Score:5

Can't find a PPA to install Firefox-ESR 91 on Ubuntu 20.04

us flag

I want to install Ubuntu 20.04 on the old Notebook of my parents because the Support for Windows 7 ended and the machine is to slow for Windows 8 or 10 - and my knowledge ends with Windows 7. I have to keep thinks easy for them, too much updates and missing language support (whats normal with every new Firefox version) is a problem. But i can't find a PPA for Firefox-ESR 91. Is it enough to install the "normal" 91 and disable updates for 92 and newer versions? What Updates are disabled then: only from 91 to 92 or ALL Updates (from 91.0 to 91.1)?

us flag
I don't know if here is such a PPA. You can enable only security updates, so that there won't be too many updates. Alternatively you can disable automatic updates altogether, and run updates periodically. Also, if you install Firefox ESR and don't update the ESR version, security wise that is not much different from using a non-ESR version which is not updated, as neither would receive security patches. Also, in case the machine is slow for regular Ubuntu, you can switch to a lighter variant like Xubuntu.
raj avatar
cn flag
raj
Why exactly do you want to install ESR and not the regular Firefox version and why do you want to disable updates? From my experience, Firefox is updated always together with its installed language packs, no problem with this at all.
tim.t avatar
us flag
my parents are 70+ and they don't speak english. the language pack is not updated together with firefox.
raj avatar
cn flag
raj
By default, Firefox is installed in Ubuntu as two or three packages: `firefox`, `firefox-locale-en` and `firefox-locale-XX` where XX is the language you selected during Ubuntu installation (if other than English). These all two or three packages are always updated together. I never experienced that the language packs were not updated. Maybe you don't have the proper packages installed; check with `dpkg-query --list | grep firefox`.
Score:4
zw flag

For old notebook you can consider Ubuntu MATE 20.04.4 LTS from https://ubuntu-mate.org/ . Having 4 Gb or greater RAM is recommended for comfortable work.

Modern Firefox versions are fast, but you can install ESR if you like it.

Currently Firefox ESR 91 is in “Mozilla Team” team's Firefox ESR and Thunderbird stable builds PPA, then install using commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-esr

with needed locales like sudo apt-get install firefox-esr-locale-it for Italian (see full list in package details.)

Depending on your needs you can have both firefox and firefox-esr installed, or remove firefox package to use firefox-esr instead.

Note: alternative third-party repository is UbuntuZilla, it provides ESR 91 too.

tim.t avatar
us flag
thats what i found. it seems this will never happen. FF91 was released a few weeks ago and its not in the PPA.
br flag
With Firefox ESR 78 being EOL now, ESR 91 is now available in the aformentioned PPA
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
Thanks, updated answer to reflect current status.
Score:0
us flag

Installing firefox-esr from Mozilla binaries

start the terminal and then

wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/91.1.0esr/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-91.1.0esr.tar.bz2
sudo tar -xf firefox-91.1.0esr.tar.bz2 --directory /opt
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox-esr

sudo su and create a file firefox-esr.desktop

cat << EOF > /usr/share/applications/firefox-esr.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Firefox ESR
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer;
Exec=firefox-esr %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default64.png
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;text/mml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;

[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=firefox-esr -new-window

[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=Open a New Private Window
Exec=firefox-esr -private-window
EOF

If you want to use your manually installed Firefox-esr as the default Alternatives browser (x-www-browser), run

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-www-browser x-www-browser /usr/bin/firefox-esr 200 && sudo update-alternatives --set x-www-browser /usr/bin/firefox-esr

Versions in other languages at the link

https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/91.1.0esr/linux-x86_64/
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
How do you plan to allow its self-upgrades?
Johan Palych avatar
us flag
After the release of the new version - delete the old one: sudo rm -rf /opt/firefox. Then, by installation, download the new version via wget and unpack it via sudo tar -xf
Score:-1
us flag

Installing snap on Ubuntu

snapd can be installed from the command line(terminal):

  1. sudo apt update
  2. sudo apt install snapd
  3. VERSION firefox 91.2.0esr-1
  4. sudo snap install firefox --channel=esr/candidate
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
How and where should I enter "VERSION firefox 91.2.0esr-1"? Recommending Snap on low-performance hardware is not useful. How do you plan to solve locale/languagepack installation problem?
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