Replacing Firefox with previous version problems

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by ellison64, Oct 8, 2015.

  1. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    Im having problems trying to replace firefox with a previous version.Ive downloaded and extracted the version i want.However when i try to then move the firefox folder to the opt directory or usr/lib directory , i get errors saying permission denied,i think because theres already a firefox folder there .What am i doing wrong?.Ive tried uninstalling firefox which seems to work and then extracting the version i want and moving to the above directories ,but there still seems to be a firefox folder there.I get the permission denied when i try to merge or overwrite the firefox folder with the older version firefox folder.Hope you know what i mean?
    thanks
     
  2. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    You need root permissions to mess with any directory besides your "/home" folder, maybe "/tmp" as well. Simply copying the files won't do it because, well, it's how Linux is built: you don't have privileges.

    What system are you running? Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, openSUSE? Other?
    What version of Firefox are you trying to go back to? And why are you doing it?
     
  3. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    Im running mint 17 rafaela and reverting back to firefox 40.Im happy with that version ,and the addons /themes i use work with it fine.Unless theres some gaping security hole , im happy to stick with it.I actually just found out that right clicking the folders and opening as root allowed me to alter the directories.Ive now downloaded and extracted firefox 40.0.3 ,and copied and pasted the extracted directory into the opt and usr/lib directories after first removing the original firefox directories.It all now seems to be working except that in software manager firefox shows as not installed?.I guess this may be because software manager offers version 41?.Also firefox icon is not showing in menu>internet as it used to be.Ive made a shortcut to desktop which works fine but cant work out how to put it back in menu>internet
     
  4. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    Yeah, that's one downside of just extracting things: you won't be telling your system what you've just done, so it can't detect that Firefox is "there" neither it will display Firefox at your menus because regular software installation copies icons and a few scripts to your system folders.

    You could install regular Firefox 41 and then just replace the folders and files at /usr/lib and /usr/bin and wherever it's present, this way you'd still get normal functionalities (like menus system-wide) without the hassle of having to configure everything manually.
     
  5. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Isn't the best path to uninstall firefox, and then install an older version? And turn off auto-updating.
     
  6. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    Thats what ive done.I cant install an older version through software manager as far as I know so had to download and extract an earlier version ,and manually move the extracted firefox folder.
     
  7. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    That's a little iffy, I think.

    To install an older version, you need to get the package and manually install it. In Mint, that means finding the right "firefox......deb", and then doing "sudo dpkg -i firefox......deb" to install it. And then maybe "sudo apt-get -f" if there are dependency errors. Doing that with debs from the wrong release can break your system, by the way :eek: So be careful.
     
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