What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

hughparker1 · 2017-05-29 14:35:22

I have installed Devuan Xfce and would like to use the latest version of Firefox as the default version 45.9.0 is quite old, not sure if it is ok to do this and if I can use backports. So I have a couple of questions....

Q1. not sure of package name, is there a way to find the correct package name and version before installing?

Q2. would this be the correct syntax to use to install?

$ apt-get -t jessie-backports install package_name

Thanks for any advice as I am still quite new to linux

Last edited by hughparker1 (2017-05-29 14:37:35)

Spass · 2017-05-29 16:24:28

Unfortunately there's no newer Firefox package in the stable repos at the moment, but I found a way to use newest Firefox ESR (currently 52.1.2) on my Devuan Jessie without a problem. I will explain that later in this post.
(Note: New versions of Firefox (52 and up) require PulseAudio for audio playback, see here.)

Q1. You can check it this way for example:

# apt-get update
$ apt-cache search firefox    << this will show you the list of packages with 'firefox' in their names
$ apt-cache policy firefox-esr    << this will show you installed version (if any) and versions available in the repos

Q2. You should use:

# apt-get install -t jessie-backports package_name

That's probably not the "best way to install latest version of Firefox", but my solution was:
1) I've downloaded Firefox 52 ESR from here > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o … tions/all/
2) I extracted it and copied 'firefox' folder to my home directory (for example /home/my_name/Applications/)
3) I changed default web browser in Preferred Applications settings (exo-preferred-applications), choosing "Other..." The path should be something like this - /home/your_name/Applications/firefox/firefox "%s"

You can also add individual ".desktop" entry for it in the ~/.local/share/applications/ folder (that way it will show in the main menu) or you can just use "Web Browser" entry (exo-open --launch WebBrowser %u) to open it. You can use GUI tool 'menulibre' for adding desktop entries.

And that's it, now I'm on newest ESR branch, it uses my settings from ~/.mozilla/ without a problem, it even auto-updates, everything works fine. Well, almost... Still, from time to time some links want to open in the "older" Firefox 45, because the newer one is not registered as a default browser system-wide (it doesn't show in the update-alternatives --config x-www-browser). I didn't find a way to do it 100% correctly yet. Maybe it should be placed somewhere in the /bin or /lib folders instead of /home?
// EDIT: That issue was solved by smoki one post below. Thanks!

If something is unclear or you have more questions, I'll try to help. Cheers.

Last edited by Spass (2017-05-29 18:55:07)

smoki · 2017-05-29 18:30:17

Spass wrote:

And that's it, now I'm on newest ESR branch, it uses my settings from ~/.mozilla without a problem, it even auto-updates, everything works fine. Well, almost... Still, from time to time some links want to open in the "older" Firefox 45, because the newer one is not registered as a default browser system-wide (it doesn't show in the update-alternatives --config x-www-browser). I didn't find a way to do it 100% correctly yet. Maybe it should be placed somewhere in the /bin or /lib folders instead of /home?

Use install then config, as root or sudo goes something like:

update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-www-browser x-www-browser /home/spass/Applications/firefox/firefox 20

After that config and select it.

Last edited by smoki (2017-05-29 18:37:16)

Spass · 2017-05-29 18:51:55

smoki, thank you very much, that's exactly what I was missing. Now it works great.

GNUser · 2017-05-29 23:43:34

1. Download the latest Firefox*.AppImage (available here: https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/F … .3.4#files)
2. Make it executable
3. Run it and enjoy

Last edited by GNUser (2017-05-30 02:10:29)

hughparker1 · 2017-06-01 23:32:13

Spass wrote:

