The pre-installed Firefox Snap package in Ubuntu 22.04 & 22.10 now works again for native messaging support. Meaning user can now make it work with GSConnect, KeePassXC, Plasma extension, and/or installing Gnome Shell Extensions,
As you may know, Ubuntu switched to the Snap version of Firefox that runs in sandbox since 21.10. Which, however broke the feature to exchange messages with native applications.
Thanks to Flatpak team for working on a new WebExtensions XDG desktop portal and its integration in Firefox. The new native messaging feature is available for testing for a few months in beta channel. And, it’s made int stable channel just a few days ago.
Firefox as Snap
How to Get it
If you’re now using Firefox as Snap, just wait it will automatically update to the latest version with the new feature. Or, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard and run command:
sudo snap refresh firefox --stable
And install the XDG desktop portal package by running command in terminal. Also install chrome-gnome-shell if you want to use Firefox to install Gnome shell extensions.
For switching from Firefox .deb package back to Snap, just remove PPA priority file (if any) under ‘/etc/apt/preferences.d/’ directory, then run the command below in terminal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install firefox
Finally launch Firefox, install or visit the page that need native message exchange. It will pop-up a dialog asks user to grant the permission.
Mozilla Firefox 101 was released today with minor new features and security fixes.
If you do video conferencing regularly with Firefox web browser, you may now use as many microphones as you want, at the same time. It allows to switch your microphones at any time, if your conferencing service provider enables this flexibility.
For non-configured MIME file types, Firefox 101 allows to assign a custom action upon download completion.
Allow sites to detect if user has requested web content present with a higher (or lower) contrast.
New inspector panel option ‘Click and drag to edit size values’.
WebDriver BiDi protocal.
Add support for large, small, dynamic viewport units and logical ones (*vi and *vb).
Various security fixes.
How to Get Firefox 101:
Ubuntu keeps updating the Firefox packages through its security & updates repository. Simply keep your system up-to-date, you’ll get this Firefox release soon in next few days.
For Ubuntu 22.04 user prefer .deb package, as well as the old Ubuntu 16.04, keep an eye on the MozillaTeam PPA.
Mozilla Firefox has reached its 100th release! It has been more than 17 years since the first 1.0 was released in 2004.
Firefox 100 now supports for displaying subtitles in the pop-out video (Picture-in-Picture mode) for YouTube, Prime Video, and Netflix videos. Also, it supports video captions on websites that use WebVTT (Web Video Text Track) format, like Coursera.org, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and many more.
For macOS 11 with HDR-compatible screens, users can now enjoy HDR video on YouTube out-of-the-box, though you have NOT to enable “optimize video streaming while on battery”.
For Windows, hardware accelerated AV1 video decoding is enabled for support GPUs, including Intel Gen 11+, AMD RDNA 2 Excluding Navi 24, GeForce 30. Though, AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store is required.
Other changes in Firefox 100 include:
Detect and offer choice if Firefox does not match system language on first run.
Add multiple languages support for spell checking.
Enable video overlay to reduce power usage for Windows user with Intel GPU.
Support credit card autofill and capture in the United Kingdom.
Ignore less restricted referrer policies
Choose preferred color schemes for websites.
Support for profiling multiple java threads
Add Geckoview APIs
Get Firefox 100:
For the release note as well as download link, go to Mozilla web site:
Ubuntu 22.04 finally removed the .deb package for Firefox web browser from it’s repository! Here’s how to install it back.
As you may know, Firefox in Ubuntu 22.04 is a Snap package that runs in sandbox. It’s easy to remove it. But when you try installing the deb package via apt, it just install the Snap version back!!
Like Chromium, the Firefox deb in Ubuntu 22.04 is an empty package that links to the Mozilla’s official Snap.
Ways to get Firefox in Ubuntu as deb:
Snap is OK. But when you trying to install Gnome Extensions, the browser doesn’t work at the moment! So, you need workarounds:
Firefox Linux tarball from Mozilla website
Firefox ESR PPA.
Firefox PPA.
Ubuntuzilla repository
The Linux tarball is a good choice, but it lacks desktop shortcut integration. And you have to manually download the latest package every time a new release is out!
Ubuntuzilla apt repository is another choice. Ubuntu refers to this repository many years ago when it was not updating Firefox package itself.
I prefer Ubuntu PPA via launchpad.net a bit more, and the “Mozilla Team” team PPA is what I’m going to introduce in this tuturial.
Install Firefox via “Mozilla Team” team PPA
The team described that it has assumed responsibility for Ubuntu’s official Firefox and Thunderbird packages.
And, the Firefox and Firefox ESR package maintainer for “Mozilla Team” team PPA, Rico Tzschichholz, is a well-known Ubuntu user who also maintains the official pakages for LibreOffice, Plank dock, and unbound DNS server.
1. Remove Firefox Snap
It’s OK to keep the default Snap package. But it will cause duplicated icons in search results.
NOTE: Export bookmarks and backup other important data before removing it!
To remove it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run the command:
sudo snap remove firefox
Also, remove the empty Deb package by running command:
sudo apt remove firefox
2. Add Mozilla Team PPA
In terminal, run the command below to add the PPA. Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
As the PPA description indicates, the PPA was previously created for Firefox ESR and Thunderbird. It now contains the latest Firefox too.
3. Set PPA priority:
The empty Firefox deb in Ubuntu’s official repository has version number 1:1snap1-0ubuntu2. It’s always higher than the PPA package version. Running package updates either via sudo apt upgrade or ‘Software Updater’ will automatically install the official one which redirects to Snap.
To workaround the issue, you have to set a higher PPA priority. To do so, run the command below in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozillateamppa
The command creates and opens empty config file in Gedit text editor. When it opens, add the lines below and save it:
After saving the file, run sudo apt update command in terminal to apply changes.
sudo apt update
4. Install Firefox via apt
Tip: the commands in this step also installs Firefox for the old Ubuntu 16.04. Though sudo apt update need to be run first.
Finally, run the command below to install the latest Firefox package as deb:
sudo apt install firefox
Here -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' specifies to install Firefox from that PPA. It’s required until you set higher PPA package priority (see next step).
The -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' flag is no longer required after setup PPA priority.
For choice, you may install Firefox ESR instead. It’s another official Firefox package that moves slowly and targets for school or enterprise use.
sudo apt install firefox-esr
How to Restore Firefox Snap:
Just remove the Mozilla Team PPA using ‘Software & Updates‘ utility under Other Software tab.
After that, either launch Software Updater to upgrade Firefox or use apt command below. Both of which will automatically install back the pre-installed Snap package.
Mozilla Firefox web browser 97.0 was released a day ago with few new features and various bug-fixes.
The release does not include any exciting new features for Linux, but only adds new minimal overlay scrollbar support for Windows 11. As well, system font loading on macOS has been improved to make opening and switching to new tabs faster in certain situations.
Other changes in Firefox 97 include:
The 18 colorway themes introduced in Firefox 94 expires! Though, enabled colorway will persist in add-on manager forever.
Remove support for directly generating PostScript for printing on Linux. However, printing to PostScript printers still remains a supported option
Various security fixes and new policies implemented in Enterprise 97.
colorways has gone
How to Install Firefox 97 in Ubuntu Linux:
For Ubuntu 21.10+ using the pre-installed Firefox as Snap, it updates automatically and user should now have v97.0.
For those using the classic .deb version, the best choice is wait! The official Ubuntu build will be available in next few days. At that time, open “Software Updater” to upgrade the Firefox package.
Firefox website also provides official Linux package via a portable tarball. Extract and run the executable file within the tarball will launch the web browser without installation:
