FirefoxNewVersion

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 * If you are using scim-1.0.2 as your input method platform, firefox will crash on startup. You may manually build firefox 1.5 to make both of them work. See the ["SCIM"] entry for more information.  * If you are using scim-1.0.2 as your input method platform, firefox will crash on startup. You may manually build firefox 1.5 to make both of them work. See ["SCIM"] and ["CompileFirefoxNewVersion"] for more information.

Note: This guide is for installing Firefox 1.5 in Ubuntu Breezy 5.10. Ubuntu Breezy and its repositories have Firefox 1.0.7. If you use this guide, do not remove the Ubuntu version of Firefox. Doing so will break the following packages: Yelp (help viewer), Epiphany, Gnome-app-install (Add Applications), Liferea, Blam and any application requiring the gecko rendering engine.

Installing Firefox from mozilla.com

For some reason, the mozilla.com build of Firefox is significantly faster than the default Ubuntu one. Firefox 1.5 is even faster, and has many new features. These instructions lead you through installing Firefox 1.5 final, but should also work for 1.0.7 or any other version.

Notes

  • You will no longer get automatic updates through the repositories (but firefox itself has a built into auto-updater, see below for how that works).
  • The Totem video plugin doesn't seem to work with firefox 1.5. You may want to install package 'mozilla-mplayer' instead before you start.
  • You need package 'libstdc++5' installed.

     sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
  • This is for i386. If you are on amd64, there are some specific tips in [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FirefoxAMD64FlashJava FirefoxAMD64FlashJava]

  • If you are using scim-1.0.2 as your input method platform, firefox will crash on startup. You may manually build firefox 1.5 to make both of them work. See ["SCIM"] and ["CompileFirefoxNewVersion"] for more information.

  • You may get an error dialog (twice) each time Firefox starts up saying Firefox could not install this item because of a failure in Chrome Registration. Please contact the author about this problem.. This is due to [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=311480 this bug]. To work around it, do the following:-

    # create the directory if it does not already exist
    sudo mkdir -p /opt/firefox/extensions/talkback@mozilla.org
    sudo touch /opt/firefox/extensions/talkback@mozilla.org/chrome.manifest

Installing

  • First, back up your bookmarks and settings:
     cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default
     mkdir ~/Desktop/ffsettings
     cp bookmarks.html cert8.db cookies.txt formhistory.dat key3.db signons.txt history.dat  mimeTypes.rdf ~/Desktop/ffsettings
  • Download [http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.5/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-1.5.tar.gz firefox-1.5.tar.gz] from [http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ mozilla.com], and change to the directory you downloaded it to.

  • Install it to /opt/firefox:
     # extract tar into /opt (you should make sure /opt already exists)
     sudo tar -C /opt -x -z -v -f firefox-1.5.tar.gz
     # remove the package if you no longer require it
     rm firefox-1.5.tar.gz
  • Link to your plugins (and remove totem-mozilla as it doesn't seem to work with Firefox 1.5):
     cd /opt/firefox/plugins/
     sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/* .
     sudo rm libtotem_mozilla.*
  • Change to your home directory, and rename your old profile, leaving it as a backup (using the existing profile may cause problems with Firefox 1.5):
     cd
     mv .mozilla .mozilla.ubuntu
  • To ensure it is used as the default version, modify the symbolic link in /usr/bin:
     sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/firefox
     sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
    The dpkg-divert command will move the original system-wide /usr/bin/firefox to a new name. The ln command will place a symlink to the newly installed firefox in /usr/bin
  • Try it out: Smile :-)

     firefox
  • Restore your old data:
     cd ~/Desktop/ffsettings
     mv * ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default
  • Restore your Searchplugins:
     sudo cp -i --reply=no /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/* /opt/firefox/searchplugins/
     sudo cp -i --reply=no ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/search/* /opt/firefox/searchplugins/
  • If you want to keep the original Ubuntu icon for firefox, enter this command:
     sudo cp /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.xpm /opt/firefox/chrome/icons/default/default.xpm
  • To ensure that other programs use version 1.5 of firefox and not the old 1.07 version, go to Preferences -> Preferred Applications in the System menu. For the "Web Browser" tab, choose "Custom" and then enter the command:

     firefox %s
  • Firefox 1.5 should now be installed and working properly. If for whatever reason you become unhappy with firefox 1.5 and would like to remove it, see the "Removing" section below for directions.

Restoring Extensions and Themes

In addition to restoring your settings, you can also restore your themes and extensions. As indicated above, this should only be done after running firefox at least once and fully closing it.

  • Backup the new profile (just in case):
     cd ~/.mozilla/firefox
     mkdir ff1.5
     mv profiles.ini *.default ff1.5/
  • Restore your previous profile:
     cp ~/.mozilla.ubuntu//firefox/profiles.ini .
     cp -r ~/.mozilla.ubuntu//firefox/*.default .
  • Start firefox and try it out. A dialog may appear indicating that one or more extensions and/or themes are not compatible. This is normal and firefox may be able to find updates for you.

Updating

Backup your profile with:

cp -R ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla.backup.1500

To get firefox's own update/autoupdate to work at all, you have three choices (read them all and choose one):

  • Change the /opt/firefox directory to have 'write' permissions & ownership set for the user instead of the root. To change ownership, after installation type:

     sudo chown -R ${USER}:${USER} /opt/firefox

    This is the only way to get update notification working, but doing this has security implications in a multi-user environment, and is not recommended: a virus or malicious program running as a user may now replace or corrupt the files in /opt/firefox, which would affect other users of the computer.

  • An alternative to the above method is to run firefox with sudo to get the updates. That is, when there is an update available, you would run sudo firefox -safe-mode (the safe-mode is an extra layer of protection since it will not load any extensions while running as sudo), install the update (Help -> Check for Updates...), close firefox, and then restart firefox as a normal user. You should NOT browse other websites while you are running firefox with sudo. (The author does not know whether this method is any safer/more secure than the first method).

  • A third option, is to use method 1, but only for updates: Keep the firefox folder owned by root and use it normally until you need an update, then give your user ownership: sudo chown -R ${USER}:${USER} /opt/firefox. Start firefox normally and update (Help -> Check for updates...). Once the update is completed, you should restore ownership to root: sudo chown -R root:root /opt/firefox. Again, do NOT browse other sites while firefox has these elevated permissions. This is probably the best option although it is also the most cumbersome.

Removing

If for some reason you want to undo the installation and revert back to the standard Firefox 1.0.7, here's how.

  • Restore the symbolic link:
     sudo rm /usr/bin/firefox
     sudo dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/bin/firefox
  • Restore your old profile:
     cd
     mv .mozilla .mozilla-1.5
     mv .mozilla.ubuntu .mozilla
  • (optional) Delete the firefox directory
     sudo rm -r /opt/firefox

Installing Firefox as a debian package

It is nice to have a package (easier to upgrade, etc). There is an experimental package building tool at [http://kidsquid.com/programs/ubuntu/firefox-1.5.0-0nonfree1_i386.tar.gz]. It can automatically download the i386 version of Firefox 1.5 (or you can copy in your existing Firefox download), then it will create a .deb package for it. Follow the steps in the README to install the new package. Please do not distribute any files created by this tool, as copying may violate the Firefox copyright.


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FirefoxNewVersion (last edited 2008-08-06 16:31:56 by localhost)