Unfortunately there's no newer Firefox package in the stable repos at the moment, but I found a way to use newest Firefox ESR (currently 52.1.2) on my Devuan Jessie without a problem. I will explain that later in this post.
(Note: New versions of Firefox (52 and up) require PulseAudio for audio playback, see here.)
Q1. You can check it this way for example:
# apt-get update
$ apt-cache search firefox    << this will show you the list of packages with 'firefox' in their names
$ apt-cache policy firefox-esr    << this will show you installed version (if any) and versions available in the repos
Q2. You should use:
# apt-get install -t jessie-backports package_name
That's probably not the "best way to install latest version of Firefox", but my solution was:
1) I've downloaded Firefox 52 ESR from here > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o … tions/all/
2) I extracted it and copied 'firefox' folder to my home directory (for example /home/my_name/Applications/)
3) I changed default web browser in Preferred Applications settings (exo-preferred-applications), choosing "Other..." The path should be something like this - /home/your_name/Applications/firefox/firefox "%s"
You can also add individual ".desktop" entry for it in the ~/.local/share/applications/ folder (that way it will show in the main menu) or you can just use "Web Browser" entry (exo-open --launch WebBrowser %u) to open it. You can use GUI tool 'menulibre' for adding desktop entries.
And that's it, now I'm on newest ESR branch, it uses my settings from ~/.mozilla/ without a problem, it even auto-updates, everything works fine. Well, almost... Still, from time to time some links want to open in the "older" Firefox 45, because the newer one is not registered as a default browser system-wide (it doesn't show in the update-alternatives --config x-www-browser). I didn't find a way to do it 100% correctly yet. Maybe it should be placed somewhere in the /bin or /lib folders instead of /home?
// EDIT: That issue was solved by smoki one post below. Thanks!
If something is unclear or you have more questions, I'll try to help. Cheers.

Many thanks for your help and clear instructions. I tried to do as you suggested, here are my steps...

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o … tions/all/

downloaded English (British) "firefox-52.1.2esr.tar.bz2"

create new directory /home/hugh/Applications/

extract .tar.bz2 file and then copy extracted "firefox" folder to /home/hugh/Applications/

$ cp -avr /home/hugh/Downloads/firefox /home/hugh/Applications

(N) Settings > Preferred Application > (T) Internet
Web Browser: Debian Sensible Browser (default) change to...
Web Browser: Other...
/home/hugh/Applications/firefox/firefox "%s"

when I open firefox I get error message... http://imgur.com/a/jtBym I even tried clicking the "firefox" executable in my /home/hugh/Applications/firefox folder but get same message.

Not sure if I did something incorrectly, does the error indicate what is wrong?

Spass · 2017-06-02 00:02:07

hughparker1, hmm, seems to me that all your steps are correct. I've downloaded that version you mentioned (64-bit) and it works on my machine just fine. Maybe try creating a new profile?

$ cd /home/hugh/Applications/firefox
$ ./firefox -P

Or go with GNUser's advice from post #5.

hughparker1 · 2017-06-02 15:59:26

Spass wrote:

hughparker1, hmm, seems to me that all your steps are correct. I've downloaded that version you mentioned (64-bit) and it works on my machine just fine. Maybe try creating a new profile?
$ cd /home/hugh/Applications/firefox
$ ./firefox -P
Or go with GNUser's advice from post #5.

Thanks @Spass for feedback, I was looking at GNUser's advice from post #5 but I have never used AppImages before, so I had a look online and found some advice here ...

https://askubuntu.com/questions/774490/ … install-it

GNUser wrote:

1. Download the latest Firefox*.AppImage (available here: https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/F … .3.4#files)
2. Make it executable
3. Run it and enjoy

Hi @GNUser, thanks for the suggestion to use .AppImage, I haven't used this before so I wondered is this the correct way to make it executable, and is it ok to run without sudo in front?

$ chmod a+x Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage

And is this the correct way to execute the appImage, do I need sudo and run from the Download folder?

$ ./Firefox-53.0.2.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage

Also, is there any disadvantage in using this method? Thank you @GNUser and @Spass for your feedback and support.

Last edited by hughparker1 (2017-06-02 16:14:38)

GNUser · 2017-06-02 18:39:33

@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

Last edited by GNUser (2017-06-04 15:19:11)

greenjeans · 2017-06-02 19:13:05

Spass wrote:

(Note: New versions of Firefox (52 and up) require PulseAudio for audio playback, see here.)

I don't mind pulseaudio near as much some folks, I just object to being FORCED to install even more software to use a damn browser. Is it not already bad enough that FF is so giant and bloated? Not to mention getting slower and slower by the year.

You can make a working browser out of about 9-10 lines of code if you have webkit and perl or python. 100+MB is ridiculous.

GNUser · 2017-06-02 19:20:08

Spass wrote:

(Note: New versions of Firefox (52 and up) require PulseAudio for audio playback, see here.)

