Blog O Stu

Update September 7, 10:30 EDT, US: This post and these directions are no longer relevant as the wonderful folks at Slackware have released Firefox 6.0.2 for Slackware 13.37! My thanks to them!

http://slackware.com/security/viewer.php?l=slackware-security&y=2011&m=slackware-security.453304

NOTE: Building Mozilla Firefox depends on the package wireless-tools.  If it’s not already installed, install it from /slackware64/n/ on your Slackware CD or grab it from a Slackware mirror. (Alternatively, you can take a look at my hack to the SlackBuild file.)

NOTE: The resulting package will run whether or not wireless-tools is installed.

1. Get the SlackBuild files from slackware64-current/source/xap/mozilla-firefox/ on a Slackware mirror. You’ll need these files
   • :firefox.moz_plugin_path.diff.gz
   • firefox.png
   • mimeTypes.rdf.gz
   • mozilla-firefox-mimeTypes-fix.diff.gz
   • mozilla-firefox.SlackBuild
   • mozilla-firefox.desktop
   • slack-desc
2. Put them in a convienient place to build. (I like /usr/src/mozilla-firefox)
3. Grab the Firefox source file firefox-6.0.2.source.tar.bz2 from ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/6.0.2/source/ and put it with the other files.
4. Open a shell and cd to the directory in which you put the files in steps 2 and 3.
5. Set the SlackBuild file executable:chmod a+x mozilla-firefox.SlackBuild
6. Run the SlackBuild:./mozilla-firefox.SlackBuild
7. After a bit of churning and whirring, you should end up with a package in /tmp named mozilla-firefox-6.0.2-x86_64-1.txz
8. To install the package, just open a shell as root.

If you have a previous Mozilla Firefox Slackware package installed, type:

upgradepkg mozilla-firefox-6.0.2-x86_64-1.txz

If not, replace the line above with:

installpkg mozilla-firefox-6.0.2-x86_64-1.txz

Cleaning Up:

At the end of this process, you’ll be left with some extra stuff in /tmp.  To get rid of it:

1. Move (or copy) the package file mozilla-firefox-6.0.2-x86_64-1.txz to a safe place.
2. If you copied the file in step 1, delete the file mozilla-firefox-6.0.2-x86_64-1.txz
3. Delete the directories mozilla-release and package-mozilla-firefox

Happy Surfing!
Stu…

P.S. If you’re interested in how I got this to work, take a look at the journal of my journey.

P.P.S. Updated for 6.0.2 (we miss you, Mozilla.com -)