Ubuntu Wiki

Installing Firefox from mozilla.org

For some reason, the mozilla.org build of Firefox is significantly faster than the default Ubuntu one. Firefox 1.5 is even faster, and has many new features. These instructions lead you through installing Firefox 1.5 final, but should also work for 1.0.7 or any other version.

Notes

• You will no longer get automatic updates through the repositories (but firefox itself has a built into auto-updater).
• The Totem video plugin doesn't seem to work with firefox 1.5. You may want to install package 'mozilla-mplayer' instead before you start.
• You need package 'libstdc++5' installed.
• If you are using scim-1.0.2 as your input method platform, firefox will crash on startup.

Installing

• First, back up your bookmarks and settings:

   cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default
   mkdir ~/Desktop/ffsettings
   cp bookmarks.html cert8.db cookies.txt formhistory.dat key3.db signons.txt history.dat  mimeTypes.rdf ~/Desktop/ffsettings

• Download firefox-1.5.tar.gz from mozilla.org, and change to the directory you downloaded it to.
• Install it to /opt/firefox:

   sudo cp firefox-1.5.tar.gz /opt/
   cd /opt
   sudo tar xzvf firefox-1.5.tar.gz
   sudo rm firefox-1.5.tar.gz

• Link to your plugins (and remove totem-mozilla as it doesn't seem to work with Firefox 1.5):

   cd /opt/firefox/plugins/
   sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/* .
   sudo rm libtotem_mozilla.*

• Rename your old profile:

   cd
   mv .mozilla .mozilla.ubuntu

• To ensure it is used as the default version, modify the symbolic link in /usr/bin:

   sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/firefox
   sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

• Try it out:

   firefox

• Restore your old data:

   cd ~/Desktop/ffsettings
   mv * ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default

  This step can only be done after running firefox atleast once and fully closing it.

Removing

• Restore the symbolic link:

   sudo rm /usr/bin/firefox
   sudo dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/bin/firefox

• Restore your old profile:

   cd
   mv .mozilla .mozilla-1.5
   mv .mozilla.ubuntu .mozilla

• (optional) Delete the firefox directory

   sudo rm -r /opt/firefox

Discuss at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=79283

Installing Firefox as a debian package

It is nice to have a package (easier to upgrade, etc). There is an experimental package building tool at [http://kidsquid.com/programs/ubuntu/firefox-1.5.0-0nonfree1_i386.tar.gz]. It can automatically download the i386 version of Firefox 1.5 (or you can copy in your existing Firefox download), then it will create a .deb package for it. Follow the steps in the README to install the new package. Please do not distribute any files created by this tool, as copying may violate the Firefox copyright.

CategoryDocumentation