Home / ubuntu / Questions / 217929
In Process
dunderhead
Asked: 2012-11-16 23:13:22 +0800 CST

How to install vanilla version of Firefox on Ubuntu?

  • 772

I get daily crashes with Firefox on Ubuntu. Almost every time I start Ubuntu and then try to launch Firefox, it causes X to crash out immediately. Sometimes I have to log in three or four times before Firefox actually loads. These crashes are obviously causing me to lose any work I haven't saved in other apps. As you can imagine, that is a tad frustrating.

I suspect the crashes might be something to do with the Flash side of things because sometimes when I try to visit a website with Flash content such as bbc iplayer, the dreaded black screen of death appears instantly.

I know that Ubuntu makes modifications to Mozilla's version of Firefox, so I wondered if I could try running a plain Mozilla version of Firefox without modifications to see if that would work. Could anyone tell me how to achieve this?

firefox

2 Answers

  1. Most likely crashes are caused by plugins, you can try to disable unnecessary plugins.

    Try to use flash block plugins to disable Flashes (click to play any flash, in my case, I don't even install Flash for Firefox, I use Chrome's built-in flash module anyway...).

    Vanilla version won't really help.

    I would recommend backing up your firefox profile

    ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default

    Use profile manager to create a new profile and start with that one (you can still switch back and forth)

    firefox -profilemanager

    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

    If you want to have vanilla Firefox binaries (I don't think it'll help), download from: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/16.0.2/linux-x86_64/en-US/

    untar firefox-16.0.2.tar.bz2 to your preferred folder, for example:

    cd /opt && tar axvf firefox-16.0.2.tar.bz2

    Use ./firefox to start the vanilla Firefox.

    • 3

  2. This might happen due to a lot of reasons. Below, are the things you should try:

    • Download the latest Firefox from the Firefox website. Or atleast make sure that your Firefox version is same as that mentioned on the website.

    • Disable all the plugins. There might be some plugins that are causing the crashes. It happened to me once, and disabling the plugins worked.

      • Disable them by going to Tools > Add-ons.

      • Then, try enabling them one by one, and notice which one causes the crash.

      • Once you've found the notorious one, disable or better remove it. You can also try updating the plugin, if there is a newer version available.

    • Update all the plugins.

      • Go to Tools > Add-ons.

      • Press the settings button, and make sure Update add-ons automatically is checked.

    enter image description here

    • 1