How to Install Firefox in Linux using Apt-Get
Installing Firefox using the Apt-Get Command
Hey all! Today we are going to cover another Linux article for beginners on how to install Firefox in Linux using the “Apt-Get” command.
When I first installed Kubuntu on my laptop I was using Konqueror to browse the net. It is a nice browser but it was giving me some trouble displaying certain menus in WordPress and on sites like Google video, etc.
I decided the best thing to do would be to install Firefox. I was familiar with Firefox from using it in Windows and I knew there was a version of Firefox for Linux. I checked on the Firefox website and there was a Linux version I could download but I didn’t know what to do with the file once I had downloaded it. We will cover that type of installation in another article.
What I ended up doing was using the “Apt-Get” command to install Firefox. I am not a big command line guy but this was actually much easier than I expected it to be.
Apt is “a Debian tool used to manage packages. When a user installs a package on a system, it also searches for and then installs or upgrades all the necessary dependant packages to make the package work. The actual command is apt-get.” -webopedia.com
This is great to know because it is saying that when you use the Apt-Get command it will also download any other files that are needed for the software to run properly.
So now that we understand what Apt-Get is and why it is useful let’s install Firefox.
The first thing you need to do is open a console window. This can be done by clicking on your K-menu:
K-Menu > System > Konsole – Terminal Program
Once the console opens you will need to type the folowing command:
sudo Apt-Get install Firefox
Once you have typed this hit “Enter” and Konsole will ask for your root password. Type in your password and hit “Enter”
You should now see some system messages in the Konsole window as the system downloads and installs Firefox onto your system. Once it is complete it will bring you back to the command line in Konsole.
Go ahead and close your Konsole window, and now you should be able to open Firefox on your system. Go to:
K-Menu > Internet > Firefox Web Browser
Congratulations. You just installed a program using the Apt-Get command.
As you can see this is a very useful command because of how easily it allows you to install applications on your system.
One thing I ran into when writing this article was that I already had Firefox installed. When I typed in:
sudo Apt-Get install Firefox
I got the error message:
sudo: Apt-Get: command not found
If you get this error message try using the following command:
sudo /usr/bin/apt-get install Firefox
I am not sure why I got the error because it originally allowed me to install Firefox using the standard Apt-Get command without the /usr/bin/.
This might be because you already have the program installed which I did in this case. If you would like to remove the program you can always type:
sudo /usr/bin/apt-get remove Firefox
This will uninstall the program you would like to remove from your system. This covers the basics of installing and removing programs using the Apt-Get command.
In future articles I will cover Apt-Get in more detail but for now this should give you enough to get started with it. If you would like to know more about Apt-Get and its usage type the following command into the Konsole:
man Apt-Get
I hope this article helped with the basics of using the Apt-Get command. In the case of the “Apt-Get: command not found” error, try the “/usr/bin/apt-get” command I listed above. This worked for me and resolved the error message.
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