Issue with Firefox 1.5
 

I'm running SUSE 10 and I recently installed firefox 1.5 via an rpm. For some reason, I can only successfully run it when I tell SUSE to run it as root! If I run it as a normal user, it just thinks for a minute then quits. Anybody have a solution?

You can take the tarball, unzip it, move it in /usr/lib, then ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.

So you're saying move it to a directory where all users can access it?

You can always chmod 4755 /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox, that would allow you to using it. Or download the firefox.tar.gz and then extract it in your directory and just run firefox in the file.

I tried just extracting it to my home directory and when I ran it from the firefox folder I got the same response as I mentioned earlier.

Do you have libstdc++5 installed because you will need it to use firefox 1.5. The firefox that is packed with distros aren't compiled with libstdc++5

ok I tried the tar and remembered immediately why I used the rpm instead. When I run firefox from the extracted folder (./firefox), I just get a list of errors from the terminal. Now, I couldn't find any installation instructions to speak of, and Mozilla's website said I had to merely extract the tar.
Second, when I tried that chmod command, I got an error saying operation not permitted. Any suggestions as to how I can proceed?

use tar zxvf firefox.gz or tar jxvf firefox.bz2, depending type and name of the archive. As root, you can use the command mv to move the folder in /usr/lib.

To be able to run ./firefox you need libstdc++5 installed it's the standard shared libraries to allow it to run. Secondly you don't need to chmod the firefox folder cause its already under your permission. Change to a route and run the following rpm -qa | grep for the following:

libstdc++5
glibc 2.3.2 or higher

Your issue might be libstdc++5 because in lots of distros it doesn't come installed anymore, thats why they offer their version of firefox because its been compiled without it. When I used SuSE 9.2 it didn't come installed by default.

Ok...I checked via Yast, and I have both those files you mentioned. Also, I removed firefox 1.5 and reinstalled firefox 1.0.6 which came with SUSE 10. I can't remember if it was working when I installed SUSE, but it had the same problem as firefox 1.5 did. Also, I noticed that I can bring up Mozilla(which also came with SUSE) and it'll run a for a minute, then crash. Opera and Konqueror are unaffected by any of this.

You should remove 1.0.6 and install 1.5. All you need is to download it and then tar -xzf in your directory. After you just run it. If any issue at best it should be the libstdc++5 library. After you extract it into your directory make sure that you rm -rf .mozilla from your home directory in order not inherit any errors that the previous installation may have had.

I did what you mentioned( which I think I had tried once before) and it didn't work.
I'm wondering if this is something to do with mozilla code or something the mozilla based browsers don't like about my linux setup. I didn't mention this before, but when I point Mozilla(which comes with SUSE) to ANY website, it crashes. I recently installed a progam called Klik. You may have heard of it. It allows me to run linux apps without actually compiling or installing them. I ran both Firefox 1.5 and SeaMonkey(based off of Mozilla code) and got the same set of errors from Klik.
Here's the error report:

(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_depth: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap: assertion `pixmap == NULL || gdk_drawable_get_depth (window) == gdk_drawable_get_depth (pixmap)' failed
(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_depth: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap: assertion `pixmap == NULL || gdk_drawable_get_depth (window) == gdk_drawable_get_depth (pixmap)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_set_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_drawable_get_depth: assertion `GDK_IS_DRAWABLE (drawable)' failed
(Gecko:10219): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_set_back_pixmap: assertion `pixmap == NULL || gdk_drawable_get_depth (window) == gdk_drawable_get_depth (pixmap)' failed

I don't know if you can make sense of that, but hopefully it will shed some light on the problem.

That means that something is wrong with your GLib libraries assuming that you have any. Try this:

rpm -qa | grep glib and it should tell you what you have. That library "glib" is a very important component for files that use gtk libraries. If you do have them installed they might no be configured right, and you might have to fix them by either re-installing them or re-installing your whole system.

I tried reinstalling the glib libraries...but no luck, firefox still doesn't work. Mozilla still crashes when I enter text into the address bar. I noticed that other programs that use glib such as Amarok and x11 work fine!? I really don't want to reinstall my whole SUSE installation for firefox. I do really appreciate you helping me through this whole ordeal though. Am I just stuck with Opera and Konqueror? :(

Why don't you open up a terminal and run it from there and them post the output? I will take a look at it and see if I can find something for you.