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Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:55 pm
by Pretty Vacant
Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox without risking the system to break?
Is the proper way to do this via MXPI?
Meant is Firefox, Firefox esr has not been installed.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:08 pm
by vel178
2 ways with it's language depencies is
sudo apt autoremove firefox
or seach for it in synaptic and mark it for complete removal, this gets the depencies as well. Browser shouldn't break the system as far as I am concerned.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:09 pm
by j2mcgreg
Pretty Vacant wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:55 pm
Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox without risking the system to break?
Is the proper way to do this via MXPI?
Meant is Firefox, Firefox esr has not been installed.
I would use Synaptic for this. Locate Firefox in Synaptic --> right click on Firefox and mark for complete removal. Click on Apply and follow the prompts.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:47 pm
by siamhie
I open MXPI and under the Popular Applications tab > Browsers, remove Firefox. Then from the same section install LibreWolf.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:08 pm
by Jerry3904
I usually keep FF b/c it works places that many others do not, but then install Vivaldi as my daily browser.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:13 pm
by Jerry3904
Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox without risking the system to break?
BTW: to generalize this question, it's easy to check by yourself for any package in a terminal (
) by using the -s (=simulate):
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 pm
by Stevo
If you want to get rid of its settings, cache, etc., you'll need to also remove the hidden .mozilla folder in your home directory. This will also wipe out saved Thunderbird stuff, though. One fast way is
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 5:24 am
by chrispop99
Stevo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 pm
This will also wipe out saved Thunderbird stuff, though.
I thought Thunderbird has its own config file in home?
Chris
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 6:14 am
by Eadwine Rose
Everything Thunderbird is in .thunderbird in /home, indeed.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 6:46 am
by Pretty Vacant
Stevo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 pm
If you want to get rid of its settings, cache, etc., you'll need to also remove the hidden .mozilla folder in your home directory.
I find this disturbing, 'Synaptic --> right click on Firefox and mark for complete removal' wont do that?!
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 7:31 am
by karlchen
When uninstalling any software through the APT software management tools (e.g. uxing MXPI, Synaptic, apt-get, apt, aptitude), the application itself will be uninstalled from the system.
In no case, anything will be removed from any user's home directory as well.
This is by design.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 7:36 am
by Eadwine Rose
If you use synaptic, complete remove including config files, usually deletes it all. But cannot hurt to check if hidden files are indeed gone.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 2:20 pm
by Stevo
Pretty Vacant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 6:46 am
Stevo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 pm
If you want to get rid of its settings, cache, etc., you'll need to also remove the hidden .mozilla folder in your home directory.
I find this disturbing, 'Synaptic --> right click on Firefox and mark for complete removal' wont do that?!
*nux was designed as a multi-user system from the start. I would find it disturbing if some other user on the system that had admin privileges could wipe out my personal settings by default. Don't other operating systems also preserve user settings by default, though?
The Bleachbit program allows you to clean out most personal browser stuff from there. Don't run it as root unless you really know what it does.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2025 8:24 pm
by RedGreen925
Pretty Vacant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 6:46 am
Stevo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 11:33 pm
If you want to get rid of its settings, cache, etc., you'll need to also remove the hidden .mozilla folder in your home directory.
I find this disturbing, 'Synaptic --> right click on Firefox and mark for complete removal' wont do that?!
The system knows nothing about user generated files, it only deletes the files it installed then only completely with the --purge option used. If the --purge, complete removal Synaptic terminology, is not used when removing on command line then it leaves those system configuration files around too.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2025 6:31 am
by Pretty Vacant
RedGreen925 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 8:24 pm
only completely with the --purge option used.
Thanks for the explanation. In my world 'completely remove' means, well , 'completely remove'. But yeah i'm not an OS.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2025 10:19 am
by RedGreen925
Pretty Vacant wrote: ↑Sat Mar 08, 2025 6:31 am
RedGreen925 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 8:24 pm
only completely with the --purge option used.
Thanks for the explanation. In my world 'completely remove' means, well , 'completely remove'. But yeah i'm not an OS.
It is in the
man apt page but no one ever reads them things.
Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually
small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the remove
was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for the
accidentally removed package will restore its function as before in
that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these leftovers by
calling purge even on already removed packages. Note that this does
not affect any data or configuration stored in your home directory.
There it clearly states the behavior to expect when removing package.
Re: Can you uninstall and completely remove Firefox
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2025 11:22 am
by DukeComposed
RedGreen925 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 08, 2025 10:19 am
Pretty Vacant wrote: ↑Sat Mar 08, 2025 6:31 am
Thanks for the explanation. In my world 'completely remove' means, well , 'completely remove'.
Note that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your home directory.
apt and apt-get are old tools from the era before every Tom, Dick, and Harry had their own personal Linux install on a desktop. System package management software, especially the really ancient stuff, was built for system administrators in the era when an entire department or company might all share one machine. Removing a package can happen accidentally -- I've certainly uninstalled software I never intended to touch and it damaged the client's system[0]. It's one thing to explain to all your users that the program is gone and needs to be reinstalled. It's another conversation entirely to tell them the data they had in that program is gone, too.
You can delete someone's browser by accident and they'll forgive you. You can't delete their bookmarks.
[0] While upgrading iptables with some custom kernel modules for IPSec I got a nice, threatening warning about dependencies from aptitude. Something along the lines of "This will uninstall important packages. This is a bad idea, so type 'Yes I am aware this is a bad idea and I take full responsibility' in all capital letters to continue." I absolutely did not type that, or anything for that matter, and canceled the upgrade. Then, while re-attempting it later with a slightly different[1] syntax, aptitude started removing the important packages anyway. I killed aptitude, but by then the damage was already done. For weeks afterward, whenever I spoke with my coworkers they would ask "Well... did you type 'Yes I'm aware this is a bad idea'?".
[1] By "slightly different", I mean testing if I could install B before A instead of A before B, not running anything with a --force or --yes or --no-confirm argument.