Firefox Mobile (aka Fennec) on the Nokia N9
Got a Nokia N9 but not quite happy with just the built in browser, how good it may be (doesn't do text selecting, grr...)? Like Firefox?
Then you are in luck, Fennec, which is the mobile version of Firefox, installs and runs like a charm on the N9.
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Grab Fennec from My-Meego.com (click Try It).
- Note! The N9 browser can't handle the download, wrong MIME type, so use your PC etc.
- Transfer the file to the N9 via your chosen method, for example USB or scp.
- Log in to the device over SSH or open the terminal on the device (Developer Mode must be enabled of course).
- Change to root:
devel-su -
- Copy the file out of the user area to for example root home.
- Make sure the file is owned by root (otherwise Aegis will complain...).
- As root, install the package:
dpkg -i fennec_9.0~a1_armel.deb
- Dependencies missing, these are fixed as root with the following command:
apt-get -f install
Ps. There is a newer version (among others) @ http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/latest-mozilla-central-maemo5-gtk/. Mozilla stopped supporting Fennec on Maemo at version 7.0, but they are still building nightly alpha builds. I tried this version 10 but it gave way too many dependency issues and other warnings that I removed it for now. The version 9.0 downloadable from My-Meego.com works like a charm.
Thanks to Janne @ Spellpoint for this tip!
EDIT: A good point indicated by Robert Kaiser on Diaspora*:
This is an already somewhat outdated build from the Nightly channel, apparently, and surely one not built by Mozilla, as Mozilla does not brand development versions as "Firefox" but rather as "Nightly or "Aurora", depending on its development stage. This one would need to be "Nightly". This must be a specifically N9-targeted build by a community member who has employed some branding switches he is not allowed to per trademark guidelines.
That said, it's cool to see a build running there and I'm pretty sure it's a better browser than the stock one.
It is very likely the package has been built by someone out of the Mozilla organization, but there is no mention of the source at My-Meego.com. Just something to keep in mind if you don't feel good about installing software from unknown sources..
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