SO Firefox 17 works on that machine? Have you ran all updates to other binaries?

Centos acknowledges that Firefox 17 is the most recent version Centos 5.9 supports. They recommend, to run Firefox 23, upgrade to Centos 6.4; there are no binary upgrades for Centos 5.9 that allow Firefox 23 to run.

Maybe if you are willing to help, you can write a article on this problem?

• SEE: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/get-involved

Do you have any issues with V17?

I'd be most happy to write this issue up. I suspect there are likely others who have encountered the same issue and are scratching their heads as to what they may have done incorrectly, when the actuality of the situation is they've done nothing wrong; it's Centos that's the culprit.

Let me know the procedures and I'll get the write-up to you.

See this - Help us write help articles!