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stumblebee
Asked: 2024-10-30 08:40:56 +0800 CST

How do I pin apt version of Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04?

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I followed the instructions on Mozilla support website:

Install Firefox .deb package for Debian-based distributions (Recommended)

To install the .deb package through the APT repository, do the following:

  1. Create a directory to store APT repository keys if it doesn't exist:

    sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings

  2. Import the Mozilla APT repository signing key:

    wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null

    If you do not have wget installed, you can install it with: sudo apt-get install wget

  3. The fingerprint should be 35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3. You may check it with the following command:

    gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc | awk '/pub/{getline; gsub(/^ +| +$/,""); if($0 == "35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3") print "\nThe key fingerprint matches ("$0").\n"; else print "\nVerification failed: the fingerprint ("$0") does not match the expected one.\n"}'

  4. Next, add the Mozilla APT repository to your sources list:

    echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null

  5. Configure APT to prioritize packages from the Mozilla repository:

    echo '
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

  6. Update your package list, and install the Firefox .deb package:

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox

So now I have:

$ apt list --installed | grep firefox
firefox/mozilla,now 132.0~build1 amd64 [installed]

$ snap list | grep firefox
firefox                    131.0.2-1                    5091   latest/stable
mozilla**         -

I don't mind having both apt and snap versions installed on my system. The problem is the apt version gets uninstalled when a software update is done even though the "Configure APT to prioritize packages from the Mozilla repository" step was done.

How do I stop the apt version being uninstalled and replaced by snap from software updates?

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Try simultaneously lowering the priority of the Ubuntu package.

    echo '
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -1
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla
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