or is copying the bookmarks as a html file the only way?
ETA: thank you for your input, problem solved.
yes, it copies everything, including history, bookmarks, installed addons and UI modifications.
And you need to select it in the profile settings (about:profiles iirc)
What I do is start up Firefox first to create all the first start files then close it and delete everything in the Firefox folder then copy across everything from the original pc.
Seems to work alright.
You can also run
firefox -p
in the terminal.
Also my experience, but before they made transference a thing they controlled.
You can export all your bookmarks to a single JSON file. it’s a format designed for storing and exchanging data between machines just like this.
Also good for making local backups of your favorites.