Firefox is a popular web browser that is known for its speed, security, and privacy features. In this article, we will show you how to download and install the latest version of Firefox from a zip file on a Fedora or CentOS system.

Advertisement

This article will help you to install Firefox on CentOS, RedHat, and Fedora Linux operating systems. In this tutorial, we will use Firefox 108 compiled code available for Linux systems, which doesn’t require any compilation, etc. We need to just extract the archive file and start using it.

Useful links:-

Step 1: Remove Any Existing Version

Some of the Linux distributions have pre-installed Firefox web browsers. So, it is recommended to remove any previous version installed on your system. Use the following command to remove the default installed firefox from rehat-based Linux distributions:

sudo dnf remove firefox  

Also, unlink or rename the current firefox binary (if available). For example, your current binary location is `/usr/bin/firefox`.

unlink /usr/bin/firefox        ## Or rename file 
mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox_bak 

Step 2: Download Latest Firefox for Linux

The next step is to download the latest version of Firefox from the Firefox download page (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/). Make sure to select the “Linux 64-bit” option under “Desktop” and then click on the “Download Now” button to download the zip file.

Alternatively, you can use the following command to download Firefox 108 on your system:

cd ~/Downloads 
wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/108.0/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-108.0.tar.bz2 

Once the download is complete, open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you downloaded the zip file. For example, if you downloaded the file to the “Downloads” directory, you can use the following command:

tar xvjf firefox-108.0.tar.bz2 -C /usr/local 

This will extract all files under `/usr/local/firefox` directory.

Step 3 – Install Firefox on Linux

Firefox source is completely pre-compiled and we don’t have to do anything to make it run on the system. Here installing Firefox means configuring Firefox to work on your system. You just need to create a soft link of the Firefox binary file to the systems bin directory to make it accessible from anywhere in the system.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox 

Now start Firefox using the following command from the Linux terminal. You may also use the GUI menu to start Firefox on your system.

firefox & 

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you how to download and install the latest version of Firefox from a zip file on a CentSO/RHEL 8/7 and Fedora 37/36/35 Linux system. We hope this information was helpful and will make it easier for you to use Firefox on your system.

Share.

50 Comments

  1. Sunil Poshala on

    Info 2 – The CentOS/RedHat 6 only supports Firefox 41….
    the info is useful… Firefox 67 has gtk lib’s issues on Centos 6

  2. Hello, admin.

    Interesting website, really!
    But “Search” function on it doesnt work. Sad.

    P.S. Where I can get XEvil4.0 for free?
    It’s best captcha solver, included Google ReCaptcha.
    Need it for white SEO. Thanks.

  3. I am running RHEL 5.10 trying to install firefox. After installation, when I type the command “firefox &”, Im getting an error hat GLIBCXX NOT FOUND. Please help.

    [root@cad9 local]# sudo ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
    [root@cad9 local]# firefox &
    [1] 6651
    [root@cad9 local]# firefox: /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.10′ not found (required by firefox)
    firefox: /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.9′ not found (required by firefox)
    firefox: /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.11′ not found (required by firefox)
    [root@cad9 local]#

  4. Hello everyone! I had the same problem with libgtk3.so missing on CentOS 6.8, but googlin’ it I found this:
    https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57708
    It´s means that since firefox version 42, It´s no longer compatible with CentOS 6.
    The more easier option is to install firefox 41. Change every steps on this tutorial on this version and it will works!

    Kind regards.

    • Config: Centos 7 with kernel 4 version

      I downloaded FF 57 with my old version 52 it goes into your Downloads dir.

      Yum remove old version see above instruction

      Remove .mozilla directory in your home directory

      TAR it see above instruction

      Move the FF 57 folder to /usr/local

      LN -s as per above instruction

      It should work Good luck

  5. Hi,
    getting error: any advice?
    XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/local/firefox/libmozgtk.so
    Couldn’t load XPCOM.

