Ubuntu Version:
Lubuntu 22.04
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
LxQt
Problem Description:
Firefox isn’t working after release-upgrade.
amonra@charon:~$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
amonra@charon:~$ firefox&
[1] 98588
amonra@charon:~$ xdg-settings: $BROWSER is set and can't be changed with xdg-settings
/user.slice/user-1000.slice/session-37.scope is not a snap cgroup
Tried apt remove firefox and apt install firefox, still not working.
David
Your output strongly suggests that you are using Firefox from a snap package, not a deb package. Newer releases of Ubuntu, including 22.04, use the snap.
See if you have the Firefox snap installed: Try running /snap/bin/firefox or snap list | grep firefox
Lubuntu 22.04 LTS will reach end of life (EOL) in April 2025.
You should start considering upgrading to 24.04.
monra@charon:~$ snap list | grep firefox
firefox 134.0.2-1 5647 latest/stable mozilla** -
amonra@charon:~$ /snap/bin/firefox
/user.slice/user-1000.slice/session-55.scope is not a snap cgroup
amonra@charon:~$
Yes, once I get everything working again after doing the release-upgrade to 22.04 
firefox, sqlite and sickchill at least are borked since the upgrade.
D
Looks similar to https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/696600/snap-package-failing-user-slice-user-1000-slice-session-1-scope-is-not-a-snap/745881#745881
Perhaps the same solution will work.
staff:
Removed as a Detrimental post - no content to aid in a solution to the OP query. Bashing Snap is intolerable.
That stackexchange thread didn’t seem to offer a solution - building a new kernel shouldn’t be necessary. This should just work (it does on a fresh install of 22.04, but I REALLY don’t want to go there with > 5 years of configuration invested).
The proposal to install Firefox (since deleted) has some merit to me, as snap list shows:
amonra@charon:~$ snap list
Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
bare 1.0 5 latest/stable canonical✓ base
core22 20250110 1748 latest/stable canonical✓ base
firefox 134.0.2-1 5647 latest/stable mozilla✓ -
gnome-42-2204 0+git.38ea591 202 latest/stable canonical✓ -
gtk-common-themes 0.1-81-g442e511 1535 latest/stable canonical✓ -
snapd 2.67 23545 latest/stable canonical✓ snapd
amonra@charon:~$
which suggests to me that that the ONLY reason for snap is to install firefox,
Is my analysis correct?
Thanks
David
I removed the firefox snap and installed the .deb from Mozilla. Problem bypassed (not solved as no-one provided a solution for fixing snap).
Canonical may think snap is the best thing since sliced bread, but I try to avoid sliced bread.
Firefox on the 22.04 virtual machine I installed from scratch is slow as molasses and since reading around the internet on this issue, I think the firefox snap there is going to get removed given that Firefox on the 20.04 VM is not at all slow.
Did you check your environment variables?
That’s much, much easier.
Obviously Ubuntu would not ship a kernel incompatible with snapd.
Surprised you were distracted by that particular answer.
Not really.
Snap packages have many uses. Developers (and many users) find Snaps to have many benefits.
That you use only one today does not suggest you will always use ONLY one.
Glad you found a solution nevertheless that works for you.
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-rbtaLBnkFl,guid=99129c89faa6343862bdf11b679912be
I don’t set that myself, so something in the system is possibly setting it incorrectly, and I shouldn’t be trying to work round that with an entry in .bashrc
@ian-weisser has already provided a reason I agree with, but I’ll comment an example.
You can see what Lubuntu provided with 22.04 by looking at the manifest file for an ISO (https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/22.04.5/release/lubuntu-22.04.5-desktop-amd64.manifest) with snap packages listed at the bottom. With 22.04 the only snap packages we did provide relate to the firefox web browser provided as a snap package.
That isn’t the case for later releases, eg. looking at 24.04 (https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/24.04.1/release/lubuntu-24.04.1-desktop-amd64.manifest) you’ll note more is provided as snap. Whether or not you need firmware-updater of course is up to you (and your hardware). On the PC I’m using currently I get a number of firmware updates each year as a consequence of that snap package, however on another older (2008 Dell) I use late in the day I get no benefit (Dell/Intel/etc abandoned that machine hardware long ago!).
@oldfred already warned that Lubuntu 22.04 LTS is approaching the EOL date for the Lubuntu team… Whilst your base Ubuntu system will get security/updates for five years, parts of your system won’t get team support, so are you thinking about the future? or only the next few months? (April 2025)
FYI: Lubuntu (and two other flavors) offer a snap free install anyway; so we do provide for installs without those packages, but we don’t prevent those packages from being installed (no pinning is done), and personally I’d not recommend snapd free anyway (snap makes a machine more useful & does solve issues!)… but snap free is still provided if folks want it.
but snap free is still provided if folks want it.
But I assume not as part of a release-upgrade?
Meantime I still have a system where the value of DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS is being set “wrong”, so the snap version of firefox isn’t playing. I don’t consider that setting this manually in .bashrc is good approach.
I do intend to do a release-upgrade to 24.04 in the near future, but, as I said I, want to get 22.04 working properly before attempting that. I’m also concerned that the status page for this hasn’t been updated since it was reported in Sept. 2024 that release-upgrade was broken.
David
Which page where? When you say “this,” given the topic, I assume you mean “Firefox,” but it’s a little unclear.
A release upgrade will upgrade what you have installed … I’m not a lubuntu user/maintainer but i guess the “snap free” image simply comes without firefox at all …
If you had firefox installed and upgrade it will simply try to update your install to the latest supported version of firefox to not leave you without a browser … and that comes as a snap in the newer release …
No I mean noble:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-24-04-1-lts-point-release-status-tracking/46972
Meantime what is the correct fix for this issue of an incorrect value for DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS?
So you are specifically referring to this:
Correct?
If so, just because that post hasn’t been updated doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fixed.
You have the workaround. Probably wise to start with that.
Meanwhile, it’s not clear to me there’s a bug report anywhere on this, so I would file one.