Wow, I've really been hitting this forum since signing up. Thanks everyone for your help and encouragement so far - and here I go again.

I have downloaded Firefox and when I opened the folder, one of the files says something about a "shell script to set up environment before running the mozilla-installer-bin GTK based binary installer"

Followed by a whole bunch of gibberish in green and purple with red punctuation. I'm reluctant to write it out as I'm on my Mac laptop at the moment while looking at the linux screen on the PC.

I'm a newbie and I haven't got a clue. I've only moved to Linux to rid myself of the M$ monster, which should be reason enough, but I'm really struggling.

When I installed Firefox on my Laptop running Slack 10.0 I just untarred the package, and did a: ./Install (I think it's called Install.) in a console in X using FluxBox as WindowManager.
This opened a graphical installation, and everything worked like a charm from there.

-Geir

Did you download FF as a package/RPM, or from the mozilla site itself?

If I don't remember wrong, I downloaded this file:
http://download.mozilla.org/?product...nux&lang=en-US

tar -zxvf firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz
cd firefox-1.0.2.installer
./firefox-installer

These are the only three commands you should need to run.

-Geir

Geir, sorry, I don't get ANY of that. I am REALLY new at this.

Akilles, I've downloaded 'firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz' What is the -zxvf that you typed before the filename. Is that part of your file's name, or is that what I type in the command line?

i recommend that you read documentation on how to install software to mandrake with urpmi. you really shouldn´t have to download any sources after that.
the idea is to use a packet manager to do everything for you, you just click on the packet manager that you want to install firefox and it does the rest.

What's URPMI and where do I get it?

Sorry, didn't realize that you use Mandrake. That's an area I un-familiar with, but I'd go along with pevelius' suggestion.
Find the urpmi package of FireFox, and just use that.

with urpmi you should only have to:
urpmi firefox


man urpmi
would also be a good start.

some other links:
http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php

i am not a mandrake user, but here:
http://www.urpmi.org/

they talk about some "softdrake", i believe it is similar to synaptic package manager on my debian. i.e. a graphical tool to use urpmi. you should check, you may have it installed already.

pevelius, I tried that link and STEP 2 requests that I "select a mirror for each source you want". How do I know which sources I want? Do I just tick them all?

In STEP 3, it tells me to "type this into a console as root", but the following box is empty.

Geez, Linux is Bl**dy hard work.

tar -zxvf firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz

this means:
tar is the command,
-zxvf are options to run with the command
fire.... is the archive to unzip.
the -zxvf options are basically:

-x, --extract, --get extract files from an archive
-f, --file=ARCHIVE use archive file or device ARCHIVE
-z, --gzip, --ungzip filter the archive through gzip
-v, --verbose verbosely list files processed

the -z option is there because the file has: .tar.GZ at the end.

-Geir

it won´t be empty, if you click all the sources before clicking "to step 3"-button.

the idea is to choose mirrors that are close to your location in order to get better download speeds. you can safely choose them all if you wish, no harm will come. in fact, it may be a good idea to choose all

remember, configuring packet manager is the only hard thing when you take your first steps. after you get it to work, you wonder why it is so hard to install programs to windows

and did you check that you don´t have softdrake installed on your system already?

I did that and this is what it said;

-------------------------------------------
[root@localhost muzza]# tar -zxvf firefox-1.0.2.installer.tar.gz
firefox-installer/
firefox-installer/xpi/
firefox-installer/xpi/adt.xpi
firefox-installer/xpi/browser.xpi
firefox-installer/xpi/en-US.xpi
firefox-installer/xpi/help.xpi
firefox-installer/xpi/talkback.xpi
firefox-installer/xpi/xpcom.xpi
firefox-installer/config.ini
firefox-installer/header.png
firefox-installer/install.ini
firefox-installer/license.txt
firefox-installer/watermark.png
firefox-installer/firefox-installer
firefox-installer/firefox-installer-bin
[root@localhost muzza]# cd firefox-1.0.2.installer
bash: cd: firefox-1.0.2.installer: No such file or directory
--------------------------------------------

So I tried Pevelius's suggestion about URPMI (whatever that is) and I was downloading something for about 6 hours (gonna cost me a fortune in excess download fees) and typed in urpmi firefox and guess what? ... nothing happened. Just said this;

---------------------------------------------
[root@localhost muzza]# urpmi firefox
The following packages contain firefox:
mozilla-firefox
mozilla-firefox-devel
---------------------------------------------

Why is this so difficult? Bill Gates' dominance is assured for the foreseeable future if Mandrake is one of the 'easy' distributions.

I really don't want to give up on this Linux thing, but after a week of frustrations, I've come to the conclusion that Linux users need A] a degree in computer programming, and B] a broadband (ADSL) connection.

I would really suggest using URPMI or Rpmdrake.

Menu >> System >> Configuration >> Packaging >> Install Software
type your root pwd.
do a search for "firefox"
It should come up with this rpm: "mozilla-firefox0.10.1-4mdk"
check mark the box and install.
The installer will probably ask you for one or more of your 10.1 cd's.

Good Luck

KC