Best way to upgrade Firebird?

MDesigner · Post by **MDesigner** » May 23rd, 2003, 7:26 am

I'd like to know the cleanest way to upgrade Firebird. In Mozilla, the best way I've heard is to uninstall it, remove the mozilla.org\Mozilla directory entirely, and install the new build.

Since Firebird doesn't have an installer, what should I do? Just replace the entire directory? What about my extensions, I don't want to lose them or their settings..where are extensions stored?

Thanks.

Post by **alanjstr** » May 23rd, 2003, 7:42 am

Like Mozilla, your profile is stored in a seperate directory. It varies depending on OS (see Editing at Firebird Help). Some extensions install into your profile, while others go into the program directory. To upgrade Firebird you must delete your program directory and extract FB to a new one. You should not overwrite an existing installation. Most of your settings will carry forward. Only if something is really wrong do you need a clean profile. You will need to redownload any extensions or themes that installed to your program directory. You can always save them to your hard drive for future uses, though.

avbohemen · Post by **avbohemen** » May 23rd, 2003, 12:47 pm

This is how I always upgrade to a new nightly build (on win32):

1. I delete everything in my Firebird directory, except the following subdirs:
-- Plugins
-- Searchplugins

2. Extract the new nighlty to my almost empty Firebird dir, overwriting the existing files (only the null-plugin and the default searchplugins get overwritten).

3. I convert firebird\default\plugins\pref\all.js from unix to dos format (open in wordpad, then save again), to work around Bug #206029.

4. Reinstall the flash plugin (this is the only plugin I use that modifies other files besides the plugins dir).

5. Start Firebird, reinstall the extensions I use, close firebird again.

Start Firebird again, all is done, and I still have the same settings.

Zulithe · Post by **Zulithe** » May 23rd, 2003, 1:04 pm

Usually I
1. delete MozillaFirebird directory from Program Files (since I'm using windows only ATM)
2. delete profile folder
3. unzip nightly to Program Files, creating a fresh MozillaFirebird folder

Since right now I only use the core skin, and the only extention I *always* install is the Tab Extentions (which is updated almost everyday anyway, so why not just do it fresh?) This method has worked fine for me.

I don't install flash or any of that mumbo, since 90% of flash are just ads I could care less about seeing.

and if there is something in flash that I just GOTTA see I will just launch in IE until I decide to use FireBird as my core browser (probably not until 1.5 nightlies come around, or until someone develops an extention that allows for offline browsing, since that feature is important to me)

M · Post by M » May 23rd, 2003, 1:38 pm

I just unzip and overwrite all the files in my Program Files\MozillaFirebird directory. I have never had a problem with it yet.

SushiFugu · Post by **SushiFugu** » May 24th, 2003, 4:13 am

M wrote:I just unzip and overwrite all the files in my Program Files\MozillaFirebird directory. I have never had a problem with it yet.

You like living on the wild side, huh?

yurk · Post by **yurk** » May 24th, 2003, 4:29 am

MDesigner wrote:I'd like to know the cleanest way to upgrade Firebird. In Mozilla, the best way I've heard is to uninstall it, remove the mozilla.org\Mozilla directory entirely, and install the new build.

Since Firebird doesn't have an installer, what should I do? Just replace the entire directory? What about my extensions, I don't want to lose them or their settings..where are extensions stored?

Thanks.

Just use the installer/uninstaller provided at http://seb.mozdev.org/firebird/
It will too allow you to erase your profile but I never had to do so.

scarbittenross · Post by **scarbittenross** » May 25th, 2003, 4:16 am

SushiFugu wrote:
M wrote:I just unzip and overwrite all the files in my Program Files\MozillaFirebird directory. I have never had a problem with it yet.

You like living on the wild side, huh?

I've got a habit of doing this too

(Since the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firebird\MozillaFirebird.exe" -p string never works for me, ever.)

Dunderklumpen · Post by **Dunderklumpen** » May 25th, 2003, 4:26 am

M wrote:I just unzip and overwrite all the files in my Program Files\MozillaFirebird directory. I have never had a problem with it yet.

Never, use this method. You will run into trouble sooner or later. This is also clearly not recommended in the official documents. Delete all files in the Mozilla Firebird directory - do not overwrite.

In case of trouble/problems - delete the profilesfolder and make a completely fresh install.

You will have to reinstall the extionsions you had earlier, possibly also the themes. Some themes and extensions now use the profilesfolder wich means that they will be preserved after an upgrade.

Homer · Post by **Homer** » May 25th, 2003, 7:23 am

hmm, I've used the unzip method for about a month now, no problems there.

I could see problems with profiles there, but that's about it, based on my understanding

any examples of real-world problems that could occur?

dacovale · Post by **dacovale** » May 25th, 2003, 10:00 am

scarbittenross wrote:the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firebird\MozillaFirebird.exe" -p string never works for me, ever.

if you copy and pasted your string, I can tell you what the problem is.
There's no space in MozillaFirebird. not even in the directory.

nilson · Post by **nilson** » May 25th, 2003, 11:25 am

I delete the program dir (C:\Program Files\Firebird\) every time I upgrade, and I delete the profile about every third time.

Dunderklumpen · Post by **Dunderklumpen** » May 25th, 2003, 11:32 am

Homer wrote:hmm, I've used the unzip method for about a month now, no problems there.

I could see problems with profiles there, but that's about it, based on my understanding

any examples of real-world problems that could occur?

Several, wich is the reason for the developers, the authors of the helpttexts and others <b>NOT</b> to recommend this method.

shill · Post by **shill** » May 25th, 2003, 12:37 pm

dacovale wrote:
scarbittenross wrote:the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firebird\MozillaFirebird.exe" -p string never works for me, ever.

if you copy and pasted your string, I can tell you what the problem is.
There's no space in MozillaFirebird. not even in the directory.

Mine isn't even in that directory, it's in C:\Program Files\Mozilla.org\Firebird\MozillaFirebird.exe

kendp · Post by **kendp** » May 25th, 2003, 12:55 pm

avbohemen wrote:This is how I always upgrade to a new nightly build (on win32):

5. Start Firebird, reinstall the extensions I use, close firebird again.

Start Firebird again, all is done, and I still have the same settings.

This means, I guess that there is no alternative to reinstalling the extensions.

What is the reason why plugins and extensions aren't located with bookmarks so that they are picked up automatically when installing later versions?

Best way to upgrade Firebird?

Best way to upgrade Firebird?

Re: Best way to upgrade Firebird?