Is this a bad joke? I hope so. The linked-to page says nothing about PulseAudio.

golinux · 2017-06-02 19:23:24

GNUser wrote:

Spass wrote:
(Note: New versions of Firefox (52 and up) require PulseAudio for audio playback, see here.)
Is this a bad joke? I hope so. The linked-to page says nothing about PulseAudio.

You certainly are out of the loop:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/03/1 … h-no-sound

Search here and on dng for apulse which is a solution

GNUser · 2017-06-02 19:34:28

This is wrong and it makes me angry.

Why not just scrap GNU/Linux? All the world needs is Windows, MacOS, and GNU/systemd. Even then, our overlords at Redmond, Cupertino, and Red Hat may get together and decide that with these three OSs we still have too much choice.

Last edited by GNUser (2017-06-02 19:58:54)

golinux · 2017-06-02 19:44:56

GNUser wrote:

This is wrong and it makes me angry.

Pissed a lot of people off. Don't get angry. Get busy and create an alternative. Don't expect corporations to do it for you . . .

GNUser · 2017-06-02 19:51:08

golinux wrote:

Don't get angry. Get busy and create an alternative.

Totally agree.

I have been busy switching to and supporting Devuan Will continue to get the word out, contribute financially, and help out here in the forum.

spartrekus · 2017-06-02 20:06:45

Not much people do still use Firefox. It is taking vast amount of memory. Many persons are using today Chromium which is a bit less bloated.

Anyhow, the best way to install the last version of Firefox is to be lucky to compile it. Or, you can try backports of Debian or Devuan on Jessie.
Ubuntu has a much higher version of Firefox if you want.

Compilign yourself is always the best way to learn, and to never compile your own such application again so much it is difficult

greenjeans · 2017-06-02 20:30:58

golinux wrote:

GNUser wrote:
This is wrong and it makes me angry.
Pissed a lot of people off. Don't get angry. Get busy and create an alternative. Don't expect corporations to do it for you.

ETA: Sound works but i'm in my working mate partition so it has pulse, will try in a bit in openbox/alsa. Video works though it doesn't want to do high-def, but that's likely this low-spec machine and it's crappy APU. But dang, for regular browsing this works and it's lightning-quick!

Okay, here's a browser, haven't tested sound but i'm pretty sure video plays, save it in a text file and name it something.py and make it executable, you can change the name in the title bar and the homepage to whatever you want, this is not my code, just stuff I have picked up on the net over the years. FYI I am posting this using this browser, so it supports logins and most other things I think:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import pygtk
pygtk.require('2.0')
import gtk
import webkit
import gobject

name = "Vuu-do Browser"

class Browser:
    default_site = "http://www.dev1galaxy.org"

    def delete_event(self, widget, event, data=None):
        return False

    def destroy(self, widget, data=None):
        gtk.main_quit()

    def __init__(self):
        gobject.threads_init()
        self.window = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
        self.window.set_resizable(True)
        self.window.set_default_size(1100, 950)
        self.window.connect("delete_event", self.delete_event)
        self.window.connect("destroy", self.destroy)

        #webkit.WebView allows us to embed a webkit browser
        #it takes care of going backwards/fowards/reloading
        #it even handles flash
        self.web_view = webkit.WebView()
        self.web_view.open(self.default_site)
        self.window.set_title('%s' % name)

        toolbar = gtk.Toolbar()

        #create the back button and connect the action to
        #allow us to go backwards using webkit
        self.back_button = gtk.ToolButton(gtk.STOCK_GO_BACK)
        self.back_button.connect("clicked", self.go_back)

        #same idea for forward button
        self.forward_button = gtk.ToolButton(gtk.STOCK_GO_FORWARD)
        self.forward_button.connect("clicked", self.go_forward)

        #again for refresh
        refresh_button = gtk.ToolButton(gtk.STOCK_REFRESH)
        refresh_button.connect("clicked", self.refresh)
        
        #again for home
        home_button = gtk.ToolButton(gtk.STOCK_HOME)
        home_button.connect("clicked", self.go_home)

        #entry bar for typing in and display URLs, when they type in a site
        #and hit enter the on_active function is called
        self.url_bar = gtk.Entry()
        self.url_bar.connect("activate", self.on_active)
        entry_tool = gtk.ToolItem()
        entry_tool.set_expand(True)
        entry_tool.add(self.url_bar)
        self.url_bar.show()

