Mozilla announced new 122.0 release for its free open-source Firefox web browser this Tuesday!
This is a new monthly release that include minor new features. For Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and their based systems, Firefox now provides official .deb packages through an apt repository.
Meaning now, there are 5 official ways to install Firefox in Ubuntu Linux:
Besides providing .deb package for the Stable release, the apt repository also includes the packages for Beta, Nightly, and Dev versions of the popular web browser. Continue Reading…
For Chromium user, the popular web browser is finally to allow VA-API hardware decoding for video playback in Linux Wayland.
Chromium so far does NOT officially support VA-API Video Acceleration API on Linux. However, there are experimental flags to enable this feature, which might work on certain configurations, but without guarantees (See the official Docs).
This experimental feature however does not work in Linux with Wayland session. Meaning the most recent Ubuntu, Fedora, & other Linux with GNOME Desktop.
VaapiWrapper has been updated to remove the usage of libva-x11 and the legacy VaapiVideoDecodeAccelerator, in favor of libva-drm only. This means now Linux Ozone/Wayland can share the same code path as Linux Ozone/X11. See CL:4938496.
This CL removes the remaining libva-x11 codes from Ozone and VaapiWrapper, and allows VA-API by default on Linux Ozone/Wayland.
Firefox web browser announced the new monthly 121.0 release this Tuesday!
For Linux, the release finally default to Wayland session when available, meaning for Ubuntu 22.04 and higher (exclude Snap), Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with recent GNOME Desktop.
With Wayland, it has better support for touchscreen & touchpad.
User can use 2-finger swipe left/right to navigate forward and backward, and 2-finger pinch gesture to zoom in/out. It as well has per-monitor DPI settings, better graphics performance, and more.
Besides Wayland for Linux, Firefox 121.0 also adds Voice Control commands support on macOS systems, and prompts Windows users to install the Microsoft AV1 Video Extension to enable hardware decoding support.
Other features in Firefox 121.0 include:
Option to force links to always be underlined
New PDF viewer floating button to simplify deleting drawings, text, and images.
Option to disable the debugger; keyword on the current page.
Support :has() selector, the hanging and each-line keywords, balance keyword, lazy loading iframes.
tail call elimination support in WebAssembly language
Various security fixes.
How to Get Firefox 121.0
Most Linux that pre-installs Firefox, will build the latest package soon and publish into system repositories.
For Ubuntu, the snap package has been updated to v121.0. It should update to the new release automatically.
If NOT, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to do the update manually.
snap refresh firefox
For the portable Linux tarball, as well as the official release note, go to the link below:
This simple tutorial shows how to install Firefox Beta, Firefox Developer Edition, or Firefox Nightly in Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, using the new official repository.
Mozilla announced new official apt repository for Debian and Ubuntu users few months ago, which contains the .deb package for Firefox Nightly build.
Now, the repository also contains packages for Firefox Beta and Firefox Developer Edition! And, here’s step by step guide shows how to use it to install the latest packages in your system.
NOTE 1: Ubuntu also has an official PPA contains Firefox Beta package. Though, it’s maintained by members from Ubuntu Team.
NOTE 2: This tutorial is tested and works in Debian 12, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.
Step 1: Install the Repository Key
To add the new repository, you need to first download & install the key, so your system will trust the packages from it.
First, open terminal either from start menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.
When terminal opens, run command to make sure ‘/etc/apt/keyrings’ exist for storing the keys.
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
Then, download & install the key by running the single command below in terminal:
wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null
If ‘wget’ command not found, run sudo apt install wget to install it.
After that, you can verify the new key file by listing the content of that directory: ls /etc/apt/keyrings.
Step 2: Add Mozilla’s Official Repository
Also in a terminal window, run the single command below will create a config file and write the source repository.
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null
When done, you may verify by running cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list to print the source file content.
Step 3: Install Firefox Stable, Beta, Dev, or Nightly
After adding the apt repository and key, run the command below to refresh system package cache:
sudo apt update
Finally, install Firefox Beta by running command:
sudo apt install firefox-beta
The repository also contains Firefox Stable, Development, and Nightly versions! Replace firebox-beta in last command with firefox, firefox-devedition, or firefox-nightly according which version you want to install. For STABLE version, you however NEED to set higher PPA priority.
