I've googled around for a suggestion on how to do this but havn't found anything useful, so I figured I'd ask here.

Anyway, I downloaded firefox (the .tar.gz not the installer) and I'm having trouble getting it to work system wide. I can put it in my home directory and run it just fine. What I'd like to do is put it in /usr/local/firefox and have everyone who logs into my system be able to use it.

I am able to run it as root so it's obviously a permission problem. My question is, what permissions need to be set where such that I can have one install vs a seperate install per user.

Thanks,

Brian

Doesn't Firefox 0.9.1 come with an installer?

In any case, to activate a non-installer version, just move it to a global directory like /usr/local/firefox and execute the following command: chmod -R 755 /usr/local/firefox. Then every user should be able to execute /usr/local/firefox/firefox & and have it run and create a profile in the user's home directory.

There is an installer, however, even with that, and installing it in /usr/local/firefox, I'm still only able to run it as root. I did try chmod -R 755 but it still didn't help. Apparently there is someplace within the directory structure that a non-root user needs write access too.

Brian

When you say "didn't help", what do you mean? Exactly what happens when you execute /usr/local/firefox/firefox? What error message/behavior?

Run the installer as a regular user and install in your home directory. Then copy the directory to /usr/lib/ and rename it to firefox-0.9.1 or whatever version you are using. From the directory, copy the firefox script named firefox to /usr/bin. That should do it.

Cluster:

All it would do is display *** loading the extensions datasource over and over and over and not actually load firefox. I had to CTRL-C to stop it.

Archite:

That worked perfectly, except I had to put it in /usr/local/firefox-0.9.1 (though I could have edited the script to point somewhere else I guess). Thanks for fix! Now, what I'm curious about is, where did you dig up that fix and what exactly does putting the files in those locations do that makes it run?

Thanks,

Brian

Sorry I was off. I was not on linux at the time that I wrote it. Actually, I had looked at the firefox script and saw where it was pointing to. Then I moved the files there. LoL. That's what happens when you have too much time on your hands. Anyways, heres why it works. In order for the files to have the right permissions a regular user must creat all the files by running the installer script. Bye then copying them over the the /usr/local directory, you have made them accessible to everyone on the computer. The script, firefox, then points to this location and runs the appllication. Have fun

I´ve just tried installing firefox on Mandrake 10.0. I installed it initially to /home and then copied the directory to /usr/local so that it would be available to all users.

However my problem is that if I go edit -> preferences and try to make a change firefox won´t let me click on to OK button to update my changes??

If I just run firefox from /home then I can update without any problems. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Simon

Well, usually preferences are stored in a directory labeled .mozilla within your home directory. I would check to see if that direcotry exists, and if it does, remove all the firefox related folders within and then try again.