Fixing Firefox by Installing Latest Version
Whew! If you have gone through this kind of problem-solving via updating a program, you know it can set you back in time quite a bit. Yesterday when I realized that a quirk in my Firefox browser didn’t let me permanently change anything in my preferences, and I really needed to delete certain cookies so I could get back into a membership site - well, I decided to go look for answers on the Firefox site and discovered that I was using version 1.07 and 1.5.0.2 is out already! Hmm.
It shouldn’t be so hard to download and install that. I checked for directions, and found them quite simple for my Linux computer;
Extract the tarball in the directory where you want to install Firefox:
tar -xzvf firefox-1.5.0.2.tar.gz
This will create a firefox subdirectory of that directory.
I found out my Firefox was from the root folder in ./mozilla/firefox so that’s where I put it and tar-ed it.
Now what?
I tried various commands like, ./configure firefox
./firefox-installer
No go. Hmm… So I clicked on a file I saw in my Super-user file manager. There it was “firefox” and it was right in the new folder called “firefox” and when I moused over it I got a little message that called it a shell file. From my DOS computer I know that shell is where you trigger programs. I clicked on it to see what would happen, and voila, Firefox rose into action!
It had a different theme look than the one I’d had with my older version, and when I checked the version of this one, yes, it was the new 1.5 edition. I tried to download a few new themes so I could have the “look” and “feel” wanted, but I seemed to be doing that wrong.
This morning when I clicked on my Firefox logo in the toolbar the old one popped up. Huh!? I thought I’d deleted that one completely yesterday.
So I’ve just spent two hours making the rounds of the forums, and trying things out. I still do not know where the old version came from, but I can start the new one again, but clicking that shell “firefox” file in the file manager. I’ve just added a new theme, although when I have time I’ll go hunt down the one I liked better and was used to.
Meantime, I know i have find out how to change the Start Menu so it points to the NEW Firefox. I have been able to import the bookmarks which I had saved to another place, so I’m just about a happy Linuxer again!
Now, let’s see how long I can go before I have to learn something new again.
Blessings,
Ruth
