Raspberry Pi

3 Ways to Install Firefox on Raspberry Pi

Firefox is one of the widely used open-source web browsers, which provides you with an ultimate browsing experience in terms of speed and performance. It also guarantees a secure and well-protected internet surfing experience, enabling the users to surf the web safely. The users can also customize their browsing experience by installing themes, tools, and add-ons. If you are interested in installing Firefox on your Raspberry Pi system, you can get help from this article’s guidelines.

3 Ways to Install Firefox on Raspberry Pi OS

There are multiple ways to install Firefox on Raspberry Pi OS and you can find a detailed explanation of all these methods is provided below.

1: Install Firefox on Raspberry Pi Through Repository

The first method to install the latest version of Firefox on Raspberry can be done by adding a repository to the Raspberry Pi source list and you can do this method by following the below-mentioned steps:

Step 1: First, open the source list file using the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Then add the following line inside the source list file:

deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates main

Save this file using CTRL+X keys.

Step 2: Next, add the following GPG key for the above-added repository:

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 3B4FE6ACC0B21F32

Step 3: To overcome the packages overlapping, you will need to open the preferences files using the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences.d/99bionic-updates

Add the following lines inside the empty file:

Package: *
Pin: release a=bionic-updates
Pin-Priority: 1

Save this file.

Step 4: Now, update the repository list using the following command:

$ sudo apt update

Step 5: After the update, you can run the following command to install the latest version of Firefox rapid release on your system.

$ sudo apt install firefox -y

Go to the main menu and open the Firefox Web Browser from the Internet section.

Remove Firefox from Raspberry Pi

If you want to remove Firefox from Raspberry Pi, you can execute the following command:

$ sudo apt remove firefox -y

2: Install Firefox on Raspberry Pi through Pi-Apps

Pi-Apps is an excellent platform through which you can easily install Firefox on your Raspberry Pi system. However, before performing the installation, you must install Pi-Apps through the following command:

$ wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

After the installation, you can open Pi-Apps on your system from your desktop.

When you double-click on the Pi-Apps icon, you will need to select the “Execute” button to run the application on your desktop.

Now, head towards the “Internet” section.

Go to the “Browser” section.

Select “Firefox Rapid Release” and click the “Install” option.

The process begins installing Firefox on Raspberry Pi system.

Now, go to the “Internet” section and click on the “Firefox Web Browser” to open it on your desktop.

Remove Firefox from Pi-Apps

To remove Firefox, open Pi-Apps on your desktop and head towards the “Installed” section.

Select “Firefox Rapid Release” and click on the “Uninstall” option for removing the application.

3: Install Firefox on Raspberry Pi through Command-line

Although the above methods are more suitable for installing Firefox stable version on Raspberry Pi if you want to install an LTS release of Firefox on Raspberry Pi, which is Firefox-ESR. It may not be a compatible choice for most users as it runs an old version of Firefox on your system with the latest security updates and patches. However, if you still need it on the Raspberry Pi system, you can install it from the following command:

$ sudo apt install firefox-esr

Remove Firefox from Command-line

To remove Firefox-ESR from your Raspberry Pi system, you can apply the following command:

$ sudo apt remove firefox-esr -y

Conclusion

Firefox is an effective web browser with a faster page loading time compared to the Chrome browser and you can enhance your browsing experience by installing themes, tools and add-ons. There are three methods to install this browser on your Raspberry Pi system. However, as mentioned in the above guidelines, the first two methods are recommended because they install the stable version of Firefox. Otherwise, you can choose the third method to install the extended support release of Firefox on your Raspberry Pi system, which uses the old browser version with the latest security updates and patches.

About the author

Awais Khan

I'm an Engineer and an academic researcher by profession. My interest for Raspberry Pi, embedded systems and blogging has brought me here to share my knowledge with others.