A question on installing Firefox

satimis · 03-11-2005, 09:59 AM

Hi folks,

FedoraCore 2

I have the tarball of Firefox downloaded to

/home/user/download/Firefox/

and untar it there.

Please advise where shall I install it, in which directory?

B.R.
satimis

rose_bud4201 · 03-11-2005, 10:08 AM

If you do the standard ./configure && make && make install, it will pretty much handle the install on its own.
However, since you're using Fedora you have access to rpm's - that may be the wiser course for you: Fedora Core 2 Firefox rpm.

sbassett · 03-11-2005, 10:23 AM

Or if you have the installer, unpack it where ever you so desire and just create a link to the binary on the desktop. The whole installation will be contained in which ever directory you install it in.

satimis · 03-11-2005, 10:26 AM

Hi rose_bud420,

Tks for your advice

I tried twice

# yum install firefox

But unfortunately it was incomplete. On starting Firefox a warning popup advising me to download the package from Mozilla website. Therefore I have to "rpm -e" it.

After untar it there is an installer, not necessary to run ./configure, make, make install, etc. But I have to give a path for the package during installation.

B.R.
satimis

sbassett · 03-11-2005, 10:31 AM

Or, if you do not wish to install that, you can try this:

http://fedoranews.org/tchung/firefox/

Step-by-steps for building your own FF rpm.
(this has been updated for the newest 1.0.1 release)

satimis · 03-11-2005, 10:37 AM

Hi sbassett,

Tks for your advice.

Quote:

Or if you have the installer, unpack it where ever you so desire and just create a link to the binary on the desktop.....

If I don't provide the path to the directory where I want to install Firefox, the installer will install the package on the directory where it was untar. So I expect to know which directory will be most suitable for its installation. Firefox can be evoked without problem afterwards.

B.R.
satimis

sbassett · 03-11-2005, 10:51 AM

I have used the installer version of this a few times, and it works without a hitch. The only know problems are installing a new copy of Firefox in a place that is different from a previous install. This has been know to cause a little havoc with extensions. So if this is a concern my second post would probably do the best for you. I've built the rpm myself and it doesn't take a great deal of time (depending on system performance of course). Otherwise backup your bookmarks and wipe your #HOME/.mozilla/firefox directory, and install the installer version.

satimis · 03-11-2005, 11:05 AM

Hi sbassett,

Tks for your further advice.

I have no problem to install Firefox with the installer. It worked seamlessly. I can start Firefox thereafter. The only problem was the package installed in the directory where the tarball was untared.

Besides I can't evoke Firefox on a terminal simply with "firefox". I must provide full path such as

~/installer/firefox

to start it.

If I leave it there where shall I symbollic link ~/installer/firefox so that I can start it with only "firefox" on terminal. Also I can add an icon on the menu to start it such as

KStart -> Internet -> Firefox.

B.R.
satimis

sbassett · 03-11-2005, 11:09 AM

Did you remove the rpm for the old firefox version? If so you can symlink the firefox file into /usr/bin.
This would probably be your easiest bet, even if the old firefox is laying around, you could mv the file to firefoxold then perform the symlink. The other option would be to add the ~/installer/ directory to your path, but to me it just seems like a wasted effort when the symlink will get the job done.

WhatsHisName · 03-11-2005, 02:21 PM

satimis: Addressing your original question, when I installed firefox under FC2, I created /usr/firefox, moved the tarball there, untared it and completed the installation. I think it untared to /usr/firefox/firefox-1.0.1 or something like that. I then created a launcher using that path. All my FC2 systems were reinstalled with FC3 a while back, so I don’t have any to look at as a reference and may have misremembered something.

And, of course, where you already installed it is fine too. If it works, it works, and that’s what’s important.

eco2geek · 03-11-2005, 04:05 PM

Hi. On Fedora Core 3, I recently uninstalled Firefox using yum and reinstalled it using Firefox's binary installer, in order to get an unpatched version (I didn't like the GNOME-style "Save As" dialog box). Before that, I had used yum to update Firefox to the latest version. (The downside is that I can no longer use yum to update Firefox.)

Anyway, Firefox's main directory was /usr/lib/firefox-1.0.1/ (use the command "locate firefox" in a terminal to find out what it is on FC2, but it's probably in /usr/lib/).

If you choose a "Custom" install, Firefox will let you choose which directory to install it in.

Then, to keep compatibility with your existing desktop icons, you can symlink "/usr/lib/firefox-1.0.1/firefox" (which is a shell script) to "/usr/bin/firefox".

satimis · 03-11-2005, 07:25 PM

Hi folks,

Tks for your advice.

I selected 'Custom' installation to get 'Firefox 1.0.1' installed on

/usr/firefox

then symlink 'firefox' to /usr/bin/firefox

Now I can start Firefox on terminal with 'firefox'

A further question how to add the execute 'firefox' to the Menu (i.e. KStart -> Internet -> firefox on KDE desktop) while working as 'user'. I'm not allowed to save it. How to start 'Menu Editor' on terminal after login as 'root'

TIA

B.R.
satimis

eco2geek · 03-11-2005, 07:35 PM

$ su -
Password: <enter your root pw>
# kmenuedit &

satimis · 03-11-2005, 08:08 PM

Hi eco2geek,

Tks for your advice.

Quote:

# kmenuedit &

There was something strange happened here.

Starting 'Menu Editor', adding a 'New Item' 'Firefox 1.0.1' under 'Internet' saved and closed 'Menu Editor' window. On terminal it displayed

Code:

# kbuildsycoca running...
kbuildsycoca running...
Reusing existing ksycoca
X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
  Major opcode:  20
  Minor opcode:  0
  Resource id:  0x340043a
Mutex destroy failure: Device or resource busy
ICE default IO error handler doing an exit(), pid = 5997, errno = 0

[1]+  Done                    kmenuedit

'Firefox' can't be added.

Any advice. TIA

What is the use of "&" after "kmenuedit"

B.R.
satimis

eco2geek · 03-12-2005, 04:42 AM

I don't know what's causing your "BadWindow" error. Plus you shouldn't have to run the K Menu Editor as root to do this. But if all else fails, you can easily add Firefox to your user's K menu manually.

Start up the Konqueror file manager.
Navigate to your /home/satimis directory.
Go to the "View" menu and click on "Show Hidden Files".
Look for a directory named ".kde" (note the leading dot, that's what makes it hidden). Open it, open the "share" directory under it, then open the "applnk" directory under that.
Create a new directory (use Konqueror's "Edit" menu, or right-click to bring up a context menu, "Create New" > "Folder..."), name it "Mozilla Firefox", and then under that, create a link to Mozilla Firefox (again, use the "Edit" menu, or right-click to bring up a context menu, "Create New" > "File" > "Link to Application...") and add the relevant settings.

What the "&" does is to run kmenuedit (or any program started from the command line) as a background process, and give you back your command prompt so you can run more commands. Try it without the "&" and you will see you can't run any more commands until you quit kmenuedit.