Firefox on fresh Debian install

[Nightfly]

I want to install firefox so I can view flash in web pages but I need GTK+ 2.10 or higher.
I can't install GTK+ 2.10 or higher because I need GCC.
I can't install GCC because there is no C Compiler present or is just not found.
So I go to find GCC. Found it at GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF).
I get the tar.gz for GCC 4.3.0.
Using synaptic I found that i already have gcc installed. It's installed in /usr/lib/gcc-4.2.1 so I copy this to /usr/lib/gcc and NOW I can install gtk.
But when I install gtk+ 2.14 I go to run firefox but I still get the error that I can't run firefox without gtk+ 2.10 or better. WTF????
So I got all this stuff, but it turns out that the version of GCC that I downloaded needs Pango and Cairo. OK, so I go and get these. Cairo is only unstable or experimental. No choice, I go with experimental. Install Cairo, install Pango, re-install GCC, then GTK, and go for another round with firefox but I still get the same error with firefox about 2.10 or higher. Is there anything out there that can do all of this crap on a fresh install of Debian for me? What a bunch of crap to go through just to get friggin Firefox on my fresh install. Cripes!

[HROAdmin26]

When you install software in Linux, you (usually) have two options:

1. Get the source code and compile from source.

2. Use the distro's package manager and repository system. (Packages already compiled for you.)

I think you are trying to do it the hard way (1).

Google: debian firefox install

apt-get install mozilla-firefox

Get to know your distro and how it works - you'll save yourself lots of headache.

I am also assuming you have KDE or Gnome already installed, as Firefox won't do you much good without a GUI.

[GNU-Fan]

If you just want to have Flash, you can copy the flash binary from Adobe in your .mozilla/plugins directory and keep using the Epiphany browser that came shipped as default.

If you want to easily install Firefox like I did, you have to download the latest binary from Mozilla, but you need version 2.

If you want to have Firefox Version 3, then Debian Etch is one of the last distributions you want to have installed on your Desktop, because the libraries are out of date at such a fundamental level that you would be better of to install another OS.

[kurianthayil]

Hi,

I installed Firefox 3 in Debian Etch. You will get Firefox 3 package only in source form and I have not find any deb/rpm package of Firefox3. Even if you have those you need to have GTK+2.12 and some higher versions of already installed packages of your system. The reason why you getting error is due the conflicts in GTK libraries. So the best way to install these higher version packages is by compiling and installing with --prefix option so that the already installed version won't get affected by the new version. Visit the site, debian etch + gtk+ 2.12 + firefox 3 « notes

Follow each step correctly and it will help you install Firefox 3 in your system. And then install the package Adobe flash plugin (Linux version) which will help you play flash videos in firefox. Hope this helps. Thanks.

Kurian Mathew Thayil.