Dev1 Galaxy Forum / What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (Marjorie) — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:54:48 +0000

Yes, that's the way I went, but using Firefox's own .deb repository and letting apt do its job.

I used the instructions in the section titled:

Install Firefox .deb package for Debian-based distributions

I only changed from vanilla repository firefox-esr, just prior to the latest annual refresh, because it was starting to not show some graphic elements (including but not exclusively the comments section) on the Guardian newspaper website while Firefox on android and a newish ungoogled chrome were correct.

I'm now running Firefox 129.0.2 on Daedelus/Pulseaudio/X11/Cinnamon on AMD Ryzoe 5600G and not seeing any issues.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (GlennW) — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:18:40 +0000

@SpongeBOB
I suggested my method because I found that proceedure does not work for whatever reason.

But hack away if you want.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (SpongeBOB) — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 08:14:22 +0000

I also noticed that the third command

gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc | awk '/pub/{getline; gsub(/^ +| +$/,""); if($0 == "35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3") print "\nThe key fingerprint matches ("$0").\n"; else print "\nVerification failed: the fingerprint ("$0") does not match the expected one.\n"}'

gpg: keyblock resource '/root/.gnupg/pubring.kbx': No such file or directory
The key fingerprint matches (35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3).

Is the Public ring is somewhere else on devuan ?

Thanks.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (SpongeBOB) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 19:06:49 +0000

First thank you @VH I was just about to ask the question

I've tried your link.

but at the last step I got

su
apt-get update && apt-get install firefox
Hit:1 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera InRelease
Hit:2 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-security InRelease             
Get:4 https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease [1,528 B]         
Err:4 https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease
  Unknown error executing apt-key
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease: Unknown error executing apt-key
E: The repository 'https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease' is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details

If anyone have an idea. ?

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (GlennW) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 02:26:12 +0000

Hi VH, if you go here,

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

you may Download the latest release of Firefox, the next page will ask if you want 32bit or 64bit code.

Mostly choose 64bit.

the current version today is firefox-129.0.2.tar.bz2

Download it to a good place, like /home/$USER/Downloads

If you don't want to use, or don't have a web browser use the command line like this... change the user name to your user...

cd /home/glenn/Downloads
wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/129.0.2/linux-x86_64/en-GB/firefox-129.0.2.tar.bz2

once you have it downloaded you may install it as root (admin) with this,

untar it to /opt and change the link

cd /opt

tar xfj /home/glenn/local/archive/source/firefox-129.0.2.tar.bz2

# or tar xfj /home/glenn/Downloads/firefox-129.0.2.tar.bz2

# remove the old firefox links

mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefoxold

# or after backup of bookmarks and passwordz

apt remove firefox-esr

# create new link

ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

# copy statusBar script.

#rsync -avh /home/glenn/build/userChrome.css /opt/firefox/browser/chrome/
chmod -R 755 /opt/firefox

In the future firefox may alert you of updates, and you could use the same proceedure to install the update over the old version.

I hope this helps.

edit, I mentioned this directory /home/glenn/local/archive/source/, I generally move the file before installing the program.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (VH) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 01:34:06 +0000

You do realize this is a 7 year old thread?

Sorry I didn't. I shouldn't post on the one that is more than a certain period of time? In that case, should I delete my post?

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (Ron) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:02:42 +0000

VH wrote:
Mozilla tells you how to do that in their website:

You do realize this is a 7 year old thread?

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (VH) — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 23:08:05 +0000

Mozilla tells you how to do that in their website:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/in … tributions

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (smoki) — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 20:46:33 +0000

hughparker1 wrote:

Also here is a brief description of the laptop specification...
DELL Inspiron 5559 laptop
Processor: IntelCore i7-6500U CPU 2 Cores, 4 Logical Processors
Integrated Graphics Processor: Intel HD Graphics 520
Discrete Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon R5 M335
Drive: Crucial CT750MX3 SSD size: 750GB
Memory: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3

Looks like too much new hardware for default Devuan 1.0, for Debian 8 even of course...

