@Sebastien You are right, it is perfectly legal to use Debian epochs to override software versions. I haven't seen this much in Ubuntu repositories, so it feels inappropriate, particularly with the software version entirely removed. I guess the Mozilla PPA would have to roll with this versioning schema (add a 1: or 2: prefix) to make things work as expected. What do you feel about the transitional package deinstalling Firefox when the snap package is disabled though? Is that the expected behavior of the transitional package? Both apt and snap do their naively expected job, apt finds a 'newer' version of the package (1:...), removes the 'old' one (103...) and attempts to install the 'new' one and, if disabled, snap does not install it and leaves it disabled. This uninstalls Firefox during apt upgrade which is counterintuitive. Can this be fixed? E.g. by moving all the transitional deb packages into their own silo instead of main? Then, users could just deactivate that silo and the weird interactions between snap and apt would go away.
Anyways, I agree that we have a solution: disable the Ubuntu deb package, remove and disable snap package, bump Mozilla PPA priority, done. The comments about installing from upstream tars are not helpful, because they don't automatically update. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to firefox in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1999308 Title: Snap keeps uninstalling apt Firefox, and reinstalling snap Firefox Status in firefox package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: I have looked on various forums including the search features of Launchpad, help.ubuntu..com, and Google for answers on this but not been able to. I have uninstalled the snap of firefox multiple times, installing the real Firefox from ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu/, only for a few days later (once hours later) for snap to uninstall the real thing and install its snap version instead. I have tried a basic sudo snap remove firefox and when that didn't work sudo snap disable firefox sudo snap remove --purget firefox The former should be enough - that's a direct expression of my preferences, some thing like "You should have typed sudo snap remove --do-not-reinstall --disable-auto-ignore-preferences firefox" would not resolve this bug. When installing using apt-get, the correct version is being installed, and snap afterwards does not show the presence of firefox: Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 xul-ext-ubufox all 3.4-0ubuntu1.17.10.1 [3,320 B] Get:2 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 firefox-locale-en amd64 108.0+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 [831 kB] Get:3 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 firefox amd64 108.0+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 [64.9 MB] Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes authy 2.2.2 12 latest/stable twilio-authy - bare 1.0 5 latest/stable canonical✓ base chromium 108.0.5359.94 2238 latest/stable canonical✓ - code 5235c6bb 114 latest/stable vscode✓ classic core 16-2.57.6 14399 latest/stable canonical✓ core core18 20221103 2632 latest/stable canonical✓ base core20 20221123 1738 latest/stable canonical✓ base cups 2.4.2-4 836 latest/stable openprinting✓ - gnome-3-28-1804 3.28.0-19-g98f9e67.98f9e67 161 latest/stable canonical✓ - gnome-3-38-2004 0+git.6f39565 119 latest/stable canonical✓ - gtk-common-themes 0.1-81-g442e511 1535 latest/stable/… canonical✓ - onlyoffice-desktopeditors 7.2.1 133 latest/stable onlyoffice✓ - snap-store 41.3-66-gfe1e325 638 latest/stable/… canonical✓ - snapd 2.57.6 17883 latest/stable canonical✓ snapd /var/lib/snapd/seed/snaps contains (once firefox is removed): core18_1880.snap gnome-3-34-1804_36.snap gtk-common-themes_1506.snap snapd_8542.snap snap-store_467.snap https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2021/10/prevent-installing-firefox-snap-ubuntu-mate-21-10/ claims that a similar issue affects Ubuntu MATE 21.04 and the solution was to type "sudo apt-mark manual firefox", which I have done, but that has not resolved the problem. I'm not here to explain why I wouldn't want the snap version, it is clearly a bug for snap to accept a command to uninstall something and then automatically reinstall it days later without the permission of the user, and especially galling that it removes the real version at the same time. I have lost data (passwords and history) because of this bug, because one of the many faults of the snap version is that it ignores the user's real ~/.mozilla profile and creates a shadow profile instead inside of the snap system. Please disable this behavior. It's obnoxious, it ignores EXPLICITY stated user preferences, and it causes the loss of data. I am unclear on what package is causing the behavior so for now marking it against Firefox, but it could be against some other piece of infrastructure related to snap: affects ubuntu/firefox To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1999308/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp

