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des_a 05-02-2017 08:32 PM

Installing the latest version of firefox for all users - Mandriva Linux 2010.1
 
I'm trying to install the latest version of firefox. I found instructions for how to install it for the current user, but no instructions for installing it for all users, which is what I want to do. When I move about the binaries, and try to run it, it now complains that it can't find the libraries it needs. They are in the same directory as the program.

I have messed up the system trying to install it, but I think it's not messed up beyond repair. It just contains a bit of junk that I won't be able to locate and remove, that's all. But if I keep trying without any more knowledge, I will have a system that doesn't work. Then I will have to do all the work I have done again. The system is to a point where there is no working firefox or any other web browser on it anymore. That's okay for now, because I have the files, I just need to properly install them at this point and then set up the link to make it run.

I want it to run for both root and the user that's installed, which would basically be all users of the system. I would prefer, not to have more than one copy on the system in each home directory, for example. Please help. Thanks!

Didier Spaier 05-03-2017 01:33 AM

First this distribution is no more maintained as far as I know, so it's time to move.

Second, if you install Firefox the regular way (using a RPM package or Firefox installer) it should be available for all users. How did you try to install it?

Anyway I would be surprised if you can run the latest Firefox on a 8 years old distribution.

des_a 05-04-2017 12:35 AM

I tried to install it with the directions on the website, but tried to modify them to allow all users to access the program. It said to download, and extract the files in your home directory, and then you can run it from there. I did, and initially it worked. So then I tried to copy or move those files to another location where everyone could access it, such as /usr/bin. Then I put a link in the menu to the new program by updating the link. This didn't work. It couldn't find the libraries it needed, although they were right there in the same directory.

frankbell 05-04-2017 12:50 AM

As Didier Spaier pointed out, Mandriva is defunct.

Its successor is Mageia, which works quite nicely, though I understand that it is in need of developers.

ondoho 05-04-2017 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by des_a (Post 5705951)
I tried to install it with the directions on the website (...) It said to download, and extract the files in your home directory, and then you can run it from there. I did, and initially it worked.

stop right there.
you should be glad that worked.

if you really need several users to access one install, you should write a script that changes users before starting firefox.

why do you want to browse the web as root anyway.
(see, there's no question mark. it's a rhethorical question.)

mrmazda 05-05-2017 01:35 AM

des_a, I agree you should seriously consider to upgrade to Mageia, whose genesis was a fork of Mandriva. However if you can't or can't right now, you can install Mozilla.org's Firefox successfully using slightly different instructions than those provided by Mozilla.org. I've been doing so for >15 years (Mozilla before Firefox even existed, and SeaMonkey too), as it's necessary to be able to have more than one version installed and usable at a time.

Simply install to a directory you create in either /usr/local/ or in /opt/. To "install" here means quite simply, log in as root, goto /opt/ or /usr/local/ (I use /usr/local/), then extract the content of the .bz2 file you downloaded from Mozilla.org. Before using, I change the directory name of the extraction, from firefox/, to e.g. ffe45/ for ESR version 45.9.0, or ffcur/ for version 53.0. To launch you can either enter the fullpathname in a terminal or 'run command' menu, or create a new menu item using the menu editor and the fullpathname in Mandriva's menu starter, or you can create a new XDG-compatible .desktop file using the fullpathname and the existing /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop file as a template. Using the last method allows anyone logged in to run Firefox installed in this manner from his own starter menu just like normally installed apps.

Whether the Firefox you downloaded will actually run on Mandriva 2010.1 is another matter. It may be that the system requirements version(s) cannot be satisfied on so old a Linux release. I do have Firefox ESR 45.9 running on Mandriva 2011, but ESR 52.1 will not start, which I believe is because required GTK3 is absent.

des_a 05-15-2017 11:35 PM

It'll have to be good with the latest RPM version of firefox, since I couldn't get that to work okay. The system is working okay for now, but may need to be upgraded eventually.


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