[SOLVED] Firefox won't install.

Crippled · 08-24-2019, 12:45 PM

I am using SparkyLinux 5.8 which is based off of Debian Stable. The problem is it doesn't have regular Firefox in it's repos. It only comes with Firefox ESR which interferes with some of my extensions. I tried installing regular Firefox using the Archive Manager but that didn't work. Acording to the SparkyLinux forums egular Firefox can't be installed. I am giving linuxquestions.org to see if it can and how. Is there anyway to install regular Firefox and if so, how?

hazel · 08-24-2019, 12:51 PM

You could download from the Mozilla site. Normally it's a bad idea in Linux to install downloaded binaries, but FF is actually designed to be installed safely that way. It comes as a self-contained package complete with its own internal libraries, so it shouldn't mess up your system at all.

Crippled · 08-24-2019, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

You could download from the Mozilla site. Normally it's a bad idea in Linux to install downloaded binaries, but FF is actually designed to be installed safely that way. It comes as a self-contained package complete with its own internal libraries, so it shouldn't mess up your system at all.

I tried that already and it didn't work.

ondoho · 08-24-2019, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippled

Acording to the SparkyLinux forums egular Firefox can't be installed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippled

I tried that already and it didn't work.

(if I was curious I'd ask why)

Seems to me like that's the answer then.

djk44883 · 08-24-2019, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippled

I tried that already and it didn't work.

Seriously?!? If your distribution is Debian based look here: https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox

Quote:

If you want to install Firefox Stable, Beta or Nightly on your Debian Stable, you can do it by following those steps.

Download the Firefox version you want directly from the official website (Stable), Beta, Nightly).
Uncompress the archives in the */opt* folder if you want to install it system-wide (you will need to have root privilege) or in your home folder if you only want to install it for your current user.

It really is/should be that easy. It goes on to create a .desktop launcher and incorporate into your system.

Timothy Miller · 08-24-2019, 05:01 PM

So this is NOT supported in any way, but should work, might cause some issues in the future due to dependencies being newer if any are shared with other packages...

1. Add sid repos
2. Create a .conf file in /etc/apt/preferences.d set sid to a very low priority (<400) so it will only install from if EXPLICITY told to
3. apt install -t sid firefox

djk44883 · 08-24-2019, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller

So this is NOT supported in any way, but should work, might cause some issues in the future due to dependencies being newer if any are shared with other packages...

1. Add sid repos
2. Create a .conf file in /etc/apt/preferences.d set sid to a very low priority (<400) so it will only install from if EXPLICITY told to
3. apt install -t sid firefox

note: if you use /etc/atp/apt.conf

Code:

APT::Default-Release "stable";

you get a "default" pinning AptConfiguration and APT_PREFERENCES(5)
as viewed from

Code:

apt-cache policy

That's not to say adding a specific pin for firefox and/or sid isn't a good idea.

Crippled · 08-24-2019, 06:40 PM

Too late all. I switched to using a different distro.