Updating your viewer need not be a daunting task. The Method explained below is for a straightforward Update. DO NOT follow this method if you are reverting to an earlier version.

For the current release, go to the Downloads page.

If you want to install a previous release, we recommend you use the steps in Clean Install

Ideally, use the Programs & Features Control Panel [Win7, Win8.1, Win10], or Add/Remove Programs Control Panel to remove the Firestorm application. If you have a Firestorm folder in your Start Menu, there may be an Uninstall link there (32-bit Firestorm only).

Navigate to Applications and trash the Firestorm App.

The Firestorm install directory will be wherever you extracted the download archive. Typically this will be in your home directory somewhere, such as ~/Phoenix-Firestorm_*. Delete this directory and everything inside it.

If you used the install script as root, look in your /opt directory. You will need to su root or sudo rm to delete the firestorm directory there.

Having done all those steps, you may now install Firestorm. Installing Firestorm is done in pretty much the same way as any other application on your computer.

Run the downloaded installer. The 32-bit installer will offer you the chance to change the destination directory; the 64-bit installer shows the destination when you click the Options button.
The installer will create a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Note: The 32-bit installer offers you an option to start the viewer when it's done, and you should choose No. Choosing Yes tends to cause problems for some people, especially if they restore during that session. The shortcut is the preferred way to launch the viewer.

Find the .dmg file you just downloaded and double-click it to mount it. Then drag the Firestorm app icon into your Applications folder. More detailed instructions can be found here

Extract the downloaded tar.bz2 or tar.xz into any directory and run the firestorm script inside that directory to launch it. You can optionally install by running the install script inside that directory. And you can optionally create a desktop launcher. Refer to the README files for more information.
If you are installing on a 64-bit Linux system, you will need to install some 32-bit libraries. Refer to this page for guidance on required compatibility libraries.
If you use the Nautilus File Manager and double clicking the firestorm launch script opens the script in an editor, you will need to modify how Nautilus handles scripts.

It must be noted that a different flash player is required for different versions of Firestorm. Version 4.7.7 and newer requires flash player for Opera and Chromium. Go here, select your operating system, then select the appropriate flash player.

The following explains how to do a proper clean install - which is more than simply removing the viewer and reinstalling it. You may need to follow this procedure if you have problems.

For the current release, go to the Downloads page.
For any previous supported version, go to the Older Downloads page.

If you save chat transcripts, they are by default saved in your per-account settings folder (named for your avatar). Before you delete that folder (below), you will need to identify the chat files and move them. See here for steps to relocate your chat transcripts. This only needs to be done once if you then backup your settings. But you must log in on each account (i.e., alts) to save that account's chat files.

As a just-in-case measure for any situation, and to make upgrading or downgrading your viewer much easier, make a backup of your settings. It's a good idea to make a backup right before upgrading, downgrading or otherwise wiping settings so that the backup is current (teleport history, contact sets, etc. can change dynamically). You must log in on each account (i.e., alts) in order to back up that account's settings.

REMINDER: If you want to save chat transcripts and or settings, make sure you do Steps 1 and 2 before deleting your settings.

Firestorm settings can become corrupt, particularly if you recently crashed; the files may not save completely, so important information can become “scrambled”. And when installing a different version of the viewer, using settings from the previously installed version may cause undesirable behavior in the viewer.

Here is how to remove the old settings:

• Launch the viewer but do not log in.
• Click the Viewer menu at the top, choose Preferences, then Network & Files, then Directories.
• Click the Open Settings Folder button.
• Close the viewer.
• In the file window, navigate up one folder, to the Firestorm* folder. If you see a folder called user_settings and one or more named for your avatars, you're in the right place.
• Select everything in that Firestorm folder and delete it.

*Note that the Firestorm folder name may differ slightly.

Note also that if you have both a 32-bit and 64-bit version installed, you will only be deleting settings for the version that you launched at the beginning of this step. You would have to repeat this step if you want to delete settings for the other version that's still installed.

You will need to use a file manager (like Windows Explorer for Windows system, Dolphin, the Mac Finder, or some such) to locate the settings folder. In its default location, the folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Refer to this page to locate your settings folders.

Clearing cache should only be done when there is a problem with the cache, or when there is a significant change in the viewer that requires it (such as a change to the KDU render code). The viewer will automatically clear cache in such cases, but manual clearing may be quicker.

When downgrading, you should always clear the cache.

If you have to clear cache in order to use the viewer version you are about to install, please see this page.

Ideally, use the Programs & Features Control Panel [Win7, Win8.1, Win10], or Add/Remove Programs Control Panel to remove the Firestorm application. If you have a Firestorm folder in your Start Menu, there may be an Uninstall link there (32-bit Firestorm only).

Navigate to Applications and trash the Firestorm App.

The Firestorm install directory will be wherever you extracted the download archive. Typically this will be in your home directory somewhere, such as ~/Phoenix-Firestorm_*. Delete this directory and everything inside it.

If you used the install script as root, look in your /opt directory. You will need to su root or sudo rm to delete the firestorm directory there.

