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I want to remove Firefox (with sudo apt-get purge firefox*) but without installing the Epiphany browser. How can I do this?

I want to remove Firefox because I want to use Google Chrome as my default and only web browser.

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7 Answers 7

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If uninstalling firefox installs epiphany, then that's because some other package depends on "a web browser", which packages do by depending on the virtual package www-browser. If the google-chrome package doesn't have a Provides: www-browser line, and you have no other browser installed, APT thinks it needs to install a package that does provide a www-browser and then Epiphany is the first choice on a GNOME system.

I downloaded one of the Google Chrome .deb files and I can confirm that they don't provide www-browser. If you want to get this fixed you need to file a bug report with Google and tell them to fix their .deb packages.

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  • Interesting. Is there a way to find which packages depend on www-browser? Nov 8, 2010 at 1:59
  • In Synaptic it's easy: Ctrl+F to bring up the search dialog, enter www-browser and select to search for "Dependencies" in the dropdown below that, then press the "Search" button.
    – JanC
    Nov 8, 2010 at 2:50
  • On the commandline, apt-cache showpkg www-browser will list both the packages that depend on it and the packages that provide it. Note that "depend" means all sorts of dependencies, including recommends etc. (you can limit it to only certain types of dependencies with an option, see the manpage).
    – JanC
    Nov 8, 2010 at 2:52
  • BTW: maybe there are also other/better ways to find this, feel free to make it a new question... ;)
    – JanC
    Nov 8, 2010 at 2:54
  • On my system man-db depends on www-browser for looking at online man pages and appears to be the one that pulls in epiphany.
    – Adam
    Nov 8, 2010 at 13:39
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Removing Firefox does not install or uninstall epiphany-browser. I couldn't reproduce your problem, but there is no need for adding a wildcard after firefox in your command.

Instead of using:

sudo apt-get purge firefox*

Use:

sudo apt-get purge firefox

This command will take care of removing all Firefox packages. If you are still having troubles, then please post the terminal output when you try to remove Firefox, so we can see which packages are being removed.

BTW, the purge command has the same effect as remove, since Firefox does not store any config files in /etc. If you want to remove personal Firefox settings, you need to manually remove the folder ~/.mozilla/firefox

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    This is incorrect. Yes, it does. I have reproduced the problem myself. It does try to install Epiphany if no other Web browser is installed. Dec 9, 2021 at 18:48
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To make Google Chrome your default browser, run Google Chrome, open up Preferences and then under the tab "Basics" you'll find "Make Google Chrome my default browser". Click that button.

You don't need to uninstall Firefox.

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    yes i did it,.but I want to remove firefox because it is very wasteful if we only use a web browser but there are 2 web browser installed.
    – squallbayu
    Nov 7, 2010 at 14:52
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    If "sudo apt-get remove firefox" does not remove Firefox, you shouldn't remove Firefox. Something depends on it. Nov 7, 2010 at 14:54
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For those who will find this old question:

It happens due to installed mozplugger, and it continues to happen nowadays in particular, mozplugger depends of one of these:

iceweasel