[kwlug-disc] sadness in Ubuntu land

[Andrew Sullivan Cant]

I saw that article last week, but I don't understand why the PPA is needed.

Here is my context:
* I re-installed my laptop with Ubuntu (v21.10), maybe 2 months ago
* installed various firefox extensions from apt including the Gnome 
extension helper:
   - webext-browserpass
   - webext-privacy-badger
   - webext-ublock-origin-firefox
   - chrome-gnome-shell
* then I noticed some inconsistent behaviour in Firefox configuration,
   and realized that there were now 2 copies of Firefox installed
   - snap version, which has been installed by default
   - deb version, which was installed as a dependency from the webext-*
     packages

After I realized this I remove the snap version, `snap remove firefox`, 
and everything seems to be working as expected. Including that the apt 
installed browser could communicated with the local helpers needed for 
the Gnome and browserpass addons.

Tada? I guess...

It was a bit confusing, but now it seems to be working, including 
surviving automatic updates.

Hopefully, this is a helpful data point. :)


Andrew



On 2022-04-24 16:12, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
> Seems like we're not the only ones concerned about FF as a Snap:
> 
> https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04 
> <https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04>
> 
> OMGUbuntu takes a more in-depth look at how to fix this.
> 
> 
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 12:41 AM Chris Irwin via kwlug-disc 
> <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org <mailto:kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>> wrote:
> 
>     __
>     On Sun, Apr 24, 2022, at 00:23, Chris Frey wrote:
>>     Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
>>     requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
>>     distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
>>     or been moved out of Incoming.
>>     The following information may help to resolve the situation:
>>
>>     The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>>     firefox : PreDepends: snapd but it is not going to be installed
>>     E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
> 
>     It may be as simple as Ubuntu's (snap-installing) deb has a slightly
>     higher version that the one from the third-party repo, rather than a
>     malicious modification to apt itself. You should be able to use apt
>     pinning to say `firefox` should only be installed from a specific
>     repo. This might also prevent the dependency warning message.
> 
>     A mocked-up /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozillateam:
> 
>          Package: firefox
>          Pin release o=mozillateam
>          Pin-Priority: -10
> 
>     However, I don't actually have an Ubuntu machine to test, so you may
>     need to adjust that. I got this from the following URLs:
> 
>        1.
>     https://askubuntu.com/questions/449426/pinning-package-using-own-repository-and-apt-get
>     <https://askubuntu.com/questions/449426/pinning-package-using-own-repository-and-apt-get>
>        2. https://linux.die.net/man/5/apt_preferences
>     <https://linux.die.net/man/5/apt_preferences>
> 
>     If you're looking for alternative distros, Fedora is nice. I
>     switched from Ubuntu about 10 years ago now, and have been very happy.
> 
>     If you're just trying to avoid the startup issues associated with
>     snap, the flatpak firefox from flathub works well. It's provided by
>     Mozilla, and is indistinguishable from the native firefox. I have it
>     installed for troubleshooting and honestly have few issues with it.
> 
>     -- 
>     *Chris Irwin*
> 
>     email: chris at chrisirwin.ca <mailto:chris at chrisirwin.ca>
>        web: https://chrisirwin.ca <https://chrisirwin.ca>
> 
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