How to set priority for a PPA. I.e. using Firefox without SNAPD

[Snowhog]

There is a 'gotcha' if one follows the instructions in post #1, and it will happen, as it did to me today, if you perform a do-release-upgrade later to upgrade to the next available OS version.

The 'gotcha' is with snapd and Firefox. Because you are upgrading to the next version of the OS, that new version will attempt to install the snap version of Firefox, and it expects; it needs; snapd to be installed and running. If it isn't (post #1 instructions rids your system of snap completely) when the snap version of Firefox attempts to be installed, the upgrade process stops, indefinitely, waiting for snapd. Nothing I could do but terminate the upgrade. Luckily (for me at least), sudo dpkg -configure -a and sudo apt -f install (run a few times until each just returns you to a prompt immediately) completed the OS upgrade. My laptop is now running 22.10 very nicely.

[oshunluvr]

Digikam is available as an Appimage. https://www.digikam.org/download/

[Bings]

oshunluvr

Honestly, it seems likely you probably didn't completely follow the all the steps. I suggest going back to the first post and very carefully redoing them all.

~$ apt policy snapd
snapd:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 2.55.3+22.04ubuntu1
Version table:
2.55.3+22.04ubuntu1 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
2.55.3+22.04 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
~$ apt list libsnapd-qt1
Listing... Done
libsnapd-qt1/jammy 1.60-0ubuntu1 amd64
libsnapd-qt1/jammy 1.60-0ubuntu1 i386
~$ apt list chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra
Listing... Done
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra/jammy 1:85.0.4183.83-0ubuntu2 amd64
~$ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/99mozillateam
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 900
~$ apt policy firefox
firefox:
Installed: 100.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1
Candidate: 100.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1
Version table:
1:1snap1-0ubuntu2 500
500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
*** 100.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 900
900 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Am I missing anything?

[oshunluvr]

The version in the repo from my first post is the latest: 100.0.2

[oshunluvr]

Honestly, it seems likely you probably didn't completely follow the all the steps. I suggest going back to the first post and very carefully redoing them all.

[rab0171610]

The version in the Ubuntu repos was newer than the upstream from Firefox? I have never seen that before with any distro, even Arch Linux, which usually has the upstream version in their repos before others, but never before upstream itself.
Regardless, the previous profile can always be used but you have to know how to make Firefox use it. I am not going to go into it into detail here but it involves editing a file called profiles.ini in .mozilla in /home. Just because a new installation of Firefox didn't open an existing profile does not mean that it cannot, it just means it chose not to.

[Bings]

Thank you. That's my next option if it overrides it again. I did try using the site version before but was behind the repo version so my profile couldn't be used.

[rab0171610]

You could always consider installing it manually. It will update itself in the app when you go to help>about firefox:

Install Firefox from Mozilla builds (For advanced users)

• Before you install Firefox, make sure that your computer has the required libraries installed. Missing libraries will cause Firefox to be inoperable.
• To install Firefox with this method, you must be able to login as root or execute sudo commands.
• This installation will have priority over the Firefox version installed through your package manager. To run the version installed with your package manager, you will need to execute the binary from a terminal. To do so in most distributions, open a terminal and type: /usr/bin/firefox.

1. Go to the Firefox download page and click on the Download Now button.

2. Open a terminal and go to the folder where your download has been saved. For example:

cd ~/Downloads

3. Extract the contents of the downloaded file by typing:

tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2

4. Move the uncompressed Firefox folder to /opt:

mv firefox /opt

5. Create a symlink to the Firefox executable:

ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/local/bin/firefox

6. Download a copy of the desktop file:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mo...irefox.desktop -P /usr/local/share/applications

Alternatively, if wget is not installed on your computer, go to the URL mentioned above, right-click on the page to open the contextual menu and select Save Page As. After you downloaded the file, move it to /usr/local/share/applications.

To verify that the installation was successful, you can open the Troubleshooting Information page. In the Application Basics section, the value of Application Binary should be /opt/firefox/firefox-bin.


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[Bings]

This is not working for me, it keeps ninja installing the snap version of firefox. I'm trying "sudo apt-mark hold snapd" to see if this will prevent it re-installing without my knowledge. This bag of ****e is behaving like some sort of virus.

[claydoh]

I've never really (that I remember) have had a problem leaving the .mozilla file in place to take over all settings for a new installation.

These sand-boxed applications won't necessarily be using your existing config location. For FF, it will be ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla. I believe that existing mozilla profiles are supposed to be imported when running the snap version.

[Teunis]

I've never really (that I remember) have had a problem leaving the .mozilla file in place to take over all settings for a new installation.

[Bings]

I copy the whole profile folder across and set it using about: profiles. As long as the version's match ( i think it might be "as long as the profile isn't for a newer version but not sure"), it's not a problem and you get the passwords, logins, bookmarks and addons all ready.

[jlittle]

Unfortunately, there is no way to import login names and passwords.

Maybe I don't follow, but one can:

1. In the source Firefox click the three bars menu, passwords, three dots menu (near the top right), export Logins, and write to a .csv file.
2. In the target Firefox first go to about:config, and go past the warning screen if you get one. Then enter
   

   signon.management.page.fileImport.enabled

   and toggle the setting to true.
3. three bars menu, passwords, three dots menu, Import from a File...

Or, if you're willing to have a Firefox account, and trust Mozilla with your passwords, set up Firefox Sync to sync your logins.

[oldgeek]

I am still using 21.10, which is an excellent version and has given me no problems whatsoever. As for snaps, not for me (yet). When I upgrade to 22.04, I will probably delete both snapd and Firefox and use the appimage for Firefox. I am experimenting with it right now (version 100) and it is quite 'snappy', fast and easy to use. I also have Waterfox installed, which is almost identical to my Firefox, so I don't think I'll have a Snap withdrawal problem. I used an appimage before with Digikam, and it worked perfectly, so I can avoid the snap version as well. But I think Ubuntu should realize that they're going to lose a lot of users if they keep insisting on snapping everything. In any case, I perceive that Flatpack has more prefer3ence than Snap, although I haven't tried that so I don't know. I have tried quite a few appimages, and those work fine for me.

[Teunis]

I am still on 20.04 but will surely try to follow your instructions because for a snappy system Snap IS a PITA .