Summary instructions to install Firefox 4.0 on Mac OS X:
- Download Firefox v4.0
- Quit any open windows of Firefox 3.x
- Open a terminal
- Type
- sudo rm /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/*.dylib
- Open finder window and go to the Downloads folder
- Double click the downloaded Firefox disk image (dmg file)
- Click on the Firefox image and drag it to the Applications folder
- Click on "Replace" when the installer asks if you want to replace existing package
- Eject the Firefox disk image by clicking eject in the finder window
- Open Firefox from applications folder
- Enjoy Firefox 4.0
Errors encountered:
- This operation cannot be completed because the item "libsmine3.dylib" is in use
- This operation cannot be completed because the item "libplds4.dylib" is in use
- Culprit: Cisco AnyConnect VPN
The release that everyone was anxiously waiting for, Firefox 4.0, is available now.
I had the Firefox home page open and it was announcing proudly and calling to me in bold colors "Download now".
Anxiously, I fired up Firfox 3.6 and hit Help->Check Updates.
Seconds seemed minutes as I restlessly tapped my fingers waiting for the progress bar to reach 100% and show me that it is now ready to download v4.0. Finally, the update check completed and stared blankly at me saying there were no new releases. I quickly dismissed it as server overload and clicked check updates again. No luck again. I gave up and clicked on the big green graphic on Firefox home page and waited for the Mac OS X disk image bundle to download.
Already irritated with Firefox 3.6 for failing to automatically update to 4.0, I mounted the freshly downloaded dmg file and dragged the icon to Applications folder to install. But my joy was short lived. Mac OS X now took the turn to dampen my excitement and complained
The operation cannot be completed because the item "libsmime3.dylib" is in use.
I tried again completely quitting Firefox 3.6 and everything else I could think of. No luck. Angered by the endless roadblocks, I fired up the mac terminal and tried to find out which application was using the libsmime3.dylib file.
The command lsof - list open files, commonly found on all Unix based systems (UNIX, AIX, SOLARIS, Linux, BSD and of course, Mac OS X).
sudo lsof -V | grep -i mime
showed that a service related to Cisco AnyConnect VPN client was the root cause. Cisco VPN client is a commonly used software to remotely establish secure connections to work place, also called a virtual private networking client software. This is very common and popular way to secure connections from anywhere in the world to work places.
I tried killing the process with kill -9 and killall. But the process respawned immediately. There was no way I was going to kill this process with any success.
Typically if an application has a file open, it is not possible to move or remove that file due to lock issues. But since there were no other options and I did not know of any limited service mode in Mac OS X, like safe mode in Windows or single user mode in Linux, I tried to delete the files held open by the Cisco AnyConnect Client (vpnagentd)
sudo rm /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/*.dylib
I tried installing again by dragging the icon to Applications folder. Lo, Behlod! it worked.
For some reason, Cisco AnyConnect VPN service (vpnagentd) is holding open several dylib files in Firefox folder.
There you go, simple steps to work around Firefix installer errors.
