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Firefox 2 Beta 1 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only. Firefox 2 Beta 1 is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Firefox 2 Beta 1 and expect all of their extensions and plugins to work properly.

These Release Notes cover what's new, download and installation instructions, known issues and frequently asked questions for the Firefox 2 Beta 1 release. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla.

Give us your feedback through this feedback form.

Changes in this Development Milestone

There is a lot in Firefox 2 Beta 1 that we invite you to play around with and give us feedback on:

  • Built in Phishing Protection.
  • Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
  • Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
  • Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
  • Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
  • Inline spell checking in text boxes
  • Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
  • New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
  • Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
  • New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
  • New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
  • Support for JavaScript 1.7
  • Support for client-side session and persistent storage
  • Extended search plugin format
  • Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
  • Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

Downloading and Installing

System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements.

Downloading Firefox 2 Beta 1

Mozilla.org provides Firefox 2 Beta 1 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. You can get the latest version of Firefox 2 Beta 1 here. For builds for other systems and languages not provided by Mozilla.org, see the Contributed Builds section at the end of this document.

Installing Firefox 2 Beta 1

Once you have downloaded Firefox 2 Beta 1, follow these instructions to install:

Windows

Double click the Firefox Setup 2.0 Beta 1.exe installer to start the install.

Mac OS X

Double click the Firefox 2.0 Beta 1.dmg Disk Image to uncompress and mount it. Your browser may have already done this for you. Double click the Firefox Beta 1 Disk Image to open it in Finder and drag the Firefox application onto your hard disk. Do not double click the icon in the disk image! Be sure to drag the Firefox application out of the disk image and onto your Hard Disk before running it. Drag the icon to your Dock if you want it to appear there.

Linux/GTK2

Extract the tarball and run ./firefox:

tar -xzvf firefox-2.0b1.tar.gz
cd firefox
./firefox

Other Platforms

Extract the compressed archive and run firefox

Uninstalling Firefox 2 Beta 1

To uninstall Firefox 2 Beta 1, follow these instructions:

Windows

From the Start menu, choose Control Panel. When the Control Panel appears, double click Add/Remove Programs. Find "Mozilla Firefox (2.0b1)" in the list and click Remove to uninstall.

Mac OS X

Drag the Firefox application to the Trash.

Others

Remove the firefox folder.

These instructions leave your profile in place in case you install Firefox again in the future. If you wish to remove your profile folder, remove the location described below in the "Profile Folder" section. Note that by doing this you are destroying all of your downloaded Extensions and Themes, Bookmarks, saved passwords, settings and other information and should you decide to use Firefox again you will be starting with a clean profile.

Other Information

Profile Folder

Firefox 2 Beta 1 stores your user data in one of the following locations:

Windows 2000, XP Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Windows NT WINNT\Profiles\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Windows 98, ME Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Mac OS X ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
Linux and Unix systems ~/.mozilla/firefox

Extensions and Themes

Extensions installed under Firefox 1.5 may be incompatible and/or require updates to work with Firefox 2 Beta 1. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension. When you install Firefox 2 Beta 1 all of your Extensions and Themes may be disabled until Firefox 2 Beta 1 determines that either a) they are compatible with the Firefox 2 Beta 1 release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible.

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Firefox 2 Beta 1. Please read this before reporting any new bugs, and watch it regularly (we'll update it as new bugs are found in the release).

All Systems

Phishing Protection:

  • At this time we are using a limited list to test the core Phishing Protection framework within the browser. Users are encouraged to verify that the above test links properly display a warning dialogue, but to wait until a future beta release of Firefox 2 to verify the accuracy of the list of web forgeries.

History and Bookmarks:

  • The new history and bookmark system used in Bon Echo Alpha 1 has been removed. You will need to follow these steps if you are migrating a profile from Bon Echo Alpha 1.

Extensions:

  • When moving to Firefox 2 Beta 1 from an earlier version of Firefox, some of your Extensions and Themes may be disabled. See "Extension and Themes", above.
  • After experiencing any download error in the Add-ons Manager, an error can make it look like any subsequent add-on installation has failed when, in fact, it has succeeded. This is being tracked by bug 355757.

Feeds:

  • Web feeds served over HTTPS don't get the yellow location bar and lock icon even though the content is secure. This is being tracked by bug 337897.

Password Manager:

  • When you enter your user name and password on some websites, the password manager might ask you multiple times if you want to save the password. This is being tracked by bug 343182.

Help System:

  • In some localized builds, there are several blank help pages. This is being tracked by bug 344312.

Windows

Mac OS X

  • After migrating a profile from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 2.0 Beta 1, the browser will crash while checking for updates. No data will be lost, and after the migration, the browser will function normally. This is being tracked by bug 344121.

Linux and Unix systems

Web Page Rendering

Troubleshooting

  • Poorly designed or incompatible Extensions can cause problems with your browser, including make it crash, slow down page display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of the browser no longer working, the browser not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart the browser in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running firefox.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./firefox -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

    cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/
    ./firefox-bin -safe-mode

    When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.

If you uninstall an extension that is installed with your user profile (i.e. you installed it from a web page) and then wish to install it for all user profiles using the -install-global-extension command line flag, you must restart the browser once to cleanse the profile extensions datasource of traces of that extension before installing with the switch. If you do not do this you may end up with a jammed entry in the Extensions list and will be unable to install the extension globally.

If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running Firefox with the -P command line argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What can I do to help?

    We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much feedback as possible to make Firefox even better. Visit this Firefox 2 Beta 1 page to learn more.

  2. Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?

    Use the forums. The Firefox team reads them regularly. We all get a lot of email and your email may get lost.

  3. Where can I get themes and add-ons (extensions)?

    Extensions and themes can be downloaded from Firefox Add-ons.

  4. Who is working on Firefox 2 Beta 1?

    Lots of people. See Help->About Mozilla Firefox, Credits for a list of some of the people who have contributed to Firefox 2 Beta 1.

  5. Where's the Firefox 2 Beta 1 source code?

    A tarball of the Firefox 2 Beta 1 source code is available for download. The latest development code can be obtained by cvs. Firefox-specific source is in "mozilla/browser", "mozilla/toolkit", and "mozilla/chrome". Please follow the build instructions.

  6. Where is the mail client?

    Firefox 2 Beta 1 works with whatever mail client is the default on your system. However, we recommend Mozilla Thunderbird, our next generation email client and the perfect complement to Firefox.

The following resources contain useful information about Firefox 2 Beta 1:

Contributed Builds

These are unofficial builds and may be configured differently than the official Mozilla.org builds. They may also be optimized and/or tested for specific platforms.

Solaris (contributed by SUN Desktop Beijing Team)

Tarball format (README)

Pkgadd format (README)

Other Systems

Builds for platforms other than the trio officially offered by Mozilla.org can be found on the FTP site.

Localized Builds

Many localized builds are now produced and distributed by Mozilla.org on behalf of their authors. These are available on the Firefox 2 Beta 1 download page.

Builds that have not yet been certified as official Firefox 2 Beta 1 localizations are available by browsing the FTP site.