Linux Mint Forums

I need to update to Firefox 16.0.1. The online banking program I use requires this version. Is there a safe way to do this without effecting LinuxMint

Hello, jpgjr.

I do not quite understand your question and your concern.
I am using several Ubuntu / Mint editions:
+ Ubuntu 10.04.4
+ Linux Mint 12 (Lisa)
+ Linux Mint 13 (Maya)
All of them have received their Firefox updates from the official Ubuntu software repositories automatically and by now are using Firefox 16.0.1.
None of the Ubuntu / Mint operating systems has been affected in a negative way by Firefox 16.0.1.

So which Linux Mint version exactly are we talking about in your case?
Have you switched off automatic software updates completely?
As you mention banking software:

• Is your Linux Mint installation a regular installation on your internal harddisk? - Updating is trivial.
• Or are we walking about a specially crafted live system which is run from a bootable pendrive? (Like e.g. this one offered by Heise in Germany: Sicheres Online-Banking mit Bankix (Secure Online Banking with Bankix). Sorry, this is in German. I will try to find a comparable English product which illustrates what I have in mind.)
  Such a hardened and locked system cannot be updated easily.

Kind regards,
Karl

To update, open Firefox and click on Help + About Firefox. It will automatically download then ask you if you wish to upgrade.

I am using LMDE and the latest version of Firefox is 14.0.1. This is not supported by the new online banking program at my bank. The program is run by Intuit and they only support 16.0.1. I am looking for a safe way to update to this version.

Beardedragon wrote:To update, open Firefox and click on Help + About Firefox. It will automatically download then ask you if you wish to upgrade.

This is the Windows way of doing it.
It will not work on Linux Mint as a rule, unless you have manually installed Firefox under your own account only.
On Linux Mint you launch Synaptic, tell Synaptic to update its list of software packages.
Provided Synaptic offers you one or more software packages for update, you select them for update and click [Apply].

Karl

Hello, jpgjr.

Oops. It happened again. I overlooked the string "LMDE" in the name of the sub-forum.
LMDE behaves a little bit differently from the Ubuntu based Mint editions.
Therefore I cannot be sure whether the LMDE repositories really offer Firefox 16.0.1 as the default version. (The Ubuntu repositories do.)
I guess I'd better keep quiet and wait for experienced LMDE users to jump in.

Kind regards,
Karl

I have checked Synaptic and the latest Mint Debian Version is 14.0.1. I need to install the latest Firefox version which is 16.0.1. I can download the version from Mozilla but I don't know if this is a safe way to install it on Mint Debian. I am locked out of my bank without this version

karlchen wrote:

Beardedragon wrote:To update, open Firefox and click on Help + About Firefox. It will automatically download then ask you if you wish to upgrade.

This is the Windows way of doing it.
It will not work on Linux Mint as a rule, unless you have manually installed Firefox under your own account only.
On Linux Mint you launch Synaptic, tell Synaptic to update its list of software packages.
Provided Synaptic offers you one or more software packages for update, you select them for update and click [Apply].

Karl

Sorry no Windblows on this computer. I did install Firefox separately though and I am using Linux Mint 13 in Duo boot with SalineOS. Admittedly not LMDE, which is too flaky for me and I would say too unpredictable for a business machine. However, it is easy enough to download and install the new version as long as you uninstall the old one. You will not loose your preferences or your bookmarks doing this.

jpgjr,
nobody wants you locked out of your bank because of this.
yes, it's true that FF is late in lmde but there's no problem whatsoever in d/l and use the mozilla version.

Thanks Zero. Is there a safe way to do the update? I see a few different ways on the forum and I don't want to mess up Mint Debian updates. Just a heads up about my problem. This banking update will be effecting many US online bank users. Intuit is the vendor of this service and they have contracted with numerous bank to provide this extra security on account login. Their software will only support the latest version of Firefox and Chrome. This is what you get from a Windows based software company.

oh i see and with this insane (mind you that i'm an all the time FF user and as far as i see it's simple the best) release cycle this is a serious problem indeed.

yep, you see several ways of doing this in the forum and outside; none of them will mess lmde's upgrade path because the FF you are about to install is outside the debian package management system (and also because of that it won't be update through the normal system (apt, synaptic, mintupdate)

a few days ago i found another howto (basically a variation of the same) here >> http://worldofgnome.org/the-good-firefo ... -ugly-esr/

zerozero wrote:oh i see and with this insane (mind you that i'm an all the time FF user and as far as i see it's simple the best) release cycle this is a serious problem indeed.

Yes I see this as a problem with the slow release of Update packages and Firefox's never ending updates. The real problem is Intuit (Quicken & Quickbooks) who are behind much of the US online banking system placing this requirement. I would hope LinuxMint Debian updates make a change and includes browser updates on a more frequent schedule.

just to clarify one point here (doesn't answer your problem tho): FF, TB, Opera are not tied to the UP releases, they are maintained inside the mint-specific packages.

jpgjr wrote:I am using LMDE and the latest version of Firefox is 14.0.1. This is not supported by the new online banking program at my bank. The program is run by Intuit and they only support 16.0.1. I am looking for a safe way to update to this version.

This worked for me! I'm also using LMDE.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 70#p641270

well here's an update. I found a way to update the banking security without updating to Firefox 16.0.1. I installed Chrome and did the bank security update online. I then logged on with Firefox 14.0.1 and it worked perfectly. I then removed Chrome from my system. The actual online banking software will work with older versions of Firefox but the security update requires the latest version. I really didn't want to start installing updates outside of MintUpdate. Thanks for the help.

jpgjr,
glad the annoyance is solved