Install Firefox 6 on an Acer Aspire One running Linpus Lite Linux

Linux Support
1

This topic is now outdated… there are now instructions for installing Firefox 7 here:
(click the link below)
Install Firefox 7 on an Acer Aspire One running Linpus Lite Linux

Those who have ALREADY upgraded your version of Firefox 2 to Firefox 4 or 5 by following the instructions here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/install-firefox-4-on-an-acer-aspire-one-running-linpus-lite-linux/
or
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/install-firefox-5-on-an-acer-aspire-one-running-linpus-lite-linux/
see the “How to UPGRADE FF4 or FF5 to Firefox 6” section at the bottom of this posting.

For those who HAVEN’T upgraded to Firefox 4 or Firefox 5, and are still running Firefox 2 … read on.

WARNING - DO NOT uninstall Firefox 2 prior to installing Firefox 6… on Linpus Lite this will break your system, removing Firefox 2 will also remove a lot of necessary dependencies, including half of your desktop… simply reinstalling Firefox 2 will NOT fix this… so leave Firefox 2 alone, and just follow the instructions below… none of which are irreversible :slight_smile:

To install Firefox 6.0.2 on an Acer Aspire One that is running Linpus Lite Linux as it’s operating system, and Firefox 2 as the web browser…

All commands given need to be entered into a terminal… to open a terminal, hit Alt+F2 … in the input field enter terminal and click the Run button… a terminal will open… When the terminal opens, enter the following commands (hitting Enter after each command to ‘run’ it)
(also remember Linux commands ARE case sensitive so enter exactly as shown, or even better copy and paste).

First, just in case you already have a newer version of Firefox installed than the version that came pre-installed on your AA1, run the following command to back it up:

sudo mv -v /opt/firefox /opt/firefox-backup

(don’t worry if the above command fails, it just means you don’t have a newer version)

Now use wget to download Firefox 6:

wget -O firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 "http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-6.0.2&os=linux&lang=en-GB"

(you can change the en-GB language variable on the end to any of the other language codes for FF6 that can be found HERE)

Extract the just downloaded file to /opt:

sudo tar -jxvf firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt

Create a plugins directory:

sudo mkdir /opt/firefox/plugins

Change the /opt/firefox directory owner to user:

sudo chown user -R /opt/firefox

Rename the original firefox shell script (just in case you ever want to replace it):

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/original-firefox

Add a symlink to point to Firefox 6:

sudo ln -fs /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Finally , link all old plugins to the new firefox/plugins directory:

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

Ok that’s Firefox 6 installed, but if you attempt to start it now you will get an error similar to:

[b]firefox/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.9' not found (required by firefox/libxul.so)[/b]

So next you need to put a copy of libstdc++.so.6 in the /opt/firefox directory… Firefox 6 requires this file to be installed on your system but it isn’t available in the linpus lite repos… so use wget to download it from my dropbox:

wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11876059/libstdc++6.tar.bz2

and unpack it directly into the /opt/firefox directory:

sudo tar -jxvf libstdc++6.tar.bz2 --directory /opt/firefox

Launch Firefox’s profile manager:

firefox -profilemanager -no-remote

Create a new profile… you can name it anything you like… and select it.

As a bonus you can also change the icon to the official Firefox icon. (though this isn’t necessary)

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.

Most of the credit must go to macles.blogspot:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-firefox-3-on-acer-aspire-one.html
I’ve just modified the instruction slightly for FF6, added the libstdc++.so.6 file (from fedora 10 32bit) which is needed by FF4 / FF5 / FF6, and made it slightly easier to undo.

