile\extensions\extensions.rdf. Everything is in chrome.rdf!!! Even the extensions!!!!!!!!!

Yea, i saw that too.. I kept quiet cause noone else reported it, so i thought i was retarded or something..

Glad to see i'm not the only one that's experiencing that problem :-)

Now the question is.. is it really a problem? or did some recent patch move all the entries into chrome.rdf ?

r_marsch · Post by **r_marsch** » July 7th, 2004, 9:26 am

Here is a VBS script to run FF from a flashdrive using substitution. If someone wants to build on it or convert to Java script, go for it.

set oshl=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oshl.exec "subst Q: ."
oshl.Run "\firefox\firefox.exe -profile \Profile",3,true
oshl.exec "subst Q: /D"

Nix23 · Post by **Nix23** » July 7th, 2004, 8:26 pm

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 999#629999

tracon · Post by **tracon** » July 8th, 2004, 2:06 am

mkinnunen created an elegant thunderbird launcher...see this thread

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 15&start=0

I modified his code to create a firefox launcher...hopefully he will post it on his site. If not i will find a way to post it. It works wonderfully without ugly batch files or javascripts.

mkinnunen · Post by **mkinnunen** » July 8th, 2004, 5:07 am

Hey tracon, thanks for contributing. I would be happy to post it for you. Unfortunately, I can't find your email, though. Possibly the mail gateway denied your EXE attachment. I have PM'd you another email address to try.

FlashBanG · Post by **FlashBanG** » July 8th, 2004, 5:53 am

mkinnunen:

Would it be possible for you to PM your email address to me for further extended discussion of this topic?

mkinnunen · Post by **mkinnunen** » July 8th, 2004, 1:50 pm

Thanks, tracon, for your contribution. I have posted FFLaunch along with an updated version of TBLaunch <a href="http://people.emich.edu/mkinnunen/tblaunch/">here</a>.

FFLaunch is a small Windows executable for launching Firefox from a USB drive. It reads its configuration from a INI file. Paths to Firefox and the profile are user configurable. TBLaunch is the same for Thunderbird. Both are open source and public domain.

FlashBanG, I have PM'd you my email address. Thanks!

nash · Post by **nash** » July 9th, 2004, 6:28 am

Pardon my ignorance, but, what do TBlaunch and FFlaunch do? I.e., how does it work? It doesn't seem to subst to another driver letter, but instead start everything relatively? How will extensions work with this? Sorry for so many questions, just trying to understand how this works. TIA

mkinnunen · Post by **mkinnunen** » July 9th, 2004, 7:41 am

Nash, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there is no magic involved. :-) All these little apps do is read the INI file and fire up FF or TB with a non-default user profile. The INI file tells them where to find FF or TB and the user profile.

Paths can be either absolute or relative. So you can, for instance, have Firefox installed on the C: drive on every computer you use (ffpath=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firebird) and your profile on your USB drive (ffprofile=\ffprofile). The fflaunch.exe file needs to be put on the USB drive for the relative path to work.

These launchers do not do any drive letter substitutions, because drive letters may change. That is why relative paths work better, but they require the launcher to be on the USB drive.

Extensions are a part of the profile, so they roam with the rest of the settings and bookmarks on the USB drive.

I hope that answered your question. Good luck!

[CLOSED THREAD] Portable Firefox

environment variables etc.

Re: environment variables etc.

firefox script

Firefox Launcher