Trying to install various Firefox plugins (any version, -bin or non bin) results in failure. This is because the directory in which Firefox places its plugins (/usr/lib/MozillaFirefox or /opt/MozillaFirefox/lib [I don't have -bin installed anymore, so I forget which directory exactly]) is not writable by users other than root. I fixed the problem via the following: chown -R root:users /usr/lib/MozillaFirefox chmod -R g+w /usr/lib/MozillaFirefox It's an ugly hack, but I don't know what the correct solution to this problem is otherwise. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge -av mozilla-firefox or mozilla-firefox-bin 2. Try to install a plugin (via Mozilla Firefox Central and their javascript engine, or from within Firefox otherwise). 3. no error message, but plugin fails to install Actual Results: The desired plugin was not installed. Expected Results: The plugin should have installed. yoda ~ # emerge info Portage 2.0.51-r3 (default-linux/x86/2004.2, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r0, 2.6.9-gentoo-r2 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.9-gentoo-r2 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1300MHz Gentoo Base System version 1.6.6 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.15.92.0.2-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1-r1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r7 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache cvs distcc distlocks fixpackages sandbox sfperms userpriv usersandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.clarkson.edu/pub/distributions/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/overlays/mdc /usr/local/overlays/bmg /usr/local/overlays/bmg-gnome" SYNC="rsync://mirror.clarkson.edu/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi aim alsa apache2 apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bonobo cdr crypt cups dvd eds encode esd evo f77 faad fam fbcon flac foomaticdb gdbm gif gimpprint gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml hal imagemagick imlib java jpeg ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod mono motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pda pdflib perl png ppds python quicktime readline real samba sdl slang spell sqlite sse ssl svga tcpd tetex tiff truetype usb x86 xine xml xml2 xmms xosd xprint xv xvid zlib video_cards_radeon"
Plugins either need to be profile-aware (in which case a normal user can install them) or they need to be installed by root. That's standard for software on any UNIX-like system...
