installing firefox

[Markus]

ran your text as root in the shell, only thing is i have installed a version of firefox, complete with desktop icon but it is not the version 1.0 i downloaded, any ideas.

1.0 isn't available yet in debian AFAIK. You can check what's installed with:
COLUMNS=140 dpkg -l|grep firefox

Also do install mozilla thunderbird and digikam the same way by putting digikam in place of firefox etc...

Short answer, yes. Just do the same thing by first searching, then checking the install with the -s switch flr simulation, if it looks ok then install.

[CrashedAgain]

... i am missing the install wizards from the windows world. Firefox is the only program so far i have come across that installed itself in a simple fashion and in a similar way to what i am used to.

Linux does not use 'install wizards'...sort of. Linux uses 'package managers. In a Red Hat based system the package manager is called rpm, in a Debian based system it is called dpkg.

Here's a brief overview of installing packages in a Debian based system:

Actual package installation is done by dpkg. This is a text based application. For an already downloaded package you could do 'dpkg -i <path & package name>. But this may fail because there may be dependencies which dpkg does not know how to find and has not been told to install.

So the next level is apt-get which will search the net for the packages it needs (including dependency packages), download and install them. It uses dpkg to do the actual install and maintains a file called /etc/apt/sources.list to know where to search for packages. This file must be updated regularly as packages get moved around in the internet repositories. This is done with the command 'apt-get update'.

But to use apt-get you must know what packages are available, so you will need a 'package browser list.

The most basic of these is dselect, which is text based and not overly user friendly. It also maintains a package available database file which must be updated regularly with 'dselect update'. I've been told that dselect update will update both the dselect database and the apt-get sources.list so it is preferable to use this instead of the 'apt-get update' command which only updates sources.list.

More user friendly alternatives for seaching for packages are the gui based applications Kpackage and Synaptic. Both of these provide information on the packages available and can download and install the package.

Dselect, Kpackage and Synaptic all use apt-get to do the actual downloading & installing.

Debian based systems must use either Debian packages or applications compiled from source. To install an RPM package, first convert it to a .deb using 'alien'.
ie: alien -d <rpm packagename>

So, for an already download package, you can try dpkg -i <package> but be prepared for dependency problems which you will have to solve yourself by manually tacking down and installing any required dependencies.

Better way is to use apt-get & let it redo the download:

First, you must become 'root'. Permissions are a big thing in Linux, only root (administrator level permissions) is allowed to install things. So, type 'su' to become root. Then do 'dselect update'. Usually the first time it is run it will need to download quite a bit & some of the downloads may fail. If this happens, just run the command again, eventually it will get all the data it needs.

then 'apt-get install firefox'. It should download the application & all required dependencies & install the application.

Selecting 'firefox' from Kpackage & following the install procedure (check mark & install marked, etc) should do the same thing. But you do have to 'dselect update' first. Kpackage is going to ask you for a root password so you will have to set one before you run it. Open a terminal & type 'sudo passwd', then enter your new root password.

To answer cuddles query, in windows if you right click a file or program you can click " create shortcut" , this appears on the desktop as an icon.

.

"link" or "shortcut"....it's just terminology, does the same thing.

As far as running from a terminal screen, this does not mean a lot to me although i am wiilling to learn.

Terminal or console mode is like running a Windows system in MSDos mode (ouch...I'm gonna get flamed for that!).

It's text based console screen. Linux is actually a text based operating system; graphical interfaces like KDE are an add-on. You can do more in text mode because the graphical interfaces do not include all the functions & commands available in text mode. For instance, if you open a terminal (the TV icon on the panel) then type 'firefox'; firefox should start even though there is no desktop icon for it.

You will also find that when you as for assistance on one of these forums, you will usually get a text based instruction. eg How do you add a new folder? Well, you can do it from konqueror (the browser app that is running when you start Knoppix) but most likely the response you will get is 'mkdir <folder name>'. Partly this is because text commands are universal no matter what linux system you are running, partly it is because linux users are used to text mode.
BTW, check out Konqueror, it's a very capable web browser as well as a file manager. It's not quite as fast a firefox but it has so many other capabilities that more than make up for it.

