Installing Firefox Web Browser and some Essential Plugins for Linux...

Here are some notes on installing Firefox and plugins for Flash, Java and Mplayerplug-in:

Installing Firefox:

1. Download the latest Firefox installer via http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
2. untar the archive, `tar -xvzf firefox-x.x.x-x-linux-gtk2+xft-installer.tar.gz`
3. `cd firefox-installer`
4. Login as root before doing the install, `su`
5. Run the installer, `./firefox-installer`
6. Change the destination install directory to be "/usr/lib/firefox"
7. Create a Launcher on your desktop after installation.

Note: All of the .so plugin files go to the "/usr/lib/firefox/plugins" folder...

Installing Flash Plugin

1. Download Flash Player via, http://www.macromedia.com/go/gnavtray_dl_flashpl
2. untar the archive
3. `cd install_flash_player_x_linux`
4. `su`
5. Copy "libflashplayer.so" and "flashplayer.xpt" to the plugins directory at "/usr/lib/firefox/plugins"
6. Restart your web browser

Installing Java Plugin

1. Download the self extracting Java Runtime Environment binary file via, http://java.com/en/download
2. Run the file, `./j2re-x_x_x_xx-linux-x-rpm.bin` . (Check to make sure the file has the right executable permissions first.)
3. Once you agree to the terms of license, it extracts the corresponding rpm file.
4. Login as root and install the rpm, `rpm -ivh j2re-x_x_x_xx-linux-x.rpm`
5. After successful installation, add the path to the java binary file in your ".bash_profile" (My path line now looks like this: PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/java/j2rex.x.x_xx/bin)
6. Create a symbolic link to the plugin, `ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_05/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so`
7. Logging out and logging back in again should now activate your java plugin on launching Firefox.

Installing Mplayerplug-in

1. You should have already installed mplayer for this.
   
2. Check and make sure that you have "mozilla-devel" installed, else run `yum install mozilla-devel`.
   
3. Download the mplayerplug-in source.
   
4. Extract and run configure and make from within the mplayerplug-in directory.
   

   $ ./configure --enable-wmp --enable-qt --enable-rm --enable-gmp
   $ make
   

5. Copy the generated "so" and the corresponding "xpt" files over to the mozilla plugins folder.

   # cp ./{mplayerplug-in*.so,mplayerplug-in*.xpt} /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
   

6. Type "about:plugins" in your browser as the url to check for the installed plugins.

Related Reading:

1. Check the most commonly used firefox plugins or visit mozillas' plugindocs for more.