I am running Ubuntu-Mate 22.04.
I am trying to prevent Firefox from ever updating.
This did not work.
andy@7:~/Temp$ sudo apt-mark hold firefox
firefox was already set on hold.
ChatGPT 5 Says:
On Ubuntu-Mate 22.04 Firefox comes as a Snap, so apt-mark hold won’t stop updates — you need to remove the Snap version (sudo snap remove firefox) and install the Debian package from Mozilla’s PPA if you want to control updates.
Alternatively, disable snap refresh timers (snap set system refresh.hold=$(date -d "2099-01-01" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z)) to block Snap from updating it.
Unfortunately, I have already done what you recommended.
Nothing is stopping the Juggernaut of Mozilla Firefox from deciding which version you can have.
Besides the apt stuff Firefox has a builtin self-update.
You can disable that in the preferences: In the "hamburger menu" (3 vertical bars at the upper right corner), choose Preferences; this is the same as typing "about:preferences" in the location field.
In the preferences scroll down to "Firefox-Updates", and disable the automatic updates there.
Nowerdays you cannot disable the "check for updates" (it still asks you to update). To do that you need a policy.
How to stop Firefox from auto updating in Linux | LinuxBSDos.com
BTW I have Mint/Mate, based on Ubuntu, that comes with many convenient admin tools and has a Mint-Firefox where self-update is already disabled by policy.
Some more applications do this, check with
ls -l /usr/bin | grep " -> "
The reason? Perhaps they want all their software pieces under one directory. And the link is to have it in the common PATH.
