Updating Firefox in Slacko

[2dees]

I'm still running FF 60.4 Oesr 32 bit and wanted to update to the current FF 102 or whatever the current version is. Since my version is a Oesr, shouldn't I be able to simply update from Mozilla just like I do with my Windows machines? I thought I should ask before proceeding since I haven't done an update since installing the version I'm now running.

[Phoenix]

It isn't as simple, because of how varied Linux is. One package does not usually work on another system. There are ways to mitigate this e.g AppImage, statically linked musl but they all have their flaws. You'll likely have to build from source or search the forum.

[2dees]

Thanks. I see, after following the procedure linked from updatemybrowser.org . It recommends using the package manager which, in the case of my slacko distro doesn't have a pet on anything later than the FF60 esr. I've searched the forum for reference to a repository that has a pet for FF100+ with almost daily updates. I don't know how to work from a terminal to unzip and install a tarball type file. Until I learn some skills, I guess I'll just have to keep using a windows machine to do any streaming or to access any sites "optimized" for the continually updated FF. The streaming services I have access to won't work without having an automatically updated FF.

[mikeslr]

Rather than update your firefox, I recommend that you compliment it with one of MikeWalsh's portables, viewtopic.php?p=37559#p37559. These are like Window's portables. You can, but don't have to, remove your current version of firefox: you can have both; or if that's annoying you can turn-off the menu display of the old version: radky's Pup-Menu from here, https://www.smokey01.com/radky/PupMates.html if Menu-Manager doesn't already appear on Menu>Setup. It's a toggle. Select an application with a green button, click the button it turns red and removes the display; vice-versa to toggle it on. Click OK. And execute a Save to preserve the change.

Mike's portable firefoxes will auto-update. They are downloaded as a tar.gz. When you extract the tar.gz you'll find within the extraction folder another; for example 'firefox-portable32'. That other can be moved anywhere, hence portable. Usually it's moved to the same partition on which the Puppy is located --/mnt/home-- and, thus, outside of your SaveFile/Folder. But you could locate it in /opt which will require a Save to preserve and take up space in your Save File/Folder.

Within the firefox folder you find a script, named Menu-Add. Left-Clicking it will create a Menu-entry.

These portables are self-contained. Your book-marks, settings, addons and other customizations will be located in a folder within named profile. And importantly, web-cache --the junk web-sites write to your computer so that they don't have to transmit it again-- is also located in the portable folder and --if the portable isn't in your Save-- doesn't build-up in RAM reducing the available RAM for actual work.

[2dees]

Thanks, Mike. I have some learning to do before I try anything like the portables. I was once able to do some simple things with my puppy distros, but I had a bad car accident in 2015 with a head injury that set me back quite a bit. I'm still running the slacko version that I had at the time of the wreck. I probably need to install the latest version of slacko as well so maybe that will help as far as getting an updated set of repositories goes.

[mikewalsh]

@2dees :-

TBH, I've set-up a few Puppies recently without even using the repos; populated entirely with just .pet packages & 'portable' apps......in addition to the 'built-in' stuff that comes with Puppy OOTB.

If you're interested, you can find the complete listing of portable apps I've built for Puppy at the following link:-

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5104

Every listing takes you to the thread for that item; in that thread, the first post usually contains a download link for the portable app. I do try to keep these as up-to-date as I can; it's mostly 64-bit apps, but there are some 32-bit ones there.

Most of the 'zilla-based browsers, including Pale Moon, will update internally......the exception is 32-bit Pale Moon, 'cos they don't produce this any longer. The 32-bit portable PM is courtesy of a self-compiled 3rd-party build by a guy called Steve Pusser.

A few of the Chromium-based browsers have an updater script I wrote for them.

Mike.

[2dees]

Thank you, Mike. That is more in tune with my abilities. My slacko machine is 64 bit, but I have been using a 32 bit version of slacko for some reason that I've forgotten by now. I have burned the 64 bit version to disc and can install it instead if necessary to try out the 64 bit packages. I really appreciate your work. I'll report on my results so that this thread can be marked "solved".

Regards,
Ed

[2dees]

Before doing anything to change the browser, I just now checked my settings for the current browser and found that it is set for "never check for updates. I have no option of changing those settings and there is a line which reads "Udates disabled by your system administrator". That msu be why my FF isn't updating. Does anyone know how I can change that setting? I presume that system administrator settings are my own settings but I don't recall ever making that choice when I installed FF 60.4.0 esr.

[mikewalsh]

@2dees :-

Depends where you got the browser from.

If you installed it from the PPM it will be the version built by the "parent" distro your Puppy was built from.....in this case, Slackware. Distros always compile the source code the way they want to, and invariably have the internal updater disabled, because they prefer to update your browser along with everything else when they issue a system update. They don't want users 'tinkering' with something like that; the preferred option is the "officially-approved" build.

The builds I use in the portables come straight from Mozilla's FTP download site. These always have auto-update built-in and activated....

That's my guess, anyway.

Mike.

[2dees]

Yes, I got it through the PPM. It came with an update of the repositories, so probably Slackware. I'll explore your .pets and hope for something that's simple to install. BTW, I found a post with a link to an updater in .pet form:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 265#p54265

That might work, though I'm sure it's what the builders would consider tinkering.