install Firefox from the “Ubuntu Software” application












-2















After using Ubuntu Software to remove Firefox Web Browser I have the option to again remove Firefox Web Browser. How do I get the installation control instead of the remove control?



Before removing the browser:



before
After removing the browser the dialog is the same: it shows a remove control. After closing the Ubuntu Software application and restarting it, it will still show a remove control.



I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.



Note that I am not interested in "Firefox Quantum". Note there is a bug wherein the label next to the Firefox icon is "Firefox" when in fact it might be better as "Firefox Quantum" but that can be posted as yet another askubuntu.com problem.










share|improve this question

























  • Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:04













  • Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:11













  • @pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:06











  • I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

    – N0rbert
    Jan 25 at 19:08













  • @h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 19:32


















-2















After using Ubuntu Software to remove Firefox Web Browser I have the option to again remove Firefox Web Browser. How do I get the installation control instead of the remove control?



Before removing the browser:



before
After removing the browser the dialog is the same: it shows a remove control. After closing the Ubuntu Software application and restarting it, it will still show a remove control.



I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.



Note that I am not interested in "Firefox Quantum". Note there is a bug wherein the label next to the Firefox icon is "Firefox" when in fact it might be better as "Firefox Quantum" but that can be posted as yet another askubuntu.com problem.










share|improve this question

























  • Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:04













  • Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:11













  • @pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:06











  • I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

    – N0rbert
    Jan 25 at 19:08













  • @h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 19:32
















-2












-2








-2








After using Ubuntu Software to remove Firefox Web Browser I have the option to again remove Firefox Web Browser. How do I get the installation control instead of the remove control?



Before removing the browser:



before
After removing the browser the dialog is the same: it shows a remove control. After closing the Ubuntu Software application and restarting it, it will still show a remove control.



I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.



Note that I am not interested in "Firefox Quantum". Note there is a bug wherein the label next to the Firefox icon is "Firefox" when in fact it might be better as "Firefox Quantum" but that can be posted as yet another askubuntu.com problem.










share|improve this question
















After using Ubuntu Software to remove Firefox Web Browser I have the option to again remove Firefox Web Browser. How do I get the installation control instead of the remove control?



Before removing the browser:



before
After removing the browser the dialog is the same: it shows a remove control. After closing the Ubuntu Software application and restarting it, it will still show a remove control.



I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.



Note that I am not interested in "Firefox Quantum". Note there is a bug wherein the label next to the Firefox icon is "Firefox" when in fact it might be better as "Firefox Quantum" but that can be posted as yet another askubuntu.com problem.







16.04 firefox






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Jan 25 at 6:03









pomsky

31.4k1195128




31.4k1195128










asked Jan 25 at 1:28









H2ONaClH2ONaCl

3,349204886




3,349204886













  • Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:04













  • Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:11













  • @pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:06











  • I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

    – N0rbert
    Jan 25 at 19:08













  • @h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 19:32





















  • Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:04













  • Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 6:11













  • @pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:06











  • I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

    – N0rbert
    Jan 25 at 19:08













  • @h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 19:32



















Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 6:04







Could you please expand on "... need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results"? The root of the problem seems to be related to this sentence. What's exactly is the problem?

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 6:04















Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 6:11







Also I think you have a slight misconception, you cannot (easily) avoid Firefox Quantum. All the currently supported Firefox versions (v57+) are Quantum. There is no bug, both of the entries in your screenshot are indeed Firefox Quantum, the first one is a snap package.

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 6:11















@pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

– H2ONaCl
Jan 25 at 19:06





@pomsky The command line remove and purge of Firefox is not fixing this problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

– H2ONaCl
Jan 25 at 19:06













I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

– N0rbert
Jan 25 at 19:08







I'm avoiding Quantum too - I use Firefox 52.9 ESR. It is unsecure, but you can install it following this answer. About two firefoxes in the software - one may be a Snap (check with snap list | grep firefox).

– N0rbert
Jan 25 at 19:08















@h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 19:32







@h2o I'm confused, why do you think removing and reinstalling Firefox specifically using the GUI application would solve the problem?

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 19:32












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















1














It's possible that other package operations are "in progress" or that your package system is in a broken state (possibly from commands you ran previously) which means hitting "Remove" in the Ubuntu Software application is simply queuing these actions and not actually executing them.



Also of note is that one of those Firefox packages I believe is a Snap package.




I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.




It's worth noting that Ubuntu Software, other package managers, and most every Linux program actually are interfaces that eventually run commands on the command line. This means that if something doens't work on the command line it's not very likely to work in a GUI, except when the GUI developers have added a bit of helper code to avoid common mistakes.



You can check if Firefox is installed using:



dpkg -l firefox


If it's installed, you'll see this:



ii  firefox                  64.0+build3-0ubun amd64             Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla


That ii in the first column means it's installed.



