Kubuntu 6.06 , Firefox. install

[Eberhard Roloff]

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:15:03 +0100
ubuntu-users-request at lists.ubuntu.com wrote:

> Message: 8
> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:13:34 -0700
> From: "Rein A. Smit" <rein0zn at ix.netcom.com>
> Subject: Re: Kubuntu 6.06 , Firefox. install
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support,	not for general
> discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID: <45137F0E.8070609 at ix.netcom.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
> 
> 
Hi again, Rein
(top posting is not common on this list, so you'll find my
answers below your text)

>     Hi Eberhard,
> 
>    Thanks for your comments. I don't want to get
> into LInux/Windows discussions. What I really want
> is a linux box to do signal processing programs.
> Data Acquisition, Image processing etc.

This is fair. 

> 
> But just preparing a computer to do basic things as
> using a dialup modem, a sound card, a browser are a pain
> in my opinion at least.

Yes. It is a pain. But it is also doable and, after getting used
to it, it is actually "mostly quite easy".
> 
> Linux provides these programs in the public domain
> and Windows does not.

well, there are actually a lot of opensource programs available
for windows. 
> 
> Kubuntu does not do Firefox "out of the box", at least
> what I understand as out of the box. Firefox is
> becoming the number 2 used browser on the internet and
> will be only growing because of all the games MS is playing.
> 
> Indeed Netscape does not come with windows nor does Firefox.
> But downloading it will do it and of course the restart of
> the computer. It installs itself, with looking for bookmarks
> on the computer etc. Same for Firefox.
> 
> I went to an official Kubuntu web site to find how to
> install the browser in question and it did not work.
> That's why I asked the question. I know about the
> great advantages of open source software but it is
> coming for a price also, time.
> 
Ok. Let's just do it one after the other and start with firefox.
Actually it is so easy that you do not need to go to any
"offical side"

Either you use the ubuntu standard 1.5.0.5 that you can install
via synaptic packagemanager. For this you need to  enable
the repositories, that are commented out, just like other posters
explained.

Or you use the brand new 1.5.0.7. Out of curiosity
I just did this and all in all, it took me three minutes to do,
excluding download time. 

Do it like this (mind you that this is just ONE of so many ways
to do it!):

-use synaptic to remove firefox from your installation, if it
was installed, that is.

-download the latest release from
mozilla.com and store it to your home directory, ex. store it to
yourhome/test/firefox1.5.0.7.tgz

-open a shell (i.e. KDE's konsole), go in there and
extract it

"cd test"
"tar -xzvf firefox1.5.0.7.tgz"

alternatively use Konqueror and right mouse click to extract it.
In either case, as a result, you get a directory named "firefox" 

-copy this directory to /opt.
as /opt is not write accessible for "normal users" you need to
do this with administrative privileges, in Ubuntu this is
usually done with "sudo"

"sudo cp -r firefox /opt"

That's it. You should now be able to start firefox 1.5.0.7 with
the command:
"/opt/firefox/firefox"

In KDE you can now make a new icon with this command and that's
it, once again.

For convenience, I took a last step and made a link (actually a
so called "symbolic link") in /usr/bin, so that I can start
firefox with a simple "firefox" instead of the longer
"/opt/firefox/firefox":

go to /usr/bin:
"cd /usr/bin"
and link to the firefox executable in /opt:
"sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox ./firefox" 

So is this hard to do? I don't think so. Is it so much quicker to
install in Windows?

And think about it:
-You did not write anything to the registry ;-)
-You installed firefox, all on your own, without relying on
anyone telling you how "this needs to be done"
-If firefox is not what you want, simply delete this
/opt/firefox/directory and it will be gone, without any pain,
without any trouble and without restarting your system ;-)))) 

> Have been on this support site for about 2 weeks and
> the number of e-mails I get here has gone from 30 to
> over 150 a day mostly Ubuntu related and quite frankly
> I prefer to search on the web or in a book and find
> solutions there instead of having to ask.
> 
This make perfect sense. 

Nevertheless, this list is
here to help you, and help you quickly.

Tip:
To prevent you from being flooded with hundreds of mails per
day, you can alter your subscription to get the list mail in
"digests", each containing about 10 mails.
It might also be more elegant to read the list with a newsreader

regards and wellcome to the world of Linux
Eberhard