downgrading firefox from 5 to 4?

**bcrowell** · June 28th, 2011

I did an apt-get upgrade half an hour ago, resulting in an upgrade from firefox 4 to 5, and in that time I've already run into multiple serious problems with the new version. Is there any way to downgrade?

**ianc1** · June 28th, 2011

If the last version was in the repository you could do:

Code:

apt-get purge firefox
apt-getinstall firefox=4.0.1

Assuming the last version number was 4.0.1

I just did a quick search

Code:

apt-cache search firefox

and I can't see version 4 but I may have missed it. Failing that I'm sure some one will tell you how to get it from the repo.

**ajgreeny** · June 28th, 2011

What problems are you getting? My only difficulty was googlebar-lite not being run when I restarted FF and I was told it was not available for FF5. However a quick search on the FF Add-ons site found a patch which allows it to run very well.

I suspect there are patches for other add-ons as well as that one, so if this is your problem, try that way around it.

**bcrowell** · June 28th, 2011

Originally Posted by ianc1

I can't see version 4 but I may have missed it. Failing that I'm sure some one will tell you how to get it from the repo.

Thanks for the suggestions! What worked for me was this:

Code:

apt-get purge firefox
apt-get install firefox=4.*

Originally Posted by ajgreeny

What problems are you getting? My only difficulty was googlebar-lite not being run when I restarted FF and I was told it was not available for FF5. However a quick search on the FF Add-ons site found a patch which allows it to run very well.

I suspect there are patches for other add-ons as well as that one, so if this is your problem, try that way around it.

My problems weren't related to add-ons. I've had serious rendering glitches when I switch desktops (I use fluxbox) and widgets in web pages that don't work properly.

**lovinglinux** · June 29th, 2011

Keep in mind Firefox 4 will no longer be patched with security and stability updates, since version 5 is that patch in the new development model of Firefox. So, it would be better if you could find and fix the culprit, instead of downgrading.

Perhaps you could try Firefox 6 or 7. See Firefox 4, 5 & Beyond Mega Thread.

**ianc1** · June 29th, 2011

That's a good point about the security updates and I apologize for not thinking of that at the time of my earlier post.

Sorry.

**bcrowell** · June 30th, 2011

Having a browser with security patches would be nice, but a secure browser that's too broken to use isn't going to do it for me

Firefox seems to be heading down the toilet right now. Too bad there don't seem to be other viable choices.

**d3v1150m471c** · June 30th, 2011

Google has been offering large sums of money to anyone who can exploit their chrome browser for some time. Last I checked, no one has been successful. I've used it, it's fast. The only reason I don't make the switch is because my firefox 5 has all my hawt addons. Thus, you might want to give it a try. I'm on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS btw, and my browser runs perfectly.

**lovinglinux** · June 30th, 2011

Originally Posted by bcrowell

Having a browser with security patches would be nice, but a secure browser that's too broken to use isn't going to do it for me

Firefox seems to be heading down the toilet right now. Too bad there don't seem to be other viable choices.

If you could point out what is broken we could try to fix it.

For me, Firefox is not going down the toilet. Quite the opposite. It is improving on every new release.