Firefox mobile

Firefox mobile, "Fennec" which Mozilla uses as its project code name, is a mobile browser that uses the same engine as the popular desktop version. Unlike MicroB, which is also based on Firefox, supports tabbed browsing but can take longer to initially start.

Contents

Versions of Firefox Mobile

Nightly/trunk/minefield versions are updated every day and can contain all sorts of bugs, features and improvements.

Beta versions are more ready for general users, but they might contain some bugs, which should be reported by beta testers so that they would be fixed, and stable version released after beta was - stable.

Chinook is Maemo 3 version.

Diablo is Maemo 4 version.

Fremantle is Maemo 5 version.

GTK+ is default cross-platform widget toolkit, which is slowly replaced by Qt cross-platform application framework.

For instance, default application on Maemo 5 are based on GTK+, and at the same time Maemo 5 includes Qt which can be used by additional applications. MeeGo is based on Qt, and GTK+ is included for compatibility.

Firefox mobile, Qt-based, is default browser for MeeGo Handset UX.

Now, the list of Firefox mobile versions.

Stable 1.1

beta 4.b2

Actually, I believe there is no difference between these two links.

nightly 4.b3pre

nightly 1.1b2pre

Firefox Settings

There are two ways to change the settings for Firefox. One is through the settings menu which can be accessed by dragging a webpage to the left and clicking on the cog icon near the bottom right. The other is through "about:config" which allows you to further customize your Firefox configuration.

Disabling Portrait Mode

This is not working on January 2011 (on fennec4-b4). Check status on: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=557642

  1. Press (shift+ctrl+o) to lock/unlock orientation (you will see notification)

OR

  1. In the location bar (Awesomebar) enter "about:config" and press enter.
  2. Use the search bar to find the entry below:
    toolkit.screen.lock
  3. change it to true

Disabling Auto-Zoom

On Input Box

  1. Open page:
    about:config
  2. Find setting:
    formhelper.autozoom
    By default, it is set to true.
  3. Set it to false.

On Find

  1. Open page:
    about:config
  2. Find setting:
    findhelper.autozoom
    By default, it is set to true.
  3. Set it to false.

Enabling Flash

Firefox mobile has a flash plugin which is disabled by default for stability and speed. It can however be enabled by following these instructions

  1. In the location bar (Awesomebar) enter "about:config" and press enter. You should now also see a search bar below the location bar
  2. In the search bar enter "plugin.d" and you should see the two entries below 
    plugin.default_plugin_disabled
plugin.disable
  3. change both these entries to false and restart Firefox Mobile

you should now have flash enabled.

Copy and Paste Text

Firefox Mobile does allow you to copy and paste text. Unlike MicroB you CANNOT enter a text selection mode by swiping to the right from off screen to onscreen. To select text in Firefox mobile you must click on the position where you want to start highlighting text. Nothing will appear to have happened but an invisible cursor is placed where you have clicked. Now press

Shift + Left Arrow : to start highlighting left of the cursor

or

Shift + Right Arrow : to start highlighting right of the cursor

Up and Down do not work. To copy the selected text you must perform the standard copy hotkey (Ctrl+C). Hotkeys for Firefox Mobile are shown below.

Hotkeys

This is a list of known hotkeys for Firefox Mobile. Hotkeys are very similar to the desktop version but there are some differences.

  • Ctrl + W  : Close Tab
  • Ctrl + T  : New Tab
  • Ctrl + R  : Reload page
  • Ctrl + L  : Location bar (AwesomeBar)
  • Ctrl + C  : Copy
  • Ctrl + X  : Cut
  • Ctrl + V  : Paste
Retrieved from "http://wiki.maemo.org/Firefox_mobile"