Because of that Intel's Skylake mainly... there is also AMD's PX there, so i hope you use everything driver related kernel/userspace from backports repo, like kernel, mesa, ddx.

edit: BTW fglrx 15.12 driver from backports is also an option for that Radeon R5 M335, but together with Skylake iGPU i am not sure that first must work perfect, as that manage screen for PX... maybe 4.9 kernel for Skylake and just intel ddx too, but now that fglrx as i see is not pached for 4.9 but stevepusser have patched one fglrx for 4.9 in his repo...

It sounds complicated anyway i guess , ideally SKL iGPU should use modeseting driver but for that newest X is better and then PRIME switching should work for radeon... whatever even without all that and if you don't mind that Radeon PX again kernel, mesa, ddx to upgrade from backports is recommended on Devuan/Debian 8, etc...

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (hughparker1) — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 16:26:14 +0000

GNUser wrote:

Bummer. Your issue is not lack of sse2 support. I'm afraid I don't know Firefox well enough to know why recent versions are crashing on your machine. I tested both AppImages (52 and 53) and they run okay on my Devuan Jessie 64bit with the default 3.16 kernel.
All I can say for sure is that lately Firefox has been aggressively breaking compatibility (e.g., 52 and up require pulseaudio, 53 and up require sse2). I'd consider not playing their little game and going with a conservative alternative such as Palemoon.

Thanks @GNUser for you help and taking the time to respond to my issue. I will checkout Palemoon and see how it performs on my hardware.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (GNUser) — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 11:23:32 +0000

Bummer. Your issue is not lack of sse2 support. I'm afraid I don't know Firefox well enough to know why recent versions are crashing on your machine. I tested both AppImages (52 and 53) and they run okay on my Devuan Jessie 64bit with the default 3.16 kernel.

All I can say for sure is that lately Firefox has been aggressively breaking compatibility (e.g., 52 and up require pulseaudio, 53 and up require sse2). I'd consider not playing their little game and going with a conservative alternative such as Palemoon.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (hughparker1) — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 09:58:48 +0000

GNUser wrote:

3.
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 7624
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
This is the show stopper. It means that Firefox53 is crashing. I'm sure this will happen regardless of how you try to run Firefox53 on your system (AppImage or not). If Firefox from Devuan repository works for you but Firefox53 crashes, my guess is that you are running an older processor that, as of Firefox53, is no longer supported (see https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5 … uirements/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … 4_or_amd/).
Specifically, as of Firefox53, Firefox requires sse2 support in the CPU. What is the output of this command:
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i sse2 || echo "no sse2 support"
?
If lack of sse2 is indeed your issue, then Firefox52 is the last version that will run on your machine. When the time comes, see Life after Firefox.

Thanks again @GNUser, here it the output you requested...

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i sse2 || echo "no sse2 support"
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$

Also here is a brief description of the laptop specification...

DELL Inspiron 5559 laptop
Processor: IntelCore i7-6500U CPU 2 Cores, 4 Logical Processors
Integrated Graphics Processor: Intel HD Graphics 520
Discrete Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon R5 M335
Drive: Crucial CT750MX3 SSD size: 750GB
Memory: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3

GNUser wrote:

If you want to give the Firefox52 AppImage a shot, just follow the steps in my post #9 above, but use this instead of the wget line in that post:
wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox52.AppImage
I'd be interested in knowing if it's the sse2 issue that made Firefox53 a no-go for you.

I thought I would try your suggestion to check if the Firefox52 AppImage would work to at least try to narrow down the cause of the problem....

