If you want Firefox 3 to be installed properly (via yum), you should add the remi repository:

# wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/remi-release-8.rpm
# rpm -Uvh remi-release-8.rpm

Edit the file /etc/yum.repos.d/remi.repo, and set enabled to 1 under [remi] and NOT [remi-test].

Then we proceed with removing the old Firefox and installing the new one. Now, a regular yum remove firefox won’t work, as it’ll drag a buttload of dependencies with it. However, this will only remove Firefox, without its dependencies:

# rpm -e --nodeps firefox

Then install the new one:

# yum install firefox

That’s all there is to it.

Update: It seems that several people were complaining about how the e-mail program kept shutting down for no apparent reason. It seems that they need more than simply the library-files. I believe I’ve located the files, and that you now should be able to have both Firefox 3, and the email client working. Give me some feedback to let me know how the script turns out.

I (Jorge) have made a script to make this a bit easier to fix, so stay tuned.

Update: Script is finished, instructions are as follows:

Become root and open a file named recover_firefox_libraries.sh:

$ sudo su -
# mousepad recover_firefox_libraries.sh

Place the following in it:

#!/bin/bash
#
## Script to recover Firefox 2 libraries
## Jorge Barrera Grandon 
## Version 2
#
#
## Usage: ./recover_firefox_libraries.sh

WGET=`which wget`
RPM_URL="http://jorge.ulver.no/files/firefox-files.tar.gz"
MV=`which mv`
CHOWN=`which chown`
CHMOD=`which chmod`
RM=`which rm`
TAR=`which tar`
MKDIR=`which mkdir`
RMDIR=`which rmdir`

cd /root/
echo "## Getting hold of the Firefox-files.."
$WGET $RPM_URL

echo "## Unpacking the library-files.."
$TAR zxvf firefox-files.tar.gz

echo "## Moving library-files.."
$MV /usr/acer/bin/AME /usr/acer/bin/old.AME
$MV /root/firefox-files/AME /usr/acer/bin/AME
$MKDIR /usr/lib/firefox-files/
$MV /root/firefox-files/* /usr/lib/firefox-files/

echo "## Changing permissions and cleaning up.."
$RM /root/firefox-files.tar.gz
$RMDIR /root/firefox-files/
$CHOWN -R root.root /usr/lib/firefox-files/
$CHMOD -R 755 /usr/lib/firefox-files/

echo "## Done!"

What the script basically does is to get hold of the file firefox-files.tar.gz (so be online when running it), moves the libraryfiles, changes the permission, and removes the file and the unnecessary directories it creates. Make the file executable, then run it:

# chmod +x recover_firefox_libraries.sh
# ./recover_firefox_libraries.sh