Opera browser

Instructions to install & configure Opera 8 in Hoary, based off [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=40467 this Ubuntu Forum thread.], updated for Opera 8.50

Download the Latest Ubuntu Opera .deb

Opera now provides .deb files specifically for Ubuntu (Hoary only as of July 2005).

Go to [http://www.opera.com/download/ Opera Download Site], make sure you choose the Ubuntu package, and pick a download mirror. (not all of Opera's mirrors have all the Linux packages, it seems)

Or get the latest Preview from [http://snapshot.opera.com/unix/ Opera Preview and Betas]

Save the file to somewhere you can find it - either Desktop or your own home directory is best.

Installing Opera

Open a terminal. Type:

sudo dpkg -i opera<Tab key>.deb
password:

Note: Tab completion can be a major help with long, complex filenames. Provided you're in the correct directory, just typing "opera" and then hitting the Tab key where it says <tab> in the above command should get Ubuntu to finish the filename for you.

Opera will take a minute to install.

Ubuntu-izing Opera (Completing the install)

Unlike many programs from Ubuntu's repositories, Opera will not add itself to Ubuntu's Application menu. That's easy to fix, though. We'll also get Opera to use Ubuntu's default file handler.

Back in terminal:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/opera.desktop

In gedit, paste the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Opera Web Browser
GenericName=Web Browser
Comment=Simply the Best Internet Experience
Exec=opera %u
Terminal=false
MultipleArgs=true
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/X11R6/include/X11/bitmaps/opera.xpm
Categories=Application;Network
MimeType=text/html;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png

Save this file, and go back to Terminal. Type:

mkdir ~/.opera
gedit ~/.opera/filehandler.ini

In gedit, paste the following:

Opera Preferences version 2.0
; Do not edit this file while Opera is running
; This file is stored in UTF-8 encoding
[Settings]
Default File Handler=gnome-open ,1
Default Directory Handler=gnome-open ,1

Save this file, and exit gedit.

Setting Opera as default browser

To set Opera as the system default browser and mailreader. Follow this steps:

• Go to System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications

• Under the Web Browser tab select "Custom" and, in the Command box, enter:

opera -newpage "%s"

• Under the Mail Reader tab select "Custom" and, in the Command box, enter:

opera -newmail "%s" 

Start the browser

You can now start up the best browser known to mankind by going Application menu --> Internet --> Opera Web Browser.

Troubleshooting

Missing package

If you have choosen the qt-shared version, you need the libqt3c102-mt package. This is libqt3-mt in Ubuntu Breezy.

Operamotif problems

If you get any operamotif problems try the static version!

Java problems

If you start Opera from the console you may see the following error message if java doesn't work correctly:

ERROR: ld.so: object 'libjvm.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object 'libawt.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.

To fix this, correct the Java path under Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced Tab -> Content -> Java options. It should look similar to this:

/usr/lib/j2re1.5-sun/lib/i386/

Your actual java runtime version could be different from this one. Changes will not take effect until the browser is restarted.

Use [http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml] to test your Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

CategoryDocumentation