Arch Linux

Flapjack

Member

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 33

Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Hello,

Is it possible to do this in such a way that any bookmarks I make in Firefox in one distribution are also  copied across to Firefox in the other distribution; and all email messages that I receive when I open Thunderbird are available in both distributions? I've seen lots of tutorials on how to do this with a dual Linux/Windows boot, but nothing on how to do it across two Linux distributions. Of course, I could just copy the two profile files, but perhaps there's a way of doing this automatically? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks a lot in advance.

ScriptDevil

Member

From: In Front of My PC

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 253

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

My guess is you create a common partition for say 1 or 2 gig depending on the size of your profile and add it to inittab of both the distros. Give both users rights on this partition's files using the respective root accounts and finally set firefox/thunderbird on both to use this partition

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Be yourself, because you are all that you can be

testube_babies

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2007-06-26

Posts: 115

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

You could just symlink one of the ~/.mozilla/firefox folders to the other; same with ~/.thunderbird

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me@dA

Bapman

Member

From: Ottawa, Canada

Registered: 2007-09-02

Posts: 140

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

You could just symlink one of the ~/.mozilla/firefox folders to the other; same with ~/.thunderbird

That's what I did ! Really simple and just works.

I got rid of that since I don't need windows anymore and I had to store my mails and my downloads on a NTFS partition (windows can't write on ext3), which is less performant and secure than a native linux partition...

edit : sorry I did not read completely the post, I was doing it with windows so my post is totally useless . It should be even easier to do that with another Linux distro and there is no reason the solution above would not work.

Last edited by Bapman (2008-05-15 16:48:37)

Flapjack

Member

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 33

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Thanks for your replies!
Testube_babies, I was thinking of doing something like that but wasn't sure how to go about it. Where and how would I put this link?

Ink-Jet

Member

From: London

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 64

Website

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Sharing your /home directory across multiple distros is also a very useful thing to do.

Flapjack

Member

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 33

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Sharing your /home directory across multiple distros is also a very useful thing to do.

Yes, indeed, but wouldn't there be a danger of passing on parametres from one distribution that wouldn't work on the other? I'm thinking of all those hidden files for key programs. For example, if you're using Kde in one distro and Kdemod in Arch, not only will the two hidden .kde files contain different parametres, but the two versions of qt wouldn't be the same either. That's one of the reasons why I think the sym link idea would be best, if I could only work out how to do it.

testube_babies

Member

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2007-06-26

Posts: 115

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Where and how would I put this link?

Step 1:  Close FF/TB.
Step 2:

cd ~/.mozilla/
mv firefox/ firefox_old/
ln -s /path_to_other_home_folder/.mozilla/firefox/ .

cd ~/
mv .thunderbird/ .thunderbird_old/
ln -s /path_to_other_home_folder/.thunderbird/ .

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me@dA

Flapjack

Member

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 33

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Great! Thanks for that testube_babies: works a treat!
Now that Arch is syncronised with Debian, is it possible to configure it the other way round too so that email I receive in Arch is also available when I log into Debian? I imagine this softlink is only one way?

Ink-Jet

Member

From: London

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 64

Website

Re: Sharing Thunderbird/Firefox profiles on two Linux distributions

Sharing your /home directory across multiple distros is also a very useful thing to do.

Yes, indeed, but wouldn't there be a danger of passing on parametres from one distribution that wouldn't work on the other? I'm thinking of all those hidden files for key programs. For example, if you're using Kde in one distro and Kdemod in Arch, not only will the two hidden .kde files contain different parametres, but the two versions of qt wouldn't be the same either. That's one of the reasons why I think the sym link idea would be best, if I could only work out how to do it.

Well yeah, it's only really a good idea with Linux/Windows, or two very different kinds of distro, which is how I always used to do it.

Before I switched completely to Arch, that is