De-Snaping and Firefox without Snap

[Montmorency]

Hi folks.
I'm considering using Kubuntu 22.04 in place of my current Xubuntu 18.04 (yes, it's getting long in the tooth).
Just one thing: I profoundly dislike Snaps/Flatpaks.
How do I go about to completely remove Snaps and how would I install Firefox .deb?

[oshunluvr]

A simple web search reveals: https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php...-ubuntu-22-04/

As far as removing snap, IIRC removing snapd will allow autoremove to clear all the others. I'll have to test this - been a long time since I needed to do this...

[oshunluvr]

Just did a fresh VM install of 22.04. lsblk revealed a bunch of loop devices created by snapd. Using Konsole, I entered

sudo apt remove snapd --purge

This removed the loop devices, orphaned squashfs-tools so autoremove will remove it, and left these packages still on the system:

stuart@kubuntu2204:~$ dpkg -l |grep snap
ii chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra 1:85.0.4183.83-0ubuntu2 amd64 Transitional package - chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra -> chromium-ffmpeg snap
ii libsnapd-glib1:amd64 1.60-0ubuntu1 amd64 GLib snapd library
ii libsnapd-qt1:amd64 1.60-0ubuntu1 amd64 Qt snapd library
ii libsnappy1v5:amd64 1.1.8-1build3 amd64 fast compression/decompression library

I removed the first one and the third one. Removing the second one removes the whole desktop so I didn't do that. The last one is not related to snap at all so I didn't remove that.

sudo apt remove --purge chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra libsnapd-qt1
sudo apt autoremove

Then, from the link I posted above, I installed the Firefox PPA and per the instructions, entered this:

sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox

Now my shiny new Kubuntu 22.04 LTS vm has a shiny new Firefox.

stuart@kubuntu2204:~$ dpkg -l |grep firefox
ii firefox 99.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 amd64 Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla

[Montmorency]

Thanks

[jlittle]

sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox

That PPA is good news. Odd that no-one has mentioned it before, or perhaps I missed it.

I don't want to purge snaps, as I have another app that is snap only. Will I have problems adding the PPA, where the main repository offers Firefox and Thunderbird as well as the PPA?

[oshunluvr]

. Will I have problems adding the PPA, where the main repository offers Firefox and Thunderbird as well as the PPA?

I don't see why you would. I will say if you don't use the install command formatted as above, it will default to the snap version as you might expect.

If you go to the link above he also provides how-to move the mozilla ppa up in priority so you won't accidentally install the snap versions.

[claydoh]

Dang, saw this thread, and thought we were in a Harry Potter discussion

[Fred47]

In ver 20.04 in Discover there are two versions of Firefox, one is the snap version, the other standard. So I'm hoping 22.04 is the same, just disable snap and go on with it.

[claydoh]

In ver 20.04 in Discover there are two versions of Firefox, one is the snap version, the other standard. So I'm hoping 22.04 is the same, just disable snap and go on with it.

Nope. As mentioned all over the place, installing the official Ubuntu deb (in 22.04) simply installs the snap version here. If you have removed snap in 22.04, it would be re-installed, as it it is a dependency of this package.
Since Snaps are distro-agnostic, they would still show in 20.04's software center, but in this case, the Snap and native packaging are separate.

Somebody somewhere here posted a Firefox builds PPA or source in the past couple of days....

[Fred47]

I haven't had to deal with Snap so I'm kind of confused by it all. I'm still planning on waiting until July to upgrade, maybe they will change their mind by then. but I doubt it since it's Canonical idea. If it doesn't work for me then I'll find another distro.

[Beerislife]

I haven't got time right now, but has anyone replaced these system snaps with .deb files? I know how to purge snapd and use the teammozilla PPA for Firefox...

[arsivci]

You don't have to replace them, they are essential snap files used by the snap system.

[wonder]

Just did a fresh VM install of 22.04. lsblk revealed a bunch of loop devices created by snapd. Using Konsole, I entered

sudo apt remove snapd --purge

This removed the loop devices, orphaned squashfs-tools so autoremove will remove it, and left these packages still on the system:

stuart@kubuntu2204:~$ dpkg -l |grep snap
ii chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra 1:85.0.4183.83-0ubuntu2 amd64 Transitional package - chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra -> chromium-ffmpeg snap
ii libsnapd-glib1:amd64 1.60-0ubuntu1 amd64 GLib snapd library
ii libsnapd-qt1:amd64 1.60-0ubuntu1 amd64 Qt snapd library
ii libsnappy1v5:amd64 1.1.8-1build3 amd64 fast compression/decompression library

I removed the first one and the third one. Removing the second one removes the whole desktop so I didn't do that. The last one is not related to snap at all so I didn't remove that.

sudo apt remove purge chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra libsnapd-qt1
sudo apt autoremove

Then, from the link I posted above, I installed the Firefox PPA and per the instructions, entered this:

sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox

Now my shiny new Kubuntu 22.04 LTS vm has a shiny new Firefox.

stuart@kubuntu2204:~$ dpkg -l |grep firefox
ii firefox 99.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 amd64 Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla

Thanks for this post / info.

[NoWorries]

A simple web search reveals: https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php...-ubuntu-22-04/

As far as removing snap, IIRC removing snapd will allow autoremove to clear all the others. I'll have to test this - been a long time since I needed to do this...

I have been having trouble with Firefox snap being slow, so I decided to give this approach a go. I found that by following the procedures that Firefox was still installed so I used muon to complete the removal of Firefox snap. Also, I fortunately had a .mozilla file in my Home as the snap versions were removed and nothing is left in the snap folder.

I was able to install Firefox without snap and its response to initial launch is much much faster. The system still wants to install Firefox snap so I locked it and marked it for removal.

Thanks very much for the approach to take - even though it was a little tricky to get it working.

[claydoh]

Interestingly, I have only found in testing FF via Snap to be 'slow' to load only the first time after booting, which doesn't happen all that often on my laptop lol. After that, I can't tell a difference.