Browser question - Mozilla
 

Ok, just registerd, and for my first post I decided to make it a long one!

I'm running Red Hat 9.0 right now, and Mozilla 1.2.1 came installed with the system, so that is what I am using now. Upon some web surfting I found that this is no where near the latest version. (1.6 is out, right?) So I tried to update to that. I downloaded the .tar file from mozilla.com, and managed to install it (a few times actually) because I'm not really familiar with where I should be installing this program, or other programs even. I'm definitely a Windows user, and there's no "Program Files" in linux. Anyways, I know 1.6 is on my computer, but when i type 'mozilla' into the shell, 1.2.1 pops up...and also, the icon in my panel is still starting 1.2.1 Is there anyway to change this? This brings me to other questions... Is mozilla the best browser for Linux? How do I uninstall programs for linux...would i need to uninstall the extra mozilla 1.6 programs i installed? The reason I am asking all of these questions is I just wanted the java plug-in for 1.2.1, and couldnt figure it out after weeks of searching how to do it, it just won't work for me. So anyways, I hope someone can help me out a little, and thanks in advance!!


Dave
:newbie:

Probably 'cos when you type mozilla the first instance of mozllia is being run - i.e the one you had before

As a trial open a shell and do


export PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.6:$PATH

(or whatever the path to the mozilla-1.6 directory is)

then type in mozilla


Mozilla is good, but Firebird is a bit faster (in my opinion)

To find all your Mozilla installs run the following command:
In my system the result isIt means I have it in /usr/local/mozilla. You'll get two entries. One will be similar to mone and the second one will be something like /usr/bin/mozilla. It will be the default one. You can test them and run them manually from the terminal to see which command runs which version.
Then you can change the panel icon. Right-click the icon, choose Properties->Run. In the command change old filename to the new one. Click OK and test it.

The programs installed during RH install are easy to remove. Usually a command
rpm -e programname
works well. Sometimes the program you're trying to remove is needed by others - then you must remove them in the right order (you'll see names of all conflickting packages).

About java plugin...Could you write step by step how you're doing this?

It's hard to say is Mozilla is the best browser for Linux. It looks that Mozilla and its family (Firebird/Firefox) is the most popular one.

what I did:
which mozilla
/usr/bin/mozilla
mv /usr/bin/mozilla /usr/bin/old.mozilla
ln -s /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla /usr/bin/mozilla (that way everytime I upgrade I don't have to mess with it...)

When you install Mozilla, you have an option of putting in another directory other than /usr/local/mozilla. After you are done installing, remove the symbolic link and make a new one. It takes me about five minutes total to install it and set it up. You can make a script that finds the latest mozilla version and sets up the symbolic link for you.

Installing java is easy. Just follow Sun Microsystem's tutorial. It couldn't get any easier than that. After you install java, you have to find the plugin directory for you web browser and the java plugin. The plugin is located in "../j2sdk1.4.2/jre/plugin/i386". The mozilla 1.6 works better with the plugin that is under ns610-gcc32. Then make a symbolic in the mozilla plugin driectory to the java plugin. Go a java site and see if java works.

so here is a response to all the suggestions -

Looking_Lost

I'm not exactly positive where the installations are... when i do locate mozilla, i only get the 1.2.1 versions, and if i locate mozilla-1.6, it comes up with nothing. but i would definitely like to give your suggestion a shot. Maybe I can just uninstall mozilla altogether and use firebird, but i think i'm going to need some help with that too. :-/

Mara

when i type locate mozilla-bin, get three outputs...
/usr/lib/mozilla-1.2.1/mozilla-bin
/usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin
/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
I am pretty sure the bottom two are ones I just installed, but i'm not sure. That looks right I guess. Where should I be installing programs anyways? Does it matter? or is it program dependent...? when i tried to test running these in the terminal - (just typing in /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin right?) i got a "segmentation error" Anyways, I tried going to the panel icon and chosing properties anyways, and I dont have a run option. Also, when i tried rpm -e mozilla, this is what i got:
error: Failed dependencies:
mozilla = 1.2.1-26 is needed by (installed) mozilla-mail-1.2.1-26
mozilla = 1.2.1-26 is needed by (installed) mozilla-psm-1.2.1-26
mozilla is needed by (installed) plugger-4.0-23
so how do i go about uninstalling these? Is there anyway I can just uninstall all three of those mozillas and just try out this firebird, and then see if i can get the java to work?

Blinker Fluid:
when i typed which mozilla here is what i got:
/usr/bin/which: no mozilla in (/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_03/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/dpagini/bin)
and when i tried the ln, it said there was already a shortcut or something like that.

Electro:
You lost me a little, i'm pretty sure I set it up right and installed right and everything, just having a few minor problems.

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP SO FAR! :)

-Dave

Yes, it looks OK. /sr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin is the new one.

Quote:

Where should I be installing programs anyways? Does it matter? or is it program dependent...?

It's up to you. Most people install programs to /usr/local to keep all programs installed by them in one place and not mess the system. Smaller programs will install their binaries to bin/ directory (like /usr/local/bin), libraries to lib/ (like /usr/local/lib). Bigger ones (like Mozilla or OpenOffice.org) tend to create their own directory (like /usr/local/mozilla in your case). Then it's easy to remove such a program - you just delete the directory.

Quote:

when i tried to test running these in the terminal - (just typing in /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin right?) i got a "segmentation error"

It's not good. Try '/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla', maybe it'll be better.
BTW Don't remove old Mozilla before you make the new one running.

