Firefox 3.5+ in Debian lenny(stable) AMD64

[farrell2k]

If you're a debian user, I am sure you know why Debian has chosen to include a branded version of firefox, iceweasel, in all of its releases. Iceweasel is not updated quickly enough, which is a bit let down, but the good news is that you can just use plain old firefox. This is especially great news for amd64 users. If you're an AMD64 user, you likely know that mozilla only releases 32 bit binaries of firefox, which won't work on 64 bit architecture even with ia32libs

The process is easy and should only take less than an hour, depending on your system's speed. Head on over to Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releasesIndex of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases and grab the latest source tarball from the source directory.

Unpack it to a folder of your choice.

In your non-root user home directory, create a file called .mozconfig and add these settings to it, then save and exit.

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-firefox
ac_add_options --prefix=/opt/firefox
ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --enable-canvas
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-accessibility
ac_add_options --enable-xinerama
ac_add_options --with-default-mozilla-five-home=/usr/lib/firefox-3.5

Go to folder with mozilla source.

Run ./configure

Install any missing dpendencies, if any are reported, then rerun ./configure.

When ./configure is finished, run make and wait... On my x5000 this took about 15 minutes.

Run make install.

CD to dist, then cd to firefox.

Run firefox with ./firefox to make sure it works, then close it down.

cd back to "dist" and execute chown -R username firefox.

**username is obviously your non-root account.**

Leave root account and go back to non-root user.

Copy the firefox folder to your home directory, then run it when you please by executing ./firefox.

Finished. Check the option to auto-update firefox in its preferences. Because it's in your home dir, it may auto-update. If not, then just do this when a new version is released.