Having done all those steps, you may now install Firestorm. Installing Firestorm is done in pretty much the same way as any other application on your computer.

Run the downloaded installer. The 32-bit installer will offer you the chance to change the destination directory; the 64-bit installer shows the destination when you click the Options button.
The installer will create a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Note: The 32-bit installer offers you an option to start the viewer when it's done, and you should choose No. Choosing Yes tends to cause problems for some people, especially if they restore during that session. The shortcut is the preferred way to launch the viewer.

Find the .dmg file you just downloaded and double-click it to mount it. Then drag the Firestorm app icon into your Applications folder. More detailed instructions can be found here

Extract the downloaded tar.bz2 or tar.xz into any directory and run the firestorm script inside that directory to launch it. You can optionally install by running the install script inside that directory. And you can optionally create a desktop launcher. Refer to the README files for more information.
If you are installing on a 64-bit Linux system, you will need to install some 32-bit libraries. Refer to this page for guidance on required compatibility libraries.
If you use the Nautilus File Manager and double clicking the firestorm launch script opens the script in an editor, you will need to modify how Nautilus handles scripts.

It must be noted that a different flash player is required for different versions of Firestorm. For version 4.7.5 require flash player for Firefox (NPAPI); Firestorm 4.7.7 and newer require flash player for Opera and Chromium. Go here, select your operating system, then select the appropriate flash player.

Once you have the viewer installed or reinstalled, you will want to make sure the viewer is operating correctly:

• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try Hippo Hollow, Aich or Hatton). Don't change any settings.
• Test any functions that didn't work for you in the previous version that had been reported fixed.
• If downgrading, test any functions that failed in the newer version.
• If you needed to clear cache in Step 5 above, open your Inventory and wait for it to fully populate.

At this point, if the viewer is performing as it should, you can restore your settings and again relog. You must log in on each account (i.e., alts) to restore that account's settings.

Log back in to SL once again and confirm that the viewer is still performing as it should; then you can adjust any new or changed settings and then back those up.

Note that some settings are not restored, such as graphics. This is because the graphics settings could be incorrect and may cause problems.

Starting with Firestorm release 5.0.11.53634, Windows and Mac 64-bit versions are also available for Second Life with Havok support.

Older Firestorm 64-bit versions currently do not include Havok support. This means that:

• you will be unable to edit a region's navmesh;
• you cannot specify all physics properties or use convex decomposition for mesh uploads.

Older 64-bit versions therefore are OpenSim versions; they can be used both in SL and in other non-SL grids.

The 64-bit version of Firestorm can only be installed on 64-bit operating systems; it will not work on 32-bit. If you are not sure which you have, check in top menu, Help → About Firestorm. This will indicate whether you are on a 64-bit operating system. Examples:

• Windows: OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit (Build 7600)
• Mac: Mac OS X 10.9.0 Darwin 13.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_6
• Linux: OS Version: Linux 3.8.0-30-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 22 20:52:24 UTC 2013 x86_64

Note the “64-bit” and “x86_64” in the above.

If you attempt to install it on a 32-bit system, Windows users will get an error as shown here. Linux users will get errors on trying to run the program.

If you have 4GB RAM or less, there is no benefit to installing the 64-bit version of the viewer.

If you believe you have found a bug, then please report it as usual; information on how to file a bug report is given on this page. Please be sure to indicate in the title of the report, that the bug affects the 64-bit build, and don't forget to give your system information in the Environment field. Also, it would be helpful if you could verify whether or not the same problem occurs with the 32-bit build of the viewer.

Currently, if you need to reinstall the 64-bit version of Firestorm, you will first need to remove the existing copy manually, via Add/Remove Programs. Note that the 64-bit version identifies differently from the 32-bit, as follows:

• 32-bit: Firestorm-Release
• 64-bit: Firestorm SecondLife and OpenSim viewer

So if you have both installed, be careful to remove the correct one.

Below are some issues that some people have run across during testing, and solutions or work-arounds.

If you get the error “The program can't start because MSVCP100.dll is missing. Try reinstalling to fix this problem.” when starting the 64-bit version of Firestorm, you will need to install the package containing this file. Go to this page, download and install both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions.

Ref. FIRE-11991

If you get this error during install, then the steps (from the JIRA referenced above), as as follows:

1. Clear Temp directory.
2. Locate the .msi that you downloaded.
3. While holding down the Shift key on the keyboard, right-click on the msi file, then choose Copy As Path.
4. Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories.
5. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. This should open a command prompt window, labeled “Administrator:”.
6. In the Command Prompt window, type msiexec /i (you need to enter a single space after “/i”).
7. Right-click in the Command Prompt window, then choose Paste. This should paste the path to the MSI file that you copied in Step 2 above.
8. Press Enter to run the command.

So you have the latest viewer and still can't see mesh - what's the deal?

Well, it isn't necessarily automatic. Depending on your specific hardware, certain settings that need to be enabled for mesh, may be set off by default.

Go to Preferences→ Graphics -> General; then enable Basic Shaders.

If this remains greyed out, then increase the level of Render Quality until Basic Shaders becomes enabled and can be checked.

