How to disable Firefox snap in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, changed the native DEB release of Firefox to a Snap package version in 22.04 LTS. Why? The DEB release of Firefox takes considerably more effort to build each update. Snap packages can mitigate this. Not to mention, Mozilla handles the Snap, and that takes a lot of the work off of the Ubuntu team’s plate.

This is all well and good. However, Snap packages aren’t for everyone. Snaps cloud the operating system with various files and often have theme issues. Fortunately, it is possible to uninstall the Firefox Snap package and replace it with the Ubuntuzilla DEB build. Here’s how to do it.

How to remove the Firefox Snap package from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

The Firefox Snap package is a pre-installed package on 22.04 LTS. You can view installed Snap packages on Ubuntu using the snap list command. However, using this command requires a terminal window.

To open up a terminal window on the Linux desktop, press Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Alternatively, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and launch it. With the terminal window open, run the snap list command to view all installed Snap packages on Ubuntu.

snap list

Look through the list of snaps for “firefox.” Once you’ve confirmed that the “firefox” snap is installed, use the snap remove command to uninstall the Snap package version of Firefox from your Ubuntu 22.04 LTS computer system.

sudo snap remove firefox

With the Firefox Snap package uninstalled from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, you’ll need to remove the “firefox.tmp” folder from your “Downloads” directory. You can remove this folder with the following rm command.

rm -rf ~/Downloads/firefox.tmp/

How to replace the Firefox Snap package on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with the Ubuntuzilla repo

There are a few ways Ubuntu users can replace the Firefox Snap package on Ubuntu with a DEB release. First, there’s the official Firefox Security PPA. There is also the Ubuntuzilla repository. This repository is hosted on SourceForge and has been around for many years.

Ubuntuzilla regularly releases official Mozilla builds of Firefox and Firefox Extended Support Release. However, you must first open up a terminal window to get it working on your system.

Once you’ve opened up a terminal window on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS desktop, use the echo command to add the Ubuntuzilla software repository.

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

You’ll need to add the repo key after adding the Ubuntuzilla software source to your computer. This key is required, and without it, Ubuntu will refuse to install packages from it. Use the apt-key adv command to add the “2667CA5C” key.

Note: running the apt-key adv command on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will result in an error message. This message will say that “apt-key is deprecated.” Ignore this warning; it is still possible to run this command on Ubuntu without issue.

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

Once the software key is added to Ubuntu, you must run the apt update command. This update command will set up the Ubuntuzilla software repository for use.

sudo apt update

With everything up to date, it is time to install Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Use the apt install command to set up Firefox on your Ubuntu system.

sudo apt install firefox-mozilla-build

Alternatively, if you wish to install Firefox Extended Support on your Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system, you can run the apt install command and set up the “firefox-esr-mozilla-build” package. Unfortunately, Firefox ESR does not receive updates as soon as Firefox, but it is excellent for systems that do not update frequently.

sudo apt install firefox-esr-mozilla-build

Other ways to install Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Suppose you would prefer to use Firefox on Ubuntu but do not want to use the Ubuntuzilla software repository and do not want to use the Snap package. In that case, there are other ways of setting up Firefox on Ubuntu.

Firefox dl and install script

Though not perfect, the Firefox dl and install script can download any version of Firefox directly from Mozilla, extract it and install it. Do the following to get Firefox working with this script on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Note: to verify the code in the Firefox dl and install script, click here.

First, install the “git” package with the Ubuntu terminal. Git is required to interact with this script on your Ubuntu system.

git clone https://github.com/arnaudbey/firefox-dl-n-install.git

After running the command above, Firefox dl and install will download to your computer. Next, use the cd command to enter the “firefox-dl-n-install” folder and run the script.

cd firefox-dl-n-install/
sh ./firefox_dl_n_install.sh

Follow the on-screen instructions to set up Mozilla Firefox on your Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system.

Firefox flatpak

In addition to being available as a Snap package, Firefox is also installable as a Flatpak package. Flatpak is very similar to Snap; however, it is cleaner and respects system themes better. If you wish to install Firefox as a Flatpak, install the Flatpak runtime on your computer, then enter the two commands below in a terminal.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox

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