linux

Installation steps and howto for Linux

---

Requirements:

Python 2.7, Image Magick, Tkinter

Firefox uses PNG format for storing favicons. But most of the favicons on the web are in non-PNG formats like ICO, JPG etc. Hence, to convert favicons from the web to PNG format, the tool requires image magick. Python 2.7 is the language in which the tool is written and Tkinter is the GUI framework used by the tool.

Linux systems should already have Python 2.7, but you might need to install Image magick and Tkinter. You can verify if Image magick is
installed by running below command in a terminal

convert -version

The output will look something like this if Image magick is installed (the version number may be different on your computer which is fine):

~~~
Version: ImageMagick 6.9.7-4 Q16 x8664 20170114 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: © 1999-2017 ImageMagick Studio LLC
License: http://www.imagemagick.org/script/license.php
Features: Cipher DPC Modules OpenMP
Delegates (built-in): bzlib djvu fftw fontconfig freetype jbig jng jpeg lcms lqr ltdl lzma openexr pangocairo png tiff wmf x xml zlib
~~~

If Image magick is not installed, you may refer below link on how to install it.
https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php#unix

To see if you have Tkinter, type on the Linux command line:

python -c "import Tkinter"

If you have Tkinter, Python will not print an error message and you can go on to the next section.

Otherwise you will see something like this:

ImportError: No module named Tkinter
In that case, you have to install Tkinter. On Ubuntu, you can run

sudo apt-get install python-tk

Or use the Synaptic Package Manager to install "python-tk".

For other distributions, you can get more information from the Tkinter wiki

Once you verify image magick and Tkinter, you can proceed to run the python utility for updating favicons. Please refer the section "How to run the utility" on how to run the python utility.

How to run the utility:

Please ensure Firefox is closed while using this utility.

Download and extract the archive favicon-helper-1.0-linux.zip. In a terminal, navigate to the extracted archive and run:

./favicon-helper.sh

to launch the utility. As soon as the utility is launched, you will notice that the app window has two broad sections, 1) the Fetch/Stop buttons, a lcd status window towards the top 2) three tabs below the top section - Configure, View Log and Manage Backups. You will at the least need to choose a profile in the Configure tab before fetching favicons. Each of the tabs is detailed below.

Configure

As you might notice, the utility detects the Firefox profiles on your computer and lists here in the Configure tab. Select the profile for which you would like the favicons updated and click Fetch. The utility by default, fetches and stores favicons for those bookmarks which do not already have a favicon. If you wish to fetch favicons for all bookmarks, select the checkbox Delete existing favicons before fetch , this will empty the existing favicon DB and fetches all the favicons afresh.

If you are using a custom location for Firefox profiles directory, you can specify the location by clicking on the Change button next to the profiles directory.

View logs

In the View Log tab you may view the log messages as the fetch is in progress.

The log files are stored in logs folder inside the extracted archive.

Manage backups

The utility creates a backup of the favicons DB every time before a Fetch is performed. The Manage Backups tab lists all backups stored, and option to delete a backup or restore from a backup.

Other platforms

Mac
Windows