Make sure you have a reasonable draw distance. If you have difficulty rendering mesh, lower it; if your draw distance is over 128, set it to 128, or less. (The optimal value for draw distance is entirely dependent on your own hardware; you will need to experiment to find what works best for you.)

In some cases, worn mesh attachments will not render properly still. Go to Preferences→ Graphics -> Rendering and disable both of the Alpha Mask Rendering options.

There are also rare instances of glitches where mesh that you are wearing appears worn by another avatar (yes, it is bizarre!). In that case, try going to Preferences → Graphics → General, and enable Hardware Skinning.

If you have Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus, see Webroot Issues. For other antivirus apps, see our Whitelisting Guide, and be sure to whitelist all parts of the viewer. This may need to be done from scratch each time you upgrade to a new version.

If mesh is simply slow to appear, but does appear eventually, that is not necessarily a problem with mesh itself; please work through this page: Slow Rezzing.

HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

If none of the above work - and make sure you try all of them first! - then in the top menu bar, open Advanced → Debug Settings, type in Mesh2MaxConcurrentRequests and gradually decrease (not increase) the value. (If Advanced is not visible on the top menu bar, press Ctrl-Alt-D.) If it does not help, try increasing the value from the default. Under no circumstances should you increase this beyond 64. Please see this comment on a related JIRA ticket for an explanation of the possible drawbacks of increasing this setting. Additionally, we recommend returning it to default once the mesh you're trying to see is visible.

In most cases, this is due to the mesh item being made low LOD so as to reduce its land impact. You should never try to resolve this by increasing LOD above the maximum allowed in Preferences → Graphics → General (4), as that would result in greatly increased memory uses usually leading to a significantly increased rate of crashing. Rather, the issue is inherent in how the mesh item was made. So you either live with it, or replace the item.

If you are using a fitted mesh capable version of Firestorm (4.6.1. or later) and using ATI/AMD graphics and drivers, certain non-rigged mesh items may display as a long stretch which points to the region coordinates 0,0,0. If you observe such long spikes, then try:

• Ideally, you should update (or downgrade) to Catalyst Drivers Version 14.4 - or better yet, one of the latest 15.x drivers, if they are available for your graphics card. We've had reports these drivers fix the bug. Visit this page more on this.
• Otherwise, go to Preferences - Graphics - General subtab - disable Hardware Skinning. This may result in a loss of FPS. Turn on the Statistics Panel using Ctrl Shift 1, disable Hardware Skinning and monitor your FPS. As this bug affects some non-rigged mesh items, and not all, you may determine that disabling Hardware Skinning is not worth the loss of FPS.

If you can see most mesh fine but a specific mesh item fails to render and/or displays a pyramid, triangle, or ducky when it's first worn or rezzed, then read on. This is caused by mesh that fails to load, and in many cases is a result of having too high a draw distance in the presence of a lot of complex mesh.

• Reduce draw distance significantly, then relog. That often clears the problem.
• If that doesn't help, reboot all your network hardware and then your computer.
• (If the problem occurs only on selected regions, it could simply be a symptom of region lag–see http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/lag for information. In this case, there may be nothing you can do about it.)
• If this still doesn't help, then:

• Make sure you have hidden folders shown; see here. Then browse to:

• On Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10: C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm or C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Firestorm_x64 (or use the environment variable %APPDATA% then drill down to the folder noted)
• On a Mac: /Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/Firestorm
• On Linux: ~/.firestorm
• In this Firestorm folder, open the folder that has the name of your affected account, e.g. whirly_fizzle
• Delete the files named texture_list_last.xml and texture_list_home.xml
• Login and see if the troublesome meshes then load.

• Back up your settings - see http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/backup_settings
• Wipe your settings manually, as explained in http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_clearing_settings
• Log back in and see if the mesh renders correctly. If it does…
• Restore your settings (see the backup page above), then check the mesh again.

This appears to be specific to those with ATI/AMD graphics cards. Refer to this.

This issue is specific to those using ATI/AMD graphics cards. Please refer to this.

In Preferences → Graphics → General, make sure Basic Shaders and Hardware Skinning are enabled.

If certain mesh objects are invisible on Firestorm 5.0.11 on OpenSim grids, set the debug setting FSEnforceStrictObjectCheck to False. To change that setting, go to top menu, Advanced (Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't), Show Debug Settings. Type in FSEnforceStrictObjectCheck, set to False, then close the DebugSettings window.
On OpenSim grids, mesh should never be uploaded using “Analyze”. Analyze should only be used on grids that support Havok.
On Firestorm 5.0.11, mesh uploaded with Analyze is likely to render invisible when FSEnforceStrictObjectCheck is set to true.
An in-depth discussion about this problem can be found here.

The #Firestorm → AO folder is protected; this means it cannot be deleted, nor can items in it be removed.

