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Firefox: How the heck do you possibly install this?

N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,250
1,277
I just got my Mac Pro today. First time Mac user after years
of being a Power PC user.

I think I nailed the basics of installing a program. Basically, the
program icon gets dragged to the APPLICATIONS folder and the
program is installed.

Thus far I installed quite a few programs without a hitch.

But has anyone tried installing Firefox?

You drag it to the APPLICATIONS folder and several things happen....

First, it shows up as a DRIVE (not a launch icon) on the desktop.

When you go into APPLICATIONS and try to launch Firefox, you
get a message that says something like:" "Cannot start as
application is open already"

After several botched install attempts (throwing application files
into trash) I go to FINDER and find multiple FIREFOX icon entries
that I can't get rid of.

How can I start from scratch, clean out all the Firefox crud now
on my mac and do a fresh install that will work?

Please give very precise instructions as you are working with
a newbie here.

Thanks!
 
I'm confused by what you say, but it sounds like you might've fallen into the "DMG trap" that a lot of new Mac (OS X) users get caught in.

When you download Firefox, it comes as a .dmg file. You double-click that and it mounts a virtual disk image on your desktop with the Firefox.app inside. You drag Firefox.app to your Applications folder, then eject the virtual disk image, and finally throw the dmg in the Trash.
 
apfhex said:
I'm confused by what you say, but it sounds like you might've fallen into the "DMG trap" that a lot of new Mac (OS X) users get caught in.

When you download Firefox, it comes as a .dmg file. You double-click that and it mounts a virtual disk image on your desktop with the Firefox.app inside. You drag Firefox.app to your Applications folder, then eject the virtual disk image, and finally throw the dmg in the Trash.
Click to expand...

Exactly, simpler description:
Double click the grey icon, instead of dragging it to applications
A white drive should appear, drag the contents of that to the application folder
Drag the grey icon and white drive on the desktop to the trash
 
Okay, those last instructions worked perfectly the
first time.

However, upon the second launch of FIREFOX from
the applications folder I found a Firefox DRIVE icon on
my desktop even though I thought I discarded all those
icons (as instructed above)

Now whether I launch Firefox from APPLICATIONS or
the DRIVE icon, I get the message that "A copy of Firefox
is already open"

By the way, guys, thank you for taking the time to help.
This forum is great!
 
Maybe press the apple in the top left.
Then press force quit.
If firefox is there then select it and press force quit.
Then drag the white drive icon from your desktop to the trash.
Now open firefox from the applications folder.

And yes, this forum is awesome...

P.S: For future reference the force quit thing (which you'll hopefully very rarely have to use) is the equivelant of the windows ctrl-alt-del.

PPS: I think you originally meant to say you were a PC user, not a Power PC user. PPC is the old processor formerly used in macs.
 
Ah, yes, a PC user. However, after all these years of using
Windows I used that term to show I was a highly experienced one.

This Firefox situation is not getting any better.

Removed the DRIVE icon by throwing it in the trash.

Launched FIREFOX from APPLICATIONS. When I do that,
I get a install-like screen that tells me to drag my Firefox
icon to the app folder. When I do that, the DRIVE appears
on my desktop. This tells me I may not have the right icon
installed in the APPS area.

Also, I should mention, I did copy my PROFILES folder
from my Windows installed Firefox and replaced it over
the Macintosh like folder. I read this could legally be done
if I wanted to import my bookmarks and plug-ins.
 
it should be easy. as previous reply described. maybe u should try again without the profile u copied.
 
NJRonbo said:
Ah, yes, a PC user. However, after all these years of using
Windows I used that term to show I was a highly experienced one.

This Firefox situation is not getting any better.

Removed the DRIVE icon by throwing it in the trash.

Launched FIREFOX from APPLICATIONS. When I do that,
I get a install-like screen that tells me to drag my Firefox
icon to the app folder. When I do that, the DRIVE appears
on my desktop. This tells me I may not have the right icon
installed in the APPS area.

Also, I should mention, I did copy my PROFILES folder
from my Windows installed Firefox and replaced it over
the Macintosh like folder. I read this could legally be done
if I wanted to import my bookmarks and plug-ins.
Click to expand...

What did you drag to the applications folder?

If you could post screenshots that would be great...use applekey+shift+3

If you double click the white drive icon once it is created, then drag firefox from there, not the grey icon, all should be fine...
 
NJRonbo said:
Launched FIREFOX from APPLICATIONS. When I do that,
I get a install-like screen that tells me to drag my Firefox
icon to the app folder. When I do that, the DRIVE appears
on my desktop. This tells me I may not have the right icon
installed in the APPS area.
Click to expand...

Correct. That thing that you placed in the apps directory is the disk image -- not the application itself. The application file is inside the disk image. Do this:

Double click on it again so that the drive is on the desktop. Now open that "drive" and you should see a window with a firefox icon (circular orange and blue one) -- this is the icon you want to drag to the applications folder. Do that.

Now drag the drive icon from the desktop to the trash.

Now go to the applications folder. If you still have anything called Firefox there that DOES NOT have the circular orange and blue icon, drag it directly from the apps folder to the trash.

