Firefox 1.5: Installation Guidelines & Common Questions

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
Locked
manc39
Moderator
Posts: 2037
Joined: June 17th, 2004, 8:34 am
Location: Manchester, England
Contact:

Firefox 1.5: Installation Guidelines & Common Questions

Post by manc39 »

<a href="#upgrade">How to upgrade from previous versions</a> | <a href="#clean">How to perform a clean installation</a> | <a href="#problems">Potential problems</a> | <a href="#new">What's new in Firefox 1.5?</a> | <a href="#help">Where can I find additional help?</a> | <a href="#down">Can I downgrade to <acronym title="1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7">1.0.x</acronym>?</a>

<a name="upgrade"></a>How to upgrade from versions <acronym title="1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7">1.0.x</acronym>/ 1.5 beta/ 1.5 RC

Note: Adblock does not work with Firefox 1.5. If you are using Adblock upgrade to Adblock Plus.
To do so: Uninstall Adblock, upgrade Firefox and then install Adblock Plus.


If you're using 1.5RC3, congratulations, RC3 is the same as the final release. You don't need to do anything. Otherwise (or if you're not sure):

  1. Download Firefox 1.5.
  2. Recommended but not required: Back up your profile.
  3. Install Firefox 1.5.
If you are using a third party build and wish to install the official 1.5 release, a <a href="#clean">clean installation</a> is recommended.

<a name="clean"></a>How to perform a clean installation
[A clean installation is only necessary if you had a version older than 1.0 or if you are having problems with Firefox. What it does is remove all traces of Firefox from your system, eliminating any problems that may have been present in the Firefox installation or with your profile, so you can start afresh.]
  1. Download Firefox 1.5
  2. Create a backup of your Profile. You can simply copy everything to another folder on your hard drive, which will give Firefox the ability to retrieve your prior settings, bookmarks, etc. If you have customized your search plugins, back them up too. (They are in the installation directory, not in the profile. Newly added search plugins will be stored in the profile in Firefox 1.5; you may wish to move the entire search plugins folder from the installation directory to your profile folder.)
  3. Uninstall any previous version(s) of Firefox. In Windows use the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. After uninstalling Firefox, Windows users should go back and delete the Firefox installation directory, typically C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.
  4. Delete the Firefox folder in the Firefox "Profiles" location. (Do not simply delete the "Profiles" subfolder. Make sure to delete the Firefox folder containing the "Profiles" folder and related files, including "profiles.ini".) .
  5. Install Firefox 1.5 with as little as possible running on your PC. You can reboot your PC so you have a fresh start and don't start any other work until you install 1.5 successfully.
  6. Before you open firefox, copy key settings back from your prior profiles. From your Backup Profile folder (created in step #2), copy over bookmarks.html, cookies.txt, hostperm.1, key3.db, signon.txt, formhistory.dat and user.js from your backup to your newly created profile.

<a name="problems"></a>Problems


> Get a "Software installation disabled" message? [Bug 310737]
Type about:config in the URLbar and hit Enter
Filter = <code>xpinstall</code>
Pref Name = <code>xpinstall.enabled</code>
Right-Click and select <code>Toggle</code> to <code>True</code>
Restart Firefox
(For a more detailed explanation, with screenshots, see *this page*.

> Cannot connect to the internet after installing Firefox 1.5?
Your firewall is most problably blocking it; reconfigure your firewall to grant Firefox internet access.
[Error Loading Any Website - MozillaZine Knowledge Base]
[Instructions for Norton Internet Security]

> Getting the «7-Zip Unspecified Error» alert?
The file you downloaded is corrupt; delete it, clear the cache/temp directory and redownload.

> Extensions or themes disabled because of the update?
Try finding the extension author's website. They often have the most up to date version.

> Not getting any scroll bars?
Switch to the default theme.

> Get a large gray bar at the bottom of the window?
If you have Linky, uninstall it.
If you had the Image Zoomer extension at some point, read this post.
If that doesn't work, try uninstalling other extensions. If that doesn't work, try the standard diagnostic.


<a name="new"></a>What's new in Firefox 1.5?
Firefox 1.5 release notes
Notable improvements:
  • Automated updates
  • Faster back and forward button navigation
  • Drag and drop reordering of tabs
  • Improvements to popup blocking
  • Clear Private Data feature (easily clear cache, cookies, saved forms, passwords & download history)
  • Various improvements to the user interface
  • Report a broken web site wizard (report web sites that don't work correctly in Firefox)
  • Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
  • New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
  • Many security enhancements


<a name="down"></a>Can I downgrade to <acronym title="1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7">1.0.x</acronym>?
You can, however it is inadvisable to do so. To downgrade you must create a new profile, or delete the following from your profile folder:
• <code>extensions.rdf</code> file
• <code>extensions</code> folder
• <code>chrome\chrome.rdf</code> file
• <code>chrome\overlayinfo\</code> folder
You will loose all your themes and extensions.
Note: If you are considering downgrading, the problem you are having with 1.5 that is causing you to is most likely a <a href="#problems">firewall problem (can't connect error)</a>, or a profile problem.


<a name="help"></a>Where can I find additional help?
For additional questions, search the forums (select "Mozilla Firefox Support" as the sole forum to search and use keywords that summarize your problem). If a search yields no results you can always post a new topic.
See also:
Firefox Support
Frequently Asked Support Questions
Last edited by manc39 on November 22nd, 2005, 10:13 am, edited 7 times in total.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b1) Gecko/20060712 BonEcho/2.0b1
Locked