Pinning Help....Please

[GregM]

Trying to pin my Firefox 55.0b9 version in Kubuntu 16.04 and it would be less scary if someone could check my syntax before I try it.

This is in reference to the instructions on pinning given in the article HERE

If I am thinking correctly about this I would just copy and paste each of these 3 steps in to the terminal...yes?

Step 1

APT:efault-Release "xenial";

Step 2

# official ubuntu sites
#### testing #########
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial main restricted universe multiverse
#### development #########
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial main restricted universe multiverse

Step 3

Package: firefox-55.0b9
Pin: release n=xenial
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: firefox-55.0b9
Pin: release n=xenial
Pin-Priority: 900

Help?

Thanks

[chimak111]

First, please post the output of

apt policy firefox

[GregM]

Here you go...but this is very strange.
I have downloaded FF55 and changed the panel icon so it starts 55 and not 45.
I guess if I could actually install 55 instead of just starting it, it would show a different result, but I'm not sure how to do that.

greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$ apt policy firefox
firefox:
Installed: 45.0.2+build1-0ubuntu1
Candidate: 45.0.2+build1-0ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 45.0.2+build1-0ubuntu1 500
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[chimak111]

AFAICT, pinning will only work for software installed via the system. It probably won't work for software downloaded as a tar file.

Where did you get Firefox 55 from?

[chimak111]

At one time, when there was some issue with the google-chrome ppa holding up the apt-get update process, I used to prevent google-chrome from updating with

echo "google-chrome-stable hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

and then to allow it to update, I would run

echo "google-chrome-stable install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

[GregM]

AFAICT, pinning will only work for software installed via the system. It probably won't work for software downloaded as a tar file.

Where did you get Firefox 55 from?

From the mozilla download page
http://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/

Now I'm paranoid to do my weekly

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

for fear of updating FF to whatever the current version is (58?)

[chimak111]

apt-get wont't "see" your Firefox and so running update and dist-upgrade shouldn't affect your Firefox.

What about Bing's advice?

FYI, I'm pretty satisfied with Firefox 58.

[GregM]

I did try that but every time I started FF from my panel it started 45 instead of 55 even though 55 was there.
I wound up changing some of the entrees on the start icon so it started 55 instead of 45 and it works, but I get the terminal result I pasted from the commend you suggest (45 not 55)

[claydoh]

If you have Muon package manager (not Discover), you can view different package versions available, and lock a particular one, all from the GUI. Right-click on the package, and you will see the option there

[chimak111]

Please post the output of

locate firefox-bin

[GregM]

greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$ locate firefox-bin
/home/greg/FixingFF/53/firefox/firefox-bin
/home/greg/FixingFF/55/firefox/firefox-bin
greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$ ^C
greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$

I created a subdirectory that I called FixingFF and put my downloads from mozilla in there and extracted them there.

That's where my quick start icons start from... "55" and "53" are different versions of FF

[chimak111]

So these are locally installed versions of Firefox. I pretty confident you can't pin them using the link you provided in the first post of this thread.

Bing's advice to you which I linked to earlier maybe the only way.

[GregM]

I tried to do what Bing suggested but maybe I screwed it up.
It's just that every time I tried to start what I hoped was FF55, 45 would start.
Probably those terminal inputs that you suggested told you what is where and what is installed and so on.
Wish I knew more about it.

[chimak111]

I think that what we're talking about now has nothing to do with pinning as the term is used in Linux.

The other point is that you seem to have two versions of Firefox, 53 and 55, but probably just one profile. That can lead to your browser getting a bit confused if you switch between versions.

ls ~/.mozilla/firefox

will tell you how many profiles are present.

Re. version 45, from what you've posted, it doesn't appear to be installed on your system.

[GregM]

Here's the result

greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$ ls ~/.mozilla/firefox
Crash Reports ibf0en2f.default Pending Pings profiles.ini r8uw1dh2.default
greg@greg-OptiPlex-990:~$

I have no idea what this means