It's worth mentioning that Firefox and many other applications can be added or removed, but they also store lots of files. For example, if I want I can copy my ~/.mozilla/firefox directory from one installation to another and it will keep all my plugins, cookies, etc. intact. This is because applications in Linux cannot store files in system privileged areas of the disk and therefore keep their configuration files within your home directory (~)



Separate from the files in your home directory there are commands such as apt purge which will removes a package and it's associated system configuration files but to the best of my knowledge never removes any user configuration files.



Cool, but how do I reinstall Firefox using the GUI?



I would suggest you first see if your package system is in a broken state by simply running:



sudo apt install firefox --reinstall


If this complains and says you have a broken package system then it explains why Ubuntu Software app isn't working. If it complains an existing dpkg process is already running, that also explains why the app isn't doing what you expect, and you should probably reboot Ubuntu.



Also as user pomsky mentions Firefox Quantum and Firefox are effectively the same thing now. There exists no officially supported version of Firefox that doesn't use the changes presented from Quantum, which essentially change how it uses multiple threads and other UI improvements. You can, in theory, grab a much older version of Firefox using:



apt install firefox=55.0


You probably do not want to actually do that as you'll be running an insecure version of Firefox






share|improve this answer
























  • Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 7:23











  • sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:10











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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









1














It's possible that other package operations are "in progress" or that your package system is in a broken state (possibly from commands you ran previously) which means hitting "Remove" in the Ubuntu Software application is simply queuing these actions and not actually executing them.



Also of note is that one of those Firefox packages I believe is a Snap package.




I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.




It's worth noting that Ubuntu Software, other package managers, and most every Linux program actually are interfaces that eventually run commands on the command line. This means that if something doens't work on the command line it's not very likely to work in a GUI, except when the GUI developers have added a bit of helper code to avoid common mistakes.



You can check if Firefox is installed using:



dpkg -l firefox


If it's installed, you'll see this:



ii  firefox                  64.0+build3-0ubun amd64             Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla


That ii in the first column means it's installed.



It's worth mentioning that Firefox and many other applications can be added or removed, but they also store lots of files. For example, if I want I can copy my ~/.mozilla/firefox directory from one installation to another and it will keep all my plugins, cookies, etc. intact. This is because applications in Linux cannot store files in system privileged areas of the disk and therefore keep their configuration files within your home directory (~)



Separate from the files in your home directory there are commands such as apt purge which will removes a package and it's associated system configuration files but to the best of my knowledge never removes any user configuration files.



Cool, but how do I reinstall Firefox using the GUI?



I would suggest you first see if your package system is in a broken state by simply running:



sudo apt install firefox --reinstall


If this complains and says you have a broken package system then it explains why Ubuntu Software app isn't working. If it complains an existing dpkg process is already running, that also explains why the app isn't doing what you expect, and you should probably reboot Ubuntu.



Also as user pomsky mentions Firefox Quantum and Firefox are effectively the same thing now. There exists no officially supported version of Firefox that doesn't use the changes presented from Quantum, which essentially change how it uses multiple threads and other UI improvements. You can, in theory, grab a much older version of Firefox using:



apt install firefox=55.0


You probably do not want to actually do that as you'll be running an insecure version of Firefox






share|improve this answer
























  • Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 7:23











  • sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:10
















1














It's possible that other package operations are "in progress" or that your package system is in a broken state (possibly from commands you ran previously) which means hitting "Remove" in the Ubuntu Software application is simply queuing these actions and not actually executing them.



Also of note is that one of those Firefox packages I believe is a Snap package.




I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.




It's worth noting that Ubuntu Software, other package managers, and most every Linux program actually are interfaces that eventually run commands on the command line. This means that if something doens't work on the command line it's not very likely to work in a GUI, except when the GUI developers have added a bit of helper code to avoid common mistakes.



You can check if Firefox is installed using:



dpkg -l firefox


If it's installed, you'll see this:



ii  firefox                  64.0+build3-0ubun amd64             Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla


That ii in the first column means it's installed.



It's worth mentioning that Firefox and many other applications can be added or removed, but they also store lots of files. For example, if I want I can copy my ~/.mozilla/firefox directory from one installation to another and it will keep all my plugins, cookies, etc. intact. This is because applications in Linux cannot store files in system privileged areas of the disk and therefore keep their configuration files within your home directory (~)



Separate from the files in your home directory there are commands such as apt purge which will removes a package and it's associated system configuration files but to the best of my knowledge never removes any user configuration files.



Cool, but how do I reinstall Firefox using the GUI?



I would suggest you first see if your package system is in a broken state by simply running:



sudo apt install firefox --reinstall


If this complains and says you have a broken package system then it explains why Ubuntu Software app isn't working. If it complains an existing dpkg process is already running, that also explains why the app isn't doing what you expect, and you should probably reboot Ubuntu.



