Repositories and firefox

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khaos

Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

Hi guys after the update pack I've not seen other updates. I still have firefox 5 and I don't know if it is correct option to add external repos for that. Is there any update for Firefox in repos?

My repositories:
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/security testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/multimedia testing main non-free
I must add or edit something?

Thanks in advance
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Roken
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

Iceweasel 8 (unbranded firefox) is available in the Debian experimental repositories:

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deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main
You will also find icedove V8 (unbranded Thunderbird) there, too, should you want it. Both are working fine here, and have been for several weeks.
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khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

Nice thanks. But one question: Why linux mint debian edition has preinstalled Firefox and not Iceweasel? Thanks
Is there any way to get and the latest firefox too? (sorry 2 questions :P)
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

You'd have to ask the devs regarding their choice, I can't answer that, sorry.

Anyway, if you have an aversion to iceweasel (you shouldn't, it's identical to firefox in all but name and the menu icon) you can actually get FF8 running without installing it.

Download from Mozilla, and extract the archive wherever you want. Suppose you extract it to your home directory, you can run it with:

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sh ~/firefox/firefox
Or, alternatively, extract it to /opt which should make it available just by running

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firefox
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zerozero

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by zerozero »

you have here http://mozilla.debian.net/ another option;
you can even choose the release, beta or aurora v. (attention that any v. than release might be unstable)

in this situation add this to your sources.list

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deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main
deb http://mozilla.debian.net/ squeeze-backports iceweasel-release

and then

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -t squeeze-backports iceweasel
khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

Thanks. I have the latest Iceweasel now and the Firefox 5. Is there any way to add external mozilla repo in order to have the latest version without compiling or downloading manually? Thanks
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

If you added the Debian experimental repository it should update automatically. If you downloaded then you will have to re-download when it updates (though FF will usually tell you that an update is available)
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zerozero

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by zerozero »

well, it all depends which method you used, what v. number you have and what you want;

in these two options here (the experimental debian repo and the mozilla.debian) iceweasel will be updated automatically as Roken said.
khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

Thanks for that I have added the iceweasel repo. What is the repo for the mozilla firefox (not iceweasel) repo?
karashata

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by karashata »

Debian doesn't supply Firefox or Thunderbird with their official brand names due to Mozilla's use of non-free artwork, and Mozilla requires that the official artwork be used in order to use the official branding. So, instead, Debian ships Iceweasel and Icedove to remove the non-free artwork and comply with Mozilla's branding requirements. Other than that, they're identical in every way (at least, as far as I know and can tell).

Firefox and Thunderbird in LMDE are supplied by the Mint devs and are not officially a part of Debian. Mint probably supplies them with the official branding in part because the names are more easily recognized than Iceweasel and Icedove, and in part because they make Mint-specific modifications to the default configuration (at least to Firefox) so they're maintaining their own packages anyway.
khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

Thanks for your answer. I know about the names... but so? Is a way to add an external repo for Firefox? I have the repo for Iceweasel. But I need AND firefox too..
Thanks.
Arran

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Arran »

How can someone have the urgent drive to use Firefox/Thunderbird AND Iceweasel/Icedove at the same time? :?: :?: :?:
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

For absolute clarity, and for the avoidance of any doubt:

Iceweasel IS Firefox with a different icon and name.
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khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

I want to have both of them, because I use 2 browsers and I don't want to use Chrome. Anyway I will add an external repo and I see
Thanks
karashata

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by karashata »

I may be wrong, but I believe there would be conflicts between Firefox and Iceweasel, due to Iceweasel still using the Firefox desktop entries and user settings folders.

Also, why do you need two broswers, and, more importantly, why would you need two versions of essentially the exact same browser (aside from the name and artwork, exactly the same)? Why wouldn't you just open more than one window of any one browser? (You do know they can still do that, don't you?)

Having two different browsers (ie. Firefox and Chrome) is all well and good, one browser may do things slightly different/better than the other, but having two of *the same browser* (aside from naming and artwork, ie. Firefox and Iceweasel) seems kinda pointless.

Then again, if you need to be logged into the same site on two different accounts, I could see an argument for two different browsers, however, Iceweasel and Firefox wouldn't work for the reason I stated above (using the same user settings folder). You would need to create a separate profile for each version, in which case you could still get away with only one version installed anyway and just launch two different sessions of it using two different profiles... (Someone else would have to go into detail about how to do that, I don't offhand know since I'm only one user on one computer and only need one profile... Some information here, here, here (though it's written for Windows), and here might be useful...)
zerozero

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by zerozero »

to be honest, i think we are just walking in circles:
1- we still don't know which method (if any) khaos used to get iceweasel;
2- we don't know what version he has installed;
3- as karashata pointed out, use for example FF5 (the default browser) and any of the newly iceweasel versions at the same time won't work (as far as i know);

at least until we know point 1 and 2, i think all the rest is useless.
khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

I want to use the latest Firefox 8.0.1 and to update it with an external mozilla repository. It doens't conflict with Iceweasel which installed with debian repos. I use different profile folders :)
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

Your reply still doesn't explain why you want to be able to run 2 separate builds of what is essentially the same software, and more out of curiosity than anything I'd still like to know why :D

Having said that, it's your system and your Linux so you are, of course, free to do what you want with it and I'm glad you found a solution to your particular issue.
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khaos

Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by khaos »

I have installed Iceweasel via repositories. So, I have the lmde dev's ff 5 (that was preinstalled) and I use both of them like a charm with seperate user dirs. I just asked If I can update the FF too in the latest version because I have some troubles with some plugins in version 5.

I use 2 browsers because I have some double accounts in some sites and I don't like cookie chaning etc or some plugins. Also I don't like to use another web browser for now due to some specific plugins I use.
I know about Iceweasel==Firefox but if I find a way to have 2 Iceweasels :P it will be ok. I don't think that I'm doing something wrong. It's just my choise not to use 1 browser with cookie/account changing.

So, I thought that a good idea is to have repos for both Iceweasel and an external mozilla repo for FF.
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Re: Repositories and firefox

Post by Roken »

OK, if it's just a case of running 2 instances with different profiles, here's how:

Using a terminal, start iceweasel in the profile manager mode:

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iceweasel --profilemanager
And create the profiles that you want. Give them sensible names, and make one as default. For the purposes of demonstration I'll refer to them as "primary" and "secondary" where primary is the default. Close the profile manager (don't start iceweasel from it).

Now start iceweasel normally, which should load with the primary profile.

In a terminal (you can create a launcher to do this if you want)

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iceweasel -P secondary --no-remote
This will launch a second instance of iceweasel using the secondary profile. Mission accomplished :)

Note: You can use the same method with icedove to manage multiple email profiles. Also works with Firefox, Thunderbird etc.
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