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Terminal Commands to install Firefox from tar

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  • Last reply by James

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I have Ubuntu 10.1 and want to install a new version of Firefox. I have downloaded the tar bz2 file from their website. I have it in my Downloads folder along with an extracted file folder Firefox. I guess I can remove the old version in Terminal with: sudo apt-get remove firefox. My question is, what Terminal command string do I use to install the new tar file? I guess it will have to point to the extracted folder or the tar file in my download folder.

I can run the new Firefox from the download firefox folder but it will not save any of my bookmarks when closed.

btw none of the older links work for install.

I have Ubuntu 10.1 and want to install a new version of Firefox. I have downloaded the tar bz2 file from their website. I have it in my Downloads folder along with an extracted file folder Firefox. I guess I can remove the old version in Terminal with: sudo apt-get remove firefox. My question is, what Terminal command string do I use to install the new tar file? I guess it will have to point to the extracted folder or the tar file in my download folder. I can run the new Firefox from the download firefox folder but it will not save any of my bookmarks when closed. btw none of the older links work for install.

All Replies (7)

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Your OS is EoL it is not supported so no doubt not updating any of your software. It sounds as though you have one or more versions of Firefox installed possibly the problem with bookmarks is that you are trying to share a Firefox profile with more than one Firefox version, that is not a good idea.

If you are able to upgrade to 12.04LTS or 14.04LTS that would be supported, and current Ubuntu LTS versions do update the distro's Firefox.

If you are unable to do that it is probably best to install the Mozilla Firefox. Once installed that will update easily from your package manager. The install instructions are here:

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Thanks for your reply John.

A lot of information I already knew. ONLY ONE VERSION INSTALLED but can run latest version from downloads folder.

The link posted for install has so many command strings that are confusing because you can't tell the command from comments. Tilda? what's that about.

Update will not work because of eol os.

Don't know where to find install manager software and was hoping there was someone who could tell me Terminal command strings to un-install old version and then install tar file in terminal mode.

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ONLY ONE VERSION INSTALLED

You will have Ubuntu's Canonical Firefox already installed. In addition you now appear to have a newly downloaded version that you have extracted somewhere.

can't tell the command from comments. Tilda?

There is usually a subtle change in the fonts used, or commands are in separate boxes.

The tilda is shorthand and an abbreviation for the home directory of the user. It often works when typed in instead of the full path.

cd /

Will change directory to root

cd ~

Will cd to your home directory

Note also dots have special meanings, including Single dot (besides being a separator in path and filenames) hidden: When in front of a directory name in a listing it indicates the directory is a hidden one The Mozilla Firefox profiles will be within a hidden folder .mozilla Think of as Here: so a single dot can be used to mean the current folder That is sometimes used to specifically run a script or command from the current location. The distinction may be important when there are multiple Firefox versions. Debian calls its Firefox equivalent iceweasel so but in Ubuntu once you have Mozilla Firefox you have two separate Firefox's

Double dot above means the directory above so

cd ..

cd s to the directory one level up

This will help you understand the use of the terminal

I am not sure you even need to use the terminal to install Mozilla Firefox on Ubuntu. I will try to check next time I use Ubuntu.

Modified by John99

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I want to know if there is a terminal command to install the tar.bz2.

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tmhillard said

I want to know if there is a terminal command to install the tar.bz2.

That is not a simple one liner and is why I linked to other documentation in my other posts.

A tar.bz2 is a set of compressed files and so it needs extracting. Then you need to examine its contents. If it is intended to be installed it will often include instructions and need a series of steps and possibly sorting out dependencies. That in itself may cause difficulties, then the manually installed software may well not be easy to update - important for something like Firefox that has major updates every six weeks and could have other additional security or bug fix updates on top of that.

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Chosen Solution

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tmhillard said

I want to know if there is a terminal command to install the tar.bz2.

It is basically an archive. You extract it and run the firefox script to start Firefox. No installers or packages like rpm or deb involved.

If you are the only user and to make read/write permissions for Firefox updates easier just put the Firefox folder in home.