Visitor:

Firefox for AIX

Main goal is keeping a safe and modern browser available for older RS/6000 workstations. These are optimized xulrunner builds against GTK 2.10 from the original source. Tested on AIX 4.3.3 ML11, AIX 5.1 ML9, AIX 5.2 TL10 and AIX 5.3 TL6.

For a preview look here.

This is the most recent security release of Firefox 3.6.19 on AIX 5L. md5sum: 78061ead77aa7df62b71d3b9442af75f

For a working Java Plugin, you'll need at least AIX 5.3TL6 and the very latest 32bit Java6 runtime.
Remove /opt/firefox/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so and create a symlink to
/usr/java6/jre/lib/ppc/libnpjp2.so instead.
For me this also worked on AIX 5.2TL10, though this is completely unsupported.
If you need Java Plugin on AIX 5.1 or AIX 4.3.3 you must stay with Firefox 3.5.x.

Firefox 3.5.19 for AIX 4.3.3
or use

Firefox 3.5.19 for AIX 5.1 or later
Firefox 3.5.19 is the last and final supported release of the Firefox 3.5.x branch. There will be no newer Firefox for AIX 4.3.3.
If you want to know how Firefox was built, look at my SeaMonkey page.

If you have SeaMonkey 2.0.x, Thunderbird 3.0 or Firefox 3.5.x up and running on AIX 5.1ML9 or later, you have all you need!
A guide to the needed GTK2 runtime packages is provided.

The final Firefox 2.0.0.20
Update to Firefox 3.5 recommended

Firefox 1.0.8 for AIX 4.3.3 just for the completeness this historic release is kept available.
md5sum: 087aaa6d6789dbb51ddf6b0be1cc8d32

Compiled for the common CPU model which works on all RS/6000 and pSeries.

For CDE integration there is a CDE Type and Action with an icon.

If you have 256MB or more RAM you also may be happy with the Seamonkey Suite or Thunderbird Mail client.

Software dependencies:

Most you'll need you could get from IBM.
Earlier revisions may work (or not).

AIX 4.3.3 ML 11 with X11 installed and C++ runtime libs xlC.aix43.rte 6.0.0.19 for AIX 4.3.3, xlC.aix50.rte 8.0.0.10 or 9.0.0.1 or later for AIX 5L.

From AIX Toolbox install or update to:
installp image:
rpm.rte 3.0.5.36 for AIX 4.3.3, or later for AIX 5L.

mandatory runtime rpms

Minimum hardware:

60 MB free disk space in /opt filesystem after installing all prerequisites.

Installation:

Install or update the rpm.rte installp image, then install or update the rpm's from AIX Toolbox.
Then you are ready to install Firefox.

For AIX 4.3.3 I recommend creating a separate filesystem for /opt and create a symbolic link "ln -s /opt/freeware freeware" in the directory /usr/opt pointing to /opt/freeware. AIX 5L has a separate /opt filesystem by default.

Performance:

It depends on your machine. I found it useable with a 120MHz PowerPC 604, and really nice with 233MHz (or more...)

If using Java appletts you soon want more horsepower. You may find less sufficant. But don't expect it will work with less than 256MB RAM. Netscape 4.8 has a snappier GUI (Motif!) but rendering is much slower.

The slowest machine I have tested is my 7011-250 with 80MHz PowerPC601. A true colour X server is mandatory.

It's much(!!!) faster than a GTK2 build for AIX 5.1

If you want to know how Firefox is build or how to build it from source, go here.

Mozilla and Firefox are licensed under the MPL and Trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation apply
AIX, RS/6000 and pSeries are Trademarks of IBM

July, 11th 2011

Uli Link

For feedback feel free to contact me: ul.mcamafia (at) linkitup.de