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[drew]

Alright, so I'm totally confused about exactly HOW to install Firefox.  I've downloaded the Linux version from Mozilla.com.  Now what?  I guess I go into terminal?  Or into Journal?  When I go to Journal and click on the "firefox download..." activity, it seems to start an activity in the Home view (there's a gray circle on the home view, but when I click 'resume" it just opens a white box that's blank).
I know nothing about Linux and I know I should look for a Linux For Dummies book, but I'm starting here first

I need step by step advice, assume you're talking to a 10yo child!

thanks,
drew

[con]

Why were you installing firefox?

The built-in browser is an altered version of firefox:  http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/start/activities.shtml

And this from the wiki:

 Is there access to email and the internet?

Will access to email and the internet be available if a wireless connection is available?

    I've seen the XOs working at a conference using the convention center's commodity wireless connection, so I believe the answer is "yes". Of course, such access will be easiest if you are using webmail and everything you need online can be accessed via Firefox, since that is the main internet application shipping with the laptops. Running other internet programs may be more difficult, depending on a number of factors (whether someone has made an XO version of it, whether it is bundled for Fedora, whether it is ported to Linux, how many resources it uses, etc.). —Joe 20:19, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

        The browser is not Firefox (unfortunately); it uses some of the guts of Firefox but trashes the user interface. So you can only view one web page at a time, for example. And there is no email client at all. However, there's a rumor about Installing Debian as an upgrade on the machine, which when perfected, would free it from many of its software limitations. --gnu

            While we haven't exposed all of the Firefox features (yet), it is essentially a fully featured web browser. Contrary to the assertion above, you can have multiple webpages open at once and multiple windows when spawned by a page. Other options include loading Opera on the laptop. Switching to Debian won't make much difference. If you are so inclined, you can run X Windows without the Sugar UI and use a standard Firefox, but you will miss out on many of the Sugar features, such as mesh collaboration and the Journal. --Walter 23:21, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

[Vulcero]

Drew, Firefox2 installation is possible. This link is from the OLPC wiki but with Known Problems

    *  Performance issues
    * It is not "sugarizable"
    * Right-clicking in a flash closes the browser window

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Firefox2

[drew]

Why Firefox?  I guess I just wanted multiple tabs basically, and (permenant) bookmarks....a more robust browser I guess.  I could go with Opera too, that's not a problem.  In fact, that has a nice email client in it.  But still, my question is more about how to install programs. I'm a windows user by circumstance and I'd like to move away from that and toward Linux.  So yeah, that's why Firefox.

[drew]

Vulcero,
I followed the wiki instructions.  It seemed to install fine, nut when it came time to run the installer I got a "No Such File Or Directory" message.  That makes me think I need some Linux tutoring.  It seems to have installed ok, just can't execute theprogram.  Also, once I run the installer, will it be added as an activity on the Activity bar?  Or will I have to run it from Terminal?
What about Opera?  Anyone know?

thanks,
drew

[mbelvadi]

I tried the "yum install firefox" and got a 403 error message. I discovered that the path yum is trying to use on the koji server:
http://koji.fedoraproject.org/static-repos/olpc2-ship2-current/i386/repodata/repomd.xml
 has changed so the olpc subfolder is now called dist-olpc2-build-current (the rest of the path is correct).
I edited the file /etc/yum.repos.d/olpc-koji-ship2.repo to change the baseurl to match, and that got me past the 403 error, and then seemed to be downloading things called olpc-koji-ship2 and primary.xml.gz, and then I got the lines:
  Excluding packages from OLPC development (koji sources)
  Finished
  Setting up Install Process
  Parsing package install arguments
  No package firefox available
  Nothing to do


Now I'm stumped. Where do I find Firefox now?

[JB]

I was hoping that a more robust browser would be part of a future upgrade, but if someone gets another browser up and running please make a new post with detailed instructions.  I am new to linux and don't mind asking someone to hold my hand through a terminal install.

[rrolsbe]

Just a quick comment about Firefox.  I have been using PuppyOS on several computers over the past 18 months.  PuppyOS comes configured with Seamonkey which is a another Mozilla variation like Firefox.  Seamonkey has an built-in email client, has tab browsing and performs quite good on low horsepower computers; however, Firefox takes a long time to launch on low-end computers and the executable is quite large.  I install, but rarely use, Firefox on my higher performance computers but only use Seamonkey on the lower end computers.  Bottom line-- Seamonkey works great and I think most people would be happy with it capabilities on an XO.  I am hoping the PuppyOS linux fans get it working native on the XO.   In the meantime, Seamonkey might run fine using the current Redhat version delivered on the shipping XO's.

Hope to get my XO soon, ordered at 6:30AM Eastern time first day
Regards
Ron

UPDATE:  After reading good things about the Opera browser on the XO, I installed it and it works great.  Has tab browsing and email/newsreader clients.

[meloukhia]

Thanks for the tip on Seamonkey.

If someone gets it up and running on the XO, it would be nice to know!

[pgf]

someone should try installing and running links2.  at heart, it's a text-based browser, but if invoked with "-g", it gives an interesting (and efficient) mix of simple text plus pictures.  you won't get gradient backgrounds, and probably no animations, but it might be useful as a quicker alternative to a "real" browser for some uses.

paul

[Sieghard]

Since I already posted that I'd like adblock plus in Browse, it should come as no surprise that I would like to be able to install Firefox ... hopefully we'll see a Sugar port soon.

[Eph Zero]

You can install Firefox with yum, but you have to edit one thing first. (I'm running build 653, so I'm not sure if this will work on 650, which is what's on your laptop by default. You might have to change 'ship2' to 'ship1' in the instructions below.)

Open a terminal and do this:

Code:

su
nano /etc/yum.repos.d/olpc-koji-ship2.repo

At the bottom, you'll see a line that says "exclude=" with the names of several applications. Remove firefox from this list.

Press ctrl and x, then type y when it prompts you with "Save modified buffer" etc.

Now type

Code:

yum install firefox

Some stuff will happen in your terminal, and then you'll be given the total size of the download and asked "Is this ok [y/N]." Type y and press enter.

All done!

[Sieghard]

Thanks.  I'm gonna brave a Simple manual upgrade to 653 and then try installing Firefox.  (but I still do think that Adblock Plus needs to be able to be added to Browse)

[jt42]

I've tried Opera, Firefox and Seamonkey and prefer Seamonkey - i find it faster than Firefox and the menus are readable (unlike Opera) - it is also easier to change settings than Opera (Opera kept losing my settings or menu bars - very frustrating).

So I did a fresh install of 653 and now have only Seamonkey installed.  I did it with the command
yum install Seamonkey

after editing
 /etc/yum.repos.d/olpc-koji-ship2.repo
to remove seamonkey from the exclude list at the bottom of the file.

This edit has already been described in the forum so I won't go into details but let me know if you have questions.

[thepete]

Thanks for the tip, Argotnaut!  I never had this problem in a joyride build, but recently upgraded to latest stable build and started having this problem.  I, too, prefer Firefox to Opera--I can sink bookmarks with Foxmarks.com, which is just about as awesome as it gets.  Can anyone tell me if Seamonkey works with Foxmarks?

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