For instructions on how to upgrade the flashplayer plugin, see here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/acer-aspire-one-linpus-lite-flash-player/msg62581/#msg62581

Also see:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/acer-aspire-one-netbook-running-linux-can-i-update-to-the-latest-firefox/

How to UPGRADE FF4 or FF5 to Firefox 6

If you already have a working Firefox 4 or Firefox 5 installation at /opt/firefox … All you need to do to upgrade it to Firefox 6 is to open a terminal and run these 3 commands:

wget -O firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 "http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-6.0&os=linux&lang=en-GB"

then

sudo tar -jxvf firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt

then

sudo chown user -R /opt/firefox

Close all instances of Firefox, and restart it… it should now be Firefox 6

2

Hi and thanks again for the update. Upgrading from FF5 to FF6 worked for me.

The only funny thing is that the Firefox Icon in the uppermost menu (above the menu bar) is not being displayed any more. It has obviously been replaced by a Linux standard icon (see attached desktop picture).

This is of course not grave, but do you have any ideas how this could have happened?

3

I take it you mean the little cube symbol in the title bar, next to where it says Google - Mozilla Firefox ?

If so, I’ve no idea, but if you want to try a “clean” install of Firefox 6 (rather than over the top of FF5) to see if that makes a difference, let me know and I’ll post instructions.

If you want, I’ll see if I can discover where it gets that graphic from.

4

Thanks, Mark. This is quite embarassing, but I had made a mistake while extracting the firefox tar.gz file. As a consequence the chrome folder with the icon info was missing. I have extracted the files again and that solved the problem.

5

No worries… thanks for the update, so others won’t think it’s a Firefox 6 issue :slight_smile:

6

Thanks for this but sorry- I can’t figure out what FF version I have- the about says:
version 3.0.3, Firefox/ 5.0 (x11; U: LinuxI687. En—US rv: 1903 Gecko/2008102718 Fedora 3.0.3-3.fc8 Acer Firefox/ 3.0. GTB 7.1

I only updated it once from the original, I think with a package from official ASPIRE ONE programs, so think I have 3, but not sure- maybe I did some update from my Firefox. I downloaded the 6.0, is that solid + better, as is the 5.0?? I do have intermittent freezes on this version, but with only 512M Ram, worried the newer versions suck much more resources. Is that true? You recommend 5 or 6.0? Any chance this’ll permenantly break browser?

Lastly, I did your flash update (got corrupted download first, stop any other programs or web activity first), I presume this will have to be redone if I update the FF, or is it separate??? Thanks again- people like you are a godsend, esp when the Aspire group sometimes ignores requests, and this OS is so marginal. Is there an Opera or other browser that will work well with it (and detailed instructions)?

How does one permenantly lock a folder onto the left panel of Thunar? I’ve read much pompous advice to replace Linpus, but only thing that seems to actually run all the hardware is Mint 10 . Is that more reliable, and not a glutton for resources?
Michael

7

OK, first, are you running Linpus Lite… does your desktop look like this ? :

http://linuxforums.org.uk/MGalleryItem.php?id=1421

If so, start up Firefox, then in the menu, click Help > About Firefox, you should see a screen similar to this:

http://linuxforums.org.uk/MGalleryItem.php?id=1211

Which will tell you which version of Firefox you are currently running… Which version does it say ?

Firefox 5 or 6 shouldn’t really be any more system resource hungry than Firefox 3.

Changing the version of Firefox will NOT effect the Flash version in /home/user/.mozilla/plugins so it will not need to be reinstalled.

At a guess (but it is a guess) I’d say it probably is possible to install Opera… I recently recieved a personal message from someone who had Opera on an AA1… but you then have to modify an Opera config file to point it at the Firefox flashplayer plugin.

I haven’t actually got an AA1, so I’d rather not go into how to install Opera… at least not in this topic, but I’ll look into it if you post the question as a separate topic.

Adding a folder to Thunar… again, I’m not 100% sure, I take it you’ve tried dragging and dropping… have you tried adding it to bookmarks (if there are boookmarks in Thunar ?).

Though Mint 10 (main GNOME edition) will definitely be easier to configure, and will give you easy access to more up-to-date software… it will definitely be more resource hungry, and will slow your system… so if you decide to give another OS a try, I’d suggest trying something like Mint LXDE, or Lubuntu (both of which use the lighter LXDE desktop), or Xubuntu (which uses the XFCE desktop which is a light desktop too).

