How to install Firefox as a Debian package

Paul Chean

21 Jan 2025 — 2 min read

Tired of Firefox being slowed down by Snap or Flatpak? Well worry no more! This tutorial will show you how to migrate your Firefox installation and run it directly on your hardware, potentially increasing your browsing performance by a few magnitudes!

Directions:

1) Backup your Firefox profile
You can either use Firefox's account sync, or make a copy of the data folder .mozilla/firefox/.
- Snap: ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/
- Flatpak: ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/

2) Open a privileged terminal, and uninstall Firefox
- Snap: snap remove firefox
- Flatpak: flatpak remove org.mozilla.firefox

3) Add Mozilla Team PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa

4) Prioritize the new PPA
This step is required to prevent apt from installing Firefox through the preferred method, which is through snap.

Run: sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozillateamppa
On this file, add the following:

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 999

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -1

5) Install Firefox through Apt
Run: sudo apt install firefox

6) (Optional) Restore your Firefox profile
Navigate to ~/.mozilla/firefox, delete everything contained in that folder and replace it with the files from step 1.
Open Firefox and your profile should automatically be loaded.
If this is not the case, go back to ~/.mozilla/firefox and modify profiles.ini such that there is only 1 installation entry, only profile 0, and both point to your old profile. e.g. nkfpytcx.default-release

Congratulations! You just installed Firefox without snap. Your Firefox installation should now be running directly on your hardware! Performance improvements should be immediately apparent. If not, make sure you do not have conflicting plugins causing other performance issued. e.g. multiple add blockers, privacy plugins, canvas blockers.

GPU Performance Tests:

Before (Snap):

Onshape Performance Check: Firefox running on snap

After (Direct):

Onshape Performance Check: Firefox running directly

Was my guide helpful? Are there any glaring mistakes? Send me feedback through an email!

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