Replace Snap Firefox with .deb on Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) ships Firefox as a snap, but some people (like me) may prefer installing it from .deb packages to retain control over upgrades or to keep extensions working.

Luckily there is still a PPA serving firefox (and thunderbird) debs at https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa maintained by the Mozilla Team. (Thank you! 🙏)

Block Ubuntu’s Snap Version of Firefox

Block the Ubuntu archive’s version that just pulls in the snap by pinning it

$ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/firefox-no-snap 
Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu*
Pin-Priority: -1

Remove Firefox Snap

Remove the transitional package and the Firefox snap itself

sudo apt purge firefox
sudo snap remove firefox

Install Firefox DEB

Install the DEB packaged Firefox from the Mozilla PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox

⚠️ Optional: Enable Unattended Upgrades

Since the package comes from a PPA unattended-upgrades will not upgrade it automatically, unless you enable this origin:

echo 'Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins:: "LP-PPA-mozillateam:${distro_codename}";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-firefox