# Asus Eee Pc help: installing Firefox 3



## Winged Owl (Nov 15, 2007)

Alright, I got an Asus Eee Pc and its pretty tight. I got the Linux version and it is my first time on the OS. I was wondering how install Firefox 3 on my system. The system came with Ff2 but I want to upgrade to 3. also, I was wondering if the OS on my netbook was a standard Linux, or has it been significantly changed?
This is my first Linux System so please excuse my incompetence.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Winged Owl,

If you issue the command:
$ uname -a
it will tell you what kernel release of Linux, the name of your Linux distribution, etc.
The output of the command on my system is:
Linux ubuntu 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
Read the man page for the command, uname, by issuing the command:
$ man uname

Here are some commands you may want to issue to further explore the installation of Firefox on your Asus Eee PC (I will give the output of each command on my system):
$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
$ ls -lt `which firefox` <-- Note: the use of back quotes around `which firefox`
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 2008-04-22 13:53 /usr/bin/firefox -> firefox-3.0
Note: This is how I have setup firefox-3.0 on my system which is not standard
$ ls -lt /usr/bin/firefox-3.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 2008-11-10 07:32 /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 -> ../lib/firefox/firefox
Note: /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 is a symbolic link pointing to /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
Note: the lrwxrwxrwx is the indication that the files /usr/bin/firefox, /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 are symbolic links

The form of the command that creates a symbolic link is:
# ln -s <target file> <symbolic link>
where the # is the prompt for the root account (whereas above the $ was a user prompt)

You should isste the command to read how to become the root administrator:
$ man sudo

Note: Firefox distributions are usually created to be installed in /usr/lib, and when you explore the uncompressed tar file of the firefox 3 distribution that you will download for Linux, here are a couple of commands you can use to see its directory structure:
To uncompress the Firefox 3.0.3 distribution:
$ bunzip2 firefox-3.0.3.tar.bz2 (which uncompresses to the file firefox-3.0.3.tar
To see the directory structure of the Firefox 3.0.3 distribution (i.e. goes overtop /usr/lib)
$ tar -tvf ./firefox-3.0.3.tar | more (Note: each file is not an absolute path name from /)
Note: the output should look like: firefox/...
This indicates that to install the firefox-3.0.3.tar file into /usr/lib
1) You need to be in the root administration account: Maybe the command: sudo -i will work for your Linux distribution (I don't know if it is in all LInux distributions)
2) You should be positioned in the directory /usr/lib when you issue the command to extract the firefox-3.0.3.tar file:
# cd /usr/lib
# tar -xf ./firefox-3.0.3.tar
Note: I usually download the Firefox distributions to my Desktop as a regular user, then use the bunzip2 command to uncompress it there on my Desktop before installing. Then I may redo the symbolic links which I gave above to be able to switch back to an earlier release if I run into a problem - you should consider this in your case.

For instance, when I issue the commands:
# cd /usr/lib
# ls -ldt firefox*
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 1000 2008-09-24 20:11 firefox
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 80 2008-04-22 13:54 firefox.orig
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 430 2008-04-22 13:53 firefox-3.0b5 <-- This was the 3.0b5 Beta release candidate
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 57 2008-04-22 13:53 firefox-addons
Note: On your installed distribution of Firefox 2, I would rename the /usr/lib/firefox directory to /usr/lib/firefox.orig or /usr/lib/firefox-2(followed by the specific identity, e.g.
2.0.0.14 or whatever level it is - just click on Help, and About in Firefox 2 to tell you.
When you rename the /usr/lib/firefox directory, then if you don't like firefox 3 (you will because it uses way less memory than firefox 2) you can get back to firefox 2.

To save the originally installed Firefox release on you system, use the command:
# mv /usr/lib/firefox /usr/lib/firefox-2.n.n.n where n.n.n could be 0.0.14 for example).

Read this over very carefully and ask any questions that come to mind before you proceed - since you are new to Linux.

-- Tom


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## Winged Owl (Nov 15, 2007)

thanks,
ill try it


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## Winged Owl (Nov 15, 2007)

well, this might be noobishness, but i cant seem to find a shell of any kind.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi Winged Owl,

It sounds like you need to start up a window manager, like gnome or kde or perhaps the Asus Eee PC has a slimmer, smaller windows manager - which is probably the case.

Ok, try this web pages approach Working with the IceWM Windows Manager.

-- Tom


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## Winged Owl (Nov 15, 2007)

Well, ctrl-alt-t worked for the shell, so i will try the commands in post 2 with that


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## Winged Owl (Nov 15, 2007)

I have tried the instructions you gave me, and it was somewhat helpful. 
-I have got the folder unzipped and tried to run the program, a message box popped up and told me that I needed to update my GTK+ library, so I did. It then told me that I had version 2.80 and I needed version 2.10.

-Also, I have looked around my files, and found things labeled GNOME and such, but have found no way to run GNOME yet.
-My machine came per-installed with what seems to be a specialty version of Linux made just for Asus. 

-I have also read a few books and tried some of the comand, such as ctrl-alt-t(that one works) and ctrl-alt-F2(that one doesn't work)

-I will get a list of some of the GNOME files and post them later today. perhaps you will know what to do with them. 

Thanks for all of your help.


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## xmfclick (Jan 19, 2009)

*@WO:* You might want to take a look at this article on the Eee User wiki ...

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:installfirefox3

I will probably have to take this route tomorrow, as my FF2 installation is screwed after I tried to install Flash Player 10 -- Google Mail now causes FF to unload spontaneously, and I have NO Flash Player plugin at all, despite the _libflashplayer.so_ file being in the place/s the installation instructions tell me 

Being a Linux newbie, I am finding this very difficult and frustrating


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