Firefox is an opensource web browser from Mozilla.

Firefox ESR is distributed with Slackware.

However, you might need the latest version of Firefox. There is a Ruario's bash script “latest-firefox.sh” https://gist.github.com/ruario/9672798. Script downloads latest Firefox and package it as Slackware package.

First download the script.

# chmod +x latest-firefox.sh
# ./latest-firefox.sh
Slackware package <path> has been created
# installpkg <path>

There is an auto-install option:

# ./latest-firefox.sh --install

To allow auto updates:

$ sudo chgrp wheel -R /usr/lib64/firefox-latest
$ sudo chmod -R g+w /usr/lib64/firefox-latest

It is quite annoying that Mozilla Firefox always forgets what application to use for “opening” a file which you just downloaded. Also, the context menu “Open containing folder” in the Downloads overview does not work.

Using “xdg-open” you can improve the integration of Firefox into your Desktop Environment a lot:

1. Stop firefox if it is running
2. Delete or rename the mimetypes cache (where firefox keeps its file association settings):

   $ rm ~/.mozilla/firefox/<yourprofile>/mimeTypes.rdf

3. Start firefox again
4. Download any file if you had not done this before
5. Open that file from the “Tools > Downloads” menu (by right-clicking on it and selecting “Open“).
   When asked to choose the application for opening the file, browse to (or type) “/usr/bin/xdg-open“, then check the checkbox to “Remember your choice“.

After you’ve configured Firefox like that, both the “Open” and “Open containing folder” context menus will work. If you are running KDE then you can then change the preferred programs through KDE’s “file associations” settings.

The “pdfjs” PDF viewer is built-in in Firefox since version 15.0, this means that there is no need to install a PDF viewer plugin like Adobe Reader additionally. The built-in PDF viewer renders PDF using HTML5 and JavaScript.

The PDF viewer is disabled by default, but that is likely going to change in the future, when the functionality has proven itself. In the meantime, you can enable it as follows:

• In “about:config” set the property “browser.preferences.inContent” to “true”:
  .
• Also in “about:config” set the property “pdfjs.disabled” to “false”:
  .
• Finally, in the Firefox “Preferences > Applications” menu, search for the extension “PDF” and make sure the associated action is set to “preview in firefox”.

That's it! You don't even have to restart Firefox. Try opening a PDF, or even drag a PDF file from a filemanager into the Firefox window.

Known to work with: [Slack 14.1]

1. Edit /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
2. Find the line containing

   inode/directory=

3. Delete the following string

   audacious.desktop;

This should fix the problem.

Here's a one-liner to do it:

sudo sed -i 's|inode/directory=audacious.desktop;|inode/directory=|' /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

(I made an icon on my desktop with it in the COMMAND line)

• Originally written by arfon
• Originally written by Eric Hameleers
• Taken from an Alien Pastures article.
• Based on a hint in a discussion at LinuxQuestions.org
• Contributions by markand, zero