$ mkdir -p Firefox_52

$ cd Firefox_52

$ wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox52.AppImage

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_52$ wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox52.AppImage
converted 'https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-09 10:47:11--  https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving bintray.com (bintray.com)... 75.126.118.184
Connecting to bintray.com (bintray.com)|75.126.118.184|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage [following]
converted 'https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-09 10:47:12--  https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving dl.bintray.com (dl.bintray.com)... 5.153.35.248
Connecting to dl.bintray.com (dl.bintray.com)|5.153.35.248|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 
Location: https://akamai.bintray.com/98/987cb1d6439e93786696f1ab9c3b22dd90a981d3e081f96752fcaaa2cc9f5d86?__gda__=exp=1497002353~hmac=beb2c832f98f9932372a0d6dd6d25e683776f25dac7e8242df1e92e793a50599&response-content-disposition=attachment%3Bfilename%3D%22Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX18uKkxxKQAxyL-j4VZX3KpW7Aioi2i_K-jvoTQPeqkFtLFDqJ12RMJL0hwxyZ5uVJaqXoh87Vdl6JAHFusmpEHJB0JIIHTKufZb_jvFdQgxFpY7AVWVeTuYWYuQLKFL2syAThICoIn-5w [following]
converted 'https://akamai.bintray.com/98/987cb1d6439e93786696f1ab9c3b22dd90a981d3e081f96752fcaaa2cc9f5d86?__gda__=exp=1497002353~hmac=beb2c832f98f9932372a0d6dd6d25e683776f25dac7e8242df1e92e793a50599&response-content-disposition=attachment%3Bfilename%3D%22Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX18uKkxxKQAxyL-j4VZX3KpW7Aioi2i_K-jvoTQPeqkFtLFDqJ12RMJL0hwxyZ5uVJaqXoh87Vdl6JAHFusmpEHJB0JIIHTKufZb_jvFdQgxFpY7AVWVeTuYWYuQLKFL2syAThICoIn-5w' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://akamai.bintray.com/98/987cb1d6439e93786696f1ab9c3b22dd90a981d3e081f96752fcaaa2cc9f5d86?__gda__=exp=1497002353~hmac=beb2c832f98f9932372a0d6dd6d25e683776f25dac7e8242df1e92e793a50599&response-content-disposition=attachment;filename="Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage"&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX18uKkxxKQAxyL-j4VZX3KpW7Aioi2i_K-jvoTQPeqkFtLFDqJ12RMJL0hwxyZ5uVJaqXoh87Vdl6JAHFusmpEHJB0JIIHTKufZb_jvFdQgxFpY7AVWVeTuYWYuQLKFL2syAThICoIn-5w' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-09 10:47:13--  https://akamai.bintray.com/98/987cb1d6439e93786696f1ab9c3b22dd90a981d3e081f96752fcaaa2cc9f5d86?__gda__=exp=1497002353~hmac=beb2c832f98f9932372a0d6dd6d25e683776f25dac7e8242df1e92e793a50599&response-content-disposition=attachment;filename=%22Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX18uKkxxKQAxyL-j4VZX3KpW7Aioi2i_K-jvoTQPeqkFtLFDqJ12RMJL0hwxyZ5uVJaqXoh87Vdl6JAHFusmpEHJB0JIIHTKufZb_jvFdQgxFpY7AVWVeTuYWYuQLKFL2syAThICoIn-5w
Resolving akamai.bintray.com (akamai.bintray.com)... 23.63.90.245
Connecting to akamai.bintray.com (akamai.bintray.com)|23.63.90.245|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 60582136 (58M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: 'Firefox52.AppImage'

Firefox52.AppImage      100%[=================================>]  57.78M  1.90MB/s   in 32s    

2017-06-09 10:47:46 (1.81 MB/s) - 'Firefox52.AppImage' saved [60582136/60582136]

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_52$

$ chmod a+x Firefox52.AppImage

$ ./Firefox52.AppImage

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_52$ ./Firefox52.AppImage
zenity, kdialog, Xdialog missing. Skipping ./bin//firefox.wrapper.

