I'm sorry to be asking help for what is probably an easy thing for most Linux users, but I have checked the forum and can't find a post that relates to my problem. I am really confused.

So here's my problem:
I installed SuSe 10.1 back in July '06 and managed to get the Zen updater working, even though I was used to YaST and had become fairly proficient with it. (I have been using SuSE for a couple of years starting with 9.3) Up until version 10.1, YaST had taken care of the online updates, but now it is being handled by Zen.

A few weeks ago, without using YaST or Zen, I decided to manually install Firefox 2.0 from a tarball. I renamed the firefox directory, which was holding version 1.5.0.7?? (that came with the openSuSE 10.1 installation), to firefox_old and installed version 2.0 into the directory: firefox. Everything worked great until a couple of days ago when Zen notified me of new updates. Blindly, I accepted all of them without noticing that it was trying to update Firefox to 1.5.0.8. Zen reported that all the updates were successful. But later, when I used Firefox I noticed that the add-ons were not working anymore. Then, today Zen had a Firefox update taking 1.5.0.8 up to 2.0-41?? It failed with dependency problems. I decided to rename the firefox directory holding version 2.0 to firefox_2_old and then renamed firefox_old, that was holding 1.5.0.7?? back to firefox. I then retried the Zen update which failed again. At this point I went to YaST and removed Firefox and then reinstalled it. I tried the Zen update again and it failed. Here's the error message:
[HTML]Unresolved dependencies:
Updating MozillaFirefox-1.5.0.8-0.2.i586[System packages] to MozillaFirefox-2.0-41.1.i586[Desktop]
Establishing atom:MozillaFirefox-1.5.0.8-0.2.i586[SUSE-Linux-10.1-Updates]
There are no installable providers of libnss3.so(NSS_3.11.1) for MozillaFirefox-2.0-41.1.i586[Desktop]
MozillaFirefox-translations-1.5.0.8-0.2.i586[System packages] dependend on MozillaFirefox[/HTML]

I am really lost now. I downloaded a Firefox 2.0-41 RPM and also a firefox.repo file. The repository file contains:
[HTML][mozilla]
name=Mozilla based projects (SUSE_Linux_10.1)
type=rpm-md
baseurl=http://software.opensuse.org/download/mozilla/SUSE_Linux_10.1/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://software.opensuse.org/openSUSE-Build-Service.asc
enabled=1[/HTML]

I am tempted to use Zen to install the 2.0-41 package but fear that I will just make things worse. I'm not sure what to do with the firefox.repo file. I wonder if I should just read the info in it and configure that to Zen or maybe copy its contents somewhere??? My hope is that I will get this resolved so that Zen will take care of the future updates.

Thanks for any assistance,
-Bob

I just manually install Firefox by unzipping the tarball somewhere and doubleclicking the firefox file. I leave the version YaST has installed alone. Seems easier.

First off, what is the full path for each version of firefox on your system. Also, when you say add-ons, are you refering to plugins? If so, which plugins? Also, what desktop environment, or window manager are you using?

I think I might have a rough idea of what may be going on, but I need to know a few more things.

First thing I would do is doublecheck your 'desktop shortcut(s)' to see if they're running the versions you think it is. Also, you may want to double-check your plugin directories to see if there is an dangling links, provided that the problem is with your plugins working to begin with.

I'm thinking that the problem may just be that your menus, that have been updated from yast, are just pointing to the newest version of firefox, installed by it. So it may just be a matter that it just doesn't have the plugins installed. That can usually be fixed by either copying the plugins into it's plugin directory, or creating symbolic links.

rjwilmsi, I agree with you. I'm just wondering if I can fix this problem I'm having with the updater. I need some help interpreting the error message from the Zen updater. For example why am I getting this error?
[HTML]There are no installable providers of libnss3.so(NSS_3.11.1) for MozillaFirefox-2.0-41.1.i586[Desktop][/HTML]

Well that looks like a failed dependency to me. Look at post #7 at http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.ph...ic=128616&st=0 - looks like you need to install two other packages to fix this.

PingFloyd: I'm using KDE 3.5 and I should have said Extensions instead of Add-ons. The extensions (like Forecastfox and Answers) stopped working after the Zen update. My desktop Firefox icon was pointed at the manually installed Firefox 2.0 located in /home/rat/.mozilla/firefox instead of the "system installed" Firefox located in /usr/lib/firefox. I used YaST to uninstall Firefox 1.5.0.8 and then reinstalled it with YaST thinking that it would start over and allow the Zen updater to work. But it still gave the dependency errors.

rjwilmsi: Thanks for the link. What's not clear to me is if I do manually install the missing dependencies that are referred to, will that fix the Zen updater? I thought that the RPMs could take care of those dependencies by themselves? Maybe the repositories set up in Zen can't find them. From the info in the firefox.repo file I attempted to "add services" but got the following error from the Zen Updater:

[HTML]Failed to add service.
No suitable service types found.
[/HTML]

It looks like that link is instructing to install those files manually (mozilla-nspr , mozilla-nss , MozillaFirefox-translations 2, and the MozillaFirefox 2 rpm.).

I don't know much about Zen and Yast, but it sounds like something about their new firefox's dependencies are messed up. From what I could gleen, it sounds like it's a problem on the maintainer's side. The instructions about installing the above rpms manually is the work around to the problem.

I'm guessing that you essentially just download those 4 files to some directory of your choice (e.g. /home/rat/downloads), then you run rpm on them with the flags outlined (-Uvh). If you typed 'rpm -Uvh *.rpm' this would try to install every rpm file in the directory.

If you happenned to have other rpms laying around in that directory, then you would probably not want use that wildcard, unless of course you really wanted to install every single single rpm in the directory in question. Since I'm extremely rusty with rpms (I use Debian), you might see if you can pass it multiple files (e.g. 'rpm [-WhateverFlagsYouWant] file1 file2 file3 ...'), if that is the case.

IIRC, rpms themselves, don't take care of dependencies. I think what is going on is that Yast and Zen are a front end for rpm that must handle some sort of extra data (that the repos keep in some format?) to work out dependencies. Therefore, the idea of using rpm (the program) to install those .rpm files is that you're essentially manually installing them and fullfilling their dependencies upon each other in the process. In other words, instead of having the front end (zen|yast) work out dependencies, due to something probably being broken on the maintainer's side, you're getting right in their and just telling the system to install them and that you don't care about what it says since you know what's going on. I'm guessing that it will give message complaining about dependencies, but you're taking care of it manually by installing them all via rpm.

Anyway, hopefully that helps. I'm by no means any kind of nod about rpm since I'm more of a .deb guy. I could be off on a few things here, but I think I kind of get the gist of what the different posts are trying to get at and thought I would pass it on in case it may help.

I appreciate your thoughts on this. I understand what you are saying. I also suspect that you are right about something going wrong on the maintainer's side. I can do the manual install but am disappointed that this kind of update can't be handled through Zen or YaST. The update icon has become annoying now, with its persistent notification to update Firefox. I have been using SuSE for a long time and hadn't had these kinds of troubles until 10.1, maybe I should try Debian!
Thanks again,
-Bob

Well, I'm astonished at what just happened! I decided to do the manual install of FF2 and used the links referenced in the above replies.

I downloaded mozilla-nspr-4.6.3-6.1.i586.rpm and mozilla-nss-3.11.3-3.1.i586.rpm along with
MozillaFirefox-2.0-44.1.i586.rpm

As an experiment before doing the manual install, I tried to add the link as a repository service to the Zen updater. It failed, I don't know why, but when I closed the "Service failed" dialogs, the Zen Updater now showed New Updates which now included mozilla-nspr and mozilla-nss! I suppose because one of my catalogs in the Zen updater is the location where I download files, i.e. /home/rat/Desktop

I accepted the Update and it succeeded! I reinstalled the Extensions and everything is now working like it should.

So maybe that is how Zen is intended to work? It tells you what dependencies are missing, you go get them and put them where Zen can find them and the update will proceed. Time will tell whether future updates to Firefox will now go smoothly.

I understand your feelings, when the established and more automated system fails, it adds unneeded complexity to maintaining the system as time goes on (e.g. needing to remember something instead of letting the computer keep track of it.). I've always had the strong philosophy that it's the computer's job to handle the more mundane things; like keeping track of things, and doing all the grunt work, etc.

As for trying Debian, I would recommend for anyone and everyone to try it. It's definitely one of my favorites. I'm pretty sure, even if I find other distros I like alot, there will always be a place on some system on some hard drive, that Debian will always live, and that I will continue to use it in some capacity.