LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

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shalom938
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LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

Post by shalom938 »

I usually mount /opt to a drive I partition I have with all kind of stuff like my projects etc.
Today I install LMDE, then while creating a shortcut to thunderbird on my top panel I noticed that thunderbird is installed to /opt/thunderbird and /usr/bin/thunderbird is a link ??
shalom@shalom-laptop ~ $ ls -la /usr/bin/thunderbird
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 Apr 15 08:55 /usr/bin/thunderbird -> /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird

then I noticed that there are other things in /opt like a folder named /opt/kde3 with bin,lib and lib64 under it,
a folder named /opt/debian with some deb files under it, a folder named mint-flashplugin-x64 ,

I wonder how did this happen? I never had the OS installing files to /opt, Usually I have a dual boot where both OS mount this drive to /opt, now my /opt has mint specific files in it.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AlbertP
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Re: LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

Post by AlbertP »

/opt is treated as a 'Program Files' folder by some programs, e.g. Google programs and OpenOffice downloaded from its website (OpenOffice from the repository installs somewhere else, Google Earth from there may also do this).
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amina

Re: LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

Post by amina »

I useed to have the problem with Firefox that I could not start it with Run (Alt + F2). I found that Firefox was started from /opt...
I had to create a symlink so that the Run dialog box finds it ($PATH issue?).
CiaW

Re: LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

Post by CiaW »

Basically and from what I can gather, /opt is used if you're installing something that is 'non-standard' to the main distro. In this case, since Debian's standard browser is iceweasel, a re-branded Firefox (which I'm using atm) and not the standard or Mint-y Firefox, the Mint version is in /opt. I just did a search and found this article: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10704 it discusses using /opt vs /usr/local.
shalom938
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Re: LMDE - some programs installed to /opt ?

Post by shalom938 »

Yes, I just realized that after I wrote this post that thunderbird and firefox installed to /opt because they are not officially debian, personally I prefer third party to /usr/local.
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