Installing Firefox from mozilla.com
For some reason, the mozilla.com build of Firefox is significantly faster than the default Ubuntu one. Firefox 1.5.0.2 is even faster, and has many new features. These instructions lead you through installing Firefox 1.5.0.2 final, but should also work for 1.0.7 or any other version.
Notes
You will no longer get automatic updates for Firefox through the repositories (but Firefox itself has a built into auto-updater, see below for how that works).
The Totem video plugin doesn't seem to work with firefox 1.5.x. You may want to install package 'mozilla-mplayer' instead before you start.
You need package 'libstdc++5' installed.
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
This is for i386. If you are on amd64, there are some specific tips in FirefoxAMD64FlashJava
If you are using scim-1.0.2 as your input method platform, firefox will crash on startup. You may manually build firefox 1.5(.x) to make both of them work. See SCIM and CompileFirefoxNewVersion for more information. If you don't know what SCIM is, you probably aren't using it - it is used for some non-english character sets only.
To get the flash plugin working properly you may have to add "export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1" to the firefox launching script.
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-1.5.0.2.tar.gz from
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ , and change to the directory you downloaded it to.
Install it to /opt/firefox:
# extract tar into /opt (you should make sure /opt already exists)
sudo tar -C /opt -x -z -v -f firefox-1.5.0.2.tar.gz
# remove the package if you no longer require it
rm firefox-1.5.0.2.tar.gz
Link to your plugins (and remove totem-mozilla as it doesn't seem to work with Firefox 1.5.x):
cd /opt/firefox/plugins/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/* .
sudo rm libtotem_mozilla.*
Change to your home directory, and rename your old profile, leaving it as a backup (using the existing profile may cause problems with Firefox 1.5.0.2):
cd
mv ~/.mozilla/firefox ~/.mozilla/firefox1.0.x.ubuntu
To ensure it is used as the default version, modify the symbolic link in /usr/bin:
# First, /usr/bin/firefox
sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/firefox
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
# Then, /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox, used as the default gnome browser
sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox
The dpkg-divert command will move the original system-wide /usr/bin/firefox to a new name. The ln command will place a symlink to the newly installed firefox in /usr/bin
Try it out:
firefox
Running firefox in terminal may cause errors to show, dont worry about that it will still work once firefox is restarted. The reason for the errors is due to Firefox 1.5.0.2 is checking for updates. Firefox 1.5.0.2 does that at every start-up.
Restore your old data:
cd ~/Desktop/ffsettings
mv * ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default
Restore your Searchplugins:
sudo cp -i --reply=no /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/* /opt/firefox/searchplugins/
sudo cp -i --reply=no ~/.mozilla/firefox1.0.x.ubuntu/*.default/search/* /opt/firefox/searchplugins/
If you want to keep the original Ubuntu icon for firefox, enter this command:
sudo cp /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.xpm /opt/firefox/chrome/icons/default/default.xpm
To ensure that other programs use version 1.5.02 of firefox and not the old 1.07 version, go to Preferences -> Preferred Applications in the System menu. For the "Web Browser" tab, choose "Custom" and then enter the command:
firefox %s
Firefox 1.5.0.2 should now be installed and working properly. If for whatever reason you become unhappy with firefox 1.5.0.2 and would like to remove it, see the "Removing" section below for directions.