Non-English user may also install the language package by running command:
sudo apt install firefox-beta-l10n-xx
Replace xx with the shortcode for your language. Also, replace beta for dev or nightly version accordingly.
Step 4: (Optional) Change the App Name to Differ from Firefox Stable
The new Firefox Beta uses same logo to Firefox Stable, and it also displayed as “Firefox” in start menu.
If you have more than one edition of Firefox packages in system, then you may have to differ them from each other by changing the name.
To do so, first launch terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to copy the .desktop config file from system to local directory:
This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install LibreWolf web browser in Ubuntu and its based systems.
LibreWolf is a free and open-source web browser fork from Firefox. The browser focuses on privacy and security, and has uBlocker ad blocker out-of-the-box.
The browser website has an official guide for installing in on Debian and Ubuntu based systems. This tutorial is just a re-write with screenshots and more explanations.
NOTE: This tutorial only works on x86_64 system for modern Intel/AMD CPU architecture types.
Step 1: Install the Key
Adding 3rd party repository in Debian/Ubuntu system needs to first install the key, so your system will trust the packages from that repository.
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command:
This command will download the key file via wget command line tool, dearmor it so the key will be un-readable, finally save it to /etc/apt/keyrings directory.
You may verify the key by running cat /etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg. And, it should output unreadable text, like the screenshot below shows you.
Step 2: Add LibreWolf Repository
LibreWolf repository so far supports Debian 11/12, Ubuntu 20.04 & 22.04, Linux Mint 20.3, 21.1, 21.2, and all their based systems. It also works in Ubuntu 23.04/23.10 by using the package for 22.04.
1. Get your system code-name
First, run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to get the code-name of your system:
lsb_release -sc
The code-name MUST be one of una, bookworm, vanessa, focal, jammy, bullseye, vera, or uma. If NOT, then run command:
cat /etc/os-release
This command will output which version of Ubuntu (and its code-name) is based on.
2. Add LibreWolf repository
Once you got the code-name, run the command below in terminal to create & edit source file:
Replace gedit in command with gnome-text-editor for Ubuntu 24.04, xed for Cinnamon, pluma for MATE, mousepad for XFCE, or nano command line text editor that works in most desktop environment.
When the file opens, paste the line below and save it:
Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.librewolf.net
Suites: jammy
Components: main
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg
Here you need to replace jammy with the code-name you got in last step. For Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) and 23.10 (Mantic), just use jammy which is working good in my case.
Finally save the file. For nano text editor, press Ctrl+S to save, then Ctrl+X to exit.
Step 3: Install LibreWolf web browser
After adding the repository and key, run the command below in terminal to refresh your system package cache:
sudo apt update
Finally, install the browser via command:
sudo apt install librewolf
Once successfully installed the package, search for and launch it from start/application menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.
And, when a newer version of the browser package is released, just use Software Updater (Update Manager) to update it:
future version of LibreWolf available in Update Manager
Set LibreWolf as default web browser
For the default GNOME Desktop, open Settings (Gnome Control Center), then navigate to Default Applications in left pane. Finally, select “LibreWolf” from the drop-down box for Web.
For GNOME 46 (Ubuntu 24.04), Default Applications has been moved to “Apps” settings page.
Other desktops may have their own option to do the job. If you don’t know where to find the option, try editing the config file that works in most desktop environments. To do so:
First, open file manager and press Ctrl+H to show all hidden files and folders.
Navigate to .config sub-folder and click edit mimeapps.list file.
Finally, set librewolf.desktop for text/html, x-scheme-handler/http, x-scheme-handler/https and save file.
How to Remove LibreWolf Web Browser
To remove the web browser, also open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo apt remove librewolf --autoremove
Also remove the Key file as well as source repository by running commands in terminal one by one:
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources
sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg
And, refresh system package cache after making changes to package sources.
This simple tutorial shows how to install the Waterfox web browser from its official tarball & create app shortcut in Ubuntu Linux.
Waterfox is a free open-source fork of Firefox, claims to be ethical and user-centric, emphasizing performance and privacy.
The browser provides official Linux package through the portable tarball package, though a community maintained Flatpak package is also available to run it in sandbox.
Step 1: Download Waterfox Tarball
To download the package, simply go to its website via the link button below and click the “Download” button:
Once you got the package, just extract it, and run the executable file (waterfox or waterfox-bin) in the new generated folder, will launch the web browser.