If you have inadvertently dragged something into this folder (or a subfolder), then proceed as follows:

1. From the top menu bar select the Advanced menu, then Debug Settings - or press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S (if the Advanced menu is not visible, enable it with Ctrl-Alt-D).
2. Type in ProtectAOFolders, and set the value to FALSE.
3. Now drag the item(s) out of the protected folder and into the intended location.
4. Access Debug Settings again, and revert the value of ProtectAOFolders to TRUE.

If you had a functioning FS AO and it is now empty, it is possible that the #Firestorm → #AO folder has accidentally moved to another location.

To find the moved #AO folder, do an inventory search either for “#AO” (probably the simplest way), or in case that doesn't work, for one of the known animation names. The search will reveal both the original animation and any link to it. The link should reveal the location of the moved #AO folder. Check to see that the moved folder contains all the expected subfolders and animations.

To fix this:

First delete the new, empty folder as follows:

1. Unprotect the new, empty #Firestorm → #AO folder by going to Advanced menu → Show Debug Settings. Type in ProtectAOFolders and set to False
2. Delete the new, empty #Firestorm → #AO folder

Now move the full #AO folder back into the correct location as follows:

1. Move the full #AO folder back into the #Firestorm folder
2. Protect the full #AO folder by going to Advanced menu → Show Debug Settings. Type in ProtectAOFolders and set to True. (Note: if this doesn't work, a relog may be needed, followed by setting it to True.)

If you have Intel Graphics HD, Intel Graphics HD2500 and Intel Graphics HD4000, and are using the 64bit version of Firestorm 5.0.7 or later, on Windows 10, refer to this page.

If you are on Windows 10, and get an error such as this:
Firestorm is unable to run because your video card drivers did not install properly or are out of date, or are for unsupported hardware. Please make sure you have the latest video card drivers, and even if you do have the latest, try reinstalling them. If you continue to receive this message, contact the Second Life Support Portal
then refer to this page.

This is a known issue with recent Intel graphics drivers, affecting other graphics applications besides SL viewers.

• Many people have received this graphics driver update without realizing it.
• The problem sometimes appears after a crash.
• Many users on HP laptops with OEM drivers are having this problem, although it is also affecting others.

What to do:

• Try rolling back to a previous driver that worked for you.

1. Method 1 https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000008628.html for instructions. If the Roll Back Driver button is grayed out; see
2. Method 2 FIRE-21264 Roll Back Driver Steps

• If you are unable to rollback to older drivers, contact your laptop manufacturer for support. Here's a list of sites if you need it https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/oems.html?wapkw=manufacturer+support Explain the issue, and tell them you need Windows Graphics Driver Version: 21.20.0016.4627, OpenGL Version: 4.2.0 - Build 21.20.16.4627 which is the last known non-buggy driver.

• Some users have reported that the following newer driver fixes the problem: Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows* [15.46] Version: 15.46.05.4771 (Latest) Date: 8/23/2017. Download from https://downloadcenter.intel.com. This driver may or may not be available to you depending on your computer.

• Workaround: Run the viewer in Full Screen Mode. Preferences → Graphics → General → Fullscreen Mode, then relog.

More information: Please refer to FIRE-21264 for more information and to report any additional details about the issue.

If you start experiencing graphics issues after a Win10 update, such as driver crashes, or simply very poor performance, the first thing to try is a full computer reboot.

If that doesn't help, reinstall your graphics card driver from the card maker's website, not from Windows. That is, from nVidia, AMD, or Intel.

If you have Intel HD 2000 or 3000 graphics, refer to this page.

If your laptop has an Intel CPU and also has either an AMD or Nvidia graphics system, it may have the ability to switch between the Integrated Intel graphics or power savings, or the AMD/Nvidia for performance. But sometimes Firestorm isn't automatically configured to use the high performance graphics.

You can confirm this issue by looking at Help → About Firestorm and checking the name of the graphics card listed. If it says Intel, please follow the steps on this page.

This mysterious flashing problem has been reported numerous times now and after some investigation we believe we finally have a repro for what's causing the issue. We do not yet know the specifics of exactly which systems are affected.

Typically the issue arises when Worn Rigged Mesh is in view and has at least one texture containing alpha and set to alpha blend mode. Alpha masking and emissive mask do not reproduce the problem.

We have also verified that this reproduces using the Official LL Viewer.

The Following Table shows which systems and drivers we have tested and whether they reproduce the Flashing Issue.

The Driver Version linked in the above table (DRIVER VERSION: 15.40.14.64.4352 & 15.40.14.32.4352) Has not reproduced the issue for us and is the Driver we recommend that you download direct from Intel.

If you receive the following Message when installing the Intel Driver:

This is an indication that you have an OEM Driver installed by the manufacturer. This Leaves you with two options:

• Check the website (or contact support) of your specific PC manufacturer and check for updates.
• Uninstall the OEM Driver and install the Intel Driver direct from Intel. This method is carried out At Your Own Risk

If decide to wait for an update from your computer manufacturer, or are simply uncertain about removing an installed driver, the following steps may help to make things more tolerable for you until your drivers are updated.

• If ALM is disabled the flashing will always reproduce unless Hardware skinning is disabled.
• If ALM is enabled the flashing will only reproduce when the avatar wearing the alpha blended rigged mesh is standing in Linden water.
  • If Hardware Skinning is disabled, the flashing stops in this case too.

Note: If you install the recommended driver above and still experience issues please read the related jira FIRE-17290 and add your details to the comments. Instructions for using the Jira can be found HERE

See here for a description of what a cache is.

Clearing your cache this way will “cure” certain kinds of texture or inventory issues and is the suggested procedure before resorting to more drastic steps like Reinstalling the viewer.

• Open Preferences→ Network & Files -> Directories.
• Go to the first path “Cache Location” and click the “Open” button behind the path. This will open a file explorer window displaying your current cache location.
• Logout (close the viewer) and then delete everything inside the folder currently displayed in your file explorer.
• Should you not be able to start the viewer to bring up Preferences, then locate the folder manually. In its default location, the folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Now you need to locate the cache folder:

Now continue as follows:

• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try the Phoenix Support parcel or a Linden water region such as aich or hatton). On your inventory window, click “Recent Items”.
• Wait for your inventory to repopulate fully. The process may be sped up, if necessary, by typing random letters into the search bar.
• While inventory repopulates, do not teleport anywhere, and do not attempt to access anything in your inventory. Talk to people or surf the web.
• Watch as it repopulates. as long as you can see (Fetched…) at the top of the inventory window, it is still loading.
• Once inventory has repopulated, log out of SL once more, then log back in.

The “clear your cache” advice is something we resort to ONLY if the problem appears to be texture related. A full cache is almost always better than an empty one. Clearing Inventory cache when you have inventory loading issues can be helpful. There are occasions when you will not want to clear inventory cache, just your texture cache. This can only be done manually; do this by opening the cache and deleting the files in the texture folder. If you want to manually clear cache without affecting inventory cache, avoid deleting any files ending with .inv.gz as these are inventory cache files. To manually clear inventory cache delete files ending in .inv.gz.

At this point, you should be back to normal… whatever “normal” happens to be that day in SL.

See here for a description of what a cache is.

Clearing your cache this way will “cure” certain kinds of texture or inventory issues and is the suggested procedure before resorting to more drastic steps like Reinstalling the viewer.

• Open Preferences→ Network & Files -> Directories.
• Go to the first path “Cache Location” and click the “Open” button behind the path. This will open a file explorer window displaying your current cache location.
• Logout (close the viewer) and then delete everything inside the folder currently displayed in your file explorer.
• Should you not be able to start the viewer to bring up Preferences, then locate the folder manually. In its default location, the folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Now you need to locate the cache folder:

Now continue as follows:

• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try the Phoenix Support parcel or a Linden water region such as aich or hatton). On your inventory window, click “Recent Items”.
• Wait for your inventory to repopulate fully. The process may be sped up, if necessary, by typing random letters into the search bar.
• While inventory repopulates, do not teleport anywhere, and do not attempt to access anything in your inventory. Talk to people or surf the web.
• Watch as it repopulates. as long as you can see (Fetched…) at the top of the inventory window, it is still loading.
• Once inventory has repopulated, log out of SL once more, then log back in.

The “clear your cache” advice is something we resort to ONLY if the problem appears to be texture related. A full cache is almost always better than an empty one. Clearing Inventory cache when you have inventory loading issues can be helpful. There are occasions when you will not want to clear inventory cache, just your texture cache. This can only be done manually; do this by opening the cache and deleting the files in the texture folder. If you want to manually clear cache without affecting inventory cache, avoid deleting any files ending with .inv.gz as these are inventory cache files. To manually clear inventory cache delete files ending in .inv.gz.

At this point, you should be back to normal… whatever “normal” happens to be that day in SL.

Other suggestions below.

1. Open Default Programs by clicking the Start button and then clicking Default Programs.
2. Click Associate a file type or protocol with a program.
3. Click the file type or protocol that you want the program to act as the default for.
4. Click Change program.

In Firefox, goto Tools → Options → Applications Tab and scroll to Secondlife. Look to see if Firestorm is listed, if not, select “other”, then browse your hard drive to find the Firestorm.exe, click on it, select Open, then click Ok. (Reference: Applications panel—Set how Firefox handles different types of files.)

OR

Download and install the regular SL viewer - but don't run it.

OR

Try this if the above does not work:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/gaming-games-multimedia-entertainment/104105-how-firefox-calls-secondlife-slurls.html

Download and install the regular SL viewer - but don't run it.

If none of the above works, then try this as a last resort fix. Go into Chrome settings, the advanced Settings, at the bottom, then Reset Chrome. Please note that this will wipe all your customized Chrome settings.

The application that handles a URL is a system-wide setting, not tied to any one browser. You can change the setting like this:

• Download RCDefaultApp 2.1 from the RubiCode download page. Yes, it really will run on current versions of OS X, even though it also runs all the way back to 10.2.
• Install it according to the instructions int he README file.
• Go to the Apple menu at the top left. Select System Preferences… then Default Apps (near the bottom), then the URLs tab. Now scroll down until you see secondlife in the list on the left. Click on it.
• Now select the application you wish to use.

