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Linux Firefox in Chrome OS

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  • Last reply by Amelia

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When i click on the firefox icon in linux apps on my chromebook, firefox does not start. When I try to re-install from terminal, it says it is already installed.

When i click on the firefox icon in linux apps on my chromebook, firefox does not start. When I try to re-install from terminal, it says it is already installed.

Chosen solution

Ok,

This means your repositories do not contain Firefox. We can remedy this by using the official PPA (personal package archive). Please note that although this PPA is official, anyone can make a PPA, with any software, including malware, so take caution when you are using commands like this. Due to this, I will provide an explanation of what each command does, so that you can better understand what each does, and why you should only do this procedure for programs you trust.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A6DCF7707EBC211F

This downloads and trusts the Mozilla PPA GPG key. APT uses GPG keys to check that you are receiving software from a trusted source, and that this software was not altered.

sudo apt-add-repository "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu bionic main"

This adds the Mozilla PPA to APT. Any repository on your APT list with a trusted key can distribute malware, so be extra careful throwing around repositories. This also uses Bionic (a Ubuntu version), as this PPA does not have debian versions.

sudo apt update

This updates your local repository storage. It is benign in nature, but we need it in order for APT to know that we updated the list of repositories.

sudo apt install firefox

Installing Firefox

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Hello,

Please try reinstalling Firefox, in case that is the problem. You will not lose any history for doing this.

The command for you to do so will be (assuming you are talking about crostini/the Linux (beta)) in termina/vsh: sudo apt remove firefox && sudo apt update && sudo apt install firefox

You can execute these commands separately as well.

You may also be interested in the beta coming directly from Mozilla, as opposed the possibly outdated version on the Debian repositories.

Please tell us if this helped!

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raymacdougall@penguin:~$ sudo apt remove firefox && sudo apt update && sudo apt install firefox Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Package 'firefox' is not installed, so not removed 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Hit:1 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease Get:2 https://security.debian.org bullseye-security InRelease [44.1 kB] Ign:3 https://storage.googleapis.com/cros-packages/97 bullseye InRelease Hit:4 https://storage.googleapis.com/cros-packages/97 bullseye Release Get:5 https://security.debian.org bullseye-security/main amd64 Packages [107 kB] Get:6 https://security.debian.org bullseye-security/main Translation-en [68.5 kB] Fetched 220 kB in 1s (440 kB/s) Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done All packages are up to date. Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Package firefox is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source

E: Package 'firefox' has no installation candidate

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My next message will need approval from a moderator, so sit tight

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Chosen Solution

Ok,

This means your repositories do not contain Firefox. We can remedy this by using the official PPA (personal package archive). Please note that although this PPA is official, anyone can make a PPA, with any software, including malware, so take caution when you are using commands like this. Due to this, I will provide an explanation of what each command does, so that you can better understand what each does, and why you should only do this procedure for programs you trust.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A6DCF7707EBC211F

This downloads and trusts the Mozilla PPA GPG key. APT uses GPG keys to check that you are receiving software from a trusted source, and that this software was not altered.

sudo apt-add-repository "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu bionic main"

This adds the Mozilla PPA to APT. Any repository on your APT list with a trusted key can distribute malware, so be extra careful throwing around repositories. This also uses Bionic (a Ubuntu version), as this PPA does not have debian versions.

sudo apt update

This updates your local repository storage. It is benign in nature, but we need it in order for APT to know that we updated the list of repositories.

sudo apt install firefox

Installing Firefox