At some point in time I had a working firefox 3.0 on my system, I've installed ubuntuzilla which let me know about updates, I installed one and had countless problems with users. I've tried reinstalling the program using... apt-get, ubuntuzilla, manually installing the file with the following problems:

apt-get just puts on iceweasel and nothing else.
ubuntuzilla doesn't work... at all, comes up with an error near the end.
Manual install works a treat until I play something with java or flash (I used ubuntu-restricted-extras to reinstall flash and java). I can't install flash without the ubuntu-restricted-extras package at all, theres a checksum error

I'm using xubuntu gutsy and I KNOW doing this is possible, just unsure how I did it last time... I remember it taking a long time initially.

Any help is obviously much apprteciated, I ate iceweasel version 2...

Of course apt-get will only install iceweasel cause the Debian folks didn't like the license or trademark that comes with Firefox, so they decided to rebrand it with their own name, it's Firefox in disguise, might not be 3 but I'm not sure, I don't use Debian. Bunch of weenies for being too picky about certain things..

Actually, Ubuntu/Xubuntu (although based on Debian) installs Firefox by default, not Iceweasel.

You shouldn't need Ubuntuzilla to install Firefox at the moment, assuming that you're running Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy), since it installs 3.0.1 by default. You may, however, want it in the future when new releases become available.

One option is to install through apt-get.

should be all you need to do. You will need the main repository enabled from a working Ubuntu mirror (you can check this in Synaptic Package Manager). You may need to run to remove Ubuntuzilla if your installation of it is broken.

If that still doesn't work, then what error message are you getting from apt-get?

Your Alternative is Ubuntuzilla. I've not used this myself; I just keep my distro up to date and I'm never more than a few months out of date on features. But I don't see why it shouldn't work; what kind of errors are you getting from it?

Yours,

—Robert J Lee

I'm using gutsy, hardy heron was far too big for my small hard drive ( I have an eeepc). As I've said already apt-get firefox automatically puts on iceweasel which is nowhere near what I expect/want in a browser (no ability to view hotmail?!)

If I remove iceweasel I end up with a 220k file which I'm told is firefox.

Removing ubuntuzilla seems a bit pointless, especially seeing as I don't even have a working copy of firefox yet! Any ideas on getting flash and java working, if I can install firefox manually and put on the needed plugins I guess I'm all set

iceweasel IS firefox - just a different name, no branding and a different icon - everything else is identical.
If I browse to hotmail.com I get redirected to login.live.com - if they do not let you use the site it is not mozillas fault.
Try the user-agent-switcher addon - but it seems to me that the site works just fine. I run Iceweasel/3.0.1

As I've said already - I don't have iceweasel or firefox 3, the best I can get is iceweasel 2.5 which comes up with an error going "install ie, firefox or safari". I can't believe this is such a hard task!

Is there a firefox 3 for gutsy repository? I've managed to get firefox 3 on manually but can't get any plugins to work at all. I'm getting to the point where I wonna bloody format, whys this such an intensly hard task. Suppose this goes with the "if it aint broke dont fix it" saying.

I just wonna get latest firefox, latest java and latest flash on one computer without glitches any problems.

Then go download them manually and install them manually.

Alternatively to what trickykid said:
if you want the latest ... you should upgrade to the latest Ubuntu - I can't believe it is so much bigger - if at all.
It could well be that firefox 3 depends on other software which is not there in Gutsy - or not at a version recent enough to enable you to run firefox 3.
BTW: I can't make sense of
What kind of installer would tell you to install ie or safari?

Cant install flash manually - get a checksum error with the latest one, this is a known problem.
The file size difference between gutsy and hard is roughly 700mb which includes crap like bluetooth. The hard drive on the eepc is 4gig total.

Thats not an installer message its a message that pops up on iceweasel when i go to hotmail.com, the exact error is:Seems like good advice to me, if only i could! I know for a fact at some point in time I've had firefox 3 running (with flash and java) so this isn't an impossible task. Perhaps someone could post the plugin links to flash and java and i could just copy them into the plugins folder or something. It's no wonder people are put off updating, I've gone from firefox 3.0 to 3.01 and I'm faced with hundreds of problems.