• Open Firefox and in the address bar type in “about:config”
• Now right click anywhere on that page and choose New and then Boolean to create a new Boolean entry, when prompted for the name of the entry enter “network.protocol-handler.expose.secondlife” (without quotes) then set the entry to 'false', click ok and your just about done.
• Now the next time you click a slurl you will be prompted to choose an application to open it with, just browse to the folder you installed Firestorm into and select the file named 'firestorm' (a shell script file). Then before you click Ok, make sure you check the little box to make Firefox remember your choice on how to open slurls. ¹⁾

Information gleaned from this page.

There is an alternative to clicking a link in a browser to have it pass control to the viewer. Some actually find this work around to be faster and use it normally:

• right click the SLURL link in your web browser and copy to clipboard
• in the viewer, paste the link into your local chat and hit Enter.
• open local chat history
• click the link shown there; you will be shown the location info with the option to teleport direct to it.

The fist thing to check is the viewer settings: Preferences → Network & Files → Connections, in the Web Browser section, make sure Use My Browser… is selected.

If you get an error saying that no program is associated with the action, or that it doesn't know how to hand that action, make sure your computer settings show that there is a default web browser. An easy way to tell is to open your browser; if you are asked to make it the default, then you need to do so.

If you get a black screen when opening Search, Web Profiles, or Destinations, then try the following:

• Sometimes the window opens minimized at the top left; check to see if this is the case.
• Go to Preferences→ Network & Files -> Connection and ensure that the following are all enabled:
  • Enable Plugins
  • Enable cookies
  • Enable Javascript
• If this is not enough to get search working then go to Preferences→ Privacy -> General and click on Clear History (top of the window). Then relog.
• If this still doesn't help, then make sure that your anti-virus software hasn't flagged, and possibly deleted, SLPlugin.exe, which is required for search to work. Try disabling your anti-virus completely, then reinstalling Firestorm to a different folder. Once done, re-enable your anti-virus and make sure you set it to exclude SLPlugin.exe from being scanned.

Some other issues affecting search are covered here.

If, after upgrading to High Sierra, you are experiencing low performance and extremely low FPS, follow the steps for a full clean install of the viewer as set out here Full Clean Install

• Find the list of Nvidia web drivers here, with download links directly from Nvidia: Nvidia Web Driver updates for High Sierra.
• Follow these instructions on how to install Nvidia web drivers: NVIDIA Releases Alternate Graphics Drivers for macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (387.10.10.10.25).
• You can switch between using the Apple Nvidia driver and the Nvidia web driver (needs a reboot after each change).

If, after upgrading to High Sierra, Firestorm complains that it cannot decode the credentials when you launch the viewer. Refer to the steps set out here Login Credentials

This page describes all necessary steps to build the Firestorm viewer for Windows, using the updated build infrastructure introduced with Linden Lab's project Alex Ivy.

NOTE: This description is NOT valid for building versions of the viewer prior to the Alex Ivy merge!

This is needed for compiling any viewer based on the Linden Lab open source code and only needs to be done once.

All installations are done with default settings (unless told specific) if you change that your on your own

• Install Windows 10 Pro 64bit using your own product key
• Alternatively: Install Windows 7 or 8.1 Pro 64bit

• Install Visual Studio 2013 Professional
• Note: If you don't own a copy of Visual Studio 2013 Professional, you might consider installing the Community version (requires creating a Microsoft account if you do not already have one)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, “Run as administrator”)
  • Uncheck all the “Optional features to install:” - they are not required

• Download and install DirectX SDK (June 2010)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, “Run as administrator”)
  • At the Installation Options screen, set everything except the DirectX Headers and Libs to “This feature will not be installed”

• Download and install TortoiseHg 3.2.3 or newer (64bit)
  • Note: No option available to install as Administrator
  • Use default options (path, components etc.)
  • Add the following directory to your path:

    C:\Program Files\TortoiseHG

• Download and install at least CMake 3.4.3 (32bit is only option)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, “Run as administrator”)
  • At the “Install options” screen, select “Add CMake to the system PATH for all users”
  • For everything else, use the default options (path, etc.)
  • Make sure that the following directory was added to your path:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\CMake\bin

• Download and install Cygwin 64 (64bit)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, “Run as administrator”)
  • Use default options (path, components etc.) *until* you get to the “Select Packages” screen
  • Add additional packages:
    • Devel/patch
  • Use default options for everything else
  • Make sure that the following directory was added to your path.:

    C:\Cygwin64\bin

• Download and install the most recent version of Python 2.7 (32bit)
  • Linden Lab advises to use the 32bit version as the VMP requires it. However, Firestorm currently doesn't use VMP, so the 64bit version might work (use at own risk!)
  • Note: No option available to install as Administrator
  • Use default options (path, components etc.) until you get to the “Customize Python” screen
  • Change “Add python.exe to Path” to “Will be installed on local hard drive”
  • Add the Python installation dir to the system path:

    C:\Python27

Confirm things are installed properly so far by opening a Cygwin terminal and enter:

cmake --version
hg --version
python --version

If they all report sensible values and not “Command not found” errors, then you are in good shape.

