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Firefox 116 fails to start on Ubuntu 22.04 ARM64 Rpi4 after a snap refresh.

Firefox 116.0-2 was installed but fails to start either from the gui or command line.

I tried:

snap remove firefox
snap install firefox

but the problem remains.

tail /var/log/syslog shows:

Aug  2 22:26:10 richard-desktop-rpi4 systemd[2029]: Started Application launched by gnome-shell.
Aug  2 22:26:10 richard-desktop-rpi4 systemd[2029]: Started snap.firefox.firefox.1a57032b-692e-4cde-825d-5be33c3c0a6f.scope.
Aug  2 22:26:11 richard-desktop-rpi4 firefox_firefox.desktop[4882]: XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /snap/firefox/2960/usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so:
Aug  2 22:26:11 richard-desktop-rpi4 firefox_firefox.desktop[4882]: /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.30' not found (required by /snap/firefox/2960/usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so)
Aug  2 22:26:11 richard-desktop-rpi4 firefox_firefox.desktop[4882]: Couldn't load XPCOM.
Aug  2 22:26:11 richard-desktop-rpi4 systemd[2029]: snap.firefox.firefox.1a57032b-692e-4cde-825d-5be33c3c0a6f.scope: Consumed 1.184s CPU time.

And snap info firefox :

richard@richard-desktop-rpi4:~$ snap info firefox
name:      firefox
summary:   Mozilla Firefox web browser
publisher: Mozilla✓
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/firefox
contact:   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/file-bug-report-or-feature-request-mozilla
license:   unset
description: |
  Firefox is a powerful, extensible web browser with support for modern web
  application technologies.
commands:
  - firefox
  - firefox.geckodriver
snap-id:      3wdHCAVyZEmYsCMFDE9qt92UV8rC8Wdk
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: today at 21:44 NZST
channels:
  latest/stable:    116.0-2      2023-08-01 (2960) 233MB -
  latest/candidate: 116.0-2      2023-07-29 (2960) 233MB -
  latest/beta:      117.0b1-1    2023-08-01 (2965) 235MB -
  latest/edge:      ↑                                    
  esr/stable:       115.1.0esr-1 2023-08-01 (2957) 233MB -
  esr/candidate:    115.1.0esr-1 2023-07-29 (2957) 233MB -
  esr/beta:         ↑                                    
  esr/edge:         ↑                                    
installed:          116.0-2                 (2960) 233MB -

Thanks in advance for any help/info or suggestions.

Richard J
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  • Does switching to the APT package help? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1399383/how-to-install-firefox-as-a-traditional-deb-package-without-snap-in-ubuntu-22/1404401#1404401 – Archisman Panigrahi Aug 02 '23 at 16:56
  • Many thanks for the suggestion. I'm really keen to use the new hardware acceleration features contained in the snap version. – Richard J Aug 02 '23 at 23:27
  • Can you test and let us know whether the ppa version also supports the same hardware acceleration features? – Archisman Panigrahi Aug 02 '23 at 23:43
  • According to https://www.omglinux.com/firefox-hardware-acceleration-raspberry-pi/, the feature comes with Firefox 116, and it does not seem to be snap specific – Archisman Panigrahi Aug 02 '23 at 23:45
  • Installing Firefox 116.0 via the ppa:mozillateam/ppa yields a successful result with some graphics error messages on startup that I will investigate further and report back in a few hours. Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0][GFX1-]: glxtest: ManageChildProcess failed (t=3.8024) |[1][GFX1-]: No GPUs detected via PCI (t=3.80265) [GFX1-]: No GPUs detected via PCI – Richard J Aug 03 '23 at 22:59
  • Restoring the snap beta 117.03b(64bit) command line starrtup logs some errors: GFX1-]: glxtest: DRM render node not clearly detectable. Falling back to using the only one that was found. [GFX1-]: vaapitest: ERROR [GFX1-]: vaapitest: VA-API test failed: failed to initialise VAAPI connection. Also running windy.com with Firefox 116.0 from the Mozilla PPA it is necessary to use graphics compatibility mode to get particle animations to display. With the snap beta 117.0 version windy displays particle animation without using graphics compatibility mode. HTH – Richard J Aug 04 '23 at 09:13
  • Firefox 116.0.2 installed through apt is also not working well for me on Ubuntu Unity 22.04. Any moderately complex web app (like GMail) just turns into a blank gray screen with a spinning wheel. – Garrett Aug 08 '23 at 02:51

1 Answers1

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I had the same issue today with 116.0-2 version.

I installed the beta version 117.0b1-1 and worked fine with me.

sudo snap remove --purge firefox

sudo snap install firefox --beta
pyrobit
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  • Thanks. Great work around, Firefox/Beta 117.0b1-1 works for me. I can now watch Youtube videos in 1080p on my RPi4 4GB. To those coming after, find a way to backup your firefox bookmarks before snap remove. – Richard J Aug 02 '23 at 23:22