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After a fresh installation of Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop, Firefox (99) does not load after clicking on the icon on the left menu bar. Cursor changes to the rotating circle then disappears after a few seconds. I have performed four installations on the same hardware with the same results.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 CPU: AMD Phenom II 6 Core 1055T RAM: 16GB Windowing System: Wayland

E. Dale Franks
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2 Answers2

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Method to switch from Wayland to X (to make Firefox work)

In one computer I switched from the default Wayland to Xorg in order to make Firefox work. I think it was in a computer with nvidia graphics.

Edit the configuration file,

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

to uncomment [remove # from] the line containing

WaylandEnable=false

save the file (ctrl + x and after that y ('yes') or another key for non-English and finally Enter) and reboot.

sudodus
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    I have a computer that has the same problem with Firefox and Chrome using 22.04 and Wayland. It does not have NVIDIA graphics, but Intel 945GM. Using X11, the browsers work as they should. (The method of sudodus is the way I used to switch.) – Tobias Carlson May 18 '22 at 14:36
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    While installing Ubuntu 22.04 on a donated computer, ran into the same problem. It did not have NVIDIA graphics either. This answer also solved the problem. – Rex Jul 15 '23 at 13:56
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Trying to run Ubuntu 22.04 on a computer that has an Nvidia graphics card and is using the built-in open source Nouveau graphics driver can cause Firefox to be unable to open, however you can still browse the web by installing Chromium web browser with sudo snap install chromium.

The AMD Phenom II CPU does not have integrated graphics, so it needs a separate graphics card which in turn requires a graphics driver if your graphics card is an NVIDIA model. If so, open the terminal and run the following commands to automatically install the proprietary Nvidia graphics driver packages which are suitable for your graphics card. These commands will also automatically switch your display server protocol from the default Wayland to X11/Xorg.

sudo apt update
sudo ubuntu-drivers install
sudo reboot

The install option of ubuntu-drivers installs drivers that are appropriate for automatic installation including their dependencies.

karel
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    Wayland and Nvidia drivers don't play nice on 22.04. You must use X11/Xorg. – heynnema May 05 '22 at 17:22
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    Thank you for your answer. This resolved my issue. – E. Dale Franks May 06 '22 at 20:04
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    There is this link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Wayland that specifically says that Wayland isn't currently working with Nvidia drivers. See section titled "Can Wayland be used with the closed source proprietary graphics drivers?" – Ken Jul 26 '23 at 02:18