Ubuntu 8.04: Downgrading Firefox and Enabling Extensions

Using Ubuntu had been a painless experience until I upgraded to 8.04 (codenamed: hardy). This new version uses Firefox v3 rather than v2 which is a strange decision by Ubuntu in my opinion. Firefox 3 itself is working fine but I think they forgot that a lot of firefox users use add-ons (also known as extensions). Just because Firefox 3 is working well does not mean add-on authors have updated these extensions yet.

Most of mine stopped working and resisted my efforts to get them going again. I uninstalled firefox 3 and installed v2 thinking this would solve the problem. But, although I could click the enable button on each add-on it did not actually enable it. Then I read Firefox extensions errors - Howto fix. The solution is to remove the extensions.rdf file. Its as simple as that.

WARNING: other people have posted that removing firefox 3 and then installing version 2 will drop all the extensions. All I can say is it worked for me.

And please don't do as some have suggested and delete your entire profile and configuration with rm -rf ~/.mozilla

Anyway here's what I did:

Remove Firefox 3

• Start the package manager (menu > System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager)
• Search for 'firefox'.
• Mark the old firefox for uninstall. I removed: firefox, firefox-3.0, firefox-3.0-gnome-support and ubufox. Apply those changes.
• At this point I also removed the shortcut I has on my ubuntu shortcut bar which had just turned from a firefox icon into a black box that did nothing. I right clicked on it and chose Remove From Panel.

Install Firefox 2

• Return to the package manager and mark firefox 2 for installation. I marked: firefox-2, firefox-2-gnome-support, firefox-2-dom-inspector and ubufox.
• Including the packages already installed the full list is: firefox-2, firefox-2-dom-inspector, firefox-2-gnome-support, firefox-themes-ubuntu, flashplugin-nonfree, libmozjs0d, libxul0d, libxul-common, mozilla-firefox-locale-en-gb, mozill-plugin-vlc, openoffice.org, totem-mozilla, ubufox, xulrunner-1.9. Some of them are not essential and others not relevant, but thats what the search for 'firefox' shows.
• I did NOT mark firefox, thats the version 3 install thats now the standard in ubuntu 8.04.
• Apply the changes.
• Open a terminal and run firefox by typing firefox-2.
• Firefox should open and Help > About should confirm its version 2. However the addons still wont be enabled.
• Close firefox.

Reregister the extensions to enable them

• Go to /home//.mozilla/firefox and rename extensions.rdf to something like extensions.rdf-old (you could delete it but this way is a bit safer - just in case).
• Restart firefox. It will re-register all its addons.
• Firefox appeared with all the plugins back including the buttons I had placed on my toolsbars.

Phew!

Add Launch Icon
You might want to add a launch icon to the Ubuntu desktop toolbar.

• Right click on the toolbar and select Add To Panel.
• Pick Custom Application Launcher, the command should be firefox-2.

You should now have a firefox icon on the desktop toolbar.