        #anytime a site is loaded the update_buttons will be called
        self.web_view.connect("load_committed", self.update_buttons)

        scroll_window = gtk.ScrolledWindow(None, None)
        scroll_window.add(self.web_view)

        #add the buttons to the toolbar
        toolbar.add(self.back_button)
        toolbar.add(self.forward_button)
        toolbar.add(refresh_button)
        toolbar.add(home_button)
        toolbar.add(entry_tool)

        vbox = gtk.VBox(False, 0)
        vbox.pack_start(toolbar, False, True, 0)
        vbox.pack_start(self.url_bar, False, True, 0)
        vbox.add(scroll_window)

        self.window.add(vbox)
        self.window.show_all()

    def on_active(self, widge, data=None):
        '''When the user enters an address in the bar, we check to make
           sure they added the http://, if not we add it for them.  Once
           the url is correct, we just ask webkit to open that site.'''
        url = self.url_bar.get_text()
        try:
            url.index("://")
        except:
            url = "http://"+url
        self.url_bar.set_text(url)
        self.web_view.open(url)

    def go_back(self, widget, data=None):
        '''Webkit will remember the links and this will allow us to go
           backwards.'''
        self.web_view.go_back()

    def go_forward(self, widget, data=None):
        '''Webkit will remember the links and this will allow us to go
           forwards.'''
        self.web_view.go_forward()

    def refresh(self, widget, data=None):
        '''Simple makes webkit reload the current back.'''
        self.web_view.reload()
        
    def go_home(self, widget, data=None):
		'''Returns to default site, Homepage'''
		self.web_view.open(self.default_site)

    def update_buttons(self, widget, data=None):
        '''Gets the current url entry and puts that into the url bar.
           It then checks to see if we can go back, if we can it makes the
           back button clickable.  Then it does the same for the foward
           button.'''
        self.url_bar.set_text( widget.get_main_frame().get_uri() )
        self.back_button.set_sensitive(self.web_view.can_go_back())
        self.forward_button.set_sensitive(self.web_view.can_go_forward())
        self.go_home.set_sensitive(self.web_view.can_default_site())

    def main(self):
        gtk.main()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    browser = Browser()
    browser.main()

Last edited by greenjeans (2017-06-02 20:47:31)

hughparker1 · 2017-06-08 10:54:20

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.

GNUser · 2017-06-08 12:48:46

@hughparker1: Three separate issues going on.

1.

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.

2.

(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.

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.

Last edited by GNUser (2017-06-08 19:11:43)

GNUser · 2017-06-08 19:05:54

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.

hughparker1 · 2017-06-09 09:58:48

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:~$

Last edited by hughparker1 (2017-06-09 10:01:52)

GNUser · 2017-06-09 11:23:32

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.

hughparker1 · 2017-06-09 16:26:14

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.

smoki · 2017-06-09 20:46:33

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...

Last edited by smoki (2017-06-09 23:42:31)

VH · 2024-08-21 23:08:05

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

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2017-05-29 14:35:22

What is best way to install latest version of Firefox?

#2 2017-05-29 16:24:28

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

#3 2017-05-29 18:30:17

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

#4 2017-05-29 18:51:55

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

#5 2017-05-29 23:43:34

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

#6 2017-06-01 23:32:13

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

#7 2017-06-02 00:02:07

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

#8 2017-06-02 15:59:26

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

#9 2017-06-02 18:39:33

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

#10 2017-06-02 19:13:05

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

#11 2017-06-02 19:20:08

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

#12 2017-06-02 19:23:24

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

#13 2017-06-02 19:34:28

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

#14 2017-06-02 19:44:56

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

#15 2017-06-02 19:51:08

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

#16 2017-06-02 20:06:45

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

#17 2017-06-02 20:30:58

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

#18 2017-06-08 10:54:20

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

#19 2017-06-08 12:48:46

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

#20 2017-06-08 19:05:54

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

#21 2017-06-09 09:58:48

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

#22 2017-06-09 11:23:32

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

#23 2017-06-09 16:26:14

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

#24 2017-06-09 20:46:33

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

#25 2024-08-21 23:08:05

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

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