Firefox keeps downgrading from apt and switching to snap causing session loss & unexpected behavior

General Help
1

It's happening frequently, when updating (apt update & upgrade), terminal says 1 downgreaded which is firefox. Then somehow it switches to snap and I start seeing the big delay in app opening time. I keep important tabs, groups & sessions opened and every time this happens, i loose the session.
Here are some data about firefox, even though IDK how much it helps..:

fahim@zorinOS:~$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
fahim@zorinOS:~$ snap list
Name               Version                         Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
bare               1.0                             5      latest/stable  canonicalâś“  base
core22             20251105                        2193   latest/stable  canonicalâś“  base
firefox            146.0.1-1                       7559   latest/stable  mozillaâś“    -
gnome-42-2204      0+git.837775c-sdk0+git.7b07595  226    latest/stable  canonicalâś“  -
gtk-common-themes  0.1-81-g442e511                 1535   latest/stable  canonicalâś“  -
snapd              2.73                            25935  latest/stable  canonicalâś“  snapd
fahim@zorinOS:~$ firefox -v
Mozilla Firefox 146.0.1
fahim@zorinOS:~$

image

firefox
firefox594Ă—491 12.8 KB

OS: Zorin 18

2

It looks like Firefox is installed as Snap. You can run apt list firefox to see if it shows You something.

So, if I understand You right, You don't want the Snap Version, you want the .deb Version, right? For this uninstall Firefox Snap with snap remove --purge firefox and then go in Gnome Software and serach for Firefox. On the Software Site of it, You have the Install Button. And under the Button stands the Package Formt. Click on that and You get a Dropdown Menu. Choose the Option ''Zorin APT'' and then install it. You should get an Info Window that the Mozilla Repo will be added and Firefox will be installed from this.

Alternatively, You could add the Repo by Yourself with this Instructions:

1 Like
3

I am cross linking this thread:

Due to concerns since multiple users are reporting that Ubuntu's APT supplied packages are doing something highly unusual: Converting APT supplied packages to Snap, without user consent or notification.

It is not known at this time if this is a deliberate Canonical behavior or some kind of misunderstanding.
Got the hairs standing up on the back of my neck, though.

1 Like
4

Same issue here. I installed firefox (zorin apt) version on the software center and, after some days, it was automatically replaced with the snap version. The apt installatio was gone, with all my bookmarks and browsing history.

I now unistalled snap and kept it from reinstalling ( https://christitus.com/disable-snaps/). Let's see if it solves it...

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5

Welcome to the Forum!

Are the Mozilla Files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and /etc/apt/preferences.d still there? If they are there, what is the Content of them?

1 Like
6

Now I just reinstalled Zorin and disabled snaps with the link above...

This is /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list

deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main

This is /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000
1 Like
7

So are this the files after a fresh install? They look normal.
It would have been interesting if they have been changed after the snap package was installed.

1 Like
8

Yes, that looks right.