Debain Squeeze - Iceweasel Release - Firefox Deb packages

v 0.3
Sep 2011

Whilst I love the Debian Stable concept, it does become limiting when you wish to use rapidly evolving software.  Certainly this is where the Debian Backports service came about, though I seriously need to get into it and see how I can use it for useful updates.

I the meantime, over the last few days I have stumbled on two up-to-date incarnations of Firefox that are packaged as debs for, or compatible with Squeeze.

• The first, up-to-date Iceweasel is available from http://mozilla.debian.net/ .  At time of writing it is Iceweasel 5.0.  Icedove is also available.
• The Second is GNU Icecat available from http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/ .  Deb packages for Ubuntu are available from https://launchpad.net/~gnuzilla-team/+archive/ppa .  Squeeze is compatible with the Lucid Lynx (or whatever it was) version of Ubuntu for this application.  Clicking the "View Package Details" link lets you view what is available.  Debs are there for both 32 bit and 64 bit.

Of course, as I have written about earlier, you can always download the Linux binary from the Firefox download yourself and simply install it manually.  I have come to regard "Opt" as the most convenient place to put it, as several other packages do also.


Later ...........

Update 9 Aug 11

I was disappointed to see the Debian access to the latest iceweasel is far less than before.  Tried installing the latest release and it failed due to library problems.  (see below ... my mistake )

On the positive side, I

1. downloaded the Firefox tarball from the Firefox site, and as root unpacked it in "/opt" .  
2. added firefox to the menu system with "alacarte" from a root terminal.

When I executed firefox, it worked fine - no other action needed, so I un-installed iceweasel using synaptic.  Very pleased with the result.

Also .... NOTE the version of Iceweasel that is included with Debian Squeeze is no longer supported by Google in their products.


Update 16 Sep 11

Had my faith in the Debian Mozilla team enlightened.

http://mozilla.debian.net/

Follow the directions.

If you use the command line like they say, it will work .. when I followed the directions rather than using synaptic it worked fine.  The trick is  the " -t" option in the command line.  Once you use it, updates will work fine.  You just have to get it working in the terminal.


Later ....

Debian Squeeze - VirtualBox Guest Additions

v 0.3

This post has a number of connections - it ties together a number of the posts I've made today and also my post on Bitcoin mining.  As I posted there, you can let the mining happen in a Windows environment and run a normal desktop, say Slackware or Debian under Virtualbox.  I noted that playing video clashes with Bitcoin mining, but not if you run it in a Virtual Machine.

Slackware already comes with all the required build tools to install Guest Additions and all it requires for that is to mount the Guest Additions ISO and run the script.  Debian needs a bit more.  You need to ensure the kernel headers and the build tools are installed - either by installing Module assistant and then using the command " m-a prepare " or downloading the headers and build tools as described in the previous NVidia driver post.  If you find you need an alternative compiler version, the refer to the post on that.

Finally, just mount the Guest Editions ISO (in its most basic form you can find it in the Virtualbox directory) and then run the appropriate install script on that ISO.  Very simple.


Later.....

Jan 2012

Upon re-reading this, it seems a little spartan - I've detailed the process a little better in my post today on installing Debian Wheezy in Virtualbox...

Rgds

Debian Squeeze - NVidia Video Drivers

v 0.3

I've always found installing video drivers in Debian the easiest if I just use the proprietary drivers.  Sorry to the Debian Purists (hangs his head in shame).  Most of my experience is with NVidia drivers, so I'll stick with that.  First, two page links that pretty well cover what I'm talking about.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-install-nvidia-video-card-drivers-in-debian-lenny/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/upgrading-nvidia-drivers-in-debian-lenny/

The technique described to install the drivers is the pukka one, however you can also just use Module Assistant as "  m-a prepare " to ensure the appropriate kernel headers and the build environment are available.  If you get a message telling you that the available compiler is the wrong one, then you can download the correct one and use one of the two techniques in my previous post to fix the situation.

What you DO need to understand is that you need to have X .. NOT running.  For Squeeze, you will have to check which version of  "gdm" is running in the directory pointed to in the first post and adjust as necessary.  Why don't I give the exact instructions?  Well, first I'm being lazy right now, and second if you can't figure it out from the links and hints above, then maybe you shouldn't be playing with this.

Updating drivers in Debian Stable is not normally a problem, since it is just a repeat of the original installation instructions, however if you are playing with Debian Testing, then when a new kernel is installed, you will lose X as the wrong driver is pointed to in xorg.conf.  To fix this, just replace the proprietary driver name with " nv " or even " vesa " to get back to the Xorg driver and it will be ok for the moment.  Of course you COULD use the opportunity of being dumped into the command line to re-install the drivers and " startx " again, however ...

That's it for the moment.


Later ......

Update.
Squeeze uses " gdm3 " so in the instructions given in the link use that instead of " gdm "

ie to stop X ...  #  /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop

Debian Squeeze - Changing the Default Compiler

v 0.2

Once, when installing the proprietary NVidia drivers in Debian Lenny, I was stumped by the message that the available compiler was different than the one required.  I've seen several techniques to change the default compiler, but the two I've seen that are the most understandable involve changing the symlink or exporting a variable pointing to the required compiler.

Changing the Variable pointing to the Compiler:
 
# export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1
# ./NVIDIA-installer-xxx-whatever


Changing the Symlink:

# ln -s -f /usr/bin/gcc-4.1 /usr/bin/gcc


http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/need-an-older-gcc-version-690246/


Later ...........