By default, Debian includes the ESR (Extended Support Release) version of Firefox. This is a more stable version but doesn't receive the latest feature updates as quickly as regular Firefox.
I always have two versions of Firefox at hand, along with Google Chrome.
Google Chrome allows me to validate my site’s development for most users, since let's be honest, only 10 of us are still fighting for Firefox’s open-source side. Occasionally, I check that everything I code works well under Chrome.
For coding and debugging my sites, I use Firefox Developer Edition.
Finally, for daily use, I rely on the non-ESR version of Firefox, which is not the default version offered by Debian.
You can certainly download Firefox for Linux and create a GNOME launcher to point to the executable, etc.
All this isn’t as straightforward as using a repository. So, I looked for a solution to have both the non-ESR version of Firefox and Firefox Developer Edition with clean installations and updates via APT.
And good news: Mozilla now offers an APT repository directly for Debian.
1. The Different Versions of Firefox
Firefox Developer Edition:
This version is aimed at developers, offering advanced development tools and experimental features to test new functionalities before they are released in the stable version.
It’s what I use for coding and debugging my sites.
Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release):
A stable and secure version, ideal for environments that prioritize stability.It receives security and maintenance updates, but new features arrive less frequently.
This is the version provided by Debian 13.
- Firefox (normal version) :
The latest and most complete version of Firefox, with the newest features and improvements.
I use this for daily tasks.
Here, the advantage is that Mozilla directly provides the Debian packages via its APT repository.
You can therefore install Firefox directly with APT and benefit from updates from the repository without having to manually download and manage a Firefox archive.
2. Step-by-Step Installation
2.1. Create a directory to store the APT repository keys if it doesn’t already exist :
The following command allows you to create the directory with the correct permissions for storing Mozilla’s APT repository keys:
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings |
2.2. Import the signing key of the Mozilla APT repository :
The wget command below lets you download the signing key from Mozilla’s repository:
wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null |
If wget is not installed on your Debian system, you can simply install it with:
sudo apt-get install wget |
2.3. Verification of the signing key :
The following command allows you to verify the fingerprint of Mozilla’s repository signing key.
The expected signature is:
35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3 |
You can then check the key with the following command:
gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc | awk '/pub/{getline; gsub(/^ +| +$/,""); if($0 == "35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3") print "\nThe key fingerprint matches ("$0").\n"; else print "\nKey verification failed: fingerprint ("$0") does not match the expected value.\n"}' |
If you get:
The key fingerprint matches (35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3). |
it means that the key matches the one published by Mozilla.
2.4. Add the Mozilla repository to Debian 13:
And here is an important difference compared to the previous version of this article.
For Debian 13 "Trixie", Mozilla now uses the deb822 format to declare its APT repository.
We will therefore create a mozilla.sources file:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.sources > /dev/null << EOF |
Types: deb |
URIs: https://packages.mozilla.org/apt |
Suites: mozilla |
Components: main |
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc |
EOF |
Thanks to this configuration, APT will also look in Mozilla’s repository for Firefox packages.
2.5. Configure APT to Prioritize Mozilla's Repository:
The following command allows you to prioritize the Mozilla repository:
sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla > /dev/null << EOF |
Package: * |
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org |
Pin-Priority: 1000 |
EOF |
This ensures that packages from the Mozilla repository are prioritized when available.
2.6. Install Firefox and Developer Edition:
Finally, let’s use apt to update the list of repositories and install both Firefox and Firefox Developer Edition.
sudo apt-get update |
sudo apt-get install firefox firefox-devedition |
And that's it.
You now have both Firefox and Firefox Developer Edition installed from Mozilla’s repository.
Of course, you can choose to install only the version you need.
For classic Firefox:
sudo apt-get install firefox |
For Firefox Developer Edition:
sudo apt-get install firefox-devedition |
Mozilla also offers other editions via this same repository, including Firefox ESR, Beta, and Nightly.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to manually handle downloads and updates for Firefox. APT takes care of it.
2.7. Install French Translations:
And since this blog is in French, let’s install the language packs provided by Mozilla:
sudo apt-get install firefox-l10n-fr firefox-devedition-l10n-fr |
You can obviously replace fr with the code for the language you wish to use.
To see the available language packages:
apt-cache search firefox-l10n |
Mozilla also offers language packages for other editions of Firefox.
Summary
With this tutorial:
- Browsers installed from Mozilla’s repository are updated via APT.
- You can install Classic Firefox, outside of the ESR version provided by Debian.
- You can install Firefox Developer Edition.
- You can keep the Firefox ESR from Debian if you need it.
- You avoid manual installations and the chaos associated with separate tar.xz packages for non-experts.
- The installation remains clean and integrated into Debian.
- The method is adapted to Debian 13 "Trixie".
You could obviously download Firefox directly from Mozilla’s website, extract the archive, place it somewhere in /opt, create a launcher, think about updates, etc.
But seriously...
Why bother when APT can do the job?
source:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installer-firefox-linux
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