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So my Firefox Developer Edition fails to update itself automatically although the settings show I allowed it to automatically install updates.

I first installed it manually into /opt/firefox_dev/firefox by following the recommended procedure and subsequently had to update it manually too -- which is very inconvenient, compared to automatic updates.

So I added the Mozilla PPA to my repositories and followed the procedure, but nothing changed: my FDE keeps on suggesting me, every couple of days or so, to download its latest update, while it should be done automatically, right?

What have I got wrong? Thank you.

P.S. I am on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, maybe that has something to do with the issue.

KiriSakow
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  • Also, maybe someone can kindly create and add some relevant tags to this question (firefox-developer-edition, fde, firefox-aurora), as my low ranking doesn't allow me to do so. – KiriSakow Jan 25 '18 at 19:51
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    If you've copied the files to /opt or /usr/local, both are owned by root, and aren't writable by regular users. To be able to auto update you need to install it in your home folder, or chown /opt or /usr/local. Alternatively, just download the new version and copy its files again, overwriting the old ones. – mikewhatever Jan 25 '18 at 20:32
  • @mikewhatever Thank you. Sorry I don't have enough reputation to be able to give you some kudos. – KiriSakow Jan 26 '18 at 22:00
  • Glad it helped. I've posted the above comment as answer, and you are welcome to accept it. – mikewhatever Jan 26 '18 at 22:15

3 Answers3

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I chose the chown fix, and it worked well for me.

Here is what you need to do:

  1. Add Firefox Developer Edition PPA by following this tutorial.

  2. Quit all Firefox instances. Also, make sure there is no more firefox processes running in the background.

  3. Give the ownership of Firefox Developer Edition directory to your user by running the following command:

your_user_group_name = $(id --group --name)
sudo chown $USER:$your_user_group_name /path/to/firefox_dev -R

  • -R stands for 'recursively'

  • Your user group name may be the same as your user name. To check what groups your user belongs to, run groups $USER.

  1. Finally run

     $ sudo apt update
 $ sudo apt install firefox

[2021 02 UPD]

I've been currently using Ubuntu 20.10 (groovy) and everything is fine.

Here's also the meta details and content of my desktop launcher icon:

$ ll ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-developer.desktop 
-rw-r--r-- 1 MYUSERNAME MYUSERNAME 384 avril 20  2019 /home/MYUSERNAME/.local/share/applications/firefox-developer.desktop

$ cat ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-developer.desktop 
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Firefox Developer Edition
Icon=/home/MYUSERNAME/.local/share/umake/web/firefox-dev/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
TryExec=/home/MYUSERNAME/.local/share/umake/web/firefox-dev/firefox
Exec=firefox-developer
Comment=Firefox Aurora with Developer tools
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=Firefox Developer Edition
KiriSakow
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  • Would this still be available for ubuntu 20.04? I tried this and the FDE launcher icon just disappeared. There is only the default Firefox one. Are there maybe any more changes that need to be done on ~/.local/share/applications/firefox_dev.desktop? – DariusP Feb 09 '21 at 12:15
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    @DariusP see update above – KiriSakow Feb 09 '21 at 20:28
  • Hey, thanks for looking into it. I also tried to install the PPA, but didn't manage to. So I did with Ubuntu Make and it worked. In the firefox-dev.desktop file, it only works for me if I remove the TryExec line and rewrite the Exec to Exec=/home/MYUSERNAME/.local/share/umake/web/firefox-dev/firefox . – DariusP Feb 10 '21 at 10:07
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If you've copied files to /opt or /usr/local, both are owned by root, and aren't writable by regular users. To be able to auto update, you need to install it in your home folder, or chown /opt or /usr/local.

Alternatively, just download the new version and copy its files again, overwriting old ones.

damadam
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mikewhatever
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2

I’d prefer ACL over regular permissions if your kernel supports it.

Just run:

sudo setfacl -Rm u:$USER:rwx /opt
# Or
sudo setfacl -Rm u:$USER:rwx /opt/firefox_dev

# -R     set the ACL permissions recursively
# -m     modify (and thus set) the new permissions
# $USER  is the currently running user; you may want
#        to change this
# rwx    the permissions you want to add the $USER;
#        skip any letters to that permission
#        from $USER

For more info use man setfacl and man getfacl.

tukusejssirs
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