How to Install Firefox Quantum on Debian Stretch Linux

Objective

Install Firefox 57, Quantum, on Debian Stretch

Distributions

Debian 9 Stretch

Requirements

A working Debian Stretch install with root privileges.

Difficulty

Easy

Conventions

• # - requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
• $ - requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Introduction

Firefox 57 is easily the best update to come to Firefox ever. Mozilla even named this release "Quantum" because of how dramatically the browser speed improved. Couple that with the complete redesign of Firefox's UI, and you have a pretty dramatic change.

Thanks to Debian's release schedule, it's unlikely that Stretch will ever officially see Firefox 57. However, it is available in Sid. You won't need to upgrade all the way to Sid to get it either. You only need to tell Debian to use Firefox from Sid.

Add the Sid Repos

You need to add the Sid repositories to Stretch in order to pull the Firefox package. Open /etc/apt/sources.list with your favorite text editor and add in the following two lines.

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main

Save and exit.

Apt Pinning

Next, you're going to need to tell Apt to prioritize all of the packages from Stretch over the ones from Sid, except for the ones you'll need for Firefox. If you don't already have one, create a file at /etc/apt/preferences In it, first place the rules to tell Apt to use Stretch over Sid.

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 2

There are three dependencies that you'll need to pin in addition to Firefox. Set each of them up too.

Package: firefox
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: libfontconfig1
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: fontconfig-config
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: libnss3
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001

Once you have that, save and exit.

Install Firefox

Finally, you're ready to install Firefox. You just need to update Apt, and tell Apt to install Firefox from Sid.

# apt update
# apt install -t sid firefox

Apt will install Firefox alongside the ESR release. The two are independent, so you can keep both or remove one or the other.

Closing Thoughts

You now have Firefox 57 installed on Debian Stretch. As new versions of Firefox are released, you will continue to receive the updated versions from Sid. This way, you won't miss out on the latest features coming from Firefox while still maintaining your stable Debian system.