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:

wget -qO- https://deb.librewolf.net/keyring.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg

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:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources

Replace gedit in command with xed for Cinnamon, pluma for MATE, mousepad for XFCE, gnome-text-editor for 23.04 & higher, 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 23.04 (lunar) 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.

That’s all. Enjoy!

This simple tutorial shows how to install brave browser via the new apt source policy in Ubuntu 23.04 & 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.

In Ubuntu 23.10 (in development at the moment),  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:

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

Step 3: Add the brave apt source repository

The previous .list file with or without ‘Signed-By’ is still working! But here I’m going to show the new .sources file.

1. First, run command to create a .sources file under ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d’:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.sources

Replace gedit with gnome-text-editor for Ubuntu 23.04 and higher.

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:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

Also remove the key file via command:

sudo rm /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

Finally, run sudo apt update to refresh system package index.

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:

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

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:

sudo apt install php8.2 libapache2-mod-php8.2 php8.2-mysql

Or install the FPM-CGI binary for use with Nginx:

sudo apt install php8.2 php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql

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/’.

Uninstall Php 8.2

To remove the package, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove php8.2 libapache2-mod-php8.2 php8.2-*

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ondrej/php

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.

A new monthly release of Firefox web browser to be released soon! Users of Mozilla team PPA should already received the updates.

Though it’s not officially announced at the moment of writing, user can however check what’s new in the release via the Github Releases page.

And, here are the changes in Firefox 107 according to it:

• Improved the performance of the instance when Microsoft’s IME and Defender retrieve the URL of a focused document in Windows 11 version 22H2.
• Power profiling visualizing performance data recorded from web browsers is now also supported on Linux and Mac with Intel CPUs, in addition to Windows 11 and Apple Silicon.
• A couple of helpful improvements in Firefox DevTools making it easier to debug WebExtensions:
  • New webext argument to automatically open DevTools.
  • Simple to inspect popup windows (implemented by WebExtension) using DevTools.
  • Reload button in the DevTools toolbox to see the changes you made in source code.
• Various bug fixes and new policies implemented.

How to Install Firefox 107 in Ubuntu:

The best way to install the new Firefox release package is just wait! Wait until Ubuntu developer team build the package and publish into official system repository. So, just keep your system up-to-date, you’ll get Firefox 107 in next few days!

For Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10 users who prefer the classic .deb package, the 107 release is already available in the Mozillateam PPA. Simply open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run commands below one by one:

NOTE: This PPA now supports all current Ubuntu releases, meaning Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 are also supported.

• 1. Add the Mozillateam PPA by running command:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa

• 2. Check updates for old Ubuntu releases:

  sudo apt update

• 3. Finally, install Firefox from the PPA via command:

  sudo apt install -t "o=LP-PPA-mozillateam" firefox

IMPORTANT: to avoid Ubuntu 22.04+ to override the PPA package with system built-in Snap package, you have to create a config file under ‘/etc/apt/preferences.d’, and write following rules (See this guide for details):

# Prefer Firefox package from Mozillateam PPA

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 501

Mozilla Firefox got a new monthly update recently, with minor new features, performance improvements and some bug-fixes.

According to the release note, Firefox 104 adds one more video site, Disney+, for displaying subtitles in the pop-out videos (Picture-in-Picture).

Disneyplus.com in Firefox dark

When the browser is minimized or occluded, and for background tabs, the UI will now be throttled for better performance and battery usage. And, paste unformatted shortcut now works again in plain text contexts, such as input and text area.

Other changes in Firefox 104 include:

• Support scroll-snap-stop and re-snapping properties for developers.
• The Firefox profiler web app can analyze power usage of a website (Windows 11 and macOS only).
• Highlight color preserved correctly in the mail composer of Yahoo Mail and Outlook.
• Various security fixes and new policies

How to get Firefox 104:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04, Firefox 104 has already made into official repositories, simply launch Software Updater and install the updates to get it.