• Install Boostrip pip
  • Download (Save As) get-pip.py and copy to a temp folder
  • Open Windows Command Prompt
  • Switch to that temp folder and execute it:

    python get-pip.py

  • Pip will be installed
  • Add the following directory to your path:

    C:\Python27\Scripts

• Install Autobuild
  • Open Windows Command Prompt and enter:

    pip install hg+http://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/autobuild-1.1#egg=autobuild

  • Autobuild will be installed. Earlier versions of Autobuild could be made to work by just putting the source files into your path correctly; this is no longer true - Autobuild must be installed as described here.

• Set environment variable AUTOBUILD_VSVER to 120

• Check Autobuild version to be 1.1.7 or higher:

  autobuild --version

• You must install the Unicode version here and not the one from the NSIS page
• Not required unless you need to build an actual viewer installer for distribution, or change the NSIS installer package logic itself

In order to make it easier to build collections of related packages (such as the viewer and all the library packages that it imports) with the same compilation options, Autobuild expects a file of variable definitions. This can be set using the environmenat variable AUTOBUILD_VARIABLES_FILE.

• Clone the build variables repository:

  hg clone https://bitbucket.org/Ansariel/fs-build-variables <path-to-your-variables-file>

• Set the environment variable AUTOBUILD_VARIABLES_FILE to

  <path-to-your-variables-file>\variables

• Start the IDE
• Navigate to Tools> Options> Projects and Solutions> Build and Run and set maximum number of parallel projects builds to 1.

Plan your directory structure ahead of time. If you are going to be producing changes or patches you will be cloning a copy of an unaltered source code tree for every change or patch you make, so you might want to have all this work stored in its own directory. If you are a casual compiler and won't be producing any changes, you can use one directory. For this document, it is assumed that you created a folder c:\firestorm.

c:
cd \firestorm
hg clone http://hg.phoenixviewer.com/phoenix-firestorm-lgpl

This can take a bit, it's a rather large download.

Most third party libraries needed to build the viewer will be automatically downloaded for you and installed into the build directory within your source tree during compilation. Some need to be manually prepared and are not normally required when using an open source configuration (ReleaseFS_open).

Note: This typically needs to only be done once since FMOD Studio rarely changes. FMOD Studio can be downloaded here (requires creating an account to access the download section). Make sure to download the FMOD Studio API and not the FMOD Studio Tool!

c:
cd \firestorm
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/Ansariel/3p-fmodstudio

• After you have cloned the repository, copy the downloaded FMOD Studio installer file to C:\Firestorm
• If you downloaded a different version of FMOD Studio that is currently used in the viewer, you will have to modify the file build-cmd.sh in the root of the repository. Right at the top, you find the version number of FMOD Studio you want to package (one short version without separator and one long version). Change these values to the version you downloaded:

FMOD_VERSION="11002"
FMOD_VERSION_PRETTY="1.10.02"

Continue on the Windows command line:

c:
cd \firestorm\3p-fmodstudio
autobuild build --all
autobuild package

While running the Autobuild build command, Windows might ask if you want to allow making changes to the computer. This is because of the FMOD Studio installer being executed. Allow these changes to be made.

Near the end of the output you will see the package name written and the md5 hash below it:

wrote C:\firestorm\3p-fmodstudio\fmodstudio-{version#}-windows-{build_id}.tar.bz2
md5 c3f696412ef74f1559c6d023efe3a087

where {version#} is the version of FMOD Studio (like 1.10.02) and {build_id} is an internal build id of the package.

cd \firestorm\phoenix-firestorm-lgpl
cp autobuild.xml my_autobuild.xml
set AUTOBUILD_CONFIG_FILE=my_autobuild.xml

Copy the FMOD Studio path and md5 value from the package process into this command:

autobuild installables edit fmodstudio platform=windows hash=<md5 value> url=file:///<fmodstudio path>

For example:

autobuild installables edit fmodstudio platform=windows hash=c3f696412ef74f1559c6d023efe3a087 url=file:///C:\firestorm\3p-fmodstudio\fmodstudio-1.10.02-windows-180191431.tar.bz2

Note: Having to copy autobuild.xml and modify the copy from within a cloned repository is a lot of work for every repository you make, but this is the only way to guarantee you pick up upstream changes to autobuild.xml and do not send up a modified autobuild.xml when you do an hg push.

Open the Windows command prompt.

If you are building with FMOD Studio and have followed the previous FMOD Studio setup instructions AND you are now using a new terminal you will need to reset the environment variable first by entering

set AUTOBUILD_CONFIG_FILE=my_autobuild.xml

Then enter:

 c:
 cd \firestorm\phoenix-firestorm-lgpl
 autobuild configure -c ReleaseFS_open

This will configure Firestorm to be built with all defaults and without third party libraries.

Note: Configuring the viewer for the first time will take some time to download all the required third-party libraries. As of Autobuild 1.1, the download progress is hidden by default. If you want to watch the download progress, you can use the verbose option to display a more detailed output:

autobuild configure -v -c ReleaseFS_open

There are a number of switches you can use to modify the configuration process. The name of each switch is followed by its type and then by the value you want to set.

• -A <architecture> sets the target architecture, that is if you want to build a 32bit or 64bit viewer (32bit is default if omitted).
• –fmodstudio controls if the FMOD Studio package is incorporated into the viewer. You must have performed the FMOD Studio installation steps in FMOD Studio using Autobuild for this to work.
• –package makes sure all files are copied into viewers output directory. You won't be able to start your compiled viewer if you don't enable package or do 'compile' it in VS.
• –chan <channel name> lets you define a custom channel name for the viewer
• -LL_TESTS:BOOL=<bool> controls if the tests are compiled and run. There are quite a lot of them so excluding them is recommended unless you have some reason to need one or
  more of them.

TIP: OFF and NO are the same as FALSE; anything else is considered to be TRUE

Examples:

• To build a 32bit viewer with FMOD Studio and to create an installer package, run this command in the Windows command window:

  autobuild configure -c ReleaseFS_open -- --fmodstudio --package --chan MyViewer -DLL_TESTS:BOOL=FALSE

• To build a 64bit viewer without FMOD Studio and without installer package, run this command:

  autobuild configure -A 64 -c ReleaseFS_open -- --chan MyViewer -DLL_TESTS:BOOL=FALSE

There are two ways to build the viewer: Via Windows command line or from within Visual Studio.

If you are building with FMOD Studio and have followed the previous FMOD Studio setup instructions AND you are now using a new terminal you will need to reset the environment variable with

set AUTOBUILD_CONFIG_FILE=my_autobuild.xml

Then run the Autobuild build command. Make sure you include the same architecture parameter you used while configuring the viewer:

autobuild build -A 64 -c ReleaseFS_open --no-configure

Now, sit back, read War and Peace, calculate PI to 50 places, tour the country, whatever you desire. Compiling will take quite a bit of time.

Inside the Firestorm source folder, you will find a folder named build-vc120-<architecture>, with <architecture> either being 32 or 64, depending on what you chose during the configuration step. Inside the folder is the Visual Studio solution file for Firestorm, called Firestorm.sln.

• Double-click Firestorm.sln to open the Firestorm solution in Visual Studio.
• From the menu, choose Build → Build Solution
• Wait until the build is finished

Older versions of the viewer before the merge of Linden Lab's project Alex Ivy use Autobuild 1.0 that is incompatible with the build process as it is now. By default it is not possible to install two different versions of Autobuild on the same computer at the same time. Making use of virtualenv will overcome this problem, allowing simultaneous installations of Autobuild 1.0 and Autobuild 1.1 in two distinct “virtual” Python environments.

Install virtualenv by opening a Windows command prompt and enter:

pip install virtualenv

This requires the Boostrip pip already installed. After virtualenv has been installed, you can create virtual Python environments using the command

virtualenv <virtual-environment-name>

This will create the directory <virtual-environment-name> within the Python installation folder and add some required folders and files. Among these files is a batch file called activate.bat in the folder Scripts. To switch to the newly created virtual environment execute the activate.bat batch file. After switching to the virtual environment, your command prompt will be prepended by the name of the virtual environment.

In this example we will create a virtual environment called “Autobuild11”:

virtualenv Autobuild11
c:\Python27\Autobuild11\Scripts\Activate.bat

Your command prompt should look like this now:

(Autobuild11) C:\

After you switched to a particular virtual environment, you can now install as described in Set up Autobuild and Python.

Complete example:

virtualenv Autobuild11
c:\Python27\Autobuild11\Scripts\Activate.bat
pip install hg+http://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/autobuild-1.1#egg=autobuild

Configuring and building the viewer from the Windows command line is basically identical as described in Building from the Windows command line with the difference that you now have to call the activate script first:

c:
\Python27\Autobuild11\Scripts\Activate.bat
cd \firestorm\phoenix-firestorm-lgpl
autobuild configure -c ReleaseFS_open -- --fmodstudio --package --chan MyViewer -DLL_TESTS:BOOL=FALSE
autobuild build -A 64 -c ReleaseFS_open --no-configure

If you plan to build the viewer from within Visual Studio, you will have to configure the viewer the same way as if you were to build from the Windows command line:

c:
\Python27\Autobuild11\Scripts\Activate.bat
cd \firestorm\phoenix-firestorm-lgpl
autobuild configure -c ReleaseFS_open -- --fmodstudio --package --chan MyViewer -DLL_TESTS:BOOL=FALSE

To be able to build from Visual Studio, you will have to set a Windows environment variable called VIRTUAL_ENV pointing at the virtual Python environment to use, in our example “C:\Python27\Autobuild11”. Now open the Firestorm Visual Studio solution to start Visual Studio and build the viewer.

NOTE: Setting the VIRTUAL_ENV environment variable only has an effect if building a version greater or equal than 53671! If you plan to build older versions of Firestorm, it is advised to install Autobuild 1.0 as the default Autobuild version and create a virtual environment for Autobuild 1.1!