Firefox setup

[marc]

neil.linux said...
> marc wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I keep tripping over problems with Firefox (v1.5.0.9) that are wearing 
> > me down. I'd like advice on the best setup for my needs. I'm using 
> > Dapper.
> >
> > As I understand it, I need the firefox package installed, otherwise 
> > aptitude will remove ubuntu-desktop and others (I have ubuntu installed, 
> > as well as kubuntu). I'm happy to install Firefox in /opt, but I'll get 
> > to that.
> >
> > However, I need to install extensions that are not packaged, and this 
> > often seems to result in the extension not working in Firefox.
> >
> > For example, currently, I have the HTML Validator extension installed, 
> > but it does not work. Worse than that, every time I load FF, the 
> > extension instigates a page load informing  me that a "dynamic C library 
> > contained in the extension could not be found".
> >
> > In addition, after I run "Update all extensions", it's common that some 
> > extension break. For example, I've just updated the "Web Developer" 
> > extension, and it now reports that "This feature requires the DOM 
> > Inspector to be installed" when attempting to use the View Style 
> > Information function. (The DOM Inspector is installed.)
> >
> > Now, a while back I installed FF in /opt and adjusted alternatives, but 
> > I still ran into problems when updating due to permissions.
> >
> > Clearly, this is way to much hard work for something that should "just 
> > work", so I'd like advice on the way to proceed. Thanks.
> >
> >   
> I use firefox2 on an edgy install and the libraries that it depends on 
> look like they're higher that on the dapper install I use for my server.
> 
> If someone can show me how to output the dependencies to a file I'll 
> post them here so you can compare them to what you have on your Dapper 
> install.
> 
> It may not make any difference though as updating your libraries may 
> just break Dapper.

Thanks, Neil. As it is, I simply installed the Mozilla tarball of FF 
2.0.0.1 into /opt, gave it my user's permissions, and let it do its 
update thing, before restoring root privs to /opt/firefox and I have a 
working browser again with my profile preserved.

(Btw, en route, I stumbled upon a KDE theme, KDEFF, that is not bad at 
all.)

Now, I'm not ranting, raving, whining, or whatever, but the FF install 
should really be made this simple. If it means that all the Ubuntu 
package does is install the FF2 tarball into /opt, then so be it, imo. 
The current state of play is a not just a pain in the butt, but a 
barrier to entry, imo.

-- 
Cheers,
Marc