Walk me through it...
 

Okay I just installed Ubuntu(sp)... I am very happy so far but I have a question...

How on earth do I update Firefox to the newest version? I am a n00b...

Can someone walk me through a detailed installation?

Thanx!

According to Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog, you have Synaptic and update-manager.

Basic system administration
To change to the full root account (system administrator), if you are running X, open an x terminal and use these commands from your user account. Note the change in the prompt. You can do the same from a virtual terminal as well, but you can't open an x terminal to do so.
You can use the command line:

apt-get update
apt-get dist upgrade

The newest stable Firefox (if installed) will be upgraded.

If not installed:

apt-get install firefox

should do it.

Or, you can run the gui Synaptic.

I'm not familiar with update-manager, but run that and see how it works.

APT HOWTO

Damn, the SU - doesn't seem to want to work... I hope I didn't forget my root password... gulp....

Although, the automatic updated says there is no firefox update available...

What would I do if I wanted to install it myself using the RPM?

Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it uses .deb packages, not RPMs. Theoretically you could install RPM on the system and make it work, but it would really not be worth the hassle. If you want to do it yourself, find a .deb and read the dpkg man page.

Try using lower case for the command.

su -
<enter root password, press enter>
Prompt should change to root's prompt rather than the user prompt.

I'm not sure if you can get by using RPM. Do you have alien installed? It may convert the .rpm to a .deb, but usually if the software managers don't include something, I compile from source.

Therefore, if you can't find the prebuilt .deb for it, I suggest using the source tarball and compiling it.

If you forgot to install the compiler, try this command:

apt-get install gcc

# Guides to software management
LNAG: 4.5 Package installation and rpm package manager
Rute Guide's software explanation

I am sure Ubuntu will release an upgrade for Firefox, since 1.0.4 has been released as a security update. If you are impatient, you can use the packages available at the mozilla website.

Yea I think I am just going to wait on this one... strange that it won't let me switch users though...

Also, I downloaded the tar.gz file and a prompt opened asking me where to extract it, I panicked and closed the whole thing down... but I want to delete the file I downloaded except I have no idea where it downloaded to if at all!

Man I am a n00b.

Can you log in as root?

Try:

locate <what you are hunting>

If the list is too long, then pipe to less

locate <what you are hunting> | less

I suggest making a "/home/<user>/downloads" folder and downloading your stuff to there. After that, you can move, extract, etc. when you find where you put it.

On ubuntu, the root user has its password blocked. Hence you cannot log in as root, and "su -" will not work. use "sudo -s" instead. When prompted, type your _own_ password, not roots (root doesn't have a password anyway)

If you really want to have a root password, use "sudo passwd root"

Groetjes,

Kees-Jan