# Firefox ESR



## shepper (Aug 3, 2012)

I am looking at putting a new OpenSource OS on my Via C-7D powered laptop.  It was happily running Arch Linux until a bleeding edge update to the openchrome video driver lead to a system lock.  I was able to roll back the update but know that I cannot count on Arch on this particular system for much longer.  Arch had a very elegant means to select the wireless access point by bringing up a menu during the boot.

One of my criteria is to have system where the browser gets security updates.  Debian has backports with Firefox 10 ESR and Centos also comes the ESR.  I prefer binaries rather than using source code to update.  OpenBSD current will not run on this system, FreeBSD is my next choice followed by Centos.

I looked at the -release and -stable repositories and did not see Firefox ESR.  I know that some members maintained OpenOffice/LibreOffice binaries, is anyone doing this with Firefox 10?


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## SirDice (Aug 3, 2012)

You're probably looking for www/firefox-esr.


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## shepper (Aug 3, 2012)

Thanks.  I had browsed the main FTP repository under the port directory (for binary packages) -release, -stable and -current for 9 and 9.0 and looked at the firefox versions.  There did not seem to be a firefox-esr binary package.  It looks the path to firefox-esr is to compile it via ports


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## SirDice (Aug 3, 2012)

For some reason the package is called firefox-10.0.5,1.tbz. But there's also a firefox-13.0.1,1.tbz. The first is actually firefox-esr, the second firefox.

I would have expected the package to be named firefox-esr-10.0.5,1.tbz.


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## shepper (Aug 4, 2012)

At this time the current Firefox ESR is firefox-10.0.6.  This raises the question if firefox-10.0.5 will be replaced in the repository during the next package build cycle?  If there is a new version will it be in the -stable or -current directories?  Sorry to be persistent but for what I plan to use the laptop for my sense is my biggest vulnerability is with the browser followed by email client.  I don't mind a stripped down email client but it is hard to bank, do patent searches, make online purchases, etc with lynx


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## SirDice (Aug 6, 2012)

I don't think the build server will overwrite the 10.0.x version, it would have done so already.

But you may get issues with package managers that think 13.0.x is a newer version. They might decide to overwrite your firefox-esr with the 'regular' firefox.


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## shepper (Aug 7, 2012)

@Sir Dice

Thank you for the follow up.  My sense was that to really know if firefox-esr would be kept current in FreeBSD one would have to either find an announcement to that end or follow the various FreeBSD repositories through several cycles.  Hopefully the new packaging system I read about will allow for security updates to a browser.


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## SirDice (Aug 7, 2012)

In my view the simplest solution would be to name the package firefox-esr. The ports/package system is able to do that. That would avoid any confusion.


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