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squallbayu
Asked: 2010-11-08 06:44:09 +0800 CST

Why does removing Firefox install another browser?

  • 772

I want to remove Firefox (with sudo apt-get purge firefox*) but without installing the Epiphany browser. How can I do this?

I want to remove Firefox because I want to use Google Chrome as my default and only web browser.

package-management uninstall firefox dependencies google-chrome

7 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If uninstalling firefox installs epiphany, then that's because some other package depends on "a web browser", which packages do by depending on the virtual package www-browser. If the google-chrome package doesn't have a Provides: www-browser line, and you have no other browser installed, APT thinks it needs to install a package that does provide a www-browser and then Epiphany is the first choice on a GNOME system.

    I downloaded one of the Google Chrome .deb files and I can confirm that they don't provide www-browser. If you want to get this fixed you need to file a bug report with Google and tell them to fix their .deb packages.

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  2. Removing Firefox does not install or uninstall epiphany-browser. I couldn't reproduce your problem, but there is no need for adding a wildcard after firefox in your command.

    Instead of using:

    sudo apt-get purge firefox*

    Use:

    sudo apt-get purge firefox

    This command will take care of removing all Firefox packages. If you are still having troubles, then please post the terminal output when you try to remove Firefox, so we can see which packages are being removed.

    BTW, the purge command has the same effect as remove, since Firefox does not store any config files in /etc. If you want to remove personal Firefox settings, you need to manually remove the folder ~/.mozilla/firefox

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  3. To make Google Chrome your default browser, run Google Chrome, open up Preferences and then under the tab "Basics" you'll find "Make Google Chrome my default browser". Click that button.

    You don't need to uninstall Firefox.

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  4. For those who will find this old question:

    It happens due to installed mozplugger, and it continues to happen nowadays in particular, mozplugger depends of one of these:

    iceweasel | iceape-browser | firefox | abrowser | galeon | rekonq | konqueror | opera | epiphany | chromium (>> 10.0.64-8.114~r75702-1~) | chromium-browser | xulrunner-1.9 | xulrunner-1.9.1 | xulrunner-1.9.2 | xulrunner-2.0

    This list did not change for many years.

    So if one uninstalls the only installed browser from this list, apt-get would try to install another.

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  5. If you want to remove,do it by:

    sudo apt autoremove firefox
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  6. Full remove, including configurations files: sudo apt-get --purge autoremove firefox

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  7. Full remove = sudo apt-get purge firefox (delete the preferences too)

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