(firefox:4023): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 4073
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_52$

getting the same "Mozilla Crash Reporter" error message as before.... http://imgur.com/a/NwfhU

I don't have the tech knowledge to understand the results of my tests, is there any clue what is causing Firefox to crash like this?

EDIT: here is the details of the kernel that I am using in case that helps ...

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$ uname -a
Linux DELL-INSP-DEVUAN 4.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.18-1~bpo8+1 (2017-04-10) x86_64 GNU/Linux
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (GNUser) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 19:05:54 +0000

If you want to give the Firefox52 AppImage a shot, just follow the steps in my post #9 above, but use this instead of the wget line in that post:

wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox52.AppImage

I'd be interested in knowing if it's the sse2 issue that made Firefox53 a no-go for you.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (GNUser) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 12:48:46 +0000

@hughparker1: Three separate issues going on.

zenity, kdialog, Xdialog missing. Skipping /tmp/.mount_Cdg7JV/usr/bin//firefox.wrapper.

This is benign. It just means that you don't have zenity, kdialog, or Xdialog installed--the AppImage requires one of these to be present in order to show a dialog asking you whether you want the .desktop file to be added to your ~/.local/share/applications directory. This is the only AppImage-specific error that you are getting. After the firefox.wrapper (i.e., the .desktop integration step) is run or skipped, the Firefox53 binary inside the AppImage is executed.

(firefox:7574): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed

This is benign. I think it's a GTK error. I see it when I try running the AppImage, too, and then Firefox53 starts for me without any problems.

ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 7624
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...

This is the show stopper. It means that Firefox53 is crashing. I'm sure this will happen regardless of how you try to run Firefox53 on your system (AppImage or not). If Firefox from Devuan repository works for you but Firefox53 crashes, my guess is that you are running an older processor that, as of Firefox53, is no longer supported (see https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5 … uirements/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … 4_or_amd/).

Specifically, as of Firefox53, Firefox requires sse2 support in the CPU. What is the output of this command:

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i sse2 || echo "no sse2 support"

If lack of sse2 is indeed your issue, then Firefox52 is the last version that will run on your machine. When the time comes, see Life after Firefox.

Re: What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

dummy@example.com (hughparker1) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 10:54:20 +0000

GNUser wrote:

@hughparker1: You don't need sudo to make it executable. Also, for security reasons I recommend not running any web browser as superuser. As to what directory to put the AppImage in, it is completely up to you--an AppImage does not require installation and contains everything it needs inside that one file, which can be run from any directory. It is truly a "portable application".
In case any newbies need a more explicit step-by-step of what to do from the command line:
dest_dir="$HOME/bin" # dest_dir can be anything you want
mkdir -p "$dest_dir"
cd "$dest_dir"
wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox53.AppImage
chmod a+x Firefox53.AppImage
./Firefox53.AppImage
At that point, you will be asked whether you would like a .desktop file (~/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-firefox.desktop) to be created automatically for you so that you can run the Firefox appimage directly from your applications menu.
That's it At the most, you will be adding a single additional file to your system (either ~/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-firefox.desktop or a little marker file called ~/.local/share/appimagekit/Firefox_no_desktopintegration).
The advantage of using AppImages is the extreme simplicity of one app = one file. The only disadvantage I can think of is not having the convenience of getting security fixes through your package manager.
P.S. In case you'd like to see what's contained inside the AppImage:
./Firefox53.AppImage --appimage-extract

Thanks @GNUser for the clear instructions, I haven't been able to try it till today, but I get the same "Mozilla Crash Reporter" error message as before.... http://imgur.com/a/NwfhU

Here is the steps I did, in case I made some mistake....

