How to: Firefox 3 on Fedora 8

Ok, I look all over but nobody posts these sorts of things for the n00bs out there. So I will. This is very easy and much less hassle then trying to rely on some guys home-made rpm's and such. Now keep in mind, there is always a hundred or more ways of doing things -- this is my way. So if you don't like it, then don't do it this way.

1> First, I login as root and create a directory called /downloads. (You can also just login with your regular user account and do sudo if you so desire. I'm just going straight forward here to keep things as simple as possible).
# mkdir /downloads

2> Then I go to the internetstubes and download the latest Firefox. It's version 3.0.1 at the time I am writing this.

3> CD to /downloads and undiscombobulate your newly downloaded FF file.
# cd /downloads
# tar xvfj firefox-3.0.1.tar.bz2

Note: If it were a *.tar.gz file, you would do like so (note the diff between the z and the j):
# tar xvfz firefox-3.0.1.tar.gz

4> Anyway, now you should have a directory called "firefox" in your /downloads dir. Time to rename it and move it to somewhere where it's useful and makes sense.
# mv firefox firefox-3.0.1
# cp -r firefox-3.0.1 /usr/lib

5> Now in order to make it work you have to do this:
# cd /usr/bin
# mv firefox firefox.bkup
# ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.1/firefox firefox

6> Make sure your launcher points to: /usr/bin/firefox %u (if it's %s then FF will always open www.s.com). You can just delete your existing launcher from your GUI panel and then readd it from the Applications menu and then this way you get the correct url and icon.

There, done. You're welcome. =P




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