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GNU IceCat is the free software version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

1. Installation

Make sure you update your system:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Go to System > Administration > Software Sources, open the Updates tab and enable GNU Icecat. Then, download and install the GNU IceCat:

sudo apt-get install icecat

2. Creating a Menu Launcher

First, make sure that you have the IceCat icon in place regardless of the current version that defines the path of the original icon file:

sudo cp /usr/lib/icecat-3.*/chrome/icons/default/default.png /usr/share/pixmaps/icecat.png

Open System > Preferences > Main Menu and, inside the Internet category, create a New Item. On the Create Launcher window, enter the following information:

 Type: Application
 Name: GNU IceCat
 Command: icecat %u
 Comment: GNU IceCat Web Browser

Before clicking on OK, click on the icon square in left and select the icon at /usr/share/pixmaps/icecat.png.

3. Viewing Flash

You have two free software options for viewing flash, Gnash and Swfdec. Gnash gets automatically installed with GNU IceCat and should work for many flash components. As an alternative, Swfdec currently seems better integrated with the flash standards. So you may want to try it in case Gnash doesn't completely satisfy you.

First, remove and backup the Gnash plugin's symbolic link to IceCat:

sudo mv /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/libgnashplugin.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/

Then, append the backported swfdec repository to your apt source list:

echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/swfdec-team/ppa/ubuntu hardy main" |sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/swf-ppa

And update your repository content:

sudo apt-get update

Install the swfdec plugin:

sudo apt-get install swfdec-mozilla

Then, you will need to create a symbolic link between the installed plugin and the Icecat's plugin folder:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/swfdec-mozilla/libswfdecmozilla.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/

3.1 Restoring Gnash Plugin

In case you want to restore Gnash plugin:

sudo rm /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/libswfdecmozilla.so

sudo mv /usr/lib/icecat-3*/libgnashplugin.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/

4. Embedded Video & PDF Viewing

To view embedded videos and pdf files inside IceCat, you need to install mozplugger, which handles the plugins for these jobs:

sudo apt-get install mozplugger

Then, we symbolically link the plugin the same way we did swfdec:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mozplugger.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/

4.1 Watching YouTube Videos With In-Browser Movie Player

Watching embedded flash videos with Gnash or Swfdec may still be too processor intensive or may not be giving you enough control. As a YouTube-specific solution, you can use IceCat extensions to automatically replace the embedded flash videos with regular embedded videos. As a result, watching YouTube videos will not slow down your system as much.

To achieve this, we will use a Greasemonkey script. First, install the Greasemonkey extension. Then, install the YouTube - Previews, mp4/flash, HQ/HD, download script.

5. Enabling the Java plugin

Before enabling the Java plugin (icedtea-gcjwebplugin) you should have it installed:

sudo apt-get install icedtea-gcjwebplugin

Note: This command will install the OpenJDK Java Runtime (if not yet installed).

To enable the plugin you will need to create a symbolic link between the installed plugin and the Icecat's plugin folder:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386/gcjwebplugin.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/

6. Enabling the Totem plugin

To enable the Totem plugin (that should have been installed during the usual system's setup) you will need to create a symbolic link between the installed plugin and the Icecat's plugin folder:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so /usr/lib/icecat-3*/plugins/

7. Anonymous Web Searching

GNU IceCat's default search engine for both the search bar and the address bar is Google which actively collects and combines user activities from the Google Inc.'s various services. Although complete anonymity is impossible for any long term internet user, you can enhance your privacy by using Scroogle as a proxy between you and the Google servers.

7.1 The Search Bar

To add Scroogle as an option in IceCat's search bar, visit http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html?name=scroogle and select the search engine of your choice.

Note: The engines with SSL use an encrypted connection between you and Scroogle to prevent third parties from tracking your search queries.

7.2 The Address Bar

IceCat submits all non-URL text entered to the address bar to the search engine of choice and directs the users to the results. To change the search engine of this feature, enter about:config to the address bar and set the keyword.URL value to https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw= to use Scroogle's SSL connection.

Tip: This also works with the Epiphany Web Browser.

8. Localization

To change the interface language, install the xpi file corresponding to your selected language and IceCat version. (You can find the localization file list below.)

After restarting the IceCat, enter about:config into the address bar and choose the general.useragent.locale string variable. Set it to the country code of the language (it for Italian, for example) and restart the GNU IceCat.

8.1 Localization Files

• French:

• Italian:

• Spanish:

9. Free addons (add-ons)

Free collection of addons