sudo apt install nginx-full to install it from Ubuntu system repository, which however is always old. For the latest version, there are 2 ways to install the web server. Besides building from source, they include Ubuntu PPA and Nginx’s official repository.
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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:
- Snap package (pre-installed in Ubuntu 22.04+)
- New apt repository (maintained by Mozilla)
- MozillaTeam PPA (maintained by Ubuntu Team members)
- Portable Linux tarball (maintained by Mozilla)
- Flatpak package (verified by Mozilla)
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.
Just few days ago on Saturday, Chromium source merged the request to “allowing VA-API on Linux Ozone/Wayland“, submitted by JianHui J Dai.
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.
Sadly, this feature does NOT enabled for Firefox Snap in my case for Ubuntu. User can choose to either install Firefox as .deb package, or manually enable Wayland support for the Snap pacakge.
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 24.04.
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
This command creates mozilla.list file under /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory, then writes the content under double quotes into it.
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:
sudo cp /usr/share/applications/firefox-beta.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
Then, change the app name to “Firefox Beta” by running command:
desktop-file-edit --set-name="Firefox Beta" ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-beta.desktop
The change should apply automatically in few seconds. If not, run sudo update-desktop-database to update the database manually.
If you also want to differ the icon, use --set-icon='/path/to/new/icon' in last command.
This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install LibreWolf web browser in all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, 24.10 and 25.04
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.
UPDATE: LibreWolf does NO longer provide official .deb package for Debian/Ubuntu users. Here’s how to install it through Flatpak package.
Install LibreWolf Flatpak package
The LibreWolf web browser now offers Linux package through Flatpak, which runs in sandbox environment. It works in most Linux and supports amd64 (Intel/AMD) and
arm64
Linux Mint 21/22 and Fedora (with 3rd party repository) enabled may search & install the package either from Software Manager or GNOME Software.
While Debian and Ubuntu may run the commands below one by one to install:
First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to ensure Flatpak daemon is installed:
sudo apt install flatpak
For old Ubuntu 18.04, try adding this PPA for the daemon package.
Then, run command to install the web browser as Flatpak package:
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.gitlab.librewolf-community.flatpakref
NOTE: If the app icon is not visible after installation, either log out and back in to apply variable change, or run the command below to start it from terminal:
flatpak run io.gitlab.librewolf-community
Update LibreWolf
To check and install updates for the Flatpak package, just run command:
flatpak update io.gitlab.librewolf-community
For choice, you may install Warehouse, a graphical app to manage (include updateing) Flatpak packages.
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+Hto show all hidden files and folders. - Navigate to
.configsub-folder and click editmimeapps.listfile. - Finally, set
librewolf.desktopfortext/html,x-scheme-handler/http,x-scheme-handler/httpsand save file.
How to Remove LibreWolf Web Browser
To remove the web browser, also open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.gitlab.librewolf-community
Also run command flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless runtime libraries.
That’s all. Enjoy!
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.desktopas 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:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:mozillateam/ppa
If the command above failed, you may manually remove the PPA by running command:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mozillateam/ppa
Then, remove the Thunderbird package installed from that PPA:
sudo apt remove --autoremove thunderbird
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:
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 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:
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
