Ubuntu – How to use Firefox from 18.04 repositories in Ubuntu 20.04

aptfirefoxglobalmenurepository

Firefox in Ubuntu 18.04 had a special patch to enable global menu, which was dropped in subsequent versions.
I want to install that version in 20.04. One way to do this is to grab the .deb file and run sudo apt-mark hold firefox. But then, I will have to manually apply an update when a new version is released.

Is there a way to configure apt so that only firefox will be installed (and updated) from 18.04 repositories, while all other software will be installed from 20.04 repositories?

(Although the global menu patch was dropped when Unity was discontinued, global menu is very much alive due to KDE Plasma's global menu feature).

Best Answer

In /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ add bionic sources, so it will be easier to remove it. To do this, create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bionic.list with the following contents.

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse

create /etc/apt/preferences.d/bionic.pref

#preference for firefox from bionic
    
Explanation: Allow installing firefox from bionic
Package: firefox
Pin: release a=bionic-updates
Pin-Priority: 1101

Explanation: Avoid other packages from the bionic repo.
Package: *
Pin: release a=bionic
Pin-Priority: 1

Proceed with

sudo apt update

first simulation, because I don't no if some ppa's included in your system.

apt -s full-upgrade
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
  firefox
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 downgraded, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst firefox [84.0+build3-0ubuntu0.20.04.1] (84.0+build3-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu:18.04/bionic [amd64])
Conf firefox (84.0+build3-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu:18.04/bionic [amd64])

Then run sudo apt full-upgrade to install firefox from Ubuntu 18.04.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – exclude certain repositories from apt-get upgrade

You can comment those repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list by putting # at first of lines. also you can disable them in synaptic > setting > repositories > other software.

more information is available at:

Ubuntu repositories help

you can hold a package using

sudo apt-mark hold package_name

and remove the hold with

sudo apt-mark unhold package_name

and also this link will help:

Pinning

Ubuntu – Which APT repositories is required on Ubuntu 18.04

There are four main repository which you need to ensure you get the most of Ubuntu packages, it is.

The "Ubuntu Software" tab displays a list of repositories or "Channels". The four main repositories are:
Main - Canonical-supported free and open-source software.

Universe - Community-maintained free and open-source software.

Restricted - Proprietary drivers for devices.

Multiverse - Software restricted by copyright or legal issues. 
For a detailed description of these repositories, see Repositories.

Considering you are upgraded from Xenial to Bionic, the repositories you own must have listed as Xenial version, you can simply all occurance of Xenial to Bionic.

sudo sed -i "s/xenial/bionic/g" /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update

Also, creating a brand new source list may help. This will rename the old source list to sources.list.bak (in which you can return anytime), and create new sources.list—fill them with four main Bionic repository.

sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted multiverse universe" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – exclude certain repositories from apt-get upgrade

Ubuntu – Which APT repositories is required on Ubuntu 18.04

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