Firefox won't start after upgrading to latest version

[brunnhilde]

A couple of days ago I installed LMDE 201204 and everything went fine. When installing some software via synaptic I noticed Firefox was not up-to-date, so I hit 'upgrade' and 'apply'. After that, FF's latest version seemed installed, but when I try to open it nothing happens. I uninstalled and re-installed with small variations: deleting .mozilla from my /home folder, deleting the FF profile from /usr/lib/ and even some folders in /etc (named firefox, firefox-3.0 and firefox-3.5, as I remember). I've installed it via synaptic, the software manager, and shell, but wit no difference.

I used FF before my initial upgrade and it worked fine, so I'm at a loss and don't know what to do next to try and make it work. I'd appreciate any help

[Sonsum]

The current one in the repos is 11, right?

Perhaps try manually installing 13 from FF's web site? (It's a new version too!)

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/#desktop

EDIT: Here's some instructions: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=62113

[brunnhilde]

Thank you Sonsum! It worked like a charm

[Sonsum]

Thank you Sonsum! It worked like a charm

I'm glad to hear it! Could you please mark this thread as solved?

[Rory]

I would humbly suggest the thread is not resolved. The real issue is that this rolling release doesn't seem to be.... rolling. Firefox has released security updates and this rolling release has come to a stand still.

[craigevil]

Tech Patterns :: Switching from Debian Iceweasel to Firefox, permanently - http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1435.html

or my method:
download Firefox from Mozilla
extract
create a new profile
copy my Iceweasel profile to the new Firefox profile
create firefox.desktop (I just copy the Iceweasel.desktop and edit it)
copy firefox.desktop to /usr/share/applications (need to be root)
add firefox to the Debian alternatives system
run update-alternatives --config x-www-browser to make it the default browser

This way Firefox updates any time Mozilla releases a new version.

my firefox.desktop

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
Comment[en_US]=Browse the World Wide Web
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=/home/craig/Downloads/firefox/firefox '%u'
GenericName[en_US]=Firefox
GenericName=Firefox
Icon=/home/craig/Downloads/firefox/icons/mozicon128.png
MimeType=text/html;image/png;image/jpeg;image/gif;application/xml;application/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;
Name[en_US]=firefox
Name=firefox
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=Firefox-bin
Terminal=false
X-GNOME-FullName=Firefox
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=Firefox
X-MultipleArgs=false

Or just use Iceweasel from Debian experimental repo.
$ apt-cache policy iceweasel
iceweasel:
Installed: 13.0.1-2
Candidate: 13.0.1-2
Version table:
*** 13.0.1-2 0
1 http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ experimental/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
10.0.5esr-2 0
500 http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable/main i386 Packages

[Sonsum]

I would humbly suggest the thread is not resolved. The real issue is that this rolling release doesn't seem to be.... rolling. Firefox has released security updates and this rolling release has come to a stand still.

I believe that is a topic for another thread. LMDE has effectively stopped being a rolling release since the UPs. I always get my Iceweasel (the same as FF) from the experimental repo using apt-pinning.

I believe that LMDE is a better solution than a rolling release - due to the better stability. With the right apt-pinning, it can be as up-to-date as you want, yet you don't have to worry about updates borking your machine (as much anyways). Plus, thoughtfulness like the ability to stay with Gnome 2 and such is something that a rolling release would not have.

[TomRoche]

With the right apt-pinning, [LMDE] can be as up-to-date as you want, yet you don't have to worry about updates borking your machine (as much anyways).

Started an apt-pinning discussion here.