Can't get firefox to install

[amam0]

i was having same problem

Wow. There is something wonky with that installer. Time to whip out the big guns.

sudo dpkg --force-depends --purge kubuntu-firefox-installer

Show me the output before proceeding.

Wonderful!!!!! Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SteveRiley]

Well, nearly all of my learning has happened this way:

* Install something
* Break it
* Google for answers -- being mindful of the source and the date, because stuff changes
* Test things in VMs
* Contribute here on the forum

For example, dpkg is scalpel. With experience, you can make it sing. To get that experience, you have to break some stuff, then try to put it back together. I'm really, really interested in learning the guts of this stuff, so I invest the time. Anyone can do it, if they're interested.

[Mazate]

I hope to someday be as proficient at the command line as you are. Once upon a time I had aspirations of being a linux admin. Obviously that never came to fruition.

[SteveRiley]

Happy to help, glad you're working now.

It's just me and the PC and the French horn tonight. I'm not the raver I used to be. LOL

[Mazate]

It works! Thank you! Sorry to take up your Friday night.

[SteveRiley]

OK, now try the install command from post #21.

[Mazate]

david@david-Satellite-L645D:~$ sudo dpkg --force-depends --purge kubuntu-firefox-installer
(Reading database ... 100013 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing kubuntu-firefox-installer ...

[SteveRiley]

Wow. There is something wonky with that installer. Time to whip out the big guns.

sudo dpkg --force-depends --purge kubuntu-firefox-installer

Show me the output before proceeding.

[Mazate]

Looks like we may have run into a little problem:

david@david-Satellite-L645D:~$ sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends firefox
[sudo] password for david: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  liboil0.3
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
Suggested packages:
  latex-xft-fonts firefox-gnome-support
Recommended packages:
  firefox-globalmenu
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firefox
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 354 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/24.8 MB of archives.
After this operation, 55.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 100014 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking firefox (from .../firefox_20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3_amd64.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop', which is also in package kubuntu-firefox-installer 12.04ubuntu1
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[SteveRiley]

OK, looks like it will install fine. But you don't that silly global menu thing, that's just for Ubuntu Unity. So install it this way:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends firefox

Finally, you should be able to eliminate that installer package:

sudo apt-get purge kubuntu-firefox-installer

And then clean up:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

[Mazate]

david@david-Satellite-L645D:~$ apt-get -s install firefox
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  liboil0.3
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  firefox-globalmenu
Suggested packages:
  latex-xft-fonts firefox-gnome-support
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firefox firefox-globalmenu
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 354 not upgraded.
Inst firefox (20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3 Ubuntu:12.10/quantal-updates [amd64])
Inst firefox-globalmenu (20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3 Ubuntu:12.10/quantal-updates [amd64])
Conf firefox (20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3 Ubuntu:12.10/quantal-updates [amd64])
Conf firefox-globalmenu (20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3 Ubuntu:12.10/quantal-updates [amd64])

[SteveRiley]

Alright, now try a simulation of a Firefox install. We're looking for no errors.

apt-get -s install firefox

[Mazate]

david@david-Satellite-L645D:~$ dpkg -l | grep firefox
ii  firefox-locale-en                               16.0.1+build1-0ubuntu1                    amd64        English language pack for Firefox
ii  kubuntu-firefox-installer                       12.04ubuntu1                              amd64        Mozilla Firefox installer for Kubuntu

[SteveRiley]

Reboot, and run the same command in post #11.