[nmglug] dist-update w/o upgrading Firefox

Mon May 27 13:40:56 PDT 2019

Hi Brian and the rest of the mailing list:

Aptitude is basically a frontend (also provides different features) for 
the apt structure, so you can run that same command with apt, if you 
wanted to.

~$ sudo apt hold firefox-esr

HOWEVER, for your use-case I would probably approach this differently.

Since you want to stick to a super old version for add-on compatiability 
reasons, I would probably just install the .deb file for firefox esr 
52.9. This should help freeze firefox without having to hold anything. 
Though the thought of running a year old firefox just makes me cringe.

Which add-on isn't compatible?

Here is how to install firefox esr 52.9 from the .deb files. Keep in 
mind I don't include any troubleshooting tips, so if you run into 
problems, then you will want to let me (or the mailing-list) know. Also, 
I tested this on KDE Neon (18.04)

Step Zero: Download everything that you need.

Firefox ESR 52.9: 
https://launchpad.net/~jonathonf/+archive/ubuntu/firefox-esr/+build/15059457/+files/firefox-esr_52.9.0esr-1~14.04.york0_amd64.deb
libevent-2.0-5: 
http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libe/libevent/libevent-2.0-5_2.0.21-stable-2ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb
libhunspell-1.3-0: 
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/h/hunspell/libhunspell-1.3-0_1.3.3-4ubuntu1_amd64.deb
libjsoncpp0: 
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libj/libjsoncpp/libjsoncpp0_0.6.0~rc2-3.1_amd64.deb
libvpx3: 
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/libv/libvpx/libvpx3_1.5.0-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Here is how you can easily download this in the terminal. Copy and paste 
the whole line:

    mkdir firefox-esr_52-9_all-deb ; cd firefox-esr_52-9_all-deb ; wget
    https://launchpad.net/~jonathonf/+archive/ubuntu/firefox-esr/+build/15059457/+files/firefox-esr_52.9.0esr-1~14.04.york0_amd64.deb
    http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libe/libevent/libevent-2.0-5_2.0.21-stable-2ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb
    http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/h/hunspell/libhunspell-1.3-0_1.3.3-4ubuntu1_amd64.deb
    http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libj/libjsoncpp/libjsoncpp0_0.6.0~rc2-3.1_amd64.deb
    http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/libv/libvpx/libvpx3_1.5.0-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Step 1: remove firefox (without removing your existing profile).

    sudo apt remove firefox* iceweasel*

Step 1.5: If you receive this error, dpkg-divert: error: 'diversion of 
/usr/bin/firefox to /usr/bin/firefox.real by firefox-esr' clashes with 
'diversion of /usr/bin/firefox to /usr/bin/_neon.firefox by neon-settings'
Then run this:

    sudo dpkg-divert --remove /usr/bin/firefox

Step 2: change directories and install firefox-esr with the dependencies

    sudo dpkg -i lib* firefox-esr_52.9.0esr-1~14.04.york0_amd64.deb

At this point you should be able to use firefox ESR 52.9.

I reached out to the IRC channel #newbies on irc.mozilla.org and no one 
replied to me, so that PPA is the only place I was able to download the 
.deb file.

You can compile from source, however, I think you still need the other 4 
libs.
Link to the source files, 
https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-52.9.0esr.tar.bz2

Also, I wrote a blog post on this.

https://www.abqlug.com/tutorials/how-to-install-firefox-esr-52-9-on-ubuntu-18-04/

Regards,

Jared

On 5/24/19 4:35 PM, Brian O'Keefe wrote:
>
> Thanks! Yes, I did mean dist-upgrade and thanks for catching that. I 
> will give your instructions a try. I may use a virtual machine to be 
> sure I know what I'm doing. I am used to apt and apt-get and the 
> command line.
>
> Ciao
>
> Brian
>
> On 5/24/19 3:33 PM, Akkana Peck wrote:
>> Brian O'Keefe writes:
>>>     I'd like to run "apt dist-update" but I don't want to upgrade FF as I'm
>>>     using FF52 ESR as any newer version doesn't support some add-ons I want
>>>     to keep. Hence I never upgrade it though if the add-ons maintainers
>>>     adapt to the new FF I certainly will too.
>> I'm assuming you mean dist-upgrade, since dist-update isn't a valid
>> apt command (at least on my system, it says Invalid operation).
>>
>> You can tell apt to "hold" a package, so it won't install a new
>> version on top of what you already have:
>>
>> sudo aptitude hold firefox-esr
>>
>> (or whatever the package name is that you want to hold.
>> Apparently you can also use sudo apt-mark hold firefox-esr,
>> if you don't have aptitude installed, though personally I've only
>> set holds with aptitude.
>>
>> You should probably hold all the firefox-esr-related packages
>> you have installed, so get a list with
>>
>> aptitude search firefox-esr | grep '^i'
>> or
>> apt list --installed 'firefox-esr*'
>>
>> to see if you need to hold any additional packages.
>>
>> I don't know for sure that any of this will work with the GUI
>> update manager you're using, but it works for apt-get dist-upgrade
>> from the command line.
>>
>> You can see your held packages with
>>
>> aptitude search '~ahold'
>>
>>          ...Akkana
>> _______________________________________________
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>> nmglug at lists.nmglug.org
>> http://lists.nmglug.org/listinfo.cgi/nmglug-nmglug.org
>>
>>
> -- 
>
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