I recently downloaded the latest version (critical update)....for Mozilla Firefox (1.0.3)

i extracted it in a directory and clicked on the installer file.

i am a newbie at installin stuff is linux and i am tryin to understand where do we put things in Linux.

so accordingly, i changed the path for the installation to

/usr/lib

and then the installer installed firefox in a folder called firefox-installer in the above mentioned directory....

My problem is i am not able to start firefox as a user.....

I think i have placed it in the wrong directory.....

Can anybody help me on this?

Make a symlink from /usr/lib/firefox-installer/firefox to /usr/bin/firefox
In a terminal type:

ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-installer/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Now you should be able to launch with simply typing firefox

I have done a clean install of Mandrake 10.1 Official version now, and now, I have almost installed firefox properly.

I put it in

/usr/local (i think that was the appropriate place to put it in)

Now, according to your instructions, I have put a link in /usr/bin

But, now this requires me to keep the konsole running.

Is there any other way, to put a link to firefox in the startup menu, in the Internet Browsers sections?

SO i could just click on it, and start with Firefox.

I have the same tar.gz format file for Firefox 1.0.3

I don't know how it happened.

There was a link pointing to Firefox in my Home folder.

It is just workin fine with the shortcut now.

But is there any way that i could access it from the Start MENU?

Putting shortcuts into the window manager menu depends on the window manager you are running, either Gnome or KDE. So which one are you running on Mandrake?

Sorry for insufficient information.

I am using KDE 3.2.3.

In which case to add entries into the menu do one of the following:

Right-Click the KDE menu-panel button and select edit (I think that would be the entry)

or

run kmenu from a konsole

or

run drakmenu from a konsole

Kmenu is the KDE menu editor.
drakmenu is the Mandrake menu editor.

Have tended to cause confusion with the menu if using both so stick to one or the other. They open up similar guis to allow you to enter new entries in the various application sub-menus.

The Phantom

I did it........

Thanks.....

Where can i get an Icon for firefox.......?

Is it so that all the softwares to be installed in Linux involve such a lengthy procedure to be handled?

I mean the softwares in tarball packages.. and install.sh etc.

In one of the Firefox subdirectories are two icon files, I think either png or xpi.

Okay first off you have tarred all linux platform software with the same brush and this needs a little explaining...

a) you have installed a linux distro, Mandrake 10.1, thus you have a rediculous amount of software at your disposal that took the effort of you installing a linux distro, ie. doing one thing got you so much extra.

b) installing proprietry software like codeweavers crossoffice application (app for running windows software) is very easy and has a nice installshield type installer. This represents the only native linux proprietary app I use on linux hence this is my example.

c) open source software supplied by companies and large agencies. OpenOffice.org I believe would fit this category and it too has a nice installer.

d) open source software supplied by individuals and small groups of people as projects. My thinking here is a lot of the projects found on repositories like sourceforge. Individuals give their time to create this software as projects for themselves that they make available to the community. Such software will not necessarily have good installers because that is not so important for the people creating these projects. However, a lot of projects will provide binaries to make installation a lot easier, eg. in the rpm format.

Only if you install from source will you need to compile and use tarballs etc...

Firefox is particularly easy as you dont even need to use its installer. Simply download it, untar it and copy the resulting directory to wherever you choose to locate it. In my case I copy the firefox directory to /usr/firefox. Now I could put /usr/firefox in my path but choose to create a symlink in /usr/bin. I would say a copy operation is not signifcantly hard.

The placing of an entry on the KDE menu maybe a bit of effort but note all the important apps that came with Mandrake are already there on the menu. I believe the next Mdk distro includes firefox so such effort will be completely unnecessary in the future.

So endeth the essay.... apologies for the length.

The Phantom

Apologies!!!

Come On man.........

That was great.

Thanks for your time.