FirefoxNewVersion

Revision 6 as of 2005-10-20 20:52:50

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Installing Firefox from mozilla.org

For some reason, the mozilla.org 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 beta 2, 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).
  • 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.

Installing

  • First, back up your bookmarks and settings - you'll need to remove ~/.mozilla once the new version is installed. The bookmarks file is ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/bookmarks.html
  • Download firefox-1.5b2.tar.gz from mozilla.org
  • Install it to /opt/firefox:
     sudo cp firefox-1.5b2.tar.gz /opt/
     cd /opt
     sudo tar xzvf firefox-1.5b2.tar.gz
     sudo rm firefox-1.5b2.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.*
  • Rename your old profile:
     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
  • Try it out: Smile :-)

     firefox

Removing

  • 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

Discuss at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=79283


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