[abd_bela]

hi,
the text "installer.tar.gz.part", means
first the download is not finished yet ( only a part .part)
secondly, you have downloaded a source file ( tar.gz ) not a debian installable package, so you ccan't use in this case apt-get or dpkg to install it.

you need detare ( tar xzvf install.tar.gz ) it and follow the directions in Install or Readme file
best regards
bela

[Cuddles]

... i am missing the install wizards from the windows world. Firefox is the only program so far i have come across that installed itself in a simple fashion and in a similar way to what i am used to.

Ok, this is probably going to be a "re-hash" of what CrashedAgain said, but, I might be giving you a little more information, or a different slant an it...

You can install "packages" three ways, here is a list of those ways, from the "easiest" and more "native", all the way down to "harder" and last effort, which would be done if you cant do them the other two ways...

( 1 ) Use apt-get, or any one of the "front-ends" that use apt...
( 2 ) Use "alien", which would be if the "package" only comes in a ".rpm" - which would be for a RedHat Distro... Debian / Knoppix / Kanotix use ".deb" packages...
( 3 ) As a last effort, source code - which some programs only come in source code, you download the source code, un-tar the "tarball", then compile and install the program...

As CrashedAgain said, Linux doesnt have those "easy" Windows Wizard Installers, but, as you get used to using "apt-get", you may find that "it" is actually a lot easer than the Windows way of doing things...

Lets try an example of start to finish, step-by-step, using apt-get... You can always look at the "manual pages" or man, for any command... In a "terminal" screen, just type man with the command you want to see after it... Like this:

man apt-get
You will get a screen of the manual for the command, you can scroll the text with your coursor keys, and exit the manial screen text by pressing q

Some of the "commonly used" commands you will be using:
apt-get update
apt-cache search something
apt-cache show something
apt-cache policy something
apt-get -s install something [ ... ]
apt-get install something [ ... ]
apt-get remove something [ ... ]
apt-get --purge remove something [ ... ]

Commands, above, with the [ ... ], mean you can add more on the command line, actually, all of the commands ( except for update ) can have multiple "something" after them...

You should really get used to using apt, even if you want to go with a GUI "front-end" program, like KPackage, Synaptic, etc... because they all use apt, and you may find, that you cant do some things with these "front-ends", that are easier, and faster, if you just use apt...

Lets see if we can do a "walk-through" on some of these commands, and how you would probably be using them...

First, and foremost, you will want to be sure that the "list" of packages available to apt, is currently updated. "apt" keeps a database on your system of what it "knows" is available, and from the "sources" that you tell it where to look for them. The file that tells apt where to look, is called the sources.list file, a simple text file, found in /etc/apt/sources.list - it contains locations on the internet, where it can search and "get" these packages...

To make your apt updated, you do the following command:
apt-get update

When that completes, your local database now contains all the packages that apt can "get", and where it can find them...

Since I have mozilla installed, I will use it for some of these commands, just so you know, you can replace "mozilla" with something that you would be interested in seeing...

To see what is installed on your system, you can use the "show" and "policy" options of apt-cache, like this:

root@Morpheus:~# apt-cache show mozilla
Package: mozilla
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 24
Maintainer: Takuo KITAME <[email protected]>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2:1.7.3-5
Replaces: mozilla-dmotif, mozilla-smotif
Depends: mozilla-browser (= 2:1.7.3-5), mozilla-mailnews (= 2:1.7.3-5), mozilla-psm (= 2:1.7.3-5), dpkg (>= 1.10.9)
Suggests: mozilla-chatzilla (= 2:1.7.3-5)
Conflicts: galeon (<< 1.2.8-3), skipstone (<< 0.8.3-4)
Filename: pool/main/m/mozilla/mozilla_1.7.3-5_i386.deb
Size: 1030
MD5sum: 721505b9363f3ad8f5dc6e569883b2f3
Description: The Mozilla Internet application suite - meta package
 This is a meta package that depends on the main components of the
 mozilla web browser. It is here to ease upgrades, installations, and
 provide a consistent upgrade path from previous versions.
 .
 It can safely be removed with no ill effects.

