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Anonymous nanotube

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Quick Start: jump to the installation instructions.

Welcome to Ubuntuzilla

This is the home of the Ubuntuzilla project, hosts an APT repository with .deb repacks of the latest official release versions of Mozilla Firefox, Firefox ESR, Mozilla SeaMonkey, and Mozilla Thunderbird. This repository should work on any APT-based distribution, including Ubuntu descendants, and Debian descendants. The project was born on Ubuntu forums, but despite the name is not really specific to Ubuntu.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please post on the help forum here on Sourceforge. (There is an archived support forum on the Ubuntu Forums which may be useful as a reference, but is now closed to new posts.)

The packages contain unmodified official Mozilla release binaries, which fact you are encouraged to verify by comparing the checksums of package contents with checksums of the contents of the official Mozilla tar.bz2 release archives. As a matter of general principle, it is a good practice to perform some verification prior to running anything from any unfamiliar website.

If you're ready go for it, jump right to the installation instructions.

Old Ubuntuzilla Archives

Note: the old scripts have not been maintained for years, and probably wouldn't work out of the box if you try.

In the past, the Ubuntuzilla project was a python script which automated the download and installation of Mozilla releases. Those still interested in the script can go here: [Ubuntuzilla_Installer_Script].

Some even older pages:

[Ubuntuzilla_Non_Deb] contains script instructions prior to its being packaged into a .deb installer.

[Ubuntuzilla_Shell_Scripts] contain instructions prior to the script being ported from shell to python.

Background

On many Linux distributions it is common to see a delay between a new release of Mozilla software, and the software showing up in the main distribution repositories. Depending on the distro policy, you might only see some security fix backports and not a full new release.

It is frequently desirable to get more timely security updates for Mozilla software, or run the latest version, which may not be available in the repositories, due to the new features and improvements. This is where the Ubuntuzilla repository comes in. This repository tracks official Mozilla releases, and aims to push out the updated packages within a day or two of their release.

Read below for specific instructions for using this repository to install Firefox, SeaMonkey, and Thunderbird.

Installation

  • It is strongly recommended to make a backup of your Firefox/Thunderbird/Seamonkey user profile, just in case. This is stored in your home directory. Firefox and Seamonkey profiles are stored in the .mozilla directory, Thunderbird profile is stored in .thunderbird or .mozilla-thunderbird directory.
  • Add the ubuntuzilla repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list, either using your favorite editor, or by running the provided one-line command (copy and paste the entire line into a terminal, then press enter).

The repository to add, if you're adding it manually to your sources.list, is 

deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

and you can use the following command to add it to your sources.list in one step: 

echo -e "\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

If you wish, verify that the repository has been added, by looking at /etc/apt/sources.list in your favorite text editor, or running "tail /etc/apt/sources.list" in the terminal.

  • Then add the package signing key to your keyring, by running the following command (note: new key as of 2016-11-15):

    sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 2667CA5C

  • Update your package database:

    sudo apt-get update

  • Install your desired package, with one of the following commands:

    sudo apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build
    sudo apt-get install firefox-esr-mozilla-build
    sudo apt-get install thunderbird-mozilla-build
    sudo apt-get install seamonkey-mozilla-build

All of this can also be done through the GUI with the Synaptic Package Manager, if you so desire. See this step-by-step visual tutorial if you would like to try the GUI approach.

From here on, any updates will be offered to you through the usual channels in the Update Manager.

Localizations

The packages in the repos are 'en-US' (US English) versions. To install any other translations:

  • Download the appropriate language pack add-on .xpi file,
  • Install it from within Firefox/Thunderbird/Seamonkey (as you would with any other add-on).
  • Enable it by setting the config general.useragent.locale to the name of the locale that you want to use. The name of the locale is the same as the name of the language pack that you installed.
    • To edit the config, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor.
  • Restart the application for the setting to take effect.

Firefox language packs are at 

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/<version>/linux-i686/xpi/

Thunderbird language packs are at 

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/<version>/linux-i686/xpi/

Seamonkey language packs are at 

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/releases/<version>/langpack/

For more info about installing language packs, see this Mozilla knowledgebase article.

Removal

To uninstall the packages, uninstall the *-mozilla-build packages, using your favorite package manager. E.g., using apt-get:

sudo apt-get remove firefox-mozilla-build
sudo apt-get remove firefox-esr-mozilla-build
sudo apt-get remove thunderbird-mozilla-build
sudo apt-get remove seamonkey-mozilla-build

If you no longer wish to have the Ubuntuzilla repository in your sources, you can edit it out of your /etc/apt/sources.list.

Technical Details

Repository contents and package behavior

The repository contains packages of the latest releases of Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey. There are both 32- and 64-bit packages available.

The repository location is 

deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

And the repository signing key ID is 2667CA5C (or 0xB7B9C16F2667CA5C in long format), available on keyserver.ubuntu.com.

The packages are named firefox-mozilla-build, firefox-esr-mozilla-build, thunderbird-mozilla-build, and seamonkey-mozilla-build.

Upon installation, the actual binaries are installed into /opt/(firefox|thunderbird|seamonkey), a link is placed into /usr/bin/(firefox|thunderbird|seamonkey), and the same link from the main distro repositories version of these packages is diverted to /usr/bin/(firefox|thunderbird|seamonkey).ubuntu. (Yes, this is one place that the Ubuntuzilla packages show their ubuntu roots.)

A menu shortcut is also created, which places an item named Mozilla Build of (Firefox|Thunderbird|Seamonkey) into the Applications -> Internet menu.

For Firefox ESR, package is placed into lopt/firefox-esr, a link is created in /usr/bin/firefox-esr, and a menu shortcut to it is named Mozilla Build of Firefox ESR. Note that it is a good idea to create a separate profile for Firefox ESR, since some file formats change between versions. Besides that, you should be able to use both the mainline version and ESR at the same time.

The packaging script

The repository packaging script is based on the old installer script. The source code for the packaging script resides in the project git repository, specifically the mozillapackager repository.

If you wish to package your own .debs of Mozilla software, feel free to use that script - though of course you won't be able to sign the package with the Ubuntuzilla signing key, or upload your results to the Ubuntuzilla apt repository.

Help section/FAQ

If you have installed the Ubuntu repositories version of a package, and then install the -mozilla-build package, you will end up with two menu items, one called, say, "Firefox", and another "Mozilla Build of Firefox". They will both take you to the same version of firefox, the one present in /usr/bin/firefox, which is the Mozilla build. If you so desire, you can take out one of them with the menu editor. Or you can just ignore the duplication.

Got questions?

Visit our support forums. Any questions, suggestions, thoughts, comments, feature requests are welcome.

Some Tips

Customizing your Firefox install

  • If middle-click on tab to close it does not work, you can enable it by pointing Firefox to "about:config" and set middlemouse.contentLoadURL to false. Voila, middle-click to close works again.
  • To enable the autoscroll (where you middle-click and a little arrow-graphic appears and you can scroll just by moving the mouse), go to "about:config" and set general.autoScroll to true.
  • To automatically select the entire contents of the URL bar when you click there, open "about:config" and set browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll to true. I find this a helpful usability improvement.

Useful Firefox/Seamonkey Extensions

Here are some very highly recommended extensions. I personally can't imagine living without them. :)

  • Ublock. Simply a must for improving your browsing experience.
  • NoScript blocks javascript and various plugins on a per-site basis. Very useful for security, AdBlock-resistant ads, and various javascript annoyances. Highly recommended.
  • Nuke Anything Enhanced allows you to manually remove elements from a page. For those rare things that are missed by AdBlock + NoScript. :)

If you would like to suggest some other extensions for inclusion in this list, feel free to post a message in the forums here.

Useful Thunderbird Extensions

Here are some very highly recommended extensions for Thunderbird.

  • Enigmail. Easy to use front-end for gnupg to encrypt and sign your email. A must for the security-conscious email user.

If you would like to suggest some other extensions for inclusion in this list, feel free to post a message in the forums here.

Licenses

Credits

  • nanotube is the developer of the scripts and repository maintainer
  • aysiu helped with testing and feature suggestions
  • kansasnoob helped with testing and feature suggestions

Related links

Related

Wiki: Ubuntuzilla_Donations
Wiki: Ubuntuzilla_FAQ
Wiki: Ubuntuzilla_Installer_Script
Wiki: Ubuntuzilla_Non_Deb
Wiki: Ubuntuzilla_Shell_Scripts