making firefox available for all users

sukimac · 09-23-2005, 09:38 AM

Hi Folks,

Having a bit of trouble with sharing my firefox install. I followed the guide found at
kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_79_4291.shtm (with the exception of not doing the install as root). I chmod 775 the executable and the directory. Made a symbolic link to /usr/local/bin from /usr/local/firefox/firefox-installer. Works fine when I'm logged in as me but when I try to use with other accounts - nada. No permission errors. Just doesn't work.

Also, is there an equivalent to Windows administrator privileges in Linux (RedHat 9 )? I made myself a member of the adm and root groups but it doesn't seem to be giving me any system privileges. I'm trying to heed the warnings/advice of not logging in as root.

Thanks!

koyi · 09-23-2005, 10:24 AM

Why don't you install it as root then? If you are afraid that it messes up with your current installation, then install it into some separate directories like /opt.

As for the administrator-privileged user, just run "su" in a terminal and you will become root temporarily until you type "exit". I understand that you would like to heed the advice not to log in as root. But there are situations that you must be root, like in the installation of softwares. In most situation, "su" will be enough. But if you are interested, you can check out about sudo, which give you root priviledges temporarily. For example, when you want to rename a file owned by root, you can do this:

Code:

$ su
password: [type root password]
# mv /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
# exit
$

And with sudo:

Code:

$ sudo mv /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
password: [give YOUR own password]
$

There are gksudo and kdesudo, too, which enable you to run graphical program as root.

Perhaps you have a reason to still run RedHat 9, I think it is better to upgrade to more recent releases like Fedora Core 4.

sukimac · 09-23-2005, 01:22 PM

Thanks Koyi for your reply. I installed as root into /usr/local/firefox.

Code:

chmod 775 firefox

Code:

chmod a+rwx /usr/local/firefox

When I tried to create a link to my /usr/local/bin I received permission denied error. I can get into the directory and invoke the executable but it fails with the following.

Code:

*** loading the extensions datasource
*** loading the extensions datasource
 
(Gecko:1215): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Cannot create pipe for GnomeVFSProcess initialization: Too many open files
*** loading the extensions datasource
*** loading the extensions datasource
*** loading the extensions datasource

As for RedHat 9, my company is switching database servers from Windows to Linux Red Hat 4.0. I'm the dba so I'm trying to learn Linux on the system we'll be using.

koyi · 09-23-2005, 08:40 PM

I still don't understand why you need to create symlinks...

AFAIK, you install firefox in two ways:
1. By utilising the provided GUI installer, which is the default way.
2. By simply extracting all files into a local directory. (You need to search for it in the mozilla.org website since it is not easy to find this file...)

So, I assume that you use the first way.

1. Get firefox from mozilla.org.
2. Open a terminal, go to a temporary folder, say /tmp, and run the following command to extract the downloaded file.

Code:

$ tar xzvf /path/to/downloaded/firefox-1.0.7.installer.tar.gz

3. Go into the new folder.

Code:

$ cd firefox-installer

4. Become root and run the installer and follow the onscreen instructions. However, this doesn't always work due to a security feature in X window system which prevents root from running GUI program. So, first try as the following, if it doesn't work then read on.

Code:

$ su
password:
./firefox-installer

In case this doesn't work straight, exit and return to a normal user and disable that security feature.

Code:

# exit
$ xhost +

Now do the su -> firefox-installer thing again and hope that it works this time.
After finishing the installation, don't forget to turn the security feature back on as a normal user.

Code:

$ xhost -

Hope this helps.

sukimac · 09-26-2005, 11:35 AM

hi koyi,

thanks for your suggestions. i had no problem with the install. my problem was that after installing firefox as root, I couldn't make it available to other users. i changed permissions on the firefox executable (and made the directory readable for everyone) but it was stalling on the extensions -- just kept trying to load them. anyway, I resolved it by making the extensions executable for all. not sure if this is a security faux paus but I got it working! thanks for your help.

DeusExLinux · 09-26-2005, 09:05 PM

bascially all that means is if someone hacks into your comptuer, they can now run firefox...

It <i>could</i> be a security risk, which is one of the reasons you aren't supposed to log in as root.

If you were to give yourself supreme godlike powers, all the time, if you were hacked, people would have free reign of your machine.

Which is why you aren't supposed to run as root, and besides, you can royally mess something up quite easily...

I used to think it was a pain to have to run as a user and su or sudo myself root powers.. but then I realized that I could totally mess something up if I wasn't careful.... so I don't complain anymore