Sorry to hear that you perceive it that way.
After all this I (I don't speak for others) do not even know for sure "where we are". Did you have firefox 3 but could not upgrade to 3.01? Did you get iceweasel instead - but did not like it? Ubuntu delivers firefox - not iceweasel AFAIK. Or is it just the plugins? It really is not clear to me at all.

You can always totally deinstall everything related to your browser which was installed through the package manager - neccesary because you want to avoid problems coming from multiple versions residing in different locations...you will have a hard time finding out where problems are from.
Then install the software as it is delivered directly from mozilla - they have detailed instructions how to do it - also for the plugins.

And about Hardy being bigger than Gutsy: if you upgrade you don't need to install everything - of course Hardy has some more software to offer than Gutsy. An upgrade is - you upgrade that what is already installed. And _that_ can hardly be much larger than it is now. Are you confusing this with the amount of software that would need to be downloaded to do the upgrade? That is indeed a lot. It will however not be that much bigger _after_ the upgrade.

Right now, at this point in time I've got a manual install of firefox 3 and no ice weasel, I followed the wiki instructions (put the dir in /opt) and it seems to be working ok, had a few small problems with the sym link but they were eventually resolved. Still no flash or java though, I had an idea I could put on iceweasel and install all the plugins for that, then just copy and paste the plugins directory - BUT I couldn't get any plugins working for iceweasel so gave up on that eventually.

I've never had ice weasel on my system. I've always found updating firefox to be a bit of a nightmare and should of just left it. I've already removed (via apt-get and just rm) lots of files scattered round my hard drive. I think this problem is something to do with ubuntuzilla, but can't be sure how. When I did the update, it did infact work fine, the problem was at launch a new profile was made each time and rather than just reboot I assumed it was a problem in need of fixing and went to work fixing it. I'll get rid of ubuntuzilla once this is sorted, I'm not moving over to hardy, the software makes the 700mb difference but I'm always a bit pissed off when I need to install something and then trim it down - gutsy works out the box at a reasonable size and always has. I'll keep at it anyway thanks for the help.

What are the problems with installing the plugins?
Do they not install? Or do they not work after you installed them? How do you install them - from what source?

[edit]
Uppgrading will not install new stuff - only as an exception tho the rule.
Many new things installed - that could be the case in a new install with default selections.
And: new versions of software being 700 MB larger than the old ones - I seriously doubt that.
But your mind is set on this and it does not matter anyway...
I will not try to persuade you into an upgrade.

Using apt-get to install, usually results in the plugins being put into the iceweasel/plugins directory. When launching a flash website (say youtube) I get a missing plugin error. If I run aboutlugins around 70% of the time firefox crashes, the other 30% of the time a page full of plugins is displayed - each one with yes next to them.

I've tried hardy before and the problems I remember having were: significantly less disk space, spending at least 3 hours getting wifi working and getting frustrated at bluetooth being installed (I pick on bluetooth because I haaate it, haha). Also to be honest with you, I'm happy with how my system is at the moment, it's got a gig left which isn't enough to cache the files needed to upgrade anyway and besides firefox, it does everything I want... just having internet access is one of the major computer uses.

Thanks a lot for your help so far, sorry if I've been grumpy, i just hate feeling like I've got to the point where theres no fix for what should be something quite basic

Don't worry - there is a fix for this.
Where is your:
?

That folder is in: /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins along with a lot of other directories most of which are shortcuts to /usr/share/iceweasel (specifically the folders are chrome, defaults, greprefs, icons, res, searchplugins browserconfig.properties, iceweasel-restart-required.update-notifier).

/usr/bin/firefox does not exist but has mozilla.ubuntu.sh instead which looks like a wordy script.

At present in the folder is java and a unixprint plugin (libjavaplugin.sh -> shortcut to /etc/alternatives/iceweasel and libunixprintplugin.so). I get the following error when trying to put flash (back) on my system via ubuntu-restricted-extras:

Installing via apt-get install flashplayernonfree gives the same error, as does getting the file from adobe (as far as i can remember its a tar file)

aboutlugins just shows java and nothing else, iceweasel is version 2.0.0.12, incidently aboutlugins hasn't crashed the last 2 times I've run it.