Everybody who runs an AMD64 Linux system might have seen these errors before:

I’m running Ubuntu Linux and it is quite well known that some 32-bit apps refuse to start on an AMD64 (x86_64) system. Recently I’ve found out how to get Acrobat Reader and VMware started, even with my native GTK2 theme.

After a system update yesterday, Firefox crashes far too often. It crashes (segfaults) everytime I reload a webpage. I assume that it is due to a system misconfiguration on my behalf. Don’t actually know.

Anyway, I wanted to install a new nightly snapshot of Firefox today. No chance. The only thing the firefox-installer program returns is a bunch of error messages (see above). After browsing some forums, mailing lists, and webpages, I finally found out how to get the 32-bit Firefox installed:

It is quite simple: In Ubuntu, there is a pango configuration directory for 32-bit modules in /etc/pango32/. Create a pangorc file in /etc/pango32/ with the following content:

Unfortunately, the Pango modules in /usr/lib32/pango/1.4.0/ seem to be missing in Ubuntu (breezy). You’ll have to copy them from another 32-bit system.

Next, initialize the GTK\_PATH and PANGO\_RC\_FILE environment variables prior to running Firefox (or the firefox-installer):

export GTK_PATH=/usr/lib32/gtk-2.0/
export PANGO_RC_FILE=/etc/pango32/pangorc

That’s it. Firefox will start normally now — maybe with some additional warnings. I haven’t checked if Thunderbird can be installed this way, too. I nevertheless think so.

Update: Here’s a FAQ: http://wiki.debian.net/?DebianAMD64Faq

Update: Alexandre Strube told me that breezy actually contains all requires Pango libraries. Maybe I was missing something. On his system, however, some other funny phenomenon occurs — the buttons have no borders anymore: