HowTo: Have the Most Up-to-Date Mozilla Firefox Browser
Posted: 3. Nov 2014, 23:04
Would you like to always have the latest and greatest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser without having to worry about any dependency issues or compiling the source code yourself? Read on...
Inspiration for this how-to comes from The Firefox Lover's Megathread by ivanovnegro over at the CrunchBang forums. ivanovnegro can now be found grilling forum members over at the LinuxBBQ forums.
01. We need to download the latest and greatest version of the Firefox browser from the official Mozilla Firefox home page. If you're running a 64-bit version of Salix, make sure you download the 64-bit version. The file you download is a static portable version of the Firefox browser.
02. If you have installed Firefox from the repos or installed from self-compiled source code, uninstall the existing app.
03. Extract the file you downloaded in step 01. The result should be the creation of a folder called firefox.
04. Move the firefox folder to a location of your choice. Many distros create a Bin/bin folder under your home folder upon installation and this is where I place all of my static portable apps. Salix doesn't create a Bin/bin folder upon installation, but you can create one if desired.
05. I use the Openbox window manager, so I made the necessary entry in the Openbox menu to start Firefox. The command for the Openbox menu entry would be, in my instance, /home/<username>/Bin/firefox/firefox. If you use a true desktop environment like KDE/Mate/XFCE, you'll have to figure out how to make the appropriate menu entry to start Firefox. I'm not familiar enough with any of the aforementioned desktops to provide the necessary information to create a menu entry.
06. Open the Firefox browser and make any necessary changes under Preferences.
That's it. You now have the latest and greatest Mozilla Firefox browser that can easily be updated from within the browser.
A great benefit of using a static portable version of an app is that it can be shared if you multi-boot other Linux distros. In my case, I have a Bin folder on a shared Data partition. For each Linux distro, I create a soft link to the shared Bin folder and then I create the appropriate entry in the Openbox menu to start the applicable app. In the case of Mozilla Firefox, you'll have to configure the browser again for the specific Linux distro you're using.
Finally, since this is a static portable app, you do not have to blacklist it or worry about it getting downgraded.
Inspiration for this how-to comes from The Firefox Lover's Megathread by ivanovnegro over at the CrunchBang forums. ivanovnegro can now be found grilling forum members over at the LinuxBBQ forums.
01. We need to download the latest and greatest version of the Firefox browser from the official Mozilla Firefox home page. If you're running a 64-bit version of Salix, make sure you download the 64-bit version. The file you download is a static portable version of the Firefox browser.
02. If you have installed Firefox from the repos or installed from self-compiled source code, uninstall the existing app.
03. Extract the file you downloaded in step 01. The result should be the creation of a folder called firefox.
04. Move the firefox folder to a location of your choice. Many distros create a Bin/bin folder under your home folder upon installation and this is where I place all of my static portable apps. Salix doesn't create a Bin/bin folder upon installation, but you can create one if desired.
05. I use the Openbox window manager, so I made the necessary entry in the Openbox menu to start Firefox. The command for the Openbox menu entry would be, in my instance, /home/<username>/Bin/firefox/firefox. If you use a true desktop environment like KDE/Mate/XFCE, you'll have to figure out how to make the appropriate menu entry to start Firefox. I'm not familiar enough with any of the aforementioned desktops to provide the necessary information to create a menu entry.
06. Open the Firefox browser and make any necessary changes under Preferences.
That's it. You now have the latest and greatest Mozilla Firefox browser that can easily be updated from within the browser.
A great benefit of using a static portable version of an app is that it can be shared if you multi-boot other Linux distros. In my case, I have a Bin folder on a shared Data partition. For each Linux distro, I create a soft link to the shared Bin folder and then I create the appropriate entry in the Openbox menu to start the applicable app. In the case of Mozilla Firefox, you'll have to configure the browser again for the specific Linux distro you're using.
Finally, since this is a static portable app, you do not have to blacklist it or worry about it getting downgraded.