Extract, and Launch Waterfox web browser
Step 2: Create App Shortcut for Waterfox
If you want to make the app icon visible in the ‘Activities’ overview search result (or application/start menu depends on your desktop environment), then follow the steps below to create app shortcut for it.
1. Move the source folder
Before creating app shortcut, it’s better to move the ‘waterfox’ folder for long time use.
For current user only, you may put the folder to anywhere in your user home. I usually create a custom folder in user home (e.g., bin, apps) or put portable apps into .local (it’s hidden, press Ctrl+H to view/hide).
In the screenshot below, I moved the waterfox folder into the custom “MyApps” folder:
For global, it’s good choice to move the folder to “/opt“, so all users in the system can launch the web browser.
In the case, right-click on blank area of the folder that contains “waterfox” sub-folder, and click “Open in Terminal”. In pop-up terminal, run command to move or copy it to opt:
sudo cp -R waterfox /opt
2. Create App Shortcut
In most Linux, the app shortcuts are handled by .desktop files located in either /usr/share/applications or .local/share/applications.
First, search for and launch your system text editor from overview or application menu depends on your DE:
When it opens with an empty document, paste following lines:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Waterfox Web Browser
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
Exec=/home/ji/MyApps/waterfox/waterfox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/ji/MyApps/waterfox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;x-scheme-handler/chrome;video/webm;application/x-xpinstall;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;
[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=/home/ji/MyApps/waterfox/waterfox -new-window
[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=Open a New Private Window
Exec=/home/ji/MyApps/waterfox/waterfox -private-window
Depends on where you moved the ‘waterfox’ folder, change the value of “Exec” and “Icon” accordingly! Meaning replace /home/ji/MyApps to yours.
When done pasting file content and changing Exec/Icon path, press Shift+Ctrl+S to open the “Save as” dialog. Then, do:
press Ctrl+H to show hidden folders in the pop-up dialog.
navigate to home -> .local -> share -> applications. Create ‘applications’ if it does not exist.
type waterfox.desktop as the file name.
finally click Save button.
If you did the previous steps correctly, it should now show ‘waterfox’ icon in the start/application menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.
Uninstall Waterfox
To uninstall the web browser installed via the previous steps, first remove the ‘waterfox’ folder depends on where you saved it. Then, remove the waterfox.desktop file from .local/share/applications.
Can’t wait to try out the new Thunderbird 128 ESR, but hate Snap and Flatpak packages? Here’s how to install it from Ubuntu PPA!
Thunderbird 128 is a new esr release series with refined look and feel. It now uses GNOME CSD style header bar instead of the old title-bar. Which has a more compact header bar, that looks better in Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux with GNOME.
As well, it provides menu options to change the header-bar height to meet your need.
Besides the headerbar, menu, tool-bar, etc, are also redesigned to look better in today’s Linux desktop. As well, it takes use the new logo announced few months ago. See more about Thunderbird 128.
How to Install Thunderbird 128 via PPA
Ubuntu is most likely to build the new Thunderbird 115 package into system repository! Check this page for Ubuntu’s official package status.
Before that, user can easily search for and install Thunderbird Snap package from Ubuntu Software. Or, install the Flatpak package in Flathub repository. However, both are running in sandbox and support 64-bit X86 CPU architecture type only.
If you hate sandboxed applications, and/or running Ubuntu on ARM devices (e.g., Apple M1/M2, Raspberry Pi) or IBM POWER platform, then, there are Ubuntu PPAs for choice.
1. Add Ubuntu PPA
The Mozilla Team PPA has already built the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 24.10
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue
2. Install/Update Thunderbird
NOTE: Ubuntu 24.04 and higher now default to Thunderbird Snap package that runs in sandbox. See this tutorial for how to get rid of it and switch to Deb version.
After adding the PPA, simply launch “Software Updater” and wait for checking for updates. Until done, install the updates to install Thunderbird 128.
Or, just run command in terminal to install/update the package:
sudo apt install thunderbird
Linux Mint user need to run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
After installation, search for and launch the email client from ‘Activities’ overview or start menu depends on your desktop environment.
Uninstall Thunderbird.
If you have problem with the new release package, or Ubuntu updated the package in its official repository, then you can purge the Ubuntu PPA to switch back the stock version of Thunderbird package.
To do so, just open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
This simple tutorial shows how to install brave browser via the new apt source policy in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04.