Quote:

Anyways, I tried going to the panel icon and chosing properties anyways, and I dont have a run option. Also, when i tried rpm -e mozilla, this is what i got: error: Failed dependencies: mozilla = 1.2.1-26 is needed by (installed) mozilla-mail-1.2.1-26 mozilla = 1.2.1-26 is needed by (installed) mozilla-psm-1.2.1-26 mozilla is needed by (installed) plugger-4.0-23 so how do i go about uninstalling these?

It means Mozilla is needed by Mozilla mail and one more package. So the right set of commands will be

Quote:

Is there anyway I can just uninstall all three of those mozillas and just try out this firebird, and then see if i can get the java to work?

You can, but make sure you have one (or more) web browsers running -konqueror, galeon or opera). The method to uninstall old Mozilla is above, to uninstall new just delete the directory /usr/local/mozilla.
BTW You can have Mozilla and Firefox (new name for Firebird) together.

Mara

- thanks so much for all the help!! I basically got everything I wanted to be working to work. I deleted the mozilla-1.2.1 folder, and uninstalled the original mozilla. a few more real quick questions though...
can i delete /usr/lib/mozilla ? I believe that's an installation I had tried the first time i tried installing mozilla... to your knowledge, would this have any information i shouldnt be deleting? So now I'm going to try to get these plug-ins to work, and I'll let you know how this all works out.. :-/

edit:
got one more for ya :) when i click on the mozilla link, it opens the browser... but if i click on it twice, it asks me to select a profile. Any idea what's going on there?

and i definitely don't know how to install this java plugin... do i have to somehow manually add it to mozilla? I have installed several versions of java, but none of them seem to register with mo.

Thanks
-Dave

/usr/lib/mozilla should be out after you remove older mozilla (using rpms). If all mozillas are deleted, you may remove this directory.

Quote:

got one more for ya :) when i click on the mozilla link, it opens the browser... but if i click on it twice, it asks me to select a profile. Any idea what's going on there?

It's correct. Mozilla opens only once at time. Double-click means 2 Mozilla starts.

Quote:

and i definitely don't know how to install this java plugin... do i have to somehow manually add it to mozilla? I have installed several versions of java, but none of them seem to register with mo.

You need to do it manually. But it's simple. You need to know directories you have Mozilla and JRE installed. If Mozilla's in /usr/local/mozilla, it's plugin directory is /usr/local/mozilla/plugins.
Now the plugin: it's name is libjavaplugin_oji.so
. To find it's location use
locate libjavaplugin_oji.so
You'll probably get two answers:
/yourjavadirectory/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/yourjavadirectory/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
For Mozilla 1.4+ or Firefox you need the secnd one (with '-gcc32').

Now the commands:That's all. Restert Mozilla and check if it works.

One More Note on Java Plugin
 

I just installed the java plugin yesterday, so it is fresh on my mind. The above post is what I did ( installed j2sdk 1.4.2 ) and the path to the plugin folder was -
usr/local/j2sdk_nb/j2sdk1.4.2/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/

and Mozilla 1.6 was -
/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla

The main thing I want to point out was that I linked to the wrong plugin ( in the ns610 directory ) and Mozilla wouldn't start until I removed that link. The plugin in the ns610-gcc32 directory is most likely the one you want.

One more note is I have always used the command "which" to see with program would be executed. i.e. "which mozilla" would still give me "/usr/bin/mozilla" since I haven't uninstalled the old Mozzy yet.

Good luck and don't get discouraged. Linux is one of those things that can irritate you to no end until you get used to it, afterwards you wish it were a girl so you could marry it. :)

For installing/updating packages, try out Yum -> http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/ . I have RH9 on my file/DNS/DHCP server and use yum to update its software from the command line.

Basically it is "yum search <name>" to find see if an rpm program is available from the package repositories.

"yum install <name> to download and install the rpm package
and "yum update" to update all installed rpm packages ( including kernel! ) on your computer.

the results of locate libjavaplugin_oji.so:

/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/local/mozilla/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/local/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_03/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_03/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_03/jre/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_03/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/java/jre1.3.1_10/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/home/dpagini/.mozilla/jre-1.4.1_03-linux-i386-sun/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/home/dpagini/.mozilla/jre-1.4.1_03-linux-i386-sun/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/home/dpagini/.mozilla/pluginslibjavaplugin_oji.so

I think i have so many because of the times i tried to install java...should I get rid of some of these? Which ones should i leave? how do i get rid of them, just delete them?

Thanks :)
Dave


PS. - then here's the results of tryign to make the linK:
[root@d139h65 plugins]# ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_03/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
ln: `./libjavaplugin_oji.so': File exists

top - still hoping for some help :)

Keep just one copy of Java (it looks you ahve 3 in /usr/java). Remove /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_03 and /usr/java/jre1.3.1_10. Plus JRE from your home directory (/home/dpagini/.mozilla/jre-1.4.1_03-linux-i386-sun/).
You can use the plugin in usr/java/j2re1.4.2_03.

Quote:

PS. - then here's the results of tryign to make the linK: [root@d139h65 plugins]# ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_03/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so ln: `./libjavaplugin_oji.so': File exists

The plugin already exists here. Delete it and run the command again. If still noting, please post result of

awesome!! Thanks so much for all the help Mara!! I have no idea what it was that went wrong, but when i deleted the link and remade it, it worked...thanks alot!

this works fine until I close the terminal, and then when i open it and want to start mozilla again by typing it in, i would have to type this in again. Is there anyway to make this change a permanent one?

-Dave