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Firefox Nightly not auto updating in Linux

singhgere
singhgere
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Firefox Nightly cannot be found in the 'Software' store, so probably the only way to download it is by going to the website and getting a tar.bz2 file. I got that, extrated it and placed it in the/opt folder, made an application shortcut, added an icon, and now it's working like a normal app. The problem arises when it tries to auto-update. Firefox Nightly updates very frequently, sometimes more than once per day, and on windows, I used to get a notification saying that a new update is released, and if i wanted to install it. Clicking yes, Firefox would update and restart within moments, and restore all my tabs and windows seamlessly. Here on Linux, I have to manually download the new tar.bz2 file, extract it, replace it in the specified folder, and launch Firefox Nightly again, and again and again usually once per every alternate day, whenever the new update comes. Is there a solution for this? Will Firefox someday release a .deb file for easy installation and updates? My PC : Dell Optiplex 3070 OS : Zorin OS 16 Core (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)

Firefox Nightly cannot be found in the 'Software' store, so probably the only way to download it is by going to the website and getting a tar.bz2 file. I got that, extrated it and placed it in the/opt folder, made an application shortcut, added an icon, and now it's working like a normal app. The problem arises when it tries to auto-update. Firefox Nightly updates very frequently, sometimes more than once per day, and on windows, I used to get a notification saying that a new update is released, and if i wanted to install it. Clicking yes, Firefox would update and restart within moments, and restore all my tabs and windows seamlessly. Here on Linux, I have to manually download the new tar.bz2 file, extract it, replace it in the specified folder, and launch Firefox Nightly again, and again and again usually once per every alternate day, whenever the new update comes. Is there a solution for this? Will Firefox someday release a .deb file for easy installation and updates? My PC : Dell Optiplex 3070 OS : Zorin OS 16 Core (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)

All Replies (3)

James
James
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Short version is you need to make sure the user has read/write permissions for the Firefox folder whether on Windows, Mac or Linux. Third-party versions like those provided by Linux distros are not updated by Mozilla as they only update their own builds.


Linus users may often place (official builds) of Firefox from mozilla.org in a folder in Home for example as one way to have read/write permissions so the updates works.

cor-el
cor-el
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Note that you can possibly start Firefox via sudo to be able to update Firefox installed in /opt or /usr/local/ I use a bash script: 

#!/bin/sh

cd /usr/local/mozilla/firefox-NI
./firefox -P "default-nightly"

Maksym Pletiuk
Maksym Pletiuk
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Hmmm... But it's easy to fix, isn't it? Just give ownership (of your current user and its group) to folder where Firefox is installed. That fix worked for me. For example, I have firefox nightly on this way /opt/firefox-nightly I just go to /opt folder: cd /opt/ And give it ownership of my current user and group (change username:group to your own): sudo chown -R username:group firefox-nightly

That's all. Firefox now can update automatically. It would be nearly the same if it was installed in the home directory.