Convert Microsoft to LINUX: Install Firefox Browser

This is another great browser. I use it on my MAC and Linux systems and love it. It is far superior to the built in Konqueror browser that comes with most Linux systems. You can even install it in Microsoft Windows operating systems!

Go to Firefox Download Site Instructions You will be asked what is your version of Linux, MAC or Windows. Please select the appropiate one. Note, if you are using Ubuntu it comes with a built in Firefox usually at a much lower version than the current one available. This is now version 3.55 as of December 1, 2009. To install do the following:

  1. Go to a terminal prompt and type sudo su followed by your password.
  2. You should now be at a root prompt. Remove the current version of Firefox by typing
    apt-get remove firefox
    Note, I assume you are using Ubuntu here. Otherwise type the appropriate remove command.
  3. If you are using Ubuntu just type:
    apt-get install firefox-3.5
  4. Otherwise, download and save the appropriate tarball to your desktop, ie:
    /home/user1/Desktop/firefox-3.55-tar.bz2
  5. Untar the tarball with the following two commands in your Desktop directory:
    bzip2 -d firefox-3.55-tar.bz2
    tar -xvf firefox-3.55.tar
    This will create a firefox directory under your Desktop directory. Note, your version names may differ. You must first unzip the binary zip2 file of extension .bz2 and then untar the tarball you get in two seperate steps.
  6. I assume you are using Ubuntu and have a directory of /usr/lib/firefox . This is the default directory. Now we need to synchronize this directory. Here I will assume you want to overwrite it. Do this by typing:
    rsync -a --delete /home/user1/Desktop/firefox/ /usr/lib/firefox
  7. To test type
    cd /usr/lib/firefox
    ./firefox
    Firefox should now launch. When you click on help about it should say it is version 3.55.

Warning, please be real careful about installing addons! I installed the ICQ add on from Facebook and it wants you to use its search engine and its address bar to get to a website. After removing the addon and reinstalling Firefox, I still had the same problem. It is in some config file some where but I could not find it. The solution was to totally remove Firefox, i.e. not just apt-get remove firefox-3.5 but also at the command terminal line:
rm -R /usr/share/firefox
rm -R /usr/lib/firefox
rm -R /root/.mozilla/
rm -R /home/victor/.mozilla/

Enjoy!