    Linux

  6. hi I got this message: what does it mean and what do I do about it?

    ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘/usr/bin/firefox’: file exists.

    What do I do now?

    • Robert Dinse on

      Try purging rather than just removing existing firefox so it takes the conf with it. If that doesn’t do it, manually rm the file.

  7. Did step 2. Just returned “Permission denied”. According to synaptic package manager I’ve gor FF files. According to everything else, “No such file or directory”. Have just spent days getting LM Rosa 17.3 64bit back from the dead (37 broken packages repaired – eventually) and now have no browser or web access. HELP!!!!1

    • Sorted! Managed to resolve in Synaptic Package Manager. Had to go through language pack by language pack though (probably cocked summat else up knowing me!) deleting extraneous (to me) languages. All tickedy-boo now. Yippee ?

  8. I am getting below issues when launching firefox :

    XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/firefox35/libxul.so:
    libgio-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    Couldn’t load XPCOM.

  9. Hi, Rahul i just installed centos basic server and followed your steps it didn’t work for me….

    first i got this
    [root@localhost local]# -bash: /usr/bin/firefox: cannot execute binary file
    cd /
    [1]+ Exit 126 firefox (wd: /usr/local)
    (wd now: /)

    then i tried from /#

    [root@localhost /]# -bash: /usr/bin/firefox: cannot execute binary file
    [1]+ Exit 126 firefox

    can u please help me….

  10. I do not recommend yum remove firefox

    just

    [code]rm -f usr/bin/firefox

    ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox[/code]

    centos 6 64 bit update compatibility module flash and freshplayerplugin work enter command

    [code]sudo cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/* /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
    sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins

    sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins[/code]

    • Alaa Alnajjar on

      Thanks Kimpe

      As for x64 compatibility module flash,the commands didn’t work for me, I had to copy from lib64/mozilla/plugins to lib/mozilla/plugins not the other way

  11. Hi, Is it possible to update firefox on edbuntu live edition..?
    It went every thing well.
    At last it gave can’t create link bcaz already exists.

  12. I always see: Permission denied, and I ca’nt figure out what to do, I can’t even copy any file to usr/local
    please help, I like CentOS

  13. Hi
    I would like to know on Centos 7 , with gnome gui installed, is this Firefox install will just replace the current Firefox Or it will install in a separate location ?

    Thanks

  14. Will this installation destroy the current version of FF, if say you change it a little and write:
    ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/farefox

  15. Say is this version compatible with a 2006 ACER 5003WLMi 64 bit Turion running 2008-4 Ubuntu Lucid Lynx? Or what should I try to get- where’s the stable FF repository that still works? And Skype. Thanks.

  16. I have some error message here. How can I fix this problem? Thank you!
    XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/local/firefox/libxul.so:
    libgio-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    Couldn’t load XPCOM.

      • ubuntu@ubuntu ~/Downloads $ tar xvjf firefox-42.0.tar.bz2
        tar (child): firefox-43.0b6.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory
        tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
        tar: Child returned status 2
        tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

        why happen this??

        • Anuket Jain on

          Hi Manm,

          You issue will be resolve using below commands:

          # bunzip2 firefox-42.0.tar.bz2
          # tar xvf firefox-42.0.tar

  17. Hi.. Rahul, in my linux (rhel 5.7 32bit i686 ) have alredy firefox 3.0 but i need lastest version how can i do please tell me i tried this article also but nothing new in my firefox
    i tried other rpm also but dependency problem can u please tell me steps please

  18. hi nice i installed and user for excuting command it showing error like error: no display specified please help me ..beacuse im using centos 6 in only cli mode

      • i install jira in centos cli system..now acces in my laptop in googlechrome…i start the jira setup step 1 is choose the internal databse or external databse ,,, i accidently choosen internal dabase ..now im in setp 2 application properties i want get back step 1 help me how there is no option to going back to setp 1

Leave A Reply