Few questions, newb user!

Hello all!

I'm new to Linux world, but very proud of myself i finally made it. Love it for many reasons.

Anyways, my questions are: The distro i'm using (Kurumin, very popular here at Brazil) came with Iceweasel browser instead of Firefox. Yeh i know it's just a recompiled version or something but i didnt like it. I ripped it out easily and put firefox instead. However, i can't open Firefox with a single "firefox" command anymore because i got it from just unpacking a tar file, not by apt-get (it was not avaliable. i asked for apt-get install firefox and it insisted on showing 'would you like to install iceweasel?'). Is there a way to make it openable with a 'firefox' command [or any other app]?

Also, one shortcut that i'm used to is the Ctrl+tab to switch between firefox's tabs. However here, the same shortcut is globally used to change desktops. Is there a way to change this desktop changer shortcut and/or the firefox's tab switcher shortcut?

That's it by now, thank you!

 

Since you're discussing apt, I'm assuming this is a Debian-based distro... why not look for Ubuntu Firefox packages, download one of them and install that (I use Debian packages on Ubuntu all the time)?

Or, look into Swiftfox ( http://www.getswiftfox.com ) as it too is a recompiled Firefox, but it's custom-compiled for your hardware and is supposed to perform better under Linux than standard Firefox.

- Trip

 

Also, isn't the cmd to type "mozilla-firefox"?

 

Yeh, Kurumin is Debian Based.

Thanks for the input, i'll do some google on that and post the results.

Actually, i'm using firefox, but i have to use the mouse to open it, and that's what i didnt want to. I got used to open stuff with alt+f2 plus appname, or just $ appname & while in konsole. I'm getting stick on the konsole all the time, really found it way quicker and easier [ok, i'm lazy] to solve things.
i'm not sure if theres some place that would keep the bash command list or from where exactly the bash takes the program list. as well as if theres some place on where i would find the apps "executables".
i noticed that once i uninstalled iceweasel, the iceweasel command disappeared, so i wonder if theres such thing like this.

edit:

@ John

no, i've already tried that

 

@Enunes: Sorry, I just tried it and it's now "firefox" that you have to type (you were right)...but you won't be able to start it that way because you extracted a tar, nothing has been installed system-wide

/usr/bin is one place where you can find executable files

 

Yeah, go dig up a Firefox package and install that. It'll deposit the files in the right places and you'll be set to go.

- Trip

 

It is usual better to install foreign binaries into /usr/local/bin (or your own users ~/bin directory) as the package managers can usually be relied upon not to install programs into the /usr/local directories.

 

hm i searched for a Firefox package but im not sure i found it from the last version.. ill search better when i reach home again.

anyway, im not sure if this is a linux-newbie idea or anything but... i noticed that i can call any of the apps that are at /usr/bin folder via bash. so, would it work if i extracted it at that folder? or maybe a shortcut... i would test this (and will when i reach home) but wasnt able to do that yesterday.

thank you all for the answers so far!

 

I don't recommend installing in /usr/bin.

From a terminal, type

echo $PATH

The PATH variable will show you what directories are search to find an executable.

 

You didn't say where you installed firefox. It is not in your path which is why you can't find it.

My preferred solution is to put symlinks in ~/bin

# create user bin directory if not already exisiting
$mkdir ~/bin
# add a symlink to firefox (assume below it is installed to /usr/local/bin/firefox -> replace with ACTUAL location)
$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/firefox ~/bin/firefox
#export PATH to include your home bin directory
$ export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
#Finally add your ~/bin path to your .bashrc or .login (I prefer .bashrc) This will automatically set your path at future prompts.
$ echo "PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc

 

whoa! thats exactly it!

i made some @#$ before acomplishing but some research and i think i got it. let me know if i got it right:
the ln -s command creates a symbolic link to a something, so, if i put that link inside a folder which bashrc looks for the executables, it will be found everywhere as any other command, right? then, you recommended me to create a bin folder at my home dir and put those symbolics there, and make that bin folder one of the bash sources?

looks great and very logical, if that is it, then i'm done! btw, after i got it i tried putting the symlink at the /usr/bin folder, just to make kind of a test, and it really worked!

the echo $PATH thing also helped hard for me to understand it, anyways, thanks for it all

 

Jeff:

Why use userlevel symlinking?

If it is a machine you administer, do it at the system level by either placing the proper path setting in /etc/profile.d or by creating a system wide symlink in the /bin directory, note the lack of the ~. ~ is an absolute path reference to /home/<user> or /usr/<user> etc, depending on distribution and customization.

 

yeh.. actually i found it easier just to put the symlink at the /usr/bin folder with a
sudo ln -s ~/firefox/firefox /usr/bin

this way i can open it absolutely anywhere!

 

Enunes:

that wont work properly unless you are giving the entire system (including other users your may or may not have at a later time) read access to your personal folders.

do this:

sudo mv ~/firefox /usr/local/
sudo rm -f /usr/bin/firefox
sudo ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

As I had explained, ~ is an absolute reference to a users home directory. In this case, ~/firefox means /home/<youruser>/firefox, a directory that only you and root itself should be reading from in the first place if you have permissions set correctly.