8

I’m attempting to install Firefox 6 on a Linpus Aspire One, starting from the original Version 2. Following Macles instructions as far as linking in the plugins - gets an error “ln: target ‘/opt/firefox/plugins’ is not a directory”. In /opt/firefox I can see firefox, firefox-bin,plugin-container but no plugins.

Suggestions on how to proceed welcomed!

9

You must have missed out the:

sudo mkdir /opt/firefox/plugins

command.

10

Absolutely! Macles unaccountably missed out that bit in his instructions but I see it in yours. All now successful and FF6 is running. Many thanks.

11

:slight_smile: glad you’re up and running now.

12

Linpus Light, right. So the instructions for FF3.0.3 are the same as for FF 2? Only I’ve already created the /opt/firefox/plugins directory for flash so dont have to do that again, right?

Know any AUDIO RECORDING program for this beast? or Webpage Editor? Or a way to customize the desktop?

13

Firstly, the flashplayer isn’t in /opt/firefox/plugins … it’s in /home/user/.mozilla/plugins (or should be).

If you follow the instructions at the top of this topic… they should work, no matter which version of FF you have installed… if you have FF3 installed at /opt/firefox the first command will back that directory up, so in a worst case scenario, you could just rename it back, and you’d be back to FF3.

Once Firefox is installed, follow the instructions for installing the flashplayer plugin here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/acer-aspire-one-linpus-lite-flash-player/msg62581/#msg62581

Know any AUDIO RECORDING program for this beast? or Webpage Editor? Or a way to customize the desktop?

No, but if you post the question as a separate topic, I’ll see what I can find… may take a while though, as I don’t own an AA1, and Linpus will NOT load as a virtual machine, so I’m kinda working in the dark here :wink:

14

what does this mean? I don’t have an opt directory, that I can find- does your instruction create it? Your flash instructions included a ~ (tilde?) in front of directories- does it need that? Did ff6 download about a week ago- its not the newest file in Downloads, but why would it even find it without specific direction？ This leaves the old installation too, right, so you can start that if you wish？ Idiot Linpus gives everyone owner priviledges, right, why you don’t need sudo su?

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo mv -v /opt/firefox /opt/firefox-backup
mv: cannot stat `/opt/firefox’: No such file or directory
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo tar -jxvf firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt
tar: firefox-6.0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo tar -jxvf /Downloads/firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt
tar: /Downloads/firefox-6.0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

On another issue, I can’t search for a file in the file manager, and it’s impossible that I’ve gone 2 years withot noticing this. Am I retarded, or is there not any way to search? How can you answer any of these questions w/o an AAO w Linpus?

15

Jeez, there’s a few question there :wink: …

Before you do anything else, can you answer my questions at the end of this post, and I’ll then be able to tell you what you need to do to get FF6 installed.

I don't have an opt directory,

I’d be VERY surprised if you don’t have an /opt directory, if there isn’t one you must have deleted it at some stage… in a terminal enter:

thunar /

hit enter… can you see an opt directory ?

If there ISN’T an opt directory, you can create one with:

sudo mkdir /opt
Your flash instructions included a ~ (tilde?) in front of directories- does it need that?

A tilde (~) means, start in the currect users home directory… it saves having to type /home/ and also means I don’t need to know if you’ve changed from the default Linpus username (user)… if you wish, you can replace the tilde with the FULL path to your home directory.

Did ff6 download about a week ago- its not the newest file in Downloads, but why would it even find it without specific direction？

Nowhere in my instructions does it say to download Firefox 6 to the Downloads directory… the wget command will download it to the current directory, which if you’d followed the instructions would be your home directory… but it doesn’t really matter which directory you are in when you run the wget command, because the next command unpacks the downloaded archive to /opt

This leaves the old installation too, right, so you can start that if you wish？

If you mean do these instructions remove anything from you system… NO they do not… the original Firefox will still be there, though if you follow them to completion, you would need to start the old copy of FF from the command line as the shortcut will now point to Firefox 6.

