debian etch + gtk+ 2.12 + firefox 3

#20080610#20080626#20080827

#Please note: It’s many months now that I wrote these steps. Libraries may have changed and I did not update the links. So you have two choices :

- directly follow the links I wrote: in this case these instructions will help you but you will have slightly old libraries.

- search for new versions of the libraries: if something has changed these instructions will not be able to cover the new subject.

anyways, choose as you like

Another note: Lenny is about to be released …  I suppose we will have iceweasel version 3 by default .

#Please note : this _is_ and _will remain_ work in progress. Before executing the steps think of what I wrote : I am in a hurry and the informations lack of completeness here and there. Any suggestions/corrections are welcome. At present it seemed they worked fine for many people.

#Please note: Every change to the environment variables described here vanishes if you do not store it somewhere (i.e. bashrc or something).

#Please note : some steps need root privileges. I installed all the libs as a non-root user . if you want to do it differently modify the steps according to your taste.

#Please note: I just found a writing about the use of LD_LIBRARY_PATH. And it is a bit “scary”… See http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/notes/rpath.html . Setting the value of LD_LIBRARY_PATH influences all our next compilations and execution of programs that use the libraries we are going to install- it’s useful to remember this. So do we need to change something in the following lines ? Do we need to compile FireFox from source and link everything statically ?? Suggestions greatly appreciated. UPDATE: Okay, thank to that page, I found the solution, that is explained in the 2nd section.

1st Section - Build the libraries gtk+ 2.12 and install them as a non-root user.

1. Install through aptitude/synaptic some of the packages gtk+2.12 depends upon. Here is the list of what I had to install (do you think that we can slim down this list ?) :
   • The package xorg-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libtiff4-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libpng12-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libpango1.0-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libatk1.0-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libgtk2.0-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package gettext. All its dependencies are handled automatically.
   • The package libxul-dev. All its dependencies are handled automatically. (NEW)
2. Choose a folder/subfolder in the home directory where all the libraries,binaries man pages will be installed. I will call it <folderofchoice> from now on.
3. Fetch and install the package glib 2.16. I did this step as a non root user, with its drawbacks. But I like it and it s convenient to my system.
   • Open a console.
   • Unzip and untar the package somewhere in the home folder.
   • Change the current working directory to the main glib package directory.
   • Execute the script configure located in the glib 2.16 main folder. I had to pass configure the following parameter –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice> so that glib could be completely rooted to <folderofchoice>. The command was the following : ./configure –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice>.
   • Execute the command make install. After that you should have glib 2.16 built and rooted at $HOME/<folderofchoice>. To test this you can ls the contents of $HOME/<folderofchoice>.
4. Fetch and install the package pango 1.20. I did this step as a non root user, with its drawbacks. But I like it and it s convenient to my system. Please note that pango 1.20 requires glib 2.14 or newer. Glib 2.12.4 is installed system-wide so We must tell pango to use the glib 2.16 we installed in the previous step. Look :
   • Open a console.
   • Unzip and untar the package pango 1.20 somewhere in the home folder.
   • Change the current working directory to the main pango package directory.
   • Modify the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH so that its content is the path to glib 2.16’s pkgconfig directory. Oh, well here we go if you are using BASH :
     export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib/pkgconfig.
   • Modify the environment variable LD_RUN_PATH so that its content is the path to the newly installed libraries. If you are using BASH here is the command
     export LD_RUN_PATH=$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib .
   • Execute the script configure located in the pango 1.20 main folder. I had to pass configure the following parameter –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice> so that pango could be completely rooted to <folderofchoice>. The command was the following : ./configure –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice>.
   • Execute the command make install. After that you should have pango 1.20 built and rooted at $HOME/<folderofchoice>. To test this you can ls the contents of $HOME/<folderofchoice>.
5. Fetch and install the package gtk+2.12 . I did this step as a non root user, with its drawbacks. But I like it and it s convenient to my system. Please note that gtk+2.12 requires glib 2.14 or newer. Glib 2.12.4 is installed system-wide so We must tell gtk+2.12 to use the glib 2.16 and pango 1.20 we installed in the previous steps.
   • Open a console.
   • Unzip and untar the package gtk+2.12 somewhere in the home folder.
   • Change the current working directory to the main gtk+ package directory.
   • Modify the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH so that its content is the path to glib 2.16’s pkgconfig directory. Oh, well here we go if you are using BASH :
     export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib/pkgconfig.
   • Modify the environment variable LD_RUN_PATH so that its content is the path to the newly installed libraries. If you are using BASH here is the command
     export LD_RUN_PATH=$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib .
   • Execute the script configure located in the gtk+2.12 main folder. I had to pass configure the following parameter –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice> so that gtk+ could be completely rooted to <folderofchoice>. The command was the following :
     ./configure –prefix=$HOME/<folderofchoice>.
   • At this point you should have configured the gtk package. One problem arises. In my system if I next give the command ‘make’ the build process stops complaining libtool has an invalid argument. A temporary workaround is the following.
     • Open with a text editor the Makefile located in the gtk+2.12 main folder.
     • Search for the word ‘tests’ and delete it. The result is that the gtk tests will not be built but the package will be built correctly. I hope I can find the correct fix, anyways.
   • Execute the command make install. After that you should have gtk+2.12 built and rooted at $HOME/<folderofchoice>. To test this you can list the contents of $HOME/<folderofchoice>.

   That’s it ! You should have everything set up to run Firefox 3. Let’s try it !

2nd Section - Fetch and install Firefox 3.

1. Fetch the Firefox 3 binary package that you like the most and execute it making sure that the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH stores the path to the newly installed libraries.
   • Open a console.
   • Unzip and untar the package firefoxXXX somewhere in the home folder.
   • Change the current working directory to the main firefoxXXX package directory.
   • Now, you can fallow one of two ways :
     Way one
     #Please Note: this way the scope of LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the whole shell environment.
     • Modify the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that its content is the path to the newly installed libraries. If you are using BASH here is the command
       export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib .
     • Run the local copy of Firefox 3. Here is the command : ./firefox. It is important that you tell the shell to run the local copy of firefox otherwise the “system wide” firefox will be executed.

     Way two (I think “safer”)
     #Please Note: this way the scope of LD_LIBRARY_PATH should be only the program we are executing, not system wide scope.

     • Create a wrapper script that has the following 3 lines (sorry, I had to cut the “export” in 2 lines). NOte: this is a very basic script. I mean I am just passing one parameter to the “real” firefox (i.e. an URL). To allow more complex situations you have to modify it.
       #!/bin/sh
       export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
       =$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$HOME/<folderofchoice>/lib
       <full_path_firefox_folder>/firefox $1
     • Save the script with a non-conflicting-name that you like in the main firefoxXXX package folder (the current folder, if you followed the steps). Let’s suppose to call the script startfox.
     • Change the permission of the script so that it can be executed :
       chmod u+x ./startfox
     • Run the script startfox.
   • is it running ?

Here are some notes about the customization of the gtk theme

Linked articles (thanks to the senders) :

• http://ddesani.blogspot.com/2008/06/firefox-3-debian-etch.html (Portuguese)
  
  

cheers !

d

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