Instaling Firefox and is it going to are repos soon?

[Nomad]

Has anyone successfully managed to install Firefox on there Librem laptop? I enjoy the Purism Browser but there seems to be problems with installing themes and Firefox apps on a consistent basis. It gets a little frustrating. I understand Purism browser just gets security updates. Is Purism planning to have Firefox in its repo soon now that is gone stable? I appreciate any info or help.

[pfm]

Yep, I prefer straight up Firefox too. Ended up simply downloading it from the website and installing it by hand. Saw that Debian repos are also not really a thing, however, the manual installation works great, checks for available updates by itself, and is full Firefox with the newest features.

[Richard]

Won’t be added to the repos from what I understand but there is a topic already for how to install Firefox manually in PureOS:

Installing firefox

Relying on repos more for software installation with other distros, I found firefox installation a little confusing. I figured the following info consolidated from debian wiki and other forum posts might be useful for installing firefox. Download package from: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-US Extract into /opt such that the firefox executable is located at /opt/firefox/firefox Symlink from usr/local/bin: ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/local/bin/f…

[gondolyr]

I have encountered some incompatibility issues using Firefox Sync between PureBrowser and Firefox so I have opted to have both available.

If you’re willing to install Firefox manually, I have provided step-by-step instructions below but Mozilla has instructions on how to do this as well:

Installing Firefox on PureOS

This should generally work on the other Linux distributions, though this will be tailored for PureOS.

As a rule of thumb, don’t copy-and-paste any commands shown here or any web page; type them out manually because unexpected and dangerous code could be copied into the clipboard.

Download Firefox

Download the tar.bz2 file from the Firefox download page.

Alternatively, open up a terminal window and enter the following:

wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/70.0.1/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-70.0.1.tar.bz2

Replace 70.0.1 with the version you prefer to download.

Unpack Firefox

1. Open a terminal window, if one isn’t already opened, and navigate to the location where the compressed file was downloaded. Usually it’s in ~/Downloads by default.

$ cd ~/Downloads

2. Unpack the file

tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2

Move Firefox

If Firefox files are stored on your home directory, then only you can run this manually installed Firefox browser, so in order for other users to run it, move it to /opt/ directory.

Using the mv command

sudo mv firefox/ /opt/

Create a symbolic link

Create a symbolic link so that you can run Firefox from anywhere inside a terminal window.

sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Add a Desktop entry

For your application launcher, creating a .desktop file is necessary so it can find Firefox.

1. I copied the existing PureBrowser .desktop file for convenience:

cp /usr/share/applications/purebrowser.desktop /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

2. Using your preferred text editor, modify the firefox.desktop file to have all of the places that say “PureBrowser” replaced with “Mozilla Firefox”. The text editor will need to have elevated privileges using sudo.

For reference, this is the firefox.desktop file I have:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Mozilla Firefox
Name[bg]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[ca]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[cs]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[el]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[es]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[fa]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[fi]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[fr]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[hu]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[it]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[ja]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[ko]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[nb]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[nl]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[nn]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[no]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[pl]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[pt]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[pt_BR]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[ru]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[sk]=Mozilla Firefox
Name[sv]=Mozilla Firefox
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
Comment[bg]=Сърфиране в Мрежата
Comment[ca]=Navegueu per el web
Comment[cs]=Prohlížení stránek World Wide Webu
Comment[de]=Im Internet surfen
Comment[el]=Περιηγηθείτε στον παγκόσμιο ιστό
Comment[es]=Navegue por la web
Comment[fa]=صفحات شبکه جهانی اینترنت را مرور نمایید
Comment[fi]=Selaa Internetin WWW-sivuja
Comment[fr]=Navigue sur Internet
Comment[hu]=A világháló böngészése
Comment[it]=Esplora il web
Comment[ja]=ウェブを閲覧します
Comment[ko]=웹을 돌아 다닙니다
Comment[nb]=Surf på nettet
Comment[nl]=Verken het internet
Comment[nn]=Surf på nettet
Comment[no]=Surf på nettet
Comment[pl]=Przeglądanie stron WWW
Comment[pt]=Navegue na Internet
Comment[pt_BR]=Navegue na Internet
Comment[ru]=Обозреватель Всемирной Паутины
Comment[sk]=Prehliadanie internetu
Comment[sv]=Surfa på webben
GenericName=Web Browser
GenericName[bg]=Интернет браузър
GenericName[ca]=Navegador web
GenericName[cs]=Webový prohlížeč
GenericName[de]=Webbrowser
GenericName[el]=Περιηγητής ιστού
GenericName[es]=Navegador web
GenericName[fa]=مرورگر اینترنتی
GenericName[fi]=WWW-selain
GenericName[fr]=Navigateur Web
GenericName[hu]=Webböngésző
GenericName[it]=Browser Web
GenericName[ja]=ウェブ・ブラウザ
GenericName[ko]=웹 브라우저
GenericName[nb]=Nettleser
GenericName[nl]=Webbrowser
GenericName[nn]=Nettlesar
GenericName[no]=Nettleser
GenericName[pl]=Przeglądarka WWW
GenericName[pt]=Navegador Web
GenericName[pt_BR]=Navegador Web
GenericName[ru]=Интернет-браузер
GenericName[sk]=Internetový prehliadač
GenericName[sv]=Webbläsare
X-GNOME-FullName=Firefox Web Browser
X-GNOME-FullName[bg]=Интернет браузър (Firefox)
X-GNOME-FullName[ca]=Navegador web Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[cs]=Firefox Webový prohlížeč
X-GNOME-FullName[el]=Περιηγήτης Ιστού Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[es]=Navegador web Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[fa]=مرورگر اینترنتی Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[fi]=Firefox-selain
X-GNOME-FullName[fr]=Navigateur Web Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[hu]=Firefox webböngésző
X-GNOME-FullName[it]=Firefox Browser Web
X-GNOME-FullName[ja]=Firefox ウェブ・ブラウザ
X-GNOME-FullName[ko]=Firefox 웹 브라우저
X-GNOME-FullName[nb]=Firefox Nettleser
X-GNOME-FullName[nl]=Firefox webbrowser
X-GNOME-FullName[nn]=Firefox Nettlesar
X-GNOME-FullName[no]=Firefox Nettleser
X-GNOME-FullName[pl]=Przeglądarka WWW Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[pt]=Firefox Navegador Web
X-GNOME-FullName[pt_BR]=Navegador Web Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[ru]=Интернет-браузер Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[sk]=Internetový prehliadač Firefox
X-GNOME-FullName[sv]=Webbläsaren Firefox
Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupWMClass=Firefox
StartupNotify=true

Summary

Firefox is now installed on PureOS alongside PureBrowser.

Below are the terminal commands in a single code block:

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/70.0.1/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-70.0.1.tar.bz2
tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2
sudo mv firefox/ /opt/
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
cp /usr/share/applications/purebrowser.desktop /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
# Not listed above and not the only text editor you could use.
sudo nano /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

[ursiform]

Thanks for posting these very detailed instructions! I followed them and it worked great!