Firefox ESR in esr/stable channel is never updated by Ubuntu

[Christophe Chausset]

Hi,

I am encountering a severe issue on several Ubuntu 18.04.2 machines where I have replaced Firefox by Firefox ESR through "Ubuntu Software Center" by selecting esr/stable channel as described in https://ubuntu.com/blog/firefox-esr-60-on-ubuntu

After being installed, Firefox ESR is working as expected but it is never updated.

I mean Firefox ESR is detecting that a new version is available when starting.
Even "Ubuntu Software Center" shows a newer version exists.

But when I run either
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

or "Software Updater",

Ubuntu is never updating the Firefox ESR.
I have reproduced this on 3 different machines running Ubuntu 18.04.2.

I am not sure if it is the right place to submit this problem report.
Are you aware of this issue ?

Thanks

Kind regards

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

When you installed Firefox ESR from the stable channel in Ubuntu Software you were installing the application packaged as a snap. The Software Updater and apt or apt-get commands cannot be used to manage snaps which is why you have not been offered an update.

However, when snaps are installed from the stable channel they are automatically updated. An update check runs periodically n the background. If you run the command

snap info firefox

in a terminal you will see a list of available snaps and the date they were released. The last line shows the version that is installed. You can force an update with the command

sudo snap refresh firefox

If no updates are available then an appropriate message is displayed.

The latest version of Firefox ESR available is 60.8.0esr-1 which was released on 8th July.

Please confirm that this is the version that is currently running on each of your machines.

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your kind answer and the information provided.

I confirm that finally Firefox ESR was updated to version 60.8.0esr-1 by itself.
I am just wondering why it took so long time to update.

Next time, I will try to force the update with the command provided (sudo snap refresh firefox).

Kind regards

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Excellent, nice to know you're up-to-date.

'snap changes' is another useful command that will show you when any auto-refreshes have taken place.

Although you followed the instructions to install Firefox ESR on a Canonical/Ubuntu blog the snap was created by Mozilla and not by Ubuntu. If you have any further problems regarding the snap you should report them directly to Mozilla.

[Christophe Chausset (christophe14)]

OK. Next time I will then report directly to Mozilla in case of update issues with Firefox ESR.

Thanks for your time and support !

Kind regards