I have a question concerning Firefox and SUSE 9.1. I have successfully installed the program as root user and it works great on the root desktop, but when I switch user and link to application, it does not work as my regular user. Am i missing something. Being new to this, I have installed FireFox as

/usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox

is that the correct place for it to be accessable to all users?

-TS-

It's a correct place, but the directory is not standard and not in PATH variable. It means that as a normal user you should be able to run firefox by running command /usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox. Does it work?

I am on my lap top and haven't tried it yet, but what do you mean that it is not the standard and not in PATH variable?

I am trying to understand where one puts things with Linux. With windows there is the default "my documents" and the "C" drive and "Program files" and all that.

I understand that there is the "root" and that devices are under "dev", but after that I get lost.

Thanks for the help, i will try it and see what happens and reply with the results soon,

-TS-

yeah....

but do we have to run this command each and every time we gotta run firefox?


can i get something to read for clearing my concepts...

i wanna know perfectly......where we gotta put stuff (software) in LINUX

i am currently using SUSE

You put it everywhere you wish. But there are common locations: for applications installed by you the executables should go to /usr/local/bin. Now, the rule doesn't usually apply to big apps you want to have in one piece as Firefox or OpenOffice. They're also installed in /usr/local usually, but in directories like /usr/local/firefox or /usr/local/OpenOffice.

The thing with standard directories is that only those in PATH variable are searched for executables when only file name is given. PATH usually has /bin, /sbin (system files), /usr/bin, /usr/sbin (applications installed with system), /usr/X11/bin (X applications - some of them), /usr/local/bin.

When you install a program into one of the directories above you don't need to do anything - you can use its name as command.

If you have your app somewhere else you need to modify PATH. In fact, it's not always needed. For example if you don't want to run the app from command line and only use it from menu or as a shortcut, you can type the whole name once when creating the menu entry and forget about it.

But, if you want to change PATH, use the following command from the command line
export PATH=$PATH:/your/new/directory
It appends new dir to the end of PATH (they're searched in order).

This command will only work in the terminal you run it and will be lost after you close it or reboot. So, to make the change permanent, add the command to /etc/profiles (at the end of file).

Mara,

Thaks for the information! Firefox is now up and running on a regular user account. I guess I just had to reboot the system for things to take effect (blushes). I am so used to the WIndows way of installing and running right away that it never donned on me to reboot and see what happens.

Your help concerning the PATH information was greatly appreciated. ALthough still a little over my head, I think that I can work out what you have said.

Thanks for the help!!

Regards
-TS-