Installing Firefox in Linux Mandrake 10

KieranMurphy

KieranMurphy

2,348
murphykieran
Can anyone help me on how to install Firefox on a Mandrake system? I tried it ages ago, but I had no luck. I downloaded the archive and someone on another forum told me what to do at the command line, but either it wouldn't work (I can't remember what error message it gave me) or when it installed, it only worked once or twice and after that wouldn't work at all. Also, I thought when I installed it that it should add an icon to my Start Menu (I use KDE by the way).

Is there a file I can download and just double click to run and it'll do everything for me? I'm a complete Linux newbie. I have it installed alongside Windows XP and I want to use it a bit more than I do, to see what all the fuss is about. I could do with some experience using another OS apart from Windows.

I'm currently browsing using Konqueror and I hate it. It seems to render pages all arseways. At least in Firefox and Internet Explorer in Windows, 99% of all pages looked right and the exact same. But I see buttons and images out of alignment or out of place regularly when I use Konqueror.


KM.
 
Konqueror is indeed a pain. I even avoid it for file browsing, instead using Krusader for file browsing. (this is a different issue, though)

This is the simplest way to install Firefox that I know of.

1) Go to http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/1553705/com/mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm.html
2) Download mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm from one of the mirrors in the left column, save it to the desktop or somewhere else easy to find.
3) Double click. You will be prompted to enter your root password, and then it will install.

NOTE: If double-click doesn't work, open a terminal. The type 'cd /home/whatever/directory/you/saved/it/in', enter. Then 'su', enter. Enter your root pw. Type 'rpm -ivh mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm', enter. It should install.
 
It's giving me the following error message when I try to double click that file:
mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk.i586 (due to unsatisfied mozilla-firefox[*])

And if I try it as root from as a command line I get
Failed dependencies:
mozilla-firefox is needed by mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk
locales-fr is needed by mozilla-firefox-fr-1.0-1mdk


KM.
 
I've just figured out why that installer won't run. The link you gave was for a French language extension for Firefox. I'm downloading the full version now. I should have known that a ~900kb file couldn't have been the full version of Firefox when it's about a 5Mb download for Windows.

edit: I see you've already figured it out yourself.


KM.
 
No, that didn't work. It asked me for the root password, said it was going to install it, and then a few seconds later it seemed to be done. It put a Firefox icon in the Internet/Web Browsers folder of my start menu, but when I click it, a taskbar icon appears with a rotating eggtimer icon and says "Starting Firefox" and after about 10 seconds it just dissappears and Firefox doesn't start.

Bah.


KM.
 
Hmm...well, to see if it's crashing, open a console and just type 'firefox'. And see if you get any error messages.
 
It's working fine now! Yay!

Turns out I had a console open and there was a folder called firefox in my home directory from the last time I was messing around trying to get it to work. When I deleted that directory and its contents, Firefox started working fine! I don't know why, but it's working now.

Now I think I'll find that Krusader program you were talking about. I think someone recommended it to me before as a Windows Explorer type program for Linux. I hate this damn Konqueror.

Ta very muchly.


KM.
 

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