Graphical Environments & Desktops • Re: Issue installing Firefox from Mozilla repo

The firefox-esr package of Debian includes a script /usr/bin/firefox that calls firefox.real if available and firefox-esr if not. Also it has a preinstall script that tells dpkg to rename /usr/bin/firefox from other packages to /usr/bin/firefox.real.
If firefox-esr is installed vom Debian sources and then the Mozilla sources are added with higher priority, firefox-esr is overwritten with the package from Mozilla. This don't contains the /usr/bin/firefox script.
When firefox is then installed from Mozilla, the /usr/bin/firefox link is renamed to firefox.real with the rule in dpgk. Then the package wants to register the file /usr/bin/firefox to update-alternatives, but this file is missing.

To solve the issue you could call

Code:

dpkg-divert --package firefox-esr --rename --remove /usr/bin/firefox

to remove the rename rule (this call is from the firefox-esr postrm script) and then try again installing firefox.

If the rule is removed with this can be checked with

Code:

dpkg-divert --list

It's likely that in other installation, where it works, the rename rule is not there or the script from firefox-esr, from the Debian version, exists.

Statistics: Posted by ramack — 2024-09-18 01:48