Getting new Firefox and Thunderbird releases in Ubuntu with Ubuntuzilla

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The Ubuntu Update Manager does not always have the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird for these reasons:

Thunderbird, Firefox] Why doesn't Ubuntu just release the latest versions in the official repositories?

That's because it would be a fairly big job. These packages depend on a bunch of other libraries, so upgrading say, Firefox, from 1.5 to 2.x would necessitate also upgrading those libraries, and the software that also depends on them, and testing all of this for bugs, regressions, and other nasties. It may involve as many as several hundred packages that would need to be upgraded and tested. Given that newer versions get released with new Ubuntu releases, going through all this effort is not deemed justifiable.

This script (Ubuntuzilla)  will allow you to install the latest versions and has a mechanism  for checking for updates.
I found that rather than saving the ubuntuzilla debian file to the hard drive as the instructions say, it is better to click on the file and let it install itself. It takes a while for the script to go through and I had to cancel and rerun it 3 times because the Firefox download servers were busy. But it will give you the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird and will subsequently update them.

http://ubuntuzilla.wiki.sourceforge.net/

Ubuntu Ubuntuzilla support forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=251

Jerry

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There is a update for Firefox today with ubuntuzilla (Firefox 3.5.4) (the popup came up). Close Firefox put this command in terminal to update Firefox: gksudo firefox &. This brings up Firefox in root (Don't worry that your toolbars are set back to default). Go to Help -> Check for Updates and update Firefox. You will get the default toolbars again but if you close Firefox again and restart again you will get all your customizations back.

Jerry

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I know that this is an old thread but there is a new way to use ubuntuzilla. You no longer have to manually update firefox or thunderbird when there is a new update. Ubuntuzilla now has it's own repository that you can use to update through Synaptic. First you uninstall the old unbuntuzilla script if you have it installed:
ubuntuzilla.py -a remove -p packagename (firefox or thunderbird).

Then add the repository:
echo -e "\ndeb http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

Then add the package signing key:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29

Get the new Firefox or Thunderbird through Synaptic.

Info: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ubuntuzilla/index.php?title=Main_Page

Jerry

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This is an old thread, but for all those using ubuntuzilla, it appears that it is no longer being maintained. I went back to using Ubuntu's releases of Firefox and Thunderbird since it seems that Ubuntu updates them on a regular basis. Here are the instructions to go back IF you used the ubuntuzilla repository method:

To uninstall the packages, uninstall the *-mozilla-build packages, using your favorite package manager. E.g., using apt-get:

sudo apt-get remove firefox-mozilla-build
sudo apt-get remove thunderbird-mozilla-build
sudo apt-get remove seamonkey-mozilla-build

If you no longer wish to have the Ubuntuzilla repository in your sources, you can edit it out of your /etc/apt/sources.list.

deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

If you used the old ubuntuzilla python script method, refer to the instructions at:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ubuntuzilla/index.php?title=Ubuntuzilla_Installer_Script

Go to "Removal" towards the bottom of the page.

When you finish these procedures, you will automatically go back to the default Mozilla products.

Jerry

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Official Statement from the maintainer of Ubuntuzilla:

Ubuntuzilla ceasing operation
Greetings loyal users, and newcomers alike.

We've had a great few years with ubuntuzilla - for a while there was no better way to get timely updates for stable releases of mozilla products than the ubuntuzilla repository.

It seems that those days are over - now the official ubuntu repositories move swiftly to include updates for firefox, thunderbird, and seamonkey - often the very next day after their release from mozilla.

Thus, it seems that there is no longer a need in the ubuntu community for a third party repository to host these official builds.

As a result, I have pushed out what will probably be the last update to the ubuntuzilla repository, Firefox 3.6.15, Thunderbird 3.1.9, and Seamonkey 2.0.12.

Unless someone steps up and wants to continue updating the ubuntuzilla repository (there's a handy script that'll /almost/ do everything for you automagically), this will mark the conclusion of the project.

I thank you all for your help and support.

-nanotube

From Ubuntu Forms ->Ubuntuzilla
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10526846&postcount=1

Jerry