Package: mozilla
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 24
Maintainer: Takuo KITAME <[email protected]>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2:1.6-5
Replaces: mozilla-dmotif, mozilla-smotif
Depends: mozilla-browser (= 2:1.6-5), mozilla-mailnews (= 2:1.6-5), mozilla-psm (= 2:1.6-5), mozilla-xft (= 2:1.6-5), dpkg (>= 1.10.9)
Suggests: mozilla-chatzilla (= 2:1.6-5)
Conflicts: galeon (<< 1.2.8-3), skipstone (<< 0.8.3-4)
Description: Mozilla Web Browser - dummy package
 This is a dummy package that depends on the main components of the
 mozilla web browser. It is here to ease upgrades, installations, and
 provide a consistent upgrade path from previous versions.
 .
 It can safely be removed with no ill effects.

Package: mozilla
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 32
Maintainer: Takuo KITAME <[email protected]>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1
Replaces: mozilla-dmotif, mozilla-smotif
Depends: mozilla-browser (= 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1), mozilla-mailnews (= 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1), mozilla-psm (= 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1)
Suggests: mozilla-xmlterm (= 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1), mozilla-chatzilla (= 2:1.0.0-0.woody.1)
Filename: pool/updates/main/m/mozilla/mozilla_1.0.0-0.woody.1_i386.deb
Size: 1160
MD5sum: 80d2a3d6893d5dae4c06a92c8b44daee
Description: Mozilla Web Browser - dummy package
 This is a dummy package that depends on the main components of the
 mozilla web browser. It is here to ease upgrades, installations, and
 provide a consistent upgrade path from previous versions.
 .
 It can safely be removed with no ill effects.
Task: desktop

root@Morpheus:~# apt-cache policy mozilla
mozilla:
  Installed: 2:1.6-5
  Candidate: 2:1.7.3-5
  Version Table:
     2:1.7.3-5 0
        990 http://ftp.de.debian.org testing/main Packages
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org unstable/main Packages
 *** 2:1.6-5 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:1.0.0-0.woody.1 0
        500 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org stable/main Packages
root@Morpheus:~#

The "show" option will display the "description" stuff of what you are giving as an option, and in the case of "policy", you might guess, a new version exists of my install of "mozilla", it shows I have version 2-1.6-5, and the newest version is 2:1.7.3-5... Here is what happens if I use "firefox" for the "policy" option:

root@Morpheus:~# apt-cache policy firefox
W: Unable to locate package firefox
root@Morpheus:~#

Hmmmm, appears that no package exists called "firefox", lets explore this...

So, lets say I want to install "firefox", but, from the above output, appears that no such "package" exists called "firefox"... So, maybe a "search" might gleem some idea???

root@Morpheus:~# apt-cache search firefox
gtkcookie - Editor for cookie files
latex-xft-fonts - Xft-compatible versions of some LaTeX fonts
mozilla-firefox-locale-eu - Mozilla Firefox Basque language/region package
mozilla-firefox-locale-it - Mozilla Firefox Italian Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-ko - Mozilla Firefox Korean Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-nb - Mozilla Firefox Norwegian Bokmål Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-sv - Mozilla Firefox Swedish Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-tr - Mozilla Firefox Turkish Language/Region Package
libflash-mozplugin - GPL Flash (SWF) Library - Mozilla-compatible plugin
mozilla-firefox - lightweight web browser based on Mozilla
mozilla-firefox-dom-inspector - tool for inspecting the DOM of pages in Mozilla Firefox
mozilla-firefox-gnome-support - Support for Gnome in Mozilla Firefox
mozilla-firefox-locale-ca - Mozilla Firefox Catalan language/region package
mozilla-firefox-locale-de - Mozilla Firefox German Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-fr - Mozilla Firefox Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-ja - Mozilla Firefox Japanese Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-pl - Mozilla Firefox Polish Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-locale-uk - Mozilla Firefox Ukrainian Language/Region Package
mozilla-firefox-gnome-vfs - Support for Gnome-VFS in Mozilla Firefox
root@Morpheus:~#

Ahhh Haaaa, looking through the output of "search", it appears that "firefox" is not a package, but, I do see "firefox" as an install - its called mozilla-firefox, if I wanted more information on this, I might do a "show" option, to see if it says anything more than the single line explaination in the above search...

root@Morpheus:~# apt-cache show mozilla-firefox
Package: mozilla-firefox
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 26612
Maintainer: Eric Dorland <[email protected]>
Architecture: i386
Version: 0.99+1.0RC1-4
Provides: www-browser
Depends: fontconfig, psmisc, debianutils (>= 1.16), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.6.0), libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.2.1), libfreetype6 (>= 2.1.5-1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.4.7), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.4.4), libidl0, libjpeg62, libkrb53 (>= 1.3.2), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.4.1), libpng12-0 (>= 1.2.7), libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1), libx11-6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxp6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxrender1, libxt6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.1)
Recommends: mozilla-firefox-gnome-support (= 0.99+1.0RC1-4), xprt-xprintorg
Suggests: latex-xft-fonts
Filename: pool/main/m/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefox_0.99+1.0RC1-4_i386.deb
Size: 9462068
MD5sum: a26202489990d7178eac6be3f01af242
Description: lightweight web browser based on Mozilla
 Firefox is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to
 Galeon, K-Meleon and Camino, but written using the XUL user interface
 language and designed to be lightweight and cross-platform.
 .
 This browser was previously known as Firebird and Phoenix.

Package: mozilla-firefox
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 28024
Maintainer: Eric Dorland <[email protected]>
Architecture: i386
Version: 0.9.3-5
Provides: www-browser
Depends: fontconfig, psmisc, debianutils (>= 1.16), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.6.0), libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.2.1), libfreetype6 (>= 2.1.5-1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.4.6), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.4.4), libidl0, libjpeg62, libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.4.1), libpng12-0 (>= 1.2.5.0-4), libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1), libx11-6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxext6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxp6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libxrender1, libxt6 | xlibs (>> 4.1.0), zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.1)
Recommends: xprt-xprintorg
Suggests: latex-xft-fonts
Filename: pool/main/m/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefox_0.9.3-5_i386.deb
Size: 9838518
MD5sum: 1bd2b52f99e4252633e09cc3a1adef29
Description: lightweight web browser based on Mozilla
 Firefox is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to
 Galeon, K-Meleon and Camino, but written using the XUL user interface
 language and designed to be lightweight and cross-platform.
 .
 This browser was previously known as Firebird and Phoenix.

root@Morpheus:~#

Very interesting, its "like" mozilla, and used to be known as Firebird and Phoenix, it will want to suggest that I also install, or have, "latex-xft-fonts", and it will recommend that I have, or install, "xprt-xprintorg" - hmmm... Now, if I was interested in installing this, I would first try a "dry run", or a "simulation" of the install, by doing the following:
apt-get -s install mozilla-firefox

If it appears that nothing had problems, then I would do the same command, but remove the -s, like this:
apt-get install mozilla-firefox

When it is done, it should have not only installed the program, but set it all up, and created a menu entry, probably under the catagory "Internet" - my guess...

To finish up the commands I listed, lets say I installed "firefox" above, and wished to remove it, not everything, just the "package" itself - i.e. any extra files, or configurations would be left behind - you might want to do this if you plan on re-installing it again later... I would do the following:
apt-get remove mozilla-firefox

Now, if I wanted to remove it completely, that means EVERYTHING that it installed, and possibly any files that I might have created using that package, then I could remove it completely by using the following command:
apt-get --purge remove mozilla-firefox

Other commands you can use are the "upgrade" and "dist-upgrade", for apt-get... You might want to read all the "horror story" posts here on the forums before doing either of these two apt-get commands though -=- The problem with Knoppix is that it is a Debian "Sid" based operating system, this is based on the Debian "unstable" version, and has additional "patches" that make it unique, and prone to having problems when you do a "blanket" command like the two above... Even if you use a "front-end" program like Synaptic, it can still do these two commands inside them, as well, and I speak from experience here, it isnt a pretty sight to do them -=- the best thing I have learned is to install only what you want, and then install any "updated" versions of those packages, one by one, and not allow anything to try and "upgrade" everything all at once, this includes apt-get or any "front-end" program that uses apt-get in the background...

I hope this helps, and sorry for the "lengthly" posting
Ms. Cuddles

[Cuddles]

Terminal or console mode is like running a Windows system in MSDos mode (ouch...I'm gonna get flamed for that!).

LOL - actually, my friend, it IS a good analogy, similarity... I "often" use the same one, when explaining to other people, even though the Linux CLI ( command line interface ) is a lot more powerful than any DOS prompt screen would, or could, have been, any "Windows" user would be able to be "familiar" with this kind of thinking...

