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Using firebug in Ubuntu Hardy Heron

*Update* Yesterday kaeru pointed out that firebug from the ubuntu repo works with the default firefox 3 beta on Hardy. Just tried it and I'm glad to report it does work very nicely. No more need for this workaround.. Just look for it in synaptic or apt-get install firebug.

What can I say? Ubuntu is pretty bleeding edge. :P It comes with firefox 3 beta 5 which is pretty slick. But there are still a lot of add-ons which do not work with firefox 3 beta. Earlier on I've blogged about using the 1.1 beta of firebug with firefox 3 beta. It works pretty well on my home box which runs arch linux. But on my computer at the office running on Ubuntu, firebug doesn't even come out. So I had to find a way around.

Luckily Firdaus of OSCC showed me that you actually can install Firefox 2 on Ubuntu. It's still in the repo and you just have to select it with synaptic or apt-get 'Firefox-2'. But the default installation will share the same default profile of Firefox 3 and so will break firebug when you launch Firefox 3. So what can you do? KageSenshi showed me how creating profiles for firefox will solve the problem. Well, first you have to create a different profile just for Firefox 2 by running 'firefox-2 -profilemanager'. There you can create your profile. Make sure you never use this new profile with Firefox 3 so what we do is that we change the command of the icon to start firefox 3 to 'firefox -P "Default"' and the icon to start firefox 2 to 'firefox-2 -P "firefox2"' (Use the name of the profile you created before). I don't think you can run both versions at the same time but I don't have time to experiment right now. These settings work and I have to get back to work.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for this! I almost rolled back to Gutsy when firebug broke... Sooo lost without it!
May 1, 2008 at 6:28 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi, I just upgraded to Hardy and discovered that there is currently no stable release for FF 3 but a Firebug 1.1 Beta. You'll find it under http://www.getfirebug.com/
May 8, 2008 at 6:41 PM
abdza said…
Yup, but as I've said my experience with the firebug 1.1 beta on hardy isn't that great. It works on arch linux though.
May 8, 2008 at 7:12 PM
Unknown said…
I have the same problem and it is a bit frustrating. I have found that Firebug does work if you open it in a new window. While this works, its not as nice as the bottom bar, obviously.

Other than that, my FF3 experience has been great. It seems the Mozilla foundation have closed a lot of memory leaks, it doesn't eat memory nearly as bad as it used to. So I can see how Ubuntu had a tough decision to put it in now, in its last Beta stage, or wait a full 6 months for the next Ubuntu release.
May 13, 2008 at 11:53 AM
abdza said…
Thanks for sharing steve. But I'm glad now the frustration is over.. :) Check out firebug from the repo.. It's working great..
May 14, 2008 at 8:25 AM
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