Share single profiles of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows XP and SuSe Linux

[sranjankar]

How to share Thunderbird & Firefox on Windows and Linux with a single profile?

Advantage:
1.Take the advantage of Mozilla's great capabilities of supporting both the OS, Windows and Linux.
2.You can store the bookmarks and other browser settings in any OS, still Firefox will show you up-to-date browsing status on both the OS.
3.You can compose, send and receive the emails from any OS, still Thunderbird will show you up-to-date email status on both the OS.

It is very simple to configure a single profile of your Mozilla Firefox web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird email client so that you can use these two great Mozilla products on both the operating systems without loosing any data!

Here is the solution.
I assumed that following things are already present on your laptop or desktop.
1.You are using Windows and Linux dual boot operating system.
2.You have created a shared disk space for Windows and Linux where both the operating systems can read and write. eg.Windows D drive formatted with FAT32 file system which can be recognized by both Windows and Linux.
3.You have installed and using Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird on both the operating systems without any problem.
4.You have decided to keep any one (either Windows or Linux) profile of Firefox & Thunderbird for sharing purpose. I have considered Windows profile for sharing purpose in this tutorial.

In Windows XP, what you have to do is:
For Mozilla Firefox:
1.Create a folder as D:\Mozilla\Firefox
2.Move C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxname\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\xxfolder.default folder to D:\Mozilla\Firefox (replace xxxxname & xxfolder.default with your applicable settings).
3.Edit C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxname\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.ini file as shown below and save it. (replace xxxxname with your applicable settings)

Default Firefox Profiles.ini in (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/xxfolder.default

Edited Firefox Profiles.ini (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile1]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=D:\Mozilla\Firefox\xxfolder.default

For Mozilla Thunderbird:
1.Create a folder as D:\Mozilla\Thunderbird
2.Move C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxname\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxfolder.default folder to D:\Mozilla\Thunderbird (replace xxxxname & xxfolder.default with your applicable settings).
3.Edit C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxname\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles.ini file as shown below and save it. (replace xxxxname with your applicable settings)

Default Thunderbird Profiles.ini file (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/xxfolder.default

Edited Thunderbird Profiles.ini file (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=D:\Mozilla\Thunderbird\xxfolder.default

Once you finish this then check that your Firefox and Thunderbird are working properly. If everything is working fine then you are ready to do your Linux exercise, which again very much similar as above.

In Linux, what you have to do is:
For Mozilla Firefox:
1.Remove the existing \home\xxxxname\.mozilla\firefox\xxfolder.default folder as you no longer require it.
2.Edit \home\xxxxname\.mozilla\firefox\profiles.ini file as shown below and save it. (replace xxxxname with your applicable settings)

Default Firefox profiles.ini (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=xxxxxxxx.default

Edited Firefox profiles.ini (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=/winE/Mozilla/Firefox/xxxxxxxx.default
Default=1

For Mozilla Thunderbird:
1.Remove the existing \home\xxxxname\.thuderbird\xxfolder.default folder as you no longer require it.
1.Edit \home\xxxxname\.thunderbird\profiles.ini file as shown below and save it. (replace xxxxname with your applicable settings)

Default Thunderbird Profiles.ini file (replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=xxxxxxxx.default

Edited Thunderbird Profiles.ini file
(replace xxfolder with your applicable settings)
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=D:\Mozilla\Thunderbird\xxxxxxxx.default

Thats it! now you are ready to share Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client on Windows and Linux.

It should work because in the above exercise what you have done is...
1.Edited the respective profile.ini files to change the path of their default folders
2.Moved the respective default folders as per edited profile.ini file, to the another destination on D drive.

Note:
1.Take the backup of your respective “profile.ini” and “xxfolder.default” files.
2.If you want to share Linux profile for sharing purpose, then simply copy the respective “xxfolder.default” folders from “\home\xxxxname\.mozilla” & “\home\xxxxname\.thunderbird” folders to D drive.
3.You can move your “My Documents” folder to D drive and share your documents on Windows and Linux.
4.I have tried this solution on my dual boot laptop with Windows XP and SuSe Linux on 40GB hard disk, and currently using it without any problem.


shekhar ranjankar.
shekhar.ranjankar@gmail.com