Due to security issue, Debian changed its policy for adding apt sources. Ubuntu is changing the rules too. Since Ubuntu 22.04, it uses more secure key files with digital signature for system repositories and PPAs.
Since Ubuntu 23.10, it now uses deb822 .sources file instead of the previous .list file for third-party repositories. And, the new source files include ‘Signed-by’ section to specify the key file.
Step 1: Install curl command line download tool
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install curl and apt-transport-https package:
sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks.
Step 2: Download & Install the key
Then, run curl command to download the key file and save it into /usr/share/keyrings folder.
This can be done by running the single command below in terminal:
Replace gedit with gnome-text-editor for Ubuntu 24.04.
2. Then in the pop-up text editor window, paste following lines:
Types: deb
URIs: https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/
Suites: stable
Components: main
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg
As you see, the new source file is easy to read, but a bit hard to write for beginners. See this thread for more about it.
Step 4: Update cache & install Brave Browser
After saving the file in last step, you can now run commands below to refresh the system package cache:
sudo apt update
And, finally install the web browser via command:
sudo apt install brave-browser
You don’t have to run the command every time when a new release is out. Just launch “Software Updater”, newer release of the browser package will be available there along with system package updates.
Uninstall Brave:
To remove brave browser package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo apt remove --autoremove brave-browser
And remove the apt source repository by running command:
PHP finally released 8.2.0 release after 7 release candidates. Here are the new features and how to install guide for all current Ubuntu LTS.
PHP 8.2.0 allows to mark a class as readonly, which will add the readonly modifier to every declared property, and prevent the creation of dynamic properties. Moreover, using the AllowDynamicProperties attribute on readonly class will trigger a compile-time error.
Other release highlights in PHP 8.2.0 include:
Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) Types
New stand-alone types: null, false, and true
New “Random” extension
Constants in traits
Deprecate dynamic properties
There are as well numerous bug-fixes and other changes in the release. See the changelog for details.
How to Install Php 8.2 in Ubuntu:
Not recommended for beginners. Only install PHP 8.2 for web developing purpose or there’s specific feature or bug-fix you need in this release.
The popular Ondřej Surý’s PPA has built the package for all current Ubuntu LTS: Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04.
1. First, open terminal or connect to your Ubuntu server and run command to add the PPA:
Run sudo apt install software-properties-common in case the command does not exist. And, type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, install Php packages accordingly. For example, install apache2 module and mysql module via command:
For Ubuntu 18.04, run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
After installed it, remember to configure your http server (apache 2 or nginx) for the new PHP package, and configure php8.2 via files under ‘/etc/php/8.2/’.
Remember Midori? The lightweight web browser that was default in Elementary OS and Bodhi Linux revived!
Midori was a popular lightweight web browser used the WebKitGTK rendering engine and GTK UI toolkit. The development of the project was however discontinued more than 3 years ago. And, Ubuntu even removed it from system repository since Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
According to the Wikipedia, the Midori project has been merged with the Astian Foundation in 2019. And, Astian announced a week ago that Midori browser is still alive!
It’s now Chromium based web browser that using Electron and React with both desktop edition for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and mobile edition for Android.
The browser still aims to be lightweight, fast and free. It’s still an open-source app, with the source code host in gitlab project page. (update: the project page does no longer exist! If you know where Astian hosts the source code, please leave comment below.)
Midori web browser next generation
The new Midori browser so far features:
New logo.
Adblock integration, block ads out-of-the-box.
Incognito mode support.
Chromium based, without Google services and low resources usage
Fast and highly customizable UI.
Partial Chrome extensions support.
To use its own open-source AstianGO search engine. Though, it so far uses DuckDuckGo as default. While Google, Bing, and Ecosia available for choice.
How to Install New Midori web browser in Ubuntu & other Linux
Astian offers official Midori packages for Linux through AppImage and .deb package.
Option 1: AppImage
AppImage is a portable package format without installation required. Just select download it from its website:
Then, right-click on AppImage in file manager. Open ‘Properties’ dialog and grant ‘execute as program’ permission. Finally, click run the package to launch the web browser.
Option 2: Deb package
It also provides official .deb packages for modern 64-bit computers, available to download via the link button below:
NOTE: The Debian (.deb) package seems broken at the moment of writing. It won’t install in my case in Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 11 either via double-clicking or using apt install command. So please try AppImage until Astian fixed the issue.
