Call for testing: Firefox snap upgrading base from core20 to core22

[bandali]

Hi folks,

We’ve been preparing to upgrade Firefox’s base snap from core20 (built from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS) to core22 (built from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS), and after much testing and fixing any issues we encountered, we think the core22-based Firefox is in good shape and the work is ready to be merged into stable. In fact, Ubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) shipped with core22 Firefox out of the box, and the current development series Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) defaults to core22 Firefox as well.

We are now calling for you to try the core22-based Firefox, especially if you are currently using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish). To help with the testing, you can run the following command in a terminal to switch to core22 Firefox:

snap refresh --channel=candidate/core22 firefox

Then use Firefox as you normally would, and report any issues you encounter here or on Bugzilla, Mozilla’s bug tracker. Please include in your reports the output from these commands:

snap info firefox
snap --version

Finally, you can switch to ‘stable’ Firefox (currently based on core20) at any time if you wish to:

snap refresh --stable firefox

Thanks in advance for your help with testing,
-bandali

[bernard010]

Everything works fine. I noticed candidate 115.0.2
on 07/1/23 moved to stable on 07/04/23. During testing
print out snap info Firefox.
Job well done.

[elcste]

Can I suggest a core22 channel for the beta series? I would love to test this, but I don’t want switch from beta to stable/candidate series. I would guess many users of the beta channel would welcome this, since they already choose a pre-release version!

[bandali]

Ack. We now have a beta/core22 channel for core22-based beta builds, which you can switch to by running

snap refresh --channel=beta/core22 firefox

But a general heads-up that this one might end up being much shorter-lived than candidate/core22, as we might transition the beta series to core22 even sooner than stable.

[jupiter]

I’ve updated my snap package on Kubuntu 23.04. It works fine, I’ll report any issue.

[bandali]

Quick update: beta has moved from core20 to core22. I’m preparing patches for Nightly (edge) next. Afterwards, if all looks good we’ll switch stable to core22 shortly after as well.

[elcste]

I did use the beta/core22 on a couple machines with no issues. Thank you for your work.

[bandali]

Thanks for the feedback so far, folks.

Another quick update: we’ve merged the changes for moving Nightly from core20 to core22 as well, and the next Nightly to be built and uploaded to the edge channel will be based on core22.

As mentioned earlier, next up will be stable, and we hope to update its base from core20 to core22 within the next ~2 weeks.

[aaron-whitehouse]

On the beta

snap-id:      3wdHCAVyZEmYsCMFDE9qt92UV8rC8Wdk
tracking:     latest/beta
[...]
installed:          116.0b6-1               (2934) 248MB

I am seeing this error that I haven’t seen on stable before:

$ snap --version
snap    2.59.5
snapd   2.59.5
series  16
ubuntu  22.04
kernel  6.1.0-1015-oem

[seb128]

Could you describe what steps you take to trigger that error and maybe report an issue on launchpad ?

[aaron-whitehouse]

It popped up when I reopened Firefox and the tabs all reopened. If I can reproduce it reliably I will file a bug.

[hvbakel1]

I have tested the core22 snap on a few AMD and intel machines and encountered no issues.

[bandali]

Qquick update: the switch to core22 for stable has been temporarily postponed and hasn’t happened yet, but we still hope and plan to do it soon in the coming weeks.

[corradoventu]

In Ubuntu Mantic I see only core22 so firefox is using core22?

corrado@corrado-n16-mm-0722:~$ snap list
Name                       Version              Rev    Tracking         Publisher      Notes
bare                       1.0                  5      latest/stable    canonical✓     base
core22                     20230725             858    latest/stable    canonical✓     base
cups                       2.4.6-4              980    latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
firefox                    115.0.2-1            2916   latest/stable/…  mozilla✓       -
ghostscript-printer-app    10.01.2-1            769    latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
gnome-42-2204              0+git.ff35a85        120    latest/stable/…  canonical✓     -
gtk-common-themes          0.1-81-g442e511      1535   latest/stable/…  canonical✓     -
gutenprint-printer-app     5.3.4-1              702    latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
hplip-printer-app          3.22.10-1            788    latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
ipp-usb                    0.9.23+git8.9fae33b  101    latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
ps-printer-app             20230715-1           1214   latest/stable/…  openprinting✓  -
snap-store                 41.3-71-g709398e     959    latest/stable/…  canonical✓     -
snapd                      2.59.5               19457  latest/stable    canonical✓     snapd
snapd-desktop-integration  0.9                  83     latest/stable/…  canonical✓     -
corrado@corrado-n16-mm-0722:~$

[bandali]

@corradoventu

In Ubuntu Mantic I see only core22 so firefox is using core22?

Yes, as mentioned in the first post, Lunar and Mantic already ship core22-based Firefox by default.

[simonsaysthis]

Reading this from core22 on Jammy. Zero issues thus far. Is there an article or something describing the difference between FF on UC20 vs UC22 for everyday home users? Or is performance meant to be the same?

[antgel]

I arrived here because of the improvements to hardware acceleration, but I’m sure there are other advantages to the new package (see my original comment on GitHub). I’m happy to report that YouTube hardware acceleration appears to work now for all their codecs on my Intel TigerLake (Gen12) GPU.

Sadly, Google Meet still appears not to use hardware acceleration, but at least it’s some progress. Thanks to the team!

[bandali]

Glad to hear about there being no issues for you.

To my knowledge we don’t have an article about it, but the upgrade of Firefox snap’s base from core20 to core22 should address some important issues on the Raspberry Pi thanks the new mesa in Jammy, namely enabling accelerated video playback in Firefox on the Pi. I believe the upgrade to core22 will similarly add support for hardware-accelerated video decode/encode on some newer Intel graphics cards and improve support for some Nvidia GPUs as well, along with other small overall improvements.

[bandali]

Quick update: the change has been merged, and barring unforeseen issues, the upcoming Firefox 117 stable snap release will be based on core22.

[antgel]

Awesome! How can those of us who have moved to candidate/core22 know when the stable branch has been updated?

By the way, I don’t know if it’s psychological, but the UX is so much better. Seems much less of a CPU and memory hog, super-snappy (pun intended) and stable. Thanks!