Firefox2

Requirements

• Development version (devel) of OLPC system

Installing Firefox 2.0

As simple as:

• Get the XO's WiFi connected to a wireless access point so the XO can download FireFox from the internet.

• Start the Terminal Activity

• When you see a prompt that looks roughly like "[olpc@xo-10-NN-NN]$", start typing the following commands, pressing the <enter> key after each one:

su
yum install firefox
exit

• If 'yum' prints out a few lines and stops, and the last line looks like "Please verify its path and try again", then your XO's WiFi isn't talking to the internet yet.

Installing Flash 9 plugin

• Open a terminal as root
• Download the plugin file:

wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz

• Unpack the file:

tar xzvf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz

• Run the flashplayer-installer and follow instructions:

./flashplayer-installer

Running the browser

• In a shell outside X (ctrl+alt+F1, ctrl+alt+F2, ...):
  • As root, set an environment variable:
    • export DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0
  • Execute the firefox with the user olpc:
    • su olpc -c "firefox &"
• Through a shell in X (alt+=):
  • just type firefox from there

Opening PDF using the Read activity

Open the Terminal activity and run:

wget http://zoehep.xent.com/~bsittler/Read

Then when you click on a PDF link tell Firefox to always open with /home/olpc/Read

Note: this launches the Read activity with full access to your account. Be sure you trust the activity completely before doing this!

Known Problems

• firefox is excluded from the repository on G1G1 machines. You must edit (as root) /etc/yum.repos.d/olpc-koji-ship2.repo to remove firefox from exclude list before installing with yum
  • One way to do edit the file is to use the built-in Vi editor as follows (type commands without the quotes):

1. Start the Terminal activity (this gives you a line like "[olpc@...]$ )
2. Click in the window
3. Type "su" and Enter for super user mode
4. Invoke the Vi(M) editor: "vi" and Enter
5. (You might find the Vi cheatsheet at: http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/vimcheat.html to be of use)
6. Load the file: ":e /etc/yum.repos.d/olpc-koji-ship2.repo" and Enter
7. Use the arrow keys to move to the "f" of "firefox"
8. Use the "x" key repeatedly to delete "firefox" and the following comma
9. (If you get into a mode like insert that won't let you issue a command, use the circle-x key in the upper left corner of the keyboard to exit that mode.)
10. Write the file out and quit: ":wq" and Enter

• • Installation of Firefox 2 appears to use about 42 MB. The installation downloads about 35 MB.
• Performance issues
• It is not "sugarizable"
• Right-clicking in a flash closes the browser window

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