Firefox not running on Suse 9.1

[laughingbuddha]

Hello friends.

Having been informed by a little bird of the wonder that is Firefox, I and my esteemed linux guru, palsyboy, attempted to install and configure Firefox on my Suse 9.1 box. After a seemingly successful installation of Firefox 1.0-2.fc3.XOS.1 with Yast2, palsyboy attempted to execute the program via both the GUI and the shell, but all was for naught. I suggested it might be a permissions problem; palsyboy made the appropriate changes forthwith. Yet the problem remained. Firefox will not even run as root. When I attempt to execute the program a firefox tab appears on the taskbar for about 30 seconds and then disappears--Firefox never materializes. We opted for the rpm above because it is the newest version of Firefox--Yast provides version .8 or something like that. What could be causing this predicament, and what might one do to solve it? Thank you, benevolent linux sages, for your wisdom and advice. peace.

[deathadder]

When you try to run it from the command line is there any form of error? Maybe something along the lines of 'Could not connect to...' Have you tried reinstalling the rpm? Have you tried the firefox installer from www.mozilla.org?

[tlyons]

I don't use SuSE, but in case the above suggestions don't work and no-one has a solution for you, temporarily sticking with Firefox 0.8 isn't the worst thing in the world (I'd still prefer it over any other browser).

I use 1.0 on my Lintel box, but still run 0.8 on my Mac because it runs a lot faster and the changes between versions weren't all that important to me compared to the slight drop in speed. YMMV, but at least you could have some joy with 0.8 until a more recent version gets packaged for SuSE.

EDIT:
Release notes with version changes are located in links at the bottom of this page (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/releases/).

- T.

[Daedrus]

Not sure why it won't run as root, but just a thought. As the user, check the ownership of .mozilla in the user's home directory. I had an issue with this when running the firefox installer and for some reason it set root as the owner of that file when it was created. I would also recommend just using the installer from www.mozilla.org. I have not had a problem using it on either SuSE or slackware.

[beetlespace]

I am using SuSE 9.1 also and here is what I did:

1) Using KDE desktop, in your home directory create a directory/folder named Firefox. (For organization purposes.)
2) Download the zipped file to this directory.
3) Right click on the file and under actions choose extract here. This will create a new folder.
4) In the new folder there is a file named something to the effect of firefox install or setup. This is a shell script. Click on this to run it.
5) Once it has completed, there are a group of files that have been created. The one simply named firefox is the one you need to create a program link to on your desktop.

Sorry, these instructions are a little vauge. I am at work and have to use a stupid Winblows machine. if you have any questions, you can PM me.

Mike
:)

[palsyboy]

For the record, I have always informed laughingbuddha that I am still quite a n00b, far from the true geek he facetiously claims. Most of you here know that clearly. ;)

Anyway, laughingbuddha, I think deathadder, Daedrus and beetlespace have the right ideas. First try beetlespace's idea of running
# chown -R laughingbuddha /home/laughingbuddha/.mozilla
(The "#" indicates it needs to be run as root). Then see if it works.

No matter what, though, I'd be happy to come over to your place and try out a combination of our fellow members ideas of installing from the official Mozilla tar file with proper organization.

Can anyone confirm that to untar the file, we should use "tar -xvjpf"? In my experience with KDE, it's had unzipping, etc. as a context menu option. On laughiningbuddha's machine, however, I don't remember seeing it, so we'll just do it via command line.

Thanks for all the help, folks. :)

[deathadder]

palsyboy, Im not on my Linux box at the moment, and haven't got time to find the tar man page, to double check what those arguments all mean. However when untaring a tar.gz I've always used

tar -zxvf mozilla.tar.gz

If the file is a tar.bz2 I've always used:

tar -jxvf mozilla.tar.bz2

From what I remember the 'j' means pipe it though bzip2.

[laughingbuddha]

With the help of guru palsyboy (he is a guru to me, despite his endearing modesty) i shall endeavor to surmount this problem. with his help and your advice, we will have firefox up and running forthwith! oh the porn, the glorious porn that awaits me!!