nortino

I too am having trouble with this. I've just installed Suse 10.0 on a dual boot with XP, and the first thing I'm trying to do is update Firefox to version 2. So I go to mozilla.com and click the Download button. The download dialog pops up and says Open with gunzip (default) selected. I click OK. File saves apparently to the desktop. Nothing happens. Apparently 'gunzip' hasn't opened it. I then click 'open' in the 'Downloads' dialog only to be told "firefox-2.0.0.3.tar.gz does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, or deleted since it was downloaded." Of course. Silly me. Why would the file be where I downloaded it to. This is the crazy world of Linux after all. So I thrash around on the file system for a bit with Konquerer, and of course still can't find it. After searching on Google I read on this forum about it being in /tmp, and lo-and-behold it is. OK. So I try the thing of 'Extract here', and in the ensuing 'firefox' directory there's a file called 'updater' (sounds promising) so I click this and apparently nothing happens, so I double click it, and still no signs of life, so I click a file in there called 'firefox' which is a Shell Script, and that opens . . . Firefox 1.5 (obviously). So then I delete the whole 'firefox' directory in tmp, and the tar.gz I downloaded, and go back to mozilla.com, but this time when I download the file I tell it to save it to a directory in tmp that I make called 'firefoxTest', and after it downloads I navigate to the directory and try clicking 'updater' again . . . still no response, then I click the firefox Shell Script again, and this time it opens Firefox 2.0 (hooray-ish) which tells me it's no longer the default browser.
Except the thing is, this bizarre process doesn't really 'install' it in the way a new version of Firefox installs itself on Windows, say. For example, when I go back to the desktop and click the Firefox icon, it opens Firefox 1.5, so it seems to me that all I've done is extract a compressed load of files to some random directory, and now I've got two versions of Firefox knocking around. I've no idea where Firefox 1.5 is on my file system, or how to replace it with Firefox 2.0 (which is kind of what I hoped to upgrade would do).
So. If I do something else, like use rpms instead, will it actually 'install' Firefox 2.0 in the sense of replacing Firefox 1.5 and updating my desktop shortcuts for me, or will it just do the same thing of putting it in some random directory without troubling the old version? Also, is there a good tutorial anywhere about using rpms with Yast because I've really got no clue about it.
Sorry for the rant but why does everything have to be so much trouble in Linux? In Windows to update Firefox you just go to the same website, click download, open the file, and that's it.

gogalthorp

You can do it how you tried to if you know what your doing. The proper way for a casual user is to use RPM's.

ie it is not Linux you were trying the hard way and yes it is not Windows

Index of /download/mozilla/SLE_10/i586

Index of /pub/linux/suse/opensuse/repositories/mozilla/SUSE_Linux_10.1/i586

Also read the comments on this site for hints on how to and what to install.

SUSE 10.x: RPMs For Firefox 2 « Linux and Open Source Blog

Interestingly there does not appear to be a 10.2 source. Also the directories do not show up in Yast or smart.

I agree that the FF install is a lot of trouble but it is because FF 2.0 is not yet supported by Suse so the RPMs are not generally available. They don't show in the norma repositories. Why this is so I don't know.

You might check out these pages to under stand the install process. I highly recommend smart over Yast but both can be used. And Yast is ok just very slooow.

This one is for 10.1 but should basicly work for 10.0
Hacking SUSE Linux 10.1 - The Jem Report

This one has the correct repositories for 10.0 but is short on instructions of what to do with them follow the above
Additional YaST Package Repositories - openSUSE

This is detailed instructions on installing smart, it looks donting but is really not so hard because it covers just about all installation questions
SMART Package Manager - SUSE Wiki

You need to tell the FF download manager where you want the files sent I have mine set to the desktop. Preferences-downloads

daark.child

Official Firefox 2 packages for openSUSE are available here.

nortino

OK, it's a relief in a way that I was doing it the hard way, since it just seemed like so much trouble (and it's basically the first thing I've tried to do on Linux) that I was starting to think that the OS was just more trouble than it's worth. It seems clear that I have to learn about RPMs, which I will endeavour to do once I get home (I'm at work at the mo) using the links you've given.

Right. I didn't realise this. This is probably why I was getting nowhere on the RPMs front last night and getting frustrated.

Thanks a lot for all your help.