Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

tpicco · Jul 26, 2004, 10:53 AM

Last week I downloaded the Firefox Mozilla web browser... I have a G4 iMac using OSX 10.2.8... and eveerything unstuffed just fine, but whenever I double-click on the Firefox application, it starts to open, the icon appears in the Dock, then it disappears and shuts down... No web browser window ever appears... nothing at all happens that I can even try to change settings or anything... I will also post this question over in the Mozilla Help boards, but I post it here first 'cause Mac users tend to be smarter, friendlier and informed...

Any ideas?

Turias · Jul 26, 2004, 10:57 AM

First, try repairing permissions. Second, delete all preferences assiociated with firefox in case something got corrupted.

If that doesn't help, check to see if there is a crash log for firefox and post it if there is (should be somewhere under your user's Library folder)

tpicco · Jul 26, 2004, 11:31 AM

OK... I repaired permissions... threw out all prefernces I could find named Mozilla (none were ID'd as Firefox), couldn't find any Crashlogs associated w/either Firefox or Mozilla... still same ol' open/close

Thanks so far

wataru · Jul 26, 2004, 12:00 PM

Try the latest nightly build:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.o...fox-mac.dmg.gz

They've been pretty good lately. Lots of bugfixes.

Developer · Jul 26, 2004, 12:40 PM

Firefox currently can not be run from the disk image.

tpicco · Jul 26, 2004, 01:15 PM

>>>Firefox currently can not be run from the disk image.<<<

I'm sorry for my ignorance... my "disk image" you mean the little "hard drive" icon on my desktop that has the little Firfox icon inside it? Am I supposed to drag that into my Applications folder?

Developer · Jul 26, 2004, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by tpicco:
[B]y "disk image" you mean the little "hard drive" icon on my desktop that has the little Firfox icon inside it? Am I supposed to drag that into my Applications folder?

Yes, by "disk image" I mean the white "hard drive" icon that is mounted with Firefox inside. You are supposed to drag Firefox out of the disk image into the Applications folder (or Desktop or so would be fine too), but currently Firefox can not be run from the disk image.

tpicco · Jul 26, 2004, 02:49 PM

IT WORKED!
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you

really!

wataru · Jul 26, 2004, 03:47 PM

Originally posted by Developer:
Firefox currently can not be run from the disk image.

Jeez, I didn't even think of that.

tpicco · Jul 26, 2004, 03:51 PM

well wataru, I never even said I was trying to run it from my "disk image," so don't beat yourself up... (heck... I didn't even know that's what I was doing!)

wataru · Jul 26, 2004, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by tpicco:
well wataru, I never even said I was trying to run it from my "disk image," so don't beat yourself up... (heck... I didn't even know that's what I was doing!)

Yeah, it's such a basic thing that once you know what's going on you don't even think about it. Actually that seems to be a recurring theme here--the disk image delivery system is nice once you get used to it, but it's far from obvious. It confuses a whole lot of people, and Apple should really do something about that.

Actually they have, by means of disk images that automatically dump their content into the parent folder and then trash themselves. A number of Apple apps have had this system, like iSync and Safari (I think). I wonder why more 3rd party developers don't take advantage of it.