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I have three Linux systems all Ubuntu based and two of them are using Firefox 35 (Xfce Linux Mint Qiana and Ubuntu Unity 14.04) while the third, Kubuntu 15.04 development branch (with the new Plasma 5) has Firefox 34. When I try to follow the normal method to update Firefox to the latest version the program acts as if no update is available. The system also shows the notice "up to date".

In Synaptic there is no option to upgrade Firefox. (I will not mention Muon here, if has big problems in this unstable version.)

Going to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ I see the message "Looks like you’re using an older version of Firefox." and I get to download firefox-35.0.1.tar.bz2. But I do not want to use the archived/portable version.

How to get to the latest version as usual?

muru
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  • "Note:* If you use your Linux distribution's packaged version of Firefox, you will need to wait for an updated package to be released to its package repository. This article only applies if you installed Firefox manually (without using your distribution's package manager)."* Did you install firefox from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/? – Wilf Feb 11 '15 at 21:52
  • @Wilf - the 34 version was installed when first installing and upgrading the system. the 35 version should have been (is?) in the repositories I imagine. -- Shouldn't v.35 be installed in 15.04 unstable just as it is in 14.04 or 14.10? this unstable version has multiple problems with updates/upgrades as far as i can tell –  Feb 11 '15 at 22:00
  • @cipricus: as a 18 gold-badge member of this community you should know that 15.04 is off-topic here and that you should use launchpad to report bugs... ;-) :P – Fabby Apr 04 '15 at 09:51
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    I'm tempted to flag this as a duplicate of How do I install the latest stable version of Firefox?, even though your reputation exceeds mine. :-P – David Foerster Apr 04 '15 at 11:48

1 Answers1

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The Update Firefox thing only works if you download Firefox from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ and use that, as if Firefox is installed using the package manager by default it is only accessible by root (I think the updater works in Windowz due to a background running service/security flaws) - hence the note at the top of the article:

"Note: If you use your Linux distribution's packaged version of Firefox, you will need to wait for an updated package to be released to its package repository. This article only applies if you installed Firefox manually (without using your distribution's package manager)."

A solution that uses a package manager would be to download the closest available packages (for 14.10) from http://packages.ubuntu.com/utopic-updates/firefox , along with needed dependencies and install those (using gdebi might help with that).

If that fails, just manually install from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/: extract it somewhere out of the way, and set it as default/use a wrapper script/use a soft link from where the existing Firefox binaryis.

15.04 is not due to be released until April 23rd, and the devs behind probably are busy doing the updates to the system rather than external packages like Firefox.

Community
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Wilf
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  • So, because devs behind probably busy doing the updates to the system rather than external packages like Firefox, the normal system updates are limited to 34? –  Feb 11 '15 at 22:04
  • What happened now is I enabled some restricted repositories that were un-checked and then Synaptic proposed me to update from 34 to 36! - which i did –  Feb 11 '15 at 22:06
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    1st) yeah, pretty much 2nd) You may now have a development version of Firefox, have fun :) (36 I think is due to be released soon anyway) – Wilf Feb 11 '15 at 22:10
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    According to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/vivid/+source/firefox Ubuntu 15.04 contains version 37 of Firefox since today (while Mozilla just released v37.0.1). – David Foerster Apr 04 '15 at 11:44
  • Also there are nightly versions available from https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ubuntu/ppa – Wilf Apr 04 '15 at 11:47