To give you an idea, styven, the Linux CLI is like having all the power of the Windows GUI and all of its programs, in a single text based system. Almost everything can be done in the Linux CLI, and Linux, has made as much use out of this, by using textual files. If you want to make a configuration change, on almost everything on your system, you can do it through a GUI ( graphic user interface ) if one exists for it, or, you can simply edit a text file, and make the change...

To give you a few examples, if, say you wanted to add a new hard drive, or cd-rom drive to Linux, chances are, you are going to have to do it through editting a text file, no GUI exists for making changes in this file... ( /etc/fstab ), and if, say, you want to make any changes on where "apt-get" gets its packages from, yep, you guessed it, no GUI exists for that configuration change either... You would need to edit the text file /etc/apt/sources.list to make these changes...

Linux is a son of UNIX, it gets its power, and some of its "quarks", from its father, so to speak... UNIX was severely text based, and Sun Microsystems took that UNIX and then added a "front-end" to it, making it a GUI - dont quote me here, I am treading on theory, not factual data - dont flame me, I'm just trying to give background

Linux was conceived from that UNIX GUI, which still has its "background" from UNIX, and thus, has the CLI... Chances are, if you can use a GUI to do something in Linux, it is probably using a CLI in the "background" to do it, and, if you are already ahead of me on this one, you can use that same CLI to do what a GUI is doing for you. The whole KMenu ( or if we were in the "Windows World" it would be called the "Start Menu" ) and anything in that menu, can be run from a command on the CLI... Some programs can be run from a menu, you have to run them on a command line. Some of these commands require command line switches or parameters to be supplied, and a menu item cant do that - take for example WINE ( Windows Is Not Emulated ) - it requires that the "program" be supplied on the command line, this program name would be what WINE should attempt to run, as if it was being run in a "native" Windows OS...

So, a CLI for wine would look like this:
wine /mnt/hdc1/Windows/sol.exe

Wine would be fired off, and attempt to run your solitaire game, found, in my case, on my second hard drive, first partition, of my Win98 hard drive installed OS...

So, CrashedAgain, no flame, you dont even need your asbestos coat here - I would have, pretty much, said the same thing, maybe not the exact words, but, the "flavor" would have been close...

[styven]

blimey, much feedback to take in, a big thanks to all for your info.

a special thanks to crashed and cuddles purley for the amount of text typed, i am much more the wiser than i was yesterday and when i have digested all that will be even more so.

have installed firefox (although not the version i wanted, will have to wait) digikam ( can't initialise camera at the moment) using this terminal/shell/root business, feel quite pleased with myself.

have to say at this stage the missus is not happy, she was just geeting to grips with XP and "why do i need to mess with it"

[mzilikazi]

Terminal or console mode is like running a Windows system in MSDos mode (ouch...I'm gonna get flamed for that!).

Get your asbestos suit on!!

[Markus]

Firefox 1.0-2 just got into unstable if anyone's interested.

[jborges]

I'm using Kurumin 4 Alpha 2 (a Brazilian flavor of Knoppix) with Kde 3.3 and Firefox 1.0.

Are you also using kde?? Are you using the latest version of Firefox (1.0)?

All written above is valid but there is another way.

I would advice you to download firefox 1.0, copy it to an empty directory (one that you have permition to write into it) and unpack it (tar -zxfv firefox........ ). It will create a child directory with a bunch of files inside. Make this new created directory to have permition to write and copy from it (chmod 666 filename...).

Using you graphical interface (kde) find that new created directory and inside it find a file named firefox....installer. Double click on it and it will install firefox for you.

After installation complete click on file firefox (inside of this directory) and it will open firefox 1.0 for you.

If you desire leave firefox there (not a good idea though). If you wish, you can move the content of the whole directory to /usr/lib/firefox. If you don't have this directory, you can create it (mkdir /usr/lib/firefox).

After all this, you find the file firefox (executable) and drag and leave in you desktop. Or you can just right click on your desktop and create a new shortcut there. After it is created, rigth click on it and write firefox for its name and firefox for its executable.

Works fine.

if you have any further doubts, drop me a line.

[probono]

The easiest way to install Firefox 1.0 might be klik://firefox (you need the klik client which you can install from http://klik.berlios.de/ - Kanotix has it by default).

Since klik installs everything into an application directory inside your home directory, it will even run from Live CD and it won't mess with your system. (If you don't want it anymore, simply remove the firefox direcory from your home.)

Greetings,
probono