Linpus gives everyone owner priviledges, right, why you don't need sudo su?

Erm, NO it doesn’t… that’s why you need sudo, to gain root privileges… sudo su effectively makes you the root user, whereas sudo just (temporarily) gives your user account root privileges… I’m not going to go into the differences between sudo and su here, that’s what Google is for :wink: … see here:

Also, though I see sudo su all over the internet, I’m no longer convinced this is the best way to switch to a root prompt, in most cases (if mot all) sudo -s is probably a better way of doing it.

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo mv -v /opt/firefox /opt/firefox-backup mv: cannot stat `/opt/firefox': No such file or directory [user@localhost ~]$ sudo tar -jxvf firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt tar: firefox-6.0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now tar: Child returned status 2 tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors [user@localhost ~]$ sudo tar -jxvf /Downloads/firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 --directory /opt tar: /Downloads/firefox-6.0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now tar: Child returned status 2 tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

These errors could mean one of 2 things… either you don’t have a file called firefox-6.0.tar.bz2 in either your home folder, or your Downloads folder… OR… as you say, you don’t have an /opt directory (you would definitely have an opt directory by default, so if it doesn’t exist, it must have been deleted at some point).

On another issue, I can't search for a file in the file manager, and it's impossible that I've gone 2 years withot noticing this.

Can’t really help you with the search function (other than maybe explaining how to search from the command line), as I don’t have an AA1.

How can you answer any of these questions w/o an AAO w Linpus?

Under the skin, most Linux distro’s are fairly similar, certainly as far as the directory structure is concerned.

OK, now can you answer some questions for me, so we can sort out the FF6 installation for you…

Open a terminal and enter:

ls ~/

hit enter, and post the output back here.

Back in the terminal enter:

ls ~/Downloads

hit enter, and post the output back here.

Back in the termina enter:

ls /

hit enter, and post the output back here.

Back in the terminal enter:

ls /opt

hit enter, and post the output back here.

Some of the above may fail, but post what’s returned anyway.

16

Nice guide, very helpful probably, but what if i “accidentaly” deleted my firefox 2 directory? :cry:

17

If all you did was delete the Firefox 2 directory … You should be OK if you follow the instructions above.

Just DON’T uninstall it through your package manager… it’s the act of UNINSTALLING FF2 that will kill Linpus Lite, as it also uninstalls other dependencies that are needed for Linpus Lite to work properly.

18

Seriously? cause i got in the /usr/lib directory and deleted the firefox directory that was there, well it actually didnt let me delete few files that are in there but i deleted all it left me to and renamed the directory, i can probably restore the files i deleted but i dont remember the previous name of the firefox directory, meanwhile i’ll try the guide.

19

The Friefox 2 directory won’t be used any more after following the instructions for installing Firefox 6… but if you want to restore it, it won’t hurt either :wink:

Do you need to know the Firefox 2 directory name ?

[EDIT]

The original Firefox 2 directory was

/usr/lib/firefox-2.0.0.14

on an Acer Aspire One running Linpus Lite :slight_smile:

20

Would appreciate it ;D btw, any idea on why when i click on the icons in the desktop nothing happens? like i click on documents, it reacts to the mouse position but not on the click, same with all other icons. i’ll try to reboot meanwhile.

EDIT: reboot worked lolz

EDIT 2: Im confused. i tried to open the browser from the default browser icon and it acutally opened firefox 6. but i wasnt done with the install yet. i had just moved the firefox directory to /opt and rebooted. is that enough or i have to finish following the guide instructions? xD
thanks for the help anyways. never used a linux before and my XP died few days ago, using my sisters netbook, which has broken monitor so its plugged to an external one, its odd with all this stuff attached lolz by the way, any chance i can install games on it? kinda finished all my xbox stuff lol Thanks :smiley: