{"id":35106,"date":"2021-10-18T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=35106"},"modified":"2021-10-19T12:51:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T12:51:54","slug":"prevent-installing-firefox-snap-ubuntu-mate-21-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2021\/10\/prevent-installing-firefox-snap-ubuntu-mate-21-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Prevent Software Updater Installing Firefox Snap in Ubuntu MATE 21.10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon-250x250.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-35107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon-250x250.png 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ubuntu-mate-icon.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Software Updater&#8221; utility in Ubuntu MATE 21.10 tries to remove native Firefox package and install the SNAP version instead. If you&#8217;ve done that, here&#8217;s how to revert to Firefox DEB package and prevent the misbehavior.<\/p>\n<p>As you may know, Ubuntu is <a href=\"https:\/\/discourse.ubuntu.com\/t\/feature-freeze-exception-seeding-the-official-firefox-snap-in-ubuntu-desktop\/24210\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">switching Firefox<\/a> from native DEB to the universal SNAP package. Ubuntu 21.10 now has Firefox SNAP out-of-the-box, while its flavors are still having the classic deb package.<\/p>\n<p>However, in Ubuntu MATE 21.10 the &#8220;Software Updater&#8221; has a <a href=\"https:\/\/bugs.launchpad.net\/ubuntu\/+source\/update-manager\/+bug\/1947501\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bug<\/a>. It tries to remove pre-installed Firefox package by marking it as &#8220;Duplicate packages to be removed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35108\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35108\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox-600x379.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"379\" class=\"size-large wp-image-35108\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox-600x379.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox-768x486.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-replace-firefox.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Software Updater Tries to Install Firefox SNAP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If you clicked &#8220;Install Now&#8221; button without attention. The default Firefox web browser will be replaced with the SNAP app:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap-600x227.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"227\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap-600x227.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap-300x114.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap-768x291.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-installfirefoxsnap.jpg 784w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Revert to pre-installed Firefox DEB:<\/h3>\n<p>By going to the app &#8220;menu -> Help -> About Firefox&#8221; will tell if you&#8217;ve done that mistakenly.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34693\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/firefox-snap.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34693\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/firefox-snap-600x384.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"384\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34693\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/firefox-snap-600x384.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/firefox-snap-300x192.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/firefox-snap.jpg 672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-34693\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Firefox SNAP app<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And, you may press <b>Ctrl+Alt+T<\/b> on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to remove the Snap if installed:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo snap remove --purge firefox<\/pre>\n<p>Then install the native Firefox deb package by running command:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install firefox<\/pre>\n<h3>Prevent Software Updater from installing Firefox Snap:<\/h3>\n<p>Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/askubuntu.com\/a\/1369779\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">N0rbert<\/a>, run the single command below in terminal to do the trick until the upstream fixed the bug.<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt-mark manual firefox<\/pre>\n<p>The command will work on all Ubuntu flavors, though I found the issue only in Ubuntu MATE so far.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-keptfirefox.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-keptfirefox-600x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"237\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35110\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-keptfirefox-600x237.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-keptfirefox-300x118.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mate-keptfirefox.jpg 761w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it. Enjoy!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;Software Updater&#8221; utility in Ubuntu MATE 21.10 tries to remove native Firefox package and install the SNAP version instead. If you&#8217;ve done that, here&#8217;s how to revert to Firefox DEB package and prevent the misbehavior. As you may know, Ubuntu is switching Firefox from native DEB to the universal SNAP package. Ubuntu 21.10 now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1194],"class_list":["post-35106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-firefox"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}