crashing firefox on acer aspire one linpus lite fedora

Linux Support
1

Hallo all, new to Linux but very capable and willing.

Acer Aspre One; Fedora Release 8 (Werewolf); Linpus Linux Lite v1.0.9.e; Kernel 2.6.23.91w; GNU Linux

Skype works great but Firefox crashes (Firefox 2.0.0.19-1.fc8), within a few seconds or minutes of opening. I read that flash may have a lot to do with it, so I then start to look for solutions that fit my machine.

I have been looking around the forums (which is how I got the above info) and I go around in circles with the questions
have I got Hardy, should I switch to Ubuntu or Google Chrome etc etc.

When I try to update versions of firefox or the like I get failures and more questions.

All I want is to have a machine that will browse the net, skype to my daughter in Bulgaria and update my finances ( or lack of ) on a spreadsheet.

So the question is…is there someone who can give me their expert suggestions, tips and instructions step-by-step and in detail
so that at some point in the near future I can add him/her to my christmas card list!!

2

[EDIT]
Future readers… Before continuing it would be a good idea to read these 2 topics:

http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/acer-aspire-one-linpus-lite-firefox-web-browser-wont-open/
and
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/install-firefox-6-on-an-acer-aspire-one-running-linpus-lite-linux/

[END EDIT]

Outdated topic - see the link for installing Firefox 6 above

Acer has interwoven Firefox 2 with the rest of the system, that’s why a quite unusual approach is required to install the newest version. The benefit of using an official release is a working update feature, which is disabled in the version already installed on the system.

Press Alt+F2 to show the Run program window. Check Run in terminal and click Run, which opens a terminal. If you’re not familiar with the Linux command line just follow the instructions step by step. The easiest way is to simply paste the commands into the terminal with Ctrl+Shift+V. Most of them will only give feedback if an error occurs.

Also remember that any line that starts with sudo is going to ask for your root password (probably your user password)… when you type in the password you won’t see anything (not even an *) , but it IS being entered, so type it in and hit enter.

The first command uses wget to download Firefox 3.6 from an official mirror.
Open a terminal and enter:

wget -N "http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.6&os=linux&lang=en-GB"

Hit enter.

The next step extracts the just downloaded file and modifies a link to point to it. In a few cases a connection refused error message may be triggered by sudo, which is not an error but a bug in sudo and can be safely ignored.
In a terminal:

sudo tar -jxf firefox-3.6.tar.bz2 --directory /opt
sudo chown user -R /opt/firefox
sudo ln -fs /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

remember to hit enter after each line.

The next step links all plug-ins (not to be confused with extensions) to it.
In a terminal:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/* /opt/firefox/plugins

Hit enter.

Launch the profile manager using the command below. Create a new profile, name it anything you like and select it. If you want to keep your bookmarks export them via the bookmark manager first. You can then delete the old default profile.
In a terminal:

firefox -profilemanager -no-remote

hit enter.

As a bonus you can also change the icon to the official Firefox icon.
In a terminal:

sudo sed '/Icon/ s/acs_//' -i /usr/share/applications/linpus-web.desktop

Finally reboot the AA1 to make the desktop aware of the new icon and browser location.

[Original Source]
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-firefox-3-on-acer-aspire-one.html

3

(you might want to give “Google Chrome” ago … it’s “better” than Firefox in pretty much all use-cases …)

4

Im blundering thu my aspire1. i managed to install stellarium but had to manually put it in the rightclick menu -it runs ok tho. however if i dl skype from the repository it installs but clicking it doesnt run it…

looking at the above mysterious post about ‘type this as it goes and press enter’ took me right back to the mysteries of the sinclair spectrum- spending hours typing in BASIC listings in the trust that they did something :slight_smile: happy days…and days…and days… lol

Carl

5

Mmm, unfortunately, because Linux is “free” (as are most of the associated tools) it means that any idiot can have a go at setting up their own Linux distribution at no cost … and unfortunately this results in some rather “interesting” Linux distro’s. Why netbook makers persist in putting things like “Linpus” (?!) on their machines as opposed to mainstream distro’s is beyond me. If you want to avoid spectrumitis, I think the recommendation has to be, wipe it and install something ‘standard’.
(Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, Mint etc …)

6

You need the STATIC (not dynamic) version of skype from their Linux download page, don’t try to install the Fedora (core) 10+ version, as Linpus Lite is based on Fedora core 8 (quite old) and it will not work… You can get the STATIC version here… (click the static link):

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/linux/choose/

Unpack it and follow the instructions in the README file.

BTW, you are going to have to get used to a certain amount of command line stuff (again :slight_smile: ), as even for this install you are going to have to copy some files to directories that you won’t have write permission for by default… Also MOST responses on forums are going to come in ‘command line’ form, as it’s much easier than typing an essay, and there is less room for interpretation.

[i]EXAMPLE - Double click your home folder, right-click the file you want to copy and select copy, click view on the toolbar and put a tick in Show hidden files, double-click the hidden folder you want to copy the file into to open it... right-click on an empty space inside the directory, and select Paste.

or

cp ~/file ~/.folder/file
[/i]


Which looks easier to you?.. and this is a simple ‘copy from one folder to another’. :slight_smile:

You might have a few difficulties with Linpus Lite and certain software… Software moves on but Linpus (fedora core 8.) hasn’t, so I agree with Mad Penguin and would suggest a move to another (up to date) distro… another member of this forum has a site specifically for Acer Aspire Ones:
http://netbook-experience.com/
which contains loads of articles about installing software including other Linux distros to an AA1