In my Debian box, the GTK-style file selection dialog of FireFox is damn slow. Here is the way to improve it by getting back the old dialog.

  • Edit /usr/lib/firefox/components/nsFilePicker.js
  • Search on registerFactoryLocation, around line 280, you will see
    compMgr.registerFactoryLocation(FILEPICKER_CID,
                                    "FilePicker JS Component",
    //@line 278 "/root/bind/firefox-1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.4.orig/xpfe/components/filepicker/src/nsFilePicker.js.in"
                                    "",
    //@line 280 "/root/bind/firefox-1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.4.orig/xpfe/components/filepicker/src/nsFilePicker.js.in"
                                    fileSpec,
                                    location,
                                    type);
    
  • Then you change it to
    compMgr.registerFactoryLocation(FILEPICKER_CID,
                                    "FilePicker JS Component",
    //@line 278 "/root/bind/firefox-1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.4.orig/xpfe/components/filepicker/src/nsFilePicker.js.in"
                                    FILEPICKER_CONTRACTID,
    //@line 280 "/root/bind/firefox-1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.4.orig/xpfe/components/filepicker/src/nsFilePicker.js.in"
                                    fileSpec,
                                    location,
                                    type);
    
  • Then uninstall or install some extensions to make Firefox know about the change