AUSkey solution for Ubuntu 16.04 using Firefox 52.1.1 ESR

[n hulin]

Hi everyone.

I'm new to this group but experienced with Linux. I only discovered the problem with AUSkey and Firefox when I went to do my quarterly BAS. This method assumes that you previously had Firefox working OK with your AUSkey.

After looking at the options and not wanting to spend too much time on a solution here is what I finally came up with that should keep me going until 2018 at which time I'll have to see what options are available.

Firstly I didn't want to mess with my normal Ubuntu firefox software which I rely on for other things so installing Firefox-ESR as a replacement was out, and I didn't want to migrate to Windows which looked too hard.

This solution needs you to be comfortable navigating your way around Linux, understanding file permissions, and using a plain text editor. I'll try to be as detailed as possible but these instructions expect you to be able to pretty much find your own way around.

Overview:

1. Download Firefox 52 ESR from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

2. Find the download in your file manager. You'll likely be using Thunar or Nautilus as your file manager. The filename will be something like "firefox-52.1.1esr.tar.bz2" which is a compressed archive file.

3. Right-click the file and select "Extract to...", select a directory to unpack the file into. I chose to put it in my BAS folder but that's how I think.

4. In file manager find the folder you just unpacked the archive into - in my case BAS. You should see a "firefox" folder there.

5. Put the cursor on part of the window that doesn't have files listed, right-click and select "Create document >" then "Empty document", or click the File menu and select "Create document >" then "Empty document".

6. Give the new document file a name like "run-firefox-esr" and click "OK"

7. Look at the title bar of your file manager. It should show the directory path to the current directory. You'll need that in step 9.

8. Right click run-firefox-esr and select "open with" and select a plain text editor from the list. In my case I use geany but mousepad or nano will work. Don't use LibreOffice Writer if you can avoid it.

9. Add the following three lines in your text editor, substituting "/path/to/directory/" with the path noted in step 8. Don't forget to add "firefox" to the end of the second line:

#!/bin/sh

cd /path/to/directory/firefox

$PWD/run-mozilla.sh $PWD/firefox

10. Save and close the file

11. In file manager right-click run-firefox-esr and select "Properties". On the "Permissions" tab check the box for "Allow this file to run as a program".

12. To test in file manager, on a clear part of the window right-click and select "Open terminal here".

13. In the terminal, type ./run-firefox-esr and press Enter. You should see firefox start. Check the version by looking at "About firefox".

For those who know how, you can create a launcher for your menu to make it easy to start.

This method, with slight modifications should be suitable for other distributions of Linux.

Best regards, Neil