Cannot make Firefox (Ubuntu version) default

[krow7]

Hi!

I have installed LM 17.3 recently. Before that I had 17.2.

In the previous version I had Firefox package pinned in the - /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref.
With this addition to the file -

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Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: 700

For some reason the /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref keeps resetting with every reboot... Any ideas how this can be fixed?

Thanks!

[xenopeek]

There's no reason to put those specifically in the /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref file. Just create your own preferences file. Say create the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/firefox-ubuntu.pref and don't forget you want the priority higher than Linux Mint's import repository. So make it 701.

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Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: 701

Update Manager might not offer you to install Ubuntu's Firefox, if it's not a newer version than Linux Mint's. In that case you'll have to one time explicitly install Firefox from Ubuntu's repositories. Check which Firefox packages you have installed for example with (for me it is firefox and firefox-locale-en):

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dpkg -l firefox*

Then reinstall those packages explicitly from Ubuntu's repositories with:

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apt install -t trusty firefox firefox-locale-en

You can check with the following command where Firefox was installed from and whether you've set pin priority correct:

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apt policy firefox

[Elizine]

Try the following commands -
<commands removed by admin>

The second command asked me a few questions about differences in configuration files (e.g. /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net). Answer Y to all of them to install the version from the new package.

After both commands finish successfully, the Linux Mint Update Manager will running fine again.

[Cosmo.]

This is a bad advice in double sense:

At first it ignores the update level system of the update manager. It may break things on a system because of regressions.

At second, because aptitude uses a different package database than the update manager / software manager / synaptic / apt. This also can lead into troubles.

[krow7]

There's no reason to put those specifically in the /etc/apt/preferences.d/official-package-repositories.pref file. Just create your own preferences file. Say create the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/firefox-ubuntu.pref and don't forget you want the priority higher than Linux Mint's import repository.

Wow, thanks Xenopeek!!! I didn't know that I could create a custom .pref files.
Do you know why the official-package-repositories.pref is being reset in LM 17.3?

And I didn't know that one could use apt directly!

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apt install ....
apt policy ....

Always used apt-get and apt-cache.
Today is a day of discoveries for me!

[xenopeek]

Type "apt" on the terminal to see a list of commands it supports. You don't need to prefix it with sudo as it does that automatically for actions that need it. This is Linux Mint's apt command BTW, which predates the apt command Debian later added. To use Debian's apt you'd have to specify the full path /usr/bin/apt to use it (and that will require sudo prefix for most actions, and it supports but a fraction of the commands Linux Mint's apt command offers).