For Ubuntu 22.04 with pre-installed Firefox as Snap, you should now have v104. To verify, go to hamburger menu -> Help -> About Firefox.

For Ubuntu 22.04 users hate snap package, as well as old Ubuntu 16.04, the Mozilla Team PPA maintains the latest packages. See this step by step how to install guide.

The Chromium browser package (Snap version) in Ubuntu Software is missing VAAPI hardware decoding support. Ubuntu developer team is finally working on get the feature back!

As you may know, Ubuntu now includes the chromium web browser in the system repository as Snap package that runs in sandbox. However, the package is missing the graphics hardware acceleration since version 72 which was released a few years ago in 2019.

Some third-party PPAs are being maintained with Chromium packages, either due to lack of hardware acceleration or just because they don’t like Snap.

For Chromium fans who are OK with the Snap package, you can now help testing the new hwacc build that uses the graphics card for video playback.

Install Chromium from test repository:

1.) Firstly, backup your bookmark, password etc if you’re running Chromium as Snap.

2.) Press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to remove chromium snap (if any) via command:

sudo snap remove chromium

3.) Next, install the testing build with hardware acceleration support by running command:

sudo snap install --channel candidate/hwacc chromium

Verify if hardware acceleration works:

The report page recommends to run the command below to launch chromium browser:

snap run chromium --disable-features=UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder

Finally, start playing a video either by drag and dropping local file into browser window, or via video website.

And, go to about:media-internals in address bar. Click what it’s playing and find out the value of “kVideoDecoderName“.

It will be {Vaapi,VDA,Mojo}VideoDecoder if succeed, or {FFMpeg,Vpx}VideoDecoder when failed.

For Intel graphics, there’s also a command line tool to verify if GPU rendering is working.

• First, run command to install the intel-gpu-tools package:

  sudo apt install intel-gpu-tools

• The, use command to verify:

  sudo intel_gpu_top

In my case, the previous command did’t work in both i3-6006U and i5-10400 with integrated graphics card, but using the following command to launch Chromium works!

LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH=/snap/chromium/current/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/ chromium --use-gl=egl --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder,VaapiVideoEncoder --disable-features=UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder --ignore-gpu-blocklist --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workaround

How to Restore:

To remove the Chromium package, open terminal and run command:

sudo snap remove --purge chromium

And, install back the package (if you want) from stable channel either from Ubuntu Software or by running the command below in terminal:

sudo snap install chromium

Report in launchpad

Mozilla Firefox 102 is available to download now. See what’s new and how to install the browser package.

For Linux users, Firefox 102 now support Geoclue if available for geolocation. The release also added subtitles and captions display in Picture-in-Picture (pop-out video) for more websites, including HBO Max, Funimation, Dailymotion, Tubi, Disney+ Hotstar, and SonyLIV.

For those boring with the drop-down download panel, that automatically opens every time you start a download. User may now right-click on the download icon (before Hamburger menu button), and un-check “Show Panel When Download Begins” to disable it.

Firefox 102 is the new Extended Support Release (ESR) for enterprise and/or school use. The previous Firefox 91 ESR will end support on September 20, 2022.

Other changes in Firefox 102 include:

• Improve PDF reading in high contrast mode
• Filter style sheets in the Style Editor tab of our developer tools
• Support Content-Security-Policy (CSP) integration with WebAssembly.
• Mitigate query parameter tracking when navigating sites in ETP strict mode.
• Improved security by moving audio decoding into a separate process with stricter sandboxing.
• Various bug fixes and new policies

Download / Install Firefox 102:

Ubuntu will publish the new browser packages in its universe repositories. So, just keep your system up-to-date by installing updates (via Software Updater) regularly, you’ll get Firefox 102 automatically in next few days ago.

For Ubuntu 22.04 user prefer native .deb over the pre-installed Snap package, the Mozilla Team PPA has already build the package. So this how to tutorial to switch from Firefox Snap to Deb.

For the release note (not ready yet) as well as official Linux tarball, go to the link below: