News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Mozilla Firefox web browser version 123.0 now is available to download!
In the new monthly release, Firefox View page now have “Search” function, allows to search a page from each tab of recent browsing, recent closed tabs, open tabs, tab from other devices, and history.
Firefox 123.0 also added a new menu option to easily report web compatibility issue for currently tab.
This is a step by step beginners guide shows how to install the Floorp web browser in Ubuntu Desktop.
Floorp is a new free open-source web browser forked from Firefox. It’s promoted as “the most Advanced and Fastest Firefox derivative”.
The browser is based on Firefox ESR. It’s updated every 4 weeks, with security updates provided before each Firefox release. It has strong tracking protection, no user tracking, flexible layout, and switchable design.
Floorp provides official Linux packages through an apt repository and Flatpak package. There’s also a portable Linux tarball available to in its download page. For beginners here’s a step by step screenshots as well as descriptions.
Floorp Web Browser
This is a step by step beginners guide shows how to install Pale Moon web browser through its official Linux tarball in Ubuntu.
Pale Moon is a free open-source web browser that was started as a fork of Firefox, but now completely diverged from Firefox. It retains the highly customizable user interface, continues to support legacy add-ons and extensions, and runs in single-process mode.
The browser provides official package for Linux through a tarball, the binary package however is proprietary but NOT open-source.
This tutorial is going to show you how to install it through the tarball, though there’s an 3rd party apt repository contains the .deb package for choice.
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.
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.
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:
:has() selector, the hanging and each-line keywords, balance keyword, lazy loading iframes.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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:
Ctrl+H to show all hidden files and folders..config sub-folder and click edit mimeapps.list file.librewolf.desktop for text/html, x-scheme-handler/http, x-scheme-handler/https and save file.
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.
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
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:
waterfox.desktop as the file name.
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.
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.
