Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Two Different Ways of Installing Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04

Posted: 22 Jul 2009 04:48 AM PDT

Firefox 3.5 has been released several weeks ago, but some Ubuntu 9.04 users out there may still be using the older 3.0 version. They should not expect that they will get an automatic update since this latest Firefox release will not be officially included in Ubuntu until 9.10 "Karmic Koala". But no worries because it is very much possible to install Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04, and in fact I'm using it right now.

I will be showing you the two different and very easy ways on how to do this. However, you may ask: what will I get from upgrading to 3.5? Well, aside from the features that were highlighted on this post, I've noticed improvements in speed, user experience, and page rendering. Is the upgrade worth it? I refrained from writing this tutorial immediately after I've installed Firefox 3.5 because I wanted to know first if it will work well on Ubuntu 9.04. And since it has no major issues what so ever and it's running really great right now, I highly recommend that you should also upgrade.

I know you can't wait already, so let's get down to business...

Installing Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04 using Ubuntuzilla:

Ubuntuzilla is a Python script that will let you easily install and update Mozilla applications that are not yet available on the Ubuntu repository.

1. Download your appropriate .deb package of Ubuntuzilla from HERE. Install it.

2. Close Firefox.

3. Open your Linux terminal and run this command:

ubuntuzilla.py -a install -p firefox

Ubuntuzilla will guide you through the installation process, and you should be able to install Firefox successfully.

4. You can now run Firefox 3.5 via "firefox" command, or simply click on Firefox from the "Applications Menu".

Installing Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04 with one command:

1. Back-up your Firefox 3.0.11 profile via Linux terminal with this command:

cp -r ~/.mozilla/firefox/ ~/firefox_backup

The "firefox_backup" file will be found inside your "/home" directory.

2. Proceed by installing Firefox 3.5 with this command:

wget -O - http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-3.5.tar.bz2 | tar xj -C ~

3. Firefox 3.5 is now saved in your "Home" folder. Before running Firefox 3.5, be sure to close the older version. You can start the latest version with this command:

~/firefox/firefox

You can also add Firefox 3.5 to your "Applications Menu" by navigating to:

System-->Preferences-->Main Menu

From the list of menus, select "Internet". You can now add a new item or simply replace the older version of Firefox. The command field should be:

/home/your_username/firefox/firefox

The first time you run Firefox 3.5, it will start updating your Extensions and will check for compatibility among other things. By now, a lot of popular extensions are updated to support version 3.5.

Enjoy!