Install Firefox 4 Beta 1 on Ubuntu 10.04

Since Firefox 4 Beta 1 launched, I wanted to test it where ever I could. I’ve tested it on Windows and it works great. Mozilla also put a build for Ubuntu, but there is no installer, of course.

After Googling around for a while, I came across an excellent article that described exactly how to install the new beta. Shannon Eric Peevey on Secret Ham wrote provided the following instructions:

speeves@mycomputer:~/Downloads$ bzip2 -d firefox-4.0b1.tar.bz2
speeves@mycomputer:~/Downloads$ tar xvf firefox-4.0b1.tar
firefox/
firefox/mozilla-xremote-client
firefox/platform.ini
firefox/README.txt
firefox/libsoftokn3.chk
firefox/libnssckbi.so
...
speeves@mycomputer:~/Downloads$ sudo mv firefox /opt/
speeves@mycomputer:~/Downloads$ ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox ~/bin/firefox4
speeves@mycomputer:~/Downloads$ firefox4

Basically, download Firefox to your downloads folder. Then, unpack the zipped tarball. Once you get that far, you’ll move the beta firefox folder to your /opt folder. Then, make a symbolic link pointing to the special beta firefox in /opt and put the symlink in the ~/bin folder so that it can be launched via the terminal.

My addition to is to add an icon to the launch bar. Open up a file manager window and navigate to root, and then go into the bin. Look around for your firefox4 symlink, and then drag it to the launch bar. Once you get that far, it’ll ask you to give the launcher a name, call it “Firefox 4b1″ or something like that. Then, close that window and reopen the properties of the launcher, and click on the little spring icon that’s default. Navigate back to root, and go into opt/firefox/icons/ and select the mozicon128.png.

That’s all there is to getting Firefox 4 Beta 1 to run on Ubuntu!