Using The Firefox That Come with Debian - Issues with Team Meetings and app.element.io

[ZennMystic]

I am using Debian 12. It is fully up to date. I am using the Firefox version the came with Debian. Firefox ESR 115.14.Oesr (Debian has updated Firefox a few times to this current version.)

I use app.element.io now and then, and it has now started telling me my browser is out of date, not all options are available with you current browser. This is not such a big deal for me as I can still chat and receive responses.

However, I used to be able to log into Microsoft teem meetings via my browser as this is what my doctor uses for virtual visits. But now it says my browser is out of date. Update the browser or use the app. It also seems to push using Google or Edge browser.

When it uses the app via the browser The audio works fine, but for video it says I have a missing plugin, but does not say what plugin that is.

So I thought I would download the full app using Flathub Here: https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux

I then followed the instructions and installed it. Then I followed the promps as follows:

I sign-in to my Microsoft account:

Enter verification code:

Stay signed in: yes/no

But then I get this:

Why is it asking for another email address? I am already signed in to my verified account. I do not understand this. I do not have any more email address to give. I did try the one I originally put in to verify, but it says this email is already in use. So what gives?

So what options do I have? I suppose I could Fatpak a new version of Firefox. But, apart from this one thing all is working well so I am a bit reluctant to switch out Firefox.

Thanks for your time.....

 

[dos2unix]

Microsoft doesn't recommend Firefox, they recommend Edge browser on Linux.

Even that doesn't work great.

You can google edge download.

 

[ZennMystic]

Yea there is a reason I switched from Windows to Linux. So I don't want to go back to it, by using their browser. I never even used it when I was on Windows.

 

[MikeWalsh]

I run 'Teams' under Chrome. I've turned the website into a 'webapp' using Chrome's native, built-in tools, which lets me run it in its own dedicated window as a kind of 'standalone' desktop client. Again using the built-in tools, I can add a menu entry and it'll fire-up by itself.

You'll find that the 'official' desktop client is identical to the browser app; the 'client' uses the Electron framework, which means there's a stripped-back Chromium browser running in the background while it's in use.

I honestly haven't noticed any real misbehaviour from Teams. Well; not YET....


Mike.

 

[ZennMystic]

I run 'Teams' under Chrome. I've turned the website into a 'webapp' using Chrome's native, built-in tools, which lets me run it in its own dedicated window as a kind of 'standalone' desktop client. Again using the built-in tools, I can add a menu entry and it'll fire-up by itself.

You'll find that the 'official' desktop client is identical to the browser app; the 'client' uses the Electron framework, which means there's a stripped-back Chromium browser running in the background while it's in use.

I honestly haven't noticed any real misbehaviour from Teams. Well; not YET....


Mike.

OK so what do I do? Could you give me a step by step please?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

it says my browser is out of date. Update the browser or use the app.

firefox-esr should not be used because it does not receive feature updates, only security patches.
There is a link where Mozilla explains why ESR is not good option but I'm lazy to go search for it again..

Anyway here is how to install the most recent version, you can run command by command or copy and run whole block:

## Prerequisites

# First purge firefox-esr
sudo apt purge firefox-esr
sudo apt autopurge

# Ensure required programs
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wget gpg

# Install directory u=rwx, g=rx, o=rx
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings

## Procedure

# Download GPG key
cd ~/Downloads
wget -qO- https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg > repo-signing-key.gpg

# Copy GPG key to APT key ring
sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 repo-signing-key.gpg /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc

# Update APT sources (copy both lines at once and run)
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" |\
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list

# Delete downloaded key
rm -f repo-signing-key.gpg

# Configure APT to prioritize packages from the mozilla.org repository (copy code below all at once)
echo '
# Never prefer packages from the mozilla.org repository
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1

# Prefer only firefox from mozilla.org
Package: firefox
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 100
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla > /dev/null

# Download Firefox
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox

 

[osprey]

OK so what do I do? Could you give me a step by step please?

An alternative to the proposal in post #6 by @CaffeineAddict is to download the latest firefox tarball from mozilla, place it in a directory in your /home/<user> directory, decompress it and run it from a terminal. There's no need to uninstall firefox-esr with this manual installation. Both browsers will run perfectly well with each other, even at the same time. They create their own configurations under /home/<user>/.mozilla/. If this installation is unsatisfactory after running firefox, it can be deleted.

There's no guarantee, that the latest firefox will be any better than the default firefox-esr for the purposes you have described.

If you wish to proceed down this manual path, reply here and I will provide step by step instructions, but note that it is independent of the apt package manager and is a manual method which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For the package manager installation which apt will be able to operate for you, Mozilla has provided instructions for the installation of firefox here:

Install Firefox on Linux | Firefox Help

This article describes how to download and install Firefox on Linux.

support.mozilla.org

 

[CaffeineAddict]

For the package manager installation which apt will be able to operate for you, Mozilla has provided instructions for the installation of firefox here:

I initially used their procedure to install Firefox several times, but then wanted to know exactly what their instructions do (same applies to several other similar software who share their install instructions online but latest version is not available in distro, ex. PasswordSafe, WineHQ, VSCode etc.)

And concluded that one should carefully write their own instructions and keep them somewhere in backup for every such software, hence my modified mozilla steps above.

