• Quick method (a combination of Nautilus and Terminal):
  1. Download the latest Firefox for Linux from http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/, making and choosing a new folder such as /mnt/sata238/DISK\ IMAGES\ FOR\ UBUNTU/INTERNET/BROWSERS/Firefox\ v8\.0.
  2. You should now have a file such as firefox-8.0.tar.bz2
  3. Find the file in nautilus, right-click it, and select “Extract here”.
  4. Open Applications, Accessories, Terminal.
  5. To copy the extracted files, type
  sudo cp -v -r /mnt/sata238/DISK\ IMAGES\ FOR\ UBUNTU/INTERNET/BROWSERS/Firefox\ v8\.0/firefox/ /usr/lib/firefox8
  6. To get rid of the old Firefox, type something like sudo rm -R /usr/lib/firefox701.
  7. To get rid of the old Firefox shortcut, type something like sudo rm /usr/bin/firefox701.
  8. To make a shortcut called firefox8, type
  sudo ln -i -s /usr/lib/firefox8/firefox /usr/bin/firefox8
  9. To make a shortcut called firefox, type
  sudo ln -i -s /usr/lib/firefox8/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
  To over-write an old one, press Y.
  10. To erase the extracted files, use Nautilus to navigate to /mnt/sata238/DISK\ IMAGES\ FOR\ UBUNTU/INTERNET/BROWSERS/Firefox\ v8\.0/, then delete the firefox folder within it.
• Slower method:
  1. Download the latest Firefox for Linux from http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/.
• 2. You should now have a file such as firefox-8.0.tar.bz2.
• 3. Copy the file into the /tmp directory.
• 4. Open a Terminal (does not have to be root, but you will need root privileges for some steps below).
• Now, to de-archive the files:
  5. Type
  cd /tmp
• and:
  tar -xvf firefox-*.bz2
  A new firefox/ sub-directory has now been made within /tmp
• 6. To copy from /tmp to the /usr/lib/ directory:
  sudo cp -v -r firefox /usr/lib/firefox8
  If this causes an error about not being allowed to overwrite firefox8/firefox, then the same version has already been copied here. In the command line, the -v argument is to see what's happening.
• 7. To erase the new files and directory from /tmp/:
  sudo rm -r /tmp/firefox*
• 8. To back up the old version (renaming really):
  sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox701.old
• 9. To make shortcuts:
  sudo ln -i -s "/usr/lib/firefox8/firefox" /usr/bin/firefox8
  [THIS MIGHT VARY, CHECK THE FILENAME IN /usr/lib/, THE DOUBLE QUOTATION MARKS ARE JUST FOR CLARITY]
  makes a shortcut in /usr/bin/ called firefox8 which points to the file /usr/lib/firefox8/firefox
• 10. sudo ln -i -s /usr/lib/firefox8/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
  makes a second shortcut in /usr/bin/ called firefox which points to the file /usr/lib/firefox8/firefox
• 11. The Firefox shortcuts now point to the new version, so just exit Firefox then re-load it. To make icons or launchers, you can use either the new shortcuts ("/usr/bin/firefox8" or "/usr/bin/firefox") or refer directly to the file "/usr/lib/firefox8/firefox".
• 12. To remove any previous Firefox, do the following:
  cd /usr/lib then sudo rm -r firefox701
  

You probably DO NOT want to remove the /usr/lib/firefox/ directory, you will get rid of the plugins.

To see the state of the /usr/lib/ folders, type:
ls -l /usr/lib/fire*

To see the state of the /usr/bin/ shortcuts, type:
ls -l /usr/bin/fire*

If there are problems, useful commands are:
which firefox

If Java doesn't work in it, there must have been a Java installation fault, so:
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin

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