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[will: wanton sex god]

okay soooo for both snes9x and firefox, the file i downloaded wass a .dmg.  so anyway i opened it up and copied the file to my applications folder.  then i could trash the .dmg file which came up as what looked like a removable drive.  So i did that, but now whenever i open them it comes up on the desktop agian.
how do i prevent this?


edit: addtionally firefox seems to randomly go back and forward to pages ive visited...how do i prevent this?  im not toching anyhing, fingers are just on the trackpad to scroll down O_o

[nickyandthefuture]

A .dmg file is a disk image - whenever you open it up, you get a virtual disk on your desktop with its contents - once you copy those out or run the installer, you can just get rid of the .dmg file.  Most Mac applications just come as the program file inside of the image - just copy the application to your Applications (or wherever) folder and throw the rest away.

[jhocking]

You want to trash both the virtual drive and the dmg file.  You only need to retain the contents of the virtual drive.  Frankly, a screenshot would be helpful; it's a little hard to interpret your description.  It sounds like you may be confused about the distinction between the various icons, and thus are confused about which to copy to your harddrive and which to trash.

Personally I wouldn't recommend Firefox for browsing on a Mac; it's the best available on Windows, but OSX has Safari (safari ftw!)

[will: wanton sex god]

okay, so i sort of figured it out.

i have the  random back and forward issue sorted out..

basically when i installed firefox i took the application in the virtual drive and put it in my applications.  i put an icon on the dock.  i delted the dmg and virtual drive...but now whenever i open firefox the virtual drive (but not the dmg) comes up

[tehpie]

I don't really understand... it sounds like you put the dmg in your applications folder and the dock is linked to that.


But please do an apple-shift-3 to take a picture or two to help explain your problem.

[will: wanton sex god]

I've actually since deleted and redownloaded firefox, can anyone explain proper installation of dmg files? im having the same problem with snes9x.

no need for screenshot (i dont think, anymore) as its just my desktop with the virtual drive and the .dmg file on it.

[trolley]

From one mac noob to another:

When you run the DMG and it opens in the finder window, there should be a little firefox icon inside it. Drag that from there to the link on the left that says 'Applications'. Bang thats it, it's loaded on your comp. From there, unmount the DMG by clicking eject next to it's icon on the left, then go to applications, find the firefox icon, and drag that into your dock.

[will: wanton sex god]

hrm, i suppose ill try again.  the other time i dragged it to the actual applications folder iteself.

[jhocking]

no need for screenshot (i dont think, anymore) as its just my desktop with the virtual drive and the .dmg file on it.

No no, that's the whole point, so that we can see those icons on your desktop.  Make sure to have the virtual drive open in a window, and if possible label the screenshot so that we know what you did to what.

Since we aren't actually there looking over your shoulder, screenshots are the only way for us to see your computer.

[salada]

hmm. the proper way to install things off .dmgs is:

- download file. it'll probable be .dmg.hqx or sooemthing. it should clean itself up (decompression etc) and a "virtual drive" should appear on your desktop (sort of a weird concept to get your head around. they pretty much behave like cdroms in that they are (usually) read-only and can be "ejected", but they have no physical media, and are just contained within the .dmg file. but you probably know this, so i'll stop here)

- open up dmg. there will probably be a readme or graphic that says "to install, copy to applications folder". copy whatever needs to be copied. you can usually put stuff anywhere on your mac, but i keep everything in subfolders in the applications folder. whatever works.

- that should be it. "eject" the virtual drive thing that appeared on your desktop, and throw away the .dmg file.

do you access these applications via shortcuts in the dock? if yes, what it looks like you might be doing is creating shortcuts to the applications while the y are still on the disks. best thing to do would be delete the shortcuts out of the dock, and make new ones using the copies you have made of firefox and snex9x.



edddddit: and with your firefox back and forth thing, it's something weird with firefox for mac where it interprets left and right scrolling as shortcuts for back and forward (you probably go a bit to the right or left when you do the two fingers scrolling thing, so it picks up on that). solutions, off the top of my head:

- download something like usb overdrive, which is a powerful USB device driver systems preference pane which can be customised for various applications. create a setting for firefox, and disable left and right scrolling.

- disable two finger scrolling system-wide. i wouldnt do this though because it's incredibly useful and it would be a shame to disable it just to get around this one quirk.

- use a different browser. i use safari as my primary browser, but others swear by camino or omniweb. they're distributing opera for free now, if you're into that sort of thing.

- maybe there's something in the firefox preferences? actually, check in there first before you do anything too drastic.

[jhocking]

Also, did you empty your trash after trashing the dmg file?  I don't actually know that would make any difference (I don't think it should,) but obviously you can't open a virtual drive stored within a dmg file that doesn't exist on your harddrive.

[salada]

yeah, i think dmgs will crack themselves open from inside the trash if need be. incidently, if you're one of those people who fills up their trash with gigabytes of stuff then never empties it, you might want to consider a utility like compost (http://www.mac-compost.com/), which can do a whole bunch of cool stuff with your trash -- automatic deletion at a certain size/date and some such.

[trolley]

For the mac scrolling thing in firefox, i had the same problem. Type about:config into the firefox URL bar to bring up the advanced settings. In the filter field at the top, type  horizscroll. Now find the value that says something like

mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action and set it's value to 1. Then find

b>mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.sysnumlines and set it to true.

That should sort it out.Don't ask me why, i have no clue.

[will: wanton sex god]

everythigns sorted out thanks.

[jhocking]

C'mon, you can't just leave us hanging.  What was the problem, and/or what did you do to correct the problem?

[will: wanton sex god]

well rather than open the virtual drive and drag it into the applications folder inside the macintosh HD, you are supposed to simply open the virtual drive and drag it to the "applications" to the left on that folder.

[salada]

that doesn't really make any sense, since the applications icon in the sidebar is just a shortcut to the real applications folder.

hmm.

[will: wanton sex god]

yah i know right, but it worked both times.