help installing firefox

[Viper8896]

need help installing firefox. i ran firefox-installer and it just installed firefox into its own directory. where am i suposed to put each files and how do i get a link from the start menu (KDE).

[tfk]

There's a special folder for precompiled things like Firefox. Just copy the firefox folder to /opt - You need to be root to do that. (Try the 'su' command in the terminal.)
In KDE, you have to use the menu editor (Right click on the menu, then 'menu editor', but I'm not too sure about that.). Create a new link, name it Firefox, and let the path be /opt/firefox/firefox
If the starter doesn't work, set the executable bit in the properties of the file /opt/firefox/firefox.

Good luck!
--LC

[sealfood]

Viper assuming that you've now installed Firefox, to get it on your start (or 'launch') menu in KDE varies a little with the distro but basically it's similar to this approach that I use with Mandrake 10:

In the 'Start' menu (or KDE or Launch menu however you feel comfortable thinking of it) select as follows:

System/Configuration/KDE/LookNFeel/Panels/Menus/Edit K menu (in MD10 MenuDrake now opens)/ add application. The rest is straightforward.

By way of illustration in Xandros there is actually in Panels a button called 'Edit Launch Menu', or maybe just 'Launch Menu'.

You can add an icon if you want. For example in MD10 just click on the icon shown in when in the edit K menu section to begin the process.

In one sense, it doesn't matter very much where your firefox is installed: what matters is that you and your PC know where it is so that you can easily start it.

[SeptivaOra]

when i download a tar file, is it best to install it in the /opt folder? Ive been installing in the /usr/local/src folder and that gets anoying typing you that directory.

[tfk]

When you download a program's sourcecode, untar it into the /usr/src directory and install the program into the /usr or /usr/local directory tree. You can do this by typing

./configure --prefix=/usr

instead of just

./configure

You can remove the sourcecode from the /usr/src directory after the installation.
It is a good idea to create the directory /usr/src/packages and to place the compressed sourcecode packages in there, its easy to find the packages then.

In the case of Firefox, you most likely have downloaded a file containing precompiled binaries. Since you don't compile them yourself, you should place the program in the /opt directory tree.

For the typing thing, if you use a recent version of bash, you have a nice autocompletion system with the tab key. For example, type in

/u

and press tab, it will complete it to /usr.

--LC

[SeptivaOra]

do you install it in /usr or /usr local for convinence
or are there permissions or something you have to worry about finding that file?

[tfk]

On 'normal' machines, it doesn't matter if a program is installed in /usr or int /usr/local. I prefer /usr.

The two directories do indeed have a different purpose, documented in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard:

/usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable, read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between various FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.

Large software packages must not use a direct subdirectory under the /usr hierarchy.

The /usr/local hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing software locally. It needs to be safe from being overwritten when the system software is updated. It may be used for programs and data that are shareable amongst a group of hosts, but not found in /usr.

Locally installed software must be placed within /usr/local rather than /usr unless it is being installed to replace or upgrade software in /usr.

For example, if you have a company with one server and some clients, the server can provide the /usr directory for all clients via network. This way, the clients can have smaller (=cheaper) harddisks, because their /usr directory is 'linked' to that one on the server. It also makes the maintenance of installed software more comfortable.
If you have some client-specific software, you can install it in the local directory /usr/local. In contrast to software installed in the above way, the software would not be available on the other clients.

Since a normal desktop doesn't store its files on a server, both /usr and /usr/local directories are local.


The permissions of the Firefox dir should be that all users on the machine can enter and read it, for example rwxr-xr-x.

--LC