Now run Firefox. It should work properly.

Also look at the guide here for a detailed walkthrough.... the pictures might make it much more obvious. Once you do it once or twice it'll be easy enough. :) You can do it! :)

Oh, and can you please stop manually typing enter at the end of every line? The forum supports word wrapping! ;)
 
picture1pe5.png

after this, u can launch firefox by double clicking the firefox icon in your application folder.
 
What you just instructed above worked perfectly

I only have the icon itself in the APPS folder. No more drive icon on the desktop as that has been trashed.

Still will not open stating "A copy of Firefox is already open"

I even shut down and restarted my mac to force application closure.
 
Also, even though I have now completely trashed FIREFOX, I do a search with SPOTLIGHT and I have a half dozen instances of Firefox showing up. Tried throwing them all in TRASH by dragging, but I guess you can't do that through SPOTLIGHT.
 
NJRonbo said:
Also, even though I have now completely trashed FIREFOX, I do a search with SPOTLIGHT and I have a half dozen instances of Firefox showing up. Tried throwing them all in TRASH by dragging, but I guess you can't do that through SPOTLIGHT.
Click to expand...

Search in spotlight. Click show all at the top. Now you can drag to trash...
 
Selected Show All.

Moved to Trash, the Trash can made clunking sound, but application
did not disappear.

I have a long way to go in figuring out this OS, but I'll get there.
 
Why don't you just stick with Safari? You just got your first Mac today, how could you possibly know if Safari is worth replacing? It's not like Internet Explorer on a PC, Safari is actually a good browser (and I argue it's the best because of it's speed, simplicity, and apple-ness).
 
NJRonbo said:
Selected Show All.

Moved to Trash, the Trash can made clunking sound, but application
did not disappear.

I have a long way to go in figuring out this OS, but I'll get there.
Click to expand...

Erm... I think it's not so bad. I think you just somehow managed to mess it up while trying to figure it out! ;) Once you clean this up, it should be fairly straightforward.

Now then, one thing to point out is that spotlight searches the trash folder. So when you drag things from a spotlight window to the trash, they don't disappear. But they should no longer be in their previous location.
 
I think I right clicked in SHOW ALL SPOTLIGHT and was able
to empty trash from there. All the FIREFOX applications are
now removed.

Why Firefox? Easy! Been using it for years and I think it
can't easily be beat. If I can get this installed correctly
and import over all my favorites and plug-ins as others have,
everything will be kosher.

Just have to get to that point.
 
NJRonbo said:
Why Firefox? Easy! Been using it for years and I think it
can't easily be beat. If I can get this installed correctly
and import over all my favorites and plug-ins as others have,
everything will be kosher.
Click to expand...

Firefox can't be beat on a PC, true. But on a Mac, it's not a clear choice. Firefox just plain sucks on a Mac IMO - only good thing is those plug-ins. But in reality there is no reason to run and replace the default Mac browser just like everybody does on a PC. Safari (WebKit) is better as a browser, and Camino is chosen by a lot of people if they want a Mozilla browser for some reason (which I usually don't).

If you can do without plug-ins or with only these plug ins, Safari is a better choice. I still haven't been sold on all this plug-in craze, though.
 
I used to use Firefox on my mac, but switched to safari since i found the 'inquisitor' plug in...
 
Okay found the problem with Firefox....

Replacing the PROFILE folder with the Windows folder was the problem.

I'll figure out a way to do this I am certain.
 
Need to thank you guys!

I did it! I reinstalled Firefox and instead of just copying over my PROFILE folder I individually transferred all the files from my XP Firefox folder to the designated default Firefox Mac folder.

My Firefox now opens up exactly as it did on XP with all my extensions and bookmarks intact.

Could not have done it without you guys!

Listen....one more favor....

How do I do a CTRL+A function to select ALL FILES to copy at once?
Perhaps since I am using a Windows keyboard without Mac drivers
this is the reason I cannot do this. I just want to be sure the
command is still the same.
 
NJRonbo said:
How do I do a CTRL+A function to select ALL FILES to copy at once?
Perhaps since I am using a Windows keyboard without Mac drivers
this is the reason I cannot do this. I just want to be sure the
command is still the same.
Click to expand...

Macs have a Command key that is used for almost every key combo. Unfortunately, PC keyboards do not have this key. I think on a PC keyboard it is remapped to the Windows key or something.

On a Mac it is Command+A, not Control+A.

Also copy and paste is Command+C, Command+V.

Printing is usually Command+P.

And don't forget to quit all your apps (closing the app's windows do not generally quit apps on a Mac, unless the app only has one window) - easily done by Command+Q.
 
NJRonbo said:
I think I right clicked in SHOW ALL SPOTLIGHT and was able
to empty trash from there. All the FIREFOX applications are
now removed.
Click to expand...

you can always import your windows version's bookmark easily, but i think u might want to reinstall extensions and themes, i kinda think direct copy of windows version's profile folder might not be a good idea, not sure if the structure is exactly same (I know it looks approximately same).
 
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