How to change Firefox icon shown on panel and menus?

Question

I installed Firefox on Linux Mint Debian Edition with the Cinnamon desktop.

This Firefox package doesn't use the regular Firefox icon, with the fox curled around the world ; it has what I call the "orange eyeball" icon.

Is there a way to have the standard Firefox icon show up on the panel ("taskbar") button and the menus? This "eyeball" icon is so visually unappealing that if I can't change it, I'll uninstall Firefox and use Opera or Chrome instead. (Yes, I really do find it that ugly. I do not want to have to look at this thing.)

Answer 1

To answer my own question:

Ignacio's answer takes care of the large icon on the system menu, and the taskbar launcher if you add one. Changing the icon on the taskbar button/panel button took more digging.

Uninstalling the 'native' Firefox from LMDE (sudo apt-get remove firefox) and installing the tar.gz from http://getfirefox.com still left me with the orange eyeball on the panel button.

So I started hunting through folders, and eventually found it: The icon I can't stand is in /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/16/firefox-png.

I renamed the file to firefox-ugly-icon.png, and copied in the icon I want (from another system). Problem solved.

Answer 2

As a quick and dirty workaround, you can download a build from upstream, the Mozilla Foundation, the only ones who are legally able to make builds of that web browser with the name "Firefox" and with the fox-and-globe logo.

But using the current version you have, maybe it is worth a shot trying some instructions to replace the bundled icons (here, the icons are under /usr/lib/firefox/chrome/icons/default/).

Please note that you are, officially, not allowed to distribute the result of said modification (this is also why many operating systems, such as Mint, won't carry builds with the official logo in their repositories, or will at least have a main build which does not have the official logo).

Answer 3

I logged in with gksudo and drag the icon I wanted into /usr/share/icons and then doubled clicked on the taskbar icon and loaded the new one, simple. Probably should have put it in the /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/16 but it worked so why fix it?

Answer 4

Sometimes the easy answer is staring you (or in this case 'me') right in the face. Took me forty-five minutes and some help from a fellow at the LinuxMint forum to figure something out what I should have known.

1. Right-click Menu button > Edit menu
2. In left pane, click Internet
3. In right pane, click Firefox Web Browser > click Properties
4. In the Launcher Properties box, click the Firefox icon on the left. then Choose an icon box opens
5. Navigate to where your new icon is located, click it, and click Open.
6. Close Launcher Properties box, then close Main Menu box.
7. Menu > Internet > right-click Firefox Web Browser
8. Click Add to panel

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Now remove old icon in Menu panel, and in the Menu favorites list:

• Right-click your current Firefox Web Browser icon on the panel, click Remove.
• Click Menu > Internet > right-click Firefox Web Browser
• Click Remove from Favorites. Close Menu.

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If steps 1-6 don't work you might need to create an entirely new menu item. Be sure to copy the command from the old menu item. It should be firefox %u unless yours is customized for some reason.

Answer 5

My solution was to copy the Firefox icons from another Linux computer and put them on the Linux Mint Maya computer. In the example below, the dollar $ prompt is the regular terminal prompt, and the pound # is the root user prompt.

CentOS 6.4 computer - connect a USB stick

Open terminal, switch to root, and locate icon files

# find / -name firefox.png -exec ls -ld {} \;
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 972 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/firefox.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1625 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps/firefox.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1849 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/24x24/apps/firefox.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2912 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/firefox.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5640 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/firefox.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76949 Jun 18 14:46 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/firefox.png

Copy the above firefox.png files (16,22,24,32,48) to USB stick, renaming the new copies for the different sizes:

firefox16.png
firefox22.png
firefox24.png
firefox32.png
firefox48.png

Remove the USB stick.

On the Linux Mint Maya computer - connect USB stick.

Using File Browser, create an icons folder under /tmp called Firefox_icons.

Using File Browser, copy those five firefoxNN.png from USB stick to the icons folder.

Open terminal, and navigate to icons folder:

$ cd /tmp/Firefox_icons

Create a script called: copy_icons.sh

$ pluma copy_icons.sh

Paste these five lines:

cp firefox16.png /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/16/firefox.png
cp firefox22.png /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/22/firefox.png
cp firefox24.png /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/24/firefox.png
cp firefox32.png /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/32/firefox.png
cp firefox48.png /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/48/firefox.png

Save file and exit from Pluma.

Switch user to root, and navigate to icons folder:

$ su -
# cd /tmp/Firefox_icons

Make the script executable:

# chmod +x copy_icons.sh

Run script:

# ./copy_icons.sh

Reboot computer. Enjoy!

Answer 6

To restore the official Firefox Icon on Linux Mint 19.03 cinnamon. You can copy the default icon theme, delete the alternative firefox icon, then use your newly created theme.

mkdir ~/.icons
cd ~/.icons
cp -R /usr/share/icons/Mint-Y/ .
mv Mint-Y/ Mint-Y-custom
cd Mint-Y-custom/
find -name "firefox*" -exec rm '{}' \;

Then open the Themes application and select the Mint-Y-custom icon theme.