Rationale:

1. First, their procedure sets APT priority to 1000 for ALL mozilla packages, which means their instruction will lead to not only installing Firefox but also overriding all mozilla packages that's also available in Debian repo, which is a bit sneaky way to override more than what it's supposed to be overridden because most people (like myself initially) will blindly copy/paste and run.

2. And second reason is that if we install multiple software from various websites who share instructions, you'll notice their steps differ and are likewise not all fully OK, for instance setting inappropriate permissions to /etc/apt/keyrings, installing signing key into deprecated APT keyring or not doing any pining, all of which is important for externals software and for security.
By having same procedure for all such software stored on in my backup I know I'm installing them the way they should be installed.

 

[ZennMystic]

I should mention that team meetings was working just fine in Firefox ESR till about a moth ago

I initially used their procedure to install Firefox several times, but then wanted to know exactly what their instructions do (same applies to several other similar software who share their install instructions online but latest version is not available in distro, ex. PasswordSafe, WineHQ, VSCode etc.)

And concluded that one should carefully write their own instructions and keep them somewhere in backup for every such software, hence my modified mozilla steps above.

Rationale:

1. First, their procedure sets APT priority to 1000 for ALL mozilla packages, which means their instruction will lead to not only installing Firefox but also overriding all mozilla packages that's also available in Debian repo, which is a bit sneaky way to override more than what it's supposed to be overridden because most people (like myself initially) will blindly copy/paste and run.

2. And second reason is that if we install multiple software from various websites who share instructions, you'll notice their steps differ and are likewise not all fully OK, for instance setting inappropriate permissions to /etc/apt/keyrings, installing signing key into deprecated APT keyring or not doing any pining, all of which is important for externals software and for security.
By having same procedure for all such software stored on in my backup I know I'm installing them the way they should be installed.

I should mention that team meetings was working just fine in Firefox ESR till about a moth ago. Anyway....

I am not so tech savey... So should I install via Flatpac or apt? If I should install via apt I should use the script you posted above and not the one on the Mozilla web site right?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I should mention that team meetings was working just fine in Firefox ESR till about a moth ago.

Then it could be due to extensions, try reproducing the problem in private browser window.
In private window extensions are disabled.

Also maybe you changed some Firefox settings that break things, try resetting Firefox to factory defaults.

Try also clearing cache.

So should I install via Flatpac or apt? If I should install via apt I should use the script you posted above and not the one on the Mozilla web site right?

If nothing of the above works I'd install non esr, it's up to you if you use my script or not, I personally use my own script because don't like to have anything else than firefox from mozilla, that's the only difference between mozilla steps and my script.
everything else is the same.

 

[ZennMystic]

An alternative to the proposal in post #6 by @CaffeineAddict is to download the latest firefox tarball from mozilla, place it in a directory in your /home/<user> directory, decompress it and run it from a terminal. There's no need to uninstall firefox-esr with this manual installation. Both browsers will run perfectly well with each other, even at the same time. They create their own configurations under /home/<user>/.mozilla/. If this installation is unsatisfactory after running firefox, it can be deleted.

There's no guarantee, that the latest firefox will be any better than the default firefox-esr for the purposes you have described.

If you wish to proceed down this manual path, reply here and I will provide step by step instructions, but note that it is independent of the apt package manager and is a manual method which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For the package manager installation which apt will be able to operate for you, Mozilla has provided instructions for the installation of firefox here:

Install Firefox on Linux | Firefox Help

This article describes how to download and install Firefox on Linux.

support.mozilla.org

If it is not going to be too tricky to do I think I should try it. Because what if I go to all the trouble of swapping out Firefox versions and it still doesn't work.

I do like the idea of just decompressing into a folder trying it and if it makes no difference I just delete the folder yes? Do I have that right?

If so could you give me a step by step and I will try that first before making other bigger changes to my system.

 

[GatorsFan]

Install Firefox .deb package for Debian (stable) based distributions - this will give you the latest Firefox (129) right now and updates after install

To install the .deb package through the APT repository, do the following:

Create a directory to store APT repository keys if it doesn't exist:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings

Import the Mozilla APT repository signing key:

wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null

If you do not have wget installed, you can install it with: sudo apt-get install wget

Next, add the Mozilla APT repository to your sources list:

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null

Configure APT to prioritize packages from the Mozilla repository:

echo '
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

Update your package list and install the Firefox .deb package:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox

For those of you who would like to use Firefox in a different language than American English, Mozilla has created .deb packages containing the Firefox language packs. To install a specific language pack, replace fr - (French) in the example below with the desired language code:

sudo apt install firefox-l10n-fr

To list all the available language packs, you can use this command after adding the Mozilla APT repository and running

sudo apt update
apt-cache search firefox-l10n

Now you can check out the upgraded Firefox and if everything is working you can remove the old one - updates to Firefox usually comes out every month - Firefox release calendar is here - https://whattrainisitnow.com/calendar/
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Also you might want to change the Firefox DNS setting from Default to (Cloudflare) 1.1.1.1 by editing your /etc/resolv.conf

 

[ZennMystic]

Thanks for all your help Guys I went with apt install and updated to newest Firefox/ I will try meeting tomorrow it will either work correctly now or not.