How do i download new browser if Safari wont load?

August 6, 2008 1:45 AM

How do i download new browser if Safari wont load? I dont really do Macs

For reasons unknown safari wont load on houseguest's powerbook. How do I download new browser (firefox?) if safari wont load? I have next to no experience with macs so probably missing something obvious. OR, is there something I could try to get Safari to load. When launch Safari it appears for a microsecond then dissappears.

posted by sydney54 to computers & internet (10 comments total)

What does "won't load" mean? Does the program open and then close? Does an error message appear?

And, have you tried restarting the computer?

I'd download Firefox for Mac onto your PC, put it onto a flash USB drive, and pop it into his computer to install.
posted by k8t at 1:52 AM on August 6, 2008

Get a direct link to your browser of choice. Open up Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). type:

cd Desktop
wget [your link here]

It will download the link. Here is an example that gets you the latest version of Firefox in the US English localization.

So,

cd Desktop
wget http://ftp.twaren.net/Unix/Mozilla//firefox/releases/3.0.1/mac/en-US/Firefox%203.0.1.dmg

The Firefox disk image will appear on your desktop when the command finishes running.
posted by thedaniel at 1:54 AM on August 6, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

If Safari doesn't load, it means that the system is fucked up and should be reinstalled. If you just continue using the Mac (with Firefox or whatever), you'll just get the problems later on.

Use the "achieve and install" option in the Mac OS X installer to get a clean install while still keeping the users documents and settings.
posted by flif at 2:54 AM on August 6, 2008

Try repairing permissions.

Open up Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app), and running Repair Disk Permissions on their hard drive. It'll probably be called something like Macintosh HD in a window on the left side of the screen. Just select it, and click the button marked Repair Disk Permissions.
posted by Magnakai at 4:06 AM on August 6, 2008

@thedaniel: except that wget isn't included with OS X. Curl is, though, so modify thedaniels instructions like this:

Get a direct link to your browser of choice. Open up Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). type:

cd Desktop
curl -O http://ftp.twaren.net/Unix/Mozilla//firefox/releases/3.0.1/mac/en-US/Firefox%203.0.1.dmg

thats a big "Oh", not a zero in the curl command

The Firefox disk image will appear on your desktop when the command finishes running. (and for completeness for non-mac people): Double click on the resulting .dmg file on the desktop. A new disk icon will appear on your desktop. Double click the icon to open, accept the license agreement and find the Firefox logo inside. Drag the Firefox logo to the right a little bit, over the bluish folder until a plus sign appears. Release the mouse button and Firefox will be copied (installed) to your applications folder. Navigate to your applications folder, double click on the firefox icon and (hopefully) firefox will start.
posted by taubman at 5:10 AM on August 6, 2008

I'm on Leopard and wget isn't installed. curl however, is. If you find the same is true on your machine, then where thedaniel has "wget", replace it with "curl -C - -O"
posted by leakymem at 5:10 AM on August 6, 2008

Oh, Snap.
posted by leakymem at 5:11 AM on August 6, 2008

Or try trashing the Safari preferences file. I think it is at Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist. It might be corrupted somehow. If this works, Safari will launch again, but you will have to configure your personal preferences again.
posted by rglasmann at 5:11 AM on August 6, 2008

Before trashing the Safari prefs (assuming you have anything of interest in there), create a new local user account and test with that.

Right there is your test case to know if the system is hosed, or just a user account that got all out of whack. I've seen user Library contents go whacky - some is pretty obvious with hieroglyphic filenames (easy to see and delete), some less so.

Regardless, the above (using curl) is probably the easiest way to get a known download without opening Safari.
posted by devbrain at 5:40 AM on August 6, 2008

Download the firefox .dmg file onto a USB drive from a PC. Plug it into the mac. The drive will appear as a drive on the desktop, double-click the dmg file and run the installer.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:46 AM on August 6, 2008