Unable to install from source file

I am trying to install firefox China on my Xubuntu machine.

It is a seemingly normal tar.bz2 file.

But I could not get it to be installed.

Here is some reference https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/compile-install-tar-gz-tar-bz2-files-ubuntu-linux/

Here are the steps I took until I hit a block.

  • Prepare your system for installing from source

# https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/compile-install-tar-gz-tar-bz2-files-ubuntu-linux/

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall

sudo apt-get install subversion git-core mercurial

# Install autoconf

sudo apt-get install autoconf

# Put all of the source code folder inside here : /usr/local/src

# Create this directory

sudo chown $USER /usr/local/src

# Gave it write access

sudo chmod u+rwx /usr/local/src

# Install apt-file for dependency issues

sudo apt-get install apt-file

# Update apt-file

sudo apt-file update

# Move your tar.gz / tar.bz2 filr to here : /usr/local/src

sudo mv <YOUR_TAR.GZ_FILE_NAME> <DESTINATION_FOLDER_PATH>

# cd into the local src folder

cd /usr/local/src

# extract the source file

tar -xzvf <filename>.tar.gz

# OR

tar -xjvf <filename>.tar.bz2

# Read the README file or INSTALL file

# cd into your software's folder

cd /usr/local/src/<extracted folder>

Here comes the question :

The folder DOES NOT contain any ./configure file.

What should I do???

@zhouxiang19910319 My friend. You are not installing from source because there is no source code in the tar.gz file. To install Firefox that way you only need to extract the contents of the archive and create a shortcut to your desktop. The file in the folder called ‘firefox’ is actually the executable that has already been compiled.

$ sudo mv firefox-59.0.2.tar.bz2 /opt/

# cd /opt

# tar xjvf firefox-59.0.2.tar.bz2

You will have to make a shortcut to the desktop like this.

$ cp /usr/share/applications/firefox-esr.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/my-new-firefox.desktop

Edit the new desktop shortcut so that the path leads to /opt/firefox/firefox.

$ vim ~/.local/share/applications/my-new-firefox.desktop

Edit these lines so the path leads to /opt:
Name=Firefox
Exec=/usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr %u
Icon=firefox-esr

Example:
Name=My New Firefox
Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox %u
Icon=/opt/firefox/replace/with/real/path/to/icons/default128.png

That way you will be able to add the new Firefox icon to your desktop the way you do other icons.

What kind of error you got?