Installing the latest Firefox version on Debian 12 (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Recently, I found myself needing the latest Firefox version, specifically version 115, for its GPU accelerated video capabilities. My machine isn't the most powerful, so this feature was a game-changer for me. With previous Firefox versions, I was limited to 1080p for smooth video playback or could manage 1440p, but with occasional stuttering. Even worse, my computer would become extremely sluggish during this.

However, with Firefox v115, I can now smoothly run 4K video at 10% CPU utilization (max) without any issues. Even 8k is smooth, though CPU usage jumps to 80%+.

didn't want to remove Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR), so I decided to install the latest Firefox version alongside the default ESR.

Here are the commands I used to install the latest Firefox version:

cd /opt

# Download the latest version of Firefox
sudo wget -O firefox.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US"


sudo tar xjf firefox.tar.bz2

# Create a symbolic link
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

# Create a desktop entry for GNOME
echo -e '[Desktop Entry]\n Version=1.0\n Name=firefox\n Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox\n Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/icons/mozicon128.png\n Type=Application\n Categories=Application' | sudo tee /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Additionally, I wanted to easily differentiate between the two Firefox versions on my machine. To do this, I created a .icons directory in my home directory and downloaded an appealing Firefox PNG icon from here.

I then updated the icon line in /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop to use my newly downloaded icon. Now, I can easily distinguish between the two versions at a glance.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can alternatively install it via Flatpack with GNOME Software:

apt install flatpak
apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
reboot

And then open the GNOME store "store" and search for Firefox, you'll find the Flathub version.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This won't work as expected, I don't think?

Unless you installed the developer edition, which uses a separate profile/path, both of your installs will use the ~/.mozilla directory, so configs and profile of your new install will interfere with the ESR version.

(and why did you symlink /opt/firefox/firefox to /usr/bin/firefox? The desktop file already takes care of recognition)

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I guess FF is available as flatpack. But it still use your ~/.config. I would just run it out of docker. But not sure what will happen with acceleration.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

you can install as many firefox instances you like by downloading and extracting the tarball and by running a script (suppose firefox clone is extracted in ~/firefox-clone)

#!/bin/sh

HOME=$(pwd)
firefox --no-remote

saving as firefox-clone.sh and running it inside firefox-clone directory.

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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023

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