"Dumb question" time again. I went to the mozilla-firefox site and downloaded Firefox 1.0.2 onto my Debian box. I moved the firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz file to /tmp and then typed

tar -xzvf firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz

The files extracted and created a firefox-installer directory. I typed cd firefox installer and found both a firefox-installer and firefox-installer-bin file (among others). I didn't see a README.txt file. I *thought* I could just type firefox-installer-bin to begin the installation but all I get is a command not found response. I'm logged in a root and root is the owner of these files. I've tried to google the answer without success (get mostly information about RPM packages). What am I missing here? Thanks.

you probably need ./firefox-installer-bin because "." isnt in your $PATH (and it is bad practice to have it in your $PATH)

Here's what happened:

tripwire:/tmp/firefox-installer# ./firefox-installer-bin

(firefox-installer-bin:2651): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
tripwire:/tmp/firefox-installer#

Root has no Xauthority if you are logged in as a user (as you should). Copy ~/.Xauthority to /root/ and try again. You will have to do this every time you want to run something graphical as root, the .Xauthority file is recreated upon login.

There has to be another way to do that. I can't remember if I ever had the same problem and just fixed it, (it's been 2+ years since I have installed Debian on this box) but I don't have to do that in order to run anything graphical as root.

1. Install gksu by apt-get install gksu

2. Install Firefox with that installer through gksu ./firefox-installer-bin as a regular user.



(or install Firefox through apt-get... If you are using 'woody' there is one at backports.org)

I never checked for another way, since I never run anything graphical as root, but did you do something with "xhost"? Might be the answer.

It just won't stop same here

$ xhost +local:root
$ non-network local connections being added to access control list

Installed gksu and followed the above instructions while logged in as a regular user. Unfortunately, the result is as follows:

user@tripwire:/tmp/firefox-installer$ gksu ./firefox-installer-bin

(gksu:23906): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:
jmpyles@tripwire:/tmp/firefox-installer$

Will keep plugging away at it.

I must be misunderstanding what you are saying here. It looks like you are saying for me to use the cp command to copy ~/.Xauthority to /root/. Here's the result:

tripwire:~# cp ~/.Xauthority /root/
cp: `/root/.Xauthority' and `/root/.Xauthority' are the same file
tripwire:~#

Moloko, could you flesh out how I'm supposed to implement:
here? Just typing it returns a command not found
error. Thanks.

The xhost command is part of the xbase-clients package:$ dpkg -l xbase-clients to see if you have it. I read that using xauth (same package) is a better way (more secure).

type in as root

cp /home/username/.Xauthority ~

I cheated. As root I typed:

apt-get install mozilla-firefox

Firefox 1.0.1 installed automatically and was added in the Applications -> Internet menu. I added it as a panel item. Nothing else seemed to be working (at least for me) however I do appreciate everyone's time and effort. Thanks.

I tried your suggestion Moloko and got this:

tripwire:~# dpkg -l xbase-clients
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii xbase-clients 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8 miscellaneous X clients
tripwire:~#

Hi, I just upgraded to Firefox 1.0.2 using a simple apt-get update/upgrade tonight.
Did you configure your sources right in your /etc/apt/sources.list ?
Could save you loads of trouble..
I never install from tarballs or rpms .. Why bother ?
In Debian, use apt-get, properly configured . In Mandrake urpmi, and
you're done

I'm with the apt-get solution myself.

Isn't there a "click here to update firefox" option in the browser itself as well?