Objective
Debian Linux comes with Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) version, which in some rare scenarios may not adequately fit your needs. The objective is to replace the Debian’s default Firefox ESR with the latest bleeding edge Firefox.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: – Debian 9 Stretch
Requirements
Privileged access to your Debian Linux system will be required.
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
Instructions
Download latest Firefox tar-ball
First, download a latest Firefox version. The below command will always fetch the latest binaries:
$ wget -O FirefoxSetup.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US"
Extract new Firefox tarball
# mkdir /opt/firefox # tar xjf FirefoxSetup.tar.bz2 -C /opt/firefox/
Replace existing binary
Make a backup of the original Firefox binary shipped with Debian and create a new symbolic link pointing to downloaded Firefox executable:
# mv /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr_orig # ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox/firefox /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr
Update Firefox
To update your Firefox execute:
$ wget -O FirefoxSetup.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linux64&lang=en-US" # tar xjf FirefoxSetup.tar.bz2 -C /opt/firefox/
Restore Debian’s Default
To restore original Firefox execute:
# unlink /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr # mv /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr_orig /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr