Comment 11 for bug 60236

Ironically I solved the problem at least in part. At first I installed the latest testing Firefox 3.0a2 in the /opt directory to see whether it produced the same error. I thought it would be cool with 3.0a2 to test how the new firefox would run. When I realized that installing Mozilla Firefox 3.0a2 produced the same problem I did some searching. I found a guy who was able to overcome the problem by installing the stable Firefox 2.01 off the website in, ironically, the /opt directory.

For those out of the loop /usr is for software that's integrated into the system, /opt is an optional software directory where you can install apps without intergrating them. For newbies this is like having a "c:\program files" and "c:\optional programs" under windows.

Anyhow to continue on I did everything according to the instructions. Guess what ? It worked! This of course got my gander up. So I thought what might happen if I installed the downloaded vanilla firefox into the shared /usr/lib over my current installation.

I fiigured my current was already broken and wouldn't work anyhow till the fine people at Ubuntu fixed it. So what the hell. Did it and now firefox runs.

Long story short is I think Ubuntu must have slipped development code (whether intentional or not) to the current stable version of Ubuntu. I have no other proof of this other then the fact the current alpha-version 3.0a2 creates the same error and the Mozilla downloaded version of 2.01 works fine. But, I suspect for most people that would be enough.

So if you have enough CLI experience or not here is what you do. Download the stable mozilla firefox installer from mozilla.org to a memorable directory. For the purpose of this excercise let's call it /home/wilbur/firefox2 Now open a terminal and issue the following commands.

sudo cp /usr/wilbur/firefox2/firefox-2.0.0.1.tar.gz /opt
(enter your password when it asks for it)
cd /opt
sudo gzip -d firefox-2.0.0.1.tar.gz
sudo tar xvf firefox-2.0.0.1.tar
cd firefox
sudo chown root *
sudo chgrp root *
sudo chmod 777 *
sudo ./firefox

If after the last command a Firefox window pops up then you can do the following to correct your current installation (after exiting firefox of course).

sudo cp -r /opt/firefox/* /usr/lib/firefox (or /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox depending on your installation)

This will replace the current binaries in your shared (/usr/lib) installation with those in your optional programs (/opt). Alot of people may be concerned about bookmarks, themes, and other settings.

However, your settings are installed in your user directory (i.e. /home/wilbur) under either the '.firefox' or '.mozilla-firefox' (the dot or period is part of the directory name). The '.' in front of the file ussually indicates the directory is important to system operations and should be hidden from user applications for safety reasons. Hence you should not be able to even know these directories exist most of the time. Ok, Basically if it worked in the /opt directory it should work in the /usr/lib.
Go ahead and click on the icon. It should come up.

I do stress though. If you are going to do this please, please, test it out in the /opt directory. By installing it in /usr/lib without testing there is a chance something may go wrong with which you will have to recover. At least if you know it works in the /opt directory there's a safe bet it will work in /usr/lib.