Install Firefox on Linux

Getting Firefox installed on your computer is your first step to using it. This article will show
you how to install Firefox on Linux. For other operating systems, see How to download and
install Firefox on Windows and How to download and install Firefox on Mac.
Many Linux distributions include Firefox by default, and most have a package management
system that lets you easily install Firefox. Generally, you should install from package
management. Package management will:

Ensure that you have all the required libraries

Install Firefox in a way that works best with your distribution

Create shortcuts to launch Firefox

Make Firefox available to all users of your computer

Make removing Firefox work the same as removing any other application

Package management also has some downsides:

It may not give you the latest version of Firefox

It may give you a version without Firefox branding

Installing from a package manager

To install Firefox using the package manager, please refer to the documentation of the Linux
distribution you're using.

Installing outside of a package manager

Complete instructions for installing Firefox outside of package management may be available at
your distribution's support website. For example:

Installing Firefox on Ubuntu

Installing Firefox on OpenSuse

Before you install Firefox, make sure that your computer has the required libraries
installed. Missing libraries will cause Firefox to be inoperable.

The installation file provided by Mozilla in .tar.bz2 format does not contain sources but
pre-compiled binary files, therefore you can simply unpack and run them. There is no
need to compile the program from source.

The following instructions will install Firefox into your home directory, and only the
current user will be able to run it.

1. Download Firefox from the Firefox download page to your home directory.
2. Open a Terminal and go to your home directory: cd ~
3. Extract the contents of the downloaded file: tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2
4. Close Firefox if it's open.
5. To start Firefox, run the firefox script in the firefox folder: ~/firefox/firefox
Firefox should now start. You can then create an icon on your desktop to run this command.

libstdc++5 error
As noted above, you need to install the required libraries for Firefox to work. Many distributions
don't include libstdc++5 by default.

"firefox not installed" message or wrong version of Firefox

starts
If Firefox is installed following the instructions given above, it must be started (in a Terminal or
in a launcher on the Desktop, for example) using the command: ~/firefox/firefox
If you try to start Firefox in a Terminal with the command: firefox, it will either start the
package-manager-installed version of Firefox or will tell you the program is not installed.