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$ mkdir -p Firefox_New
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~$ cd Firefox_New
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$ wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox53.AppImage
converted 'https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-08 11:37:16--  https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving bintray.com (bintray.com)... 108.168.194.93
Connecting to bintray.com (bintray.com)|108.168.194.93|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage [following]
converted 'https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-08 11:37:17--  https://dl.bintray.com/probono/AppImages/Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving dl.bintray.com (dl.bintray.com)... 5.153.35.248
Connecting to dl.bintray.com (dl.bintray.com)|5.153.35.248|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 
Location: https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8d5708398bccb911c793a4d0098c69a0f7a62955df66c8735c9096be73b8dd0b?__gda__=exp=1496918960~hmac=446aea627b038d05d246df20ba037f123ec9e52f9e631b3eb6185a85681f6793&response-content-disposition=attachment%3Bfilename%3D%22Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX1-KLVXw7cionUT2yF-SIU9pm-emtZJV5J3cV8znsWYTc6sSFGxP-Mzcrbiiu1ZIDl3sIr3Mr4ESlJCM7Hbyw_eeLFkvZQekUKeevS46SVV6VfTB5h_5m46A4dJJXj-p1jTNssBn1t6Cgg [following]
converted 'https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8d5708398bccb911c793a4d0098c69a0f7a62955df66c8735c9096be73b8dd0b?__gda__=exp=1496918960~hmac=446aea627b038d05d246df20ba037f123ec9e52f9e631b3eb6185a85681f6793&response-content-disposition=attachment%3Bfilename%3D%22Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX1-KLVXw7cionUT2yF-SIU9pm-emtZJV5J3cV8znsWYTc6sSFGxP-Mzcrbiiu1ZIDl3sIr3Mr4ESlJCM7Hbyw_eeLFkvZQekUKeevS46SVV6VfTB5h_5m46A4dJJXj-p1jTNssBn1t6Cgg' (ANSI_X3.4-1968) -> 'https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8d5708398bccb911c793a4d0098c69a0f7a62955df66c8735c9096be73b8dd0b?__gda__=exp=1496918960~hmac=446aea627b038d05d246df20ba037f123ec9e52f9e631b3eb6185a85681f6793&response-content-disposition=attachment;filename="Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage"&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX1-KLVXw7cionUT2yF-SIU9pm-emtZJV5J3cV8znsWYTc6sSFGxP-Mzcrbiiu1ZIDl3sIr3Mr4ESlJCM7Hbyw_eeLFkvZQekUKeevS46SVV6VfTB5h_5m46A4dJJXj-p1jTNssBn1t6Cgg' (UTF-8)
--2017-06-08 11:37:18--  https://akamai.bintray.com/8d/8d5708398bccb911c793a4d0098c69a0f7a62955df66c8735c9096be73b8dd0b?__gda__=exp=1496918960~hmac=446aea627b038d05d246df20ba037f123ec9e52f9e631b3eb6185a85681f6793&response-content-disposition=attachment;filename=%22Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage%22&response-content-type=application/octet-stream&requestInfo=U2FsdGVkX1-KLVXw7cionUT2yF-SIU9pm-emtZJV5J3cV8znsWYTc6sSFGxP-Mzcrbiiu1ZIDl3sIr3Mr4ESlJCM7Hbyw_eeLFkvZQekUKeevS46SVV6VfTB5h_5m46A4dJJXj-p1jTNssBn1t6Cgg
Resolving akamai.bintray.com (akamai.bintray.com)... 23.63.90.245
Connecting to akamai.bintray.com (akamai.bintray.com)|23.63.90.245|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 61479160 (59M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: 'Firefox53.AppImage'

Firefox53.AppImage                100%[============================================================>]  58.63M  1.85MB/s   in 38s    

2017-06-08 11:37:58 (1.53 MB/s) - 'Firefox53.AppImage' saved [61479160/61479160]

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$ chmod a+x Firefox53.AppImage
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$

hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$ ./Firefox53.AppImage
zenity, kdialog, Xdialog missing. Skipping /tmp/.mount_Cdg7JV/usr/bin//firefox.wrapper.

(firefox:7574): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 7624
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
hugh@DELL-INSP-DEVUAN:~/Firefox_New$

So I'm not sure what went wrong, is there any clue in the output above? any help would be appreciated.