Also as user pomsky mentions Firefox Quantum and Firefox are effectively the same thing now. There exists no officially supported version of Firefox that doesn't use the changes presented from Quantum, which essentially change how it uses multiple threads and other UI improvements. You can, in theory, grab a much older version of Firefox using:



apt install firefox=55.0


You probably do not want to actually do that as you'll be running an insecure version of Firefox






share|improve this answer
























  • Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 7:23











  • sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:10














1












1








1







It's possible that other package operations are "in progress" or that your package system is in a broken state (possibly from commands you ran previously) which means hitting "Remove" in the Ubuntu Software application is simply queuing these actions and not actually executing them.



Also of note is that one of those Firefox packages I believe is a Snap package.




I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.




It's worth noting that Ubuntu Software, other package managers, and most every Linux program actually are interfaces that eventually run commands on the command line. This means that if something doens't work on the command line it's not very likely to work in a GUI, except when the GUI developers have added a bit of helper code to avoid common mistakes.



You can check if Firefox is installed using:



dpkg -l firefox


If it's installed, you'll see this:



ii  firefox                  64.0+build3-0ubun amd64             Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla


That ii in the first column means it's installed.



It's worth mentioning that Firefox and many other applications can be added or removed, but they also store lots of files. For example, if I want I can copy my ~/.mozilla/firefox directory from one installation to another and it will keep all my plugins, cookies, etc. intact. This is because applications in Linux cannot store files in system privileged areas of the disk and therefore keep their configuration files within your home directory (~)



Separate from the files in your home directory there are commands such as apt purge which will removes a package and it's associated system configuration files but to the best of my knowledge never removes any user configuration files.



Cool, but how do I reinstall Firefox using the GUI?



I would suggest you first see if your package system is in a broken state by simply running:



sudo apt install firefox --reinstall


If this complains and says you have a broken package system then it explains why Ubuntu Software app isn't working. If it complains an existing dpkg process is already running, that also explains why the app isn't doing what you expect, and you should probably reboot Ubuntu.



Also as user pomsky mentions Firefox Quantum and Firefox are effectively the same thing now. There exists no officially supported version of Firefox that doesn't use the changes presented from Quantum, which essentially change how it uses multiple threads and other UI improvements. You can, in theory, grab a much older version of Firefox using:



apt install firefox=55.0


You probably do not want to actually do that as you'll be running an insecure version of Firefox






share|improve this answer













It's possible that other package operations are "in progress" or that your package system is in a broken state (possibly from commands you ran previously) which means hitting "Remove" in the Ubuntu Software application is simply queuing these actions and not actually executing them.



Also of note is that one of those Firefox packages I believe is a Snap package.




I have a need to reinstall Firefox without using the command line because the command line is not yielding satisfactory results.




It's worth noting that Ubuntu Software, other package managers, and most every Linux program actually are interfaces that eventually run commands on the command line. This means that if something doens't work on the command line it's not very likely to work in a GUI, except when the GUI developers have added a bit of helper code to avoid common mistakes.



You can check if Firefox is installed using:



dpkg -l firefox


If it's installed, you'll see this:



ii  firefox                  64.0+build3-0ubun amd64             Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla


That ii in the first column means it's installed.



It's worth mentioning that Firefox and many other applications can be added or removed, but they also store lots of files. For example, if I want I can copy my ~/.mozilla/firefox directory from one installation to another and it will keep all my plugins, cookies, etc. intact. This is because applications in Linux cannot store files in system privileged areas of the disk and therefore keep their configuration files within your home directory (~)



Separate from the files in your home directory there are commands such as apt purge which will removes a package and it's associated system configuration files but to the best of my knowledge never removes any user configuration files.



Cool, but how do I reinstall Firefox using the GUI?



I would suggest you first see if your package system is in a broken state by simply running:



sudo apt install firefox --reinstall


If this complains and says you have a broken package system then it explains why Ubuntu Software app isn't working. If it complains an existing dpkg process is already running, that also explains why the app isn't doing what you expect, and you should probably reboot Ubuntu.



Also as user pomsky mentions Firefox Quantum and Firefox are effectively the same thing now. There exists no officially supported version of Firefox that doesn't use the changes presented from Quantum, which essentially change how it uses multiple threads and other UI improvements. You can, in theory, grab a much older version of Firefox using:



apt install firefox=55.0


You probably do not want to actually do that as you'll be running an insecure version of Firefox







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Jan 25 at 6:17









Kristopher IvesKristopher Ives

2,83211525




2,83211525













  • Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 7:23











  • sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:10



















  • Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

    – pomsky
    Jan 25 at 7:23











  • sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

    – H2ONaCl
    Jan 25 at 19:10

















Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 7:23





Nice, very detailed! Covers all the bases. The first one in OP's screenshot is a snap package.

– pomsky
Jan 25 at 7:23













sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

– H2ONaCl
Jan 25 at 19:10





sudo apt install firefox --reinstall was tried before I used the GUI installer. sudo apt install firefox --reinstall fails to fix the following problem: askubuntu.com/questions/1112664/…

– H2ONaCl
Jan 25 at 19:10


















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