Script to install traditional Firefox

[Schwarzer Kater]

I have tested the script with 24.10 and 25.04 during the past weeks and improved some minor code for KDE Plasma 6.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Recently I realized that Mozilla seems to have changed their compression methods from .bz2 to .xz - so the script did not work anymore.

I updated the script accordingly to version 2.1.4 and I deeply apologize for any inconvenience this bug may have caused for you!

[tenplus1]

I've always used the official Firefox .deb release for my Kubuntu desktop which seems to work really well and is optimized for Ubuntu already.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/...t-ubuntu-22-04

[jlittle]

tar xjf instead xvf

The "j" just means extract from a bzip2 compressed file. The firefox downloads are now xz compressed, and the corresponding tar option is an upper case "J". However, there's no need to tell tar that a .xz file is xz compressed, so it's better just to use the "xf" command with tar (which is what "xvf" does, the "v" just causes verbose output, lots of it).

/opt/firefox....
what is the proper procedure to do a firefox update

firefox installed under /opt (or wherever) handles its updates, outside the APT and other discover mechanisms. This might be seen as a bad thing, but I find it a huge improvement because it can be orders of magnitude faster. When there's a new version, APT re-downloads the whole package, roughly 100 MB, but firefox's own mechanism is much more efficient; typically it downloads a few MB, and sometimes only a few KB. firefox itself tells the user when an update is available, or one can check through the menu -> help ->about firefox.

[Mardel]

Hi!

Have 2 bugs in this scipt.

tar xjf instead xvf and the script install firefox /opt instead /opt/firefox.

1st bug cant install firefox cause tar command wrong 2nd bug cant remove firefox cause installed it to /opt instead /opt/firefox.

[chconnor]

SOLVED: TLDR: I had installed manually to /opt via earlier mozilla PPA, and made a distribution/policy.json file to prevent nags about the installed version not being in sync with the mozilla PPA. I removed that install with "sudo apt-get remove firefox-mozilla-build", then installed with this script, and all is well, and presumably updates will just work now.

Old post in case it's useful:

Hey Schwarzer Kater -- I just upgraded to 24.10 (not sure if that's relevant) and I'm a little confused about the proper upgrade process here... Under 24.04 I used your script (thanks a lot for it!) and I'm correctly running /opt/firefox/firefox, but it's still at version 112.0.2... what is the proper procedure to do a firefox update, since there are no PPAs relating to this install?

Thanks!

Edit: I copied my profile from my snap firefox over to this one, and I see that about: policies (space inserted because I can't defeat the smilies) has disabled update (causing "updates disabled by your system administrator" to be enabled in the settings...) I will try disabling this and doing an update to see what happens.

Edit2: I see that the issue is /opt/firefox/distribution/policies.json -- however if I fetch the latest from download.mozilla.org it does not have this "distribution" directory at all. So maybe the smartest thing is to just use your script to uninstall the installed version, then install the latest? I will try that next.

Edit3: ah, it appears that it was not your script that installed this version in /opt after all ("Traditional Firefox does not seem to have been installed from Mozilla.org to /opt by this script before -> not changing anything"). So it seems that I have some other manual install in /opt, perhaps before I found your script. I will try removing the distrinution/ directory next.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Update to version 2.1.3:
better late than never - now all scripts test first if the computer has established an internet connection as this is needed.

[suplero]

Thanks.

Way above my head. No idea what the difference between /opt and /usr/bin is.

I used the PPA method in 22.04 and all the window decoration rules and behaviors were 100% followed. I don't do release upgrades though, I do completely new installs, and might never cross over into the preferences.d issues. Or maybe not.

At this point, the snap for firefox is a no-go for me because it actually does not obey the window management rules of raising and lowering and that makes it impossible for me to keep windows layered properly to work with.
I will retest just the script version and see how that behaves.

Thanks

[Schwarzer Kater]

No, it is no problem to test this "traditional" Firefox version without removing the Firefox Snap.

1. As the instructions say: Just don't start and use both the traditional Firefox and the Firefox Snap simultaneously - this can lead to problems!
2. Also the Plasma Panel can get a bit confused when icons of the Firefoxes are present - this has no impact on the browsers' functionality, when in doubt just use the application menu to start the "traditional" Firefox (called "Firefox from Mozilla.org") or the Firefox Snap when both are installed.

Both 1. and 2. have nothing to do with the specific way how this script installs the "traditional" Firefox - this will also happen if you install it e.g. from a repository or a PPA and use it complementary to the Snap version.
You can also remove the "traditional" Firefox from /opt again with this script if you want to.

For questions regarding other themes and icons:
Know that Firefox like e.g. also GIMP (no matter if Snap, Flatpak, installed by this script, or …) is a GTK application - in contrary to all KDE programs being Qt applications. This matters when modifying e.g. their looks.

And no: this script does not install another Snap - it downloads the official Firefox .tar from the Mozilla website, decompresses it and installs it to /opt , including e.g. the appropriate .desktop file et al.
See the comments within the script itself and also see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...mozilla-builds. and https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox#From_Mozilla_binaries.

A problem with using an external repository or a PPA for Firefox is that Canonical/Kubuntu (22.04 and later) installs a "fake" Firefox to /usr/bin when trying to install it with apt (to "secretely" install the Firefox Snap instead) - and that can lead to additional problems in *Ubuntu (in contrary to using the way this script/the official instructions from Mozilla do it) if you don't additionally block/de-prioritise this "fake" package by APT pinning in /etc/apt/preferences.d . The latter blocking can cause trouble when release-upgrading to the next Kubuntu version for example (the reinstall Snap for release-upgrade script tries to solve those problems if you used APT pinning, by the way).

[suplero]

Just tested the install script, but without removing snap version. Is that a problem? Also the mozilla version is not taking on the characteristics of the desktop or the behaviors. I install the plastik window icons, but the script install fiefox does not take these on (the install for 22.04 did/does), and raising and lowering the window with the border clicks does not work either.

The kubuntu default snap version does not obey the plastik icon theme or the raise and lower commands either.

Both obey the "focus follows mouse" option.

Settings: Breeze global theme, Oxygen window theme, plastik icon theme, focus follows mouse (mouse precedent), focus stealing Low, left click on border of active window is raise, right click on border of active window is lower.

All KDE default applications obey all the settings.

Does this script install another snap? There was a repo for 22.04 that was used to just do the apt install firefox command, with no script. Is this different in 24.04?

thanks

[Schwarzer Kater]

Re-tested dozens of times with Kubuntu 24.04 LTS (development branch, Beta and final release): works.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Now the script can (finally ) remove the traditional Firefox from /opt, if it has been installed by this script before.
Plain error handling for e.g. a bad connection or a missing particular language version has also been added…

[Schwarzer Kater]

I updated the script - it now does not support the Mozilla Team PPA any longer!

This version has been prepared and pretested for Kubuntu 24.04 LTS - I will keep testing it until the official release of 24.04, of course.

[Schwarzer Kater]

During the past days I have tested the script with Kubuntu 23.10 and with upgrades from Kubuntu 22.04 -> 23.04 -> 23.10 both on "bare metal" and in virtual machines.
Works.

[GreyGeek]

The bash foo is strong in this one!
~Yoda