right first post and its because i am being a complete plank and newbie to linux.

i have installed unbuntu and mandriver onto 2 seperate pc's one at home (unbuntu) and one at work (mandriver) both see the internet and have a version of firefox onboard.

ok so far, but i try and install some addins and i need the latest version of firefox, so i download it and the file manager extracts it, and i can see all the files, but when i try to run any file, nothing, not a jot, absolute zero.

so my question is, what am i doing wrong, its the same on 2 machines different distros, so it must be me and my evil windows ways, of wanting to double click on stuff to make it work.

anyone have any idea as to what i am doing wrong? and where i can see or do a simple run through to get up to speed on the basics of linux, i have bought 2 books, but i am struggling to get time to go through them.

any ideas? please i want to be a linux person as well as windows, honest i do!

i'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here.....

are you wanting to update firefox?

yes, i have tried this on 2 machines and no joy, so i know its something i am not or are doing wrong.

so have use used "synaptic" in ubuntu? (i can't speak for mandrake).

you probably just need to open the package manager and do an upgrade of all your packages.

or do:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade


I bet the latest version of firefox is in the repository.

if not maybe take a look at this:

http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu#Ho...a_repositories


I'm presuming you have a basic understand of package mangement here (i.e its dont from a utility - you dont need to download packages manually).

this may also be of interest to you:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138405

When you download Firefox from mozilla.com, you should get a file in tar.gz format.

Open up a terminal, change to the directory that you saved the tar file (It is probably your home directory). Use the following command to unzip the tar file:
where filename is whatever the file is called.

Change to the directory that has been created (cd firefox), and type Firefox should open.

If you want to install Firefox for all users on your system, move the firefox directory to /usr/local (mv ~/firefox /usr/local assuming that the firefox directory is in your home directory. Then (as root, or sudo on Ubuntu) run:
Now you should be able to run firefox just by typing "firefox" in a terminal.

I hope this helps
--Ian

use urpmi for mandrake and apt-get for ubuntu.

Basically, under linux, the package management system does everything for you.
You don't have to go google & download stuff by hand. Your distro knows where to find software. You may have to tell it some additional places once in a while for some exotic software but you do that once. After, you just use the package management system to download & install.
If you don't use a package management system, it means you have to compile everything by hand.

I don't know about Mandriva, but Firefox 1.5 is not included in the Ubuntu Breezy repositories.

Due to dependencies it is not possible to remove FF 1.0.7, see Here for more. The new version of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) will include Firefox 1.5.

In general though, always use your distros package manager if possible. This will normally make your life much easier.

--Ian

i'm sure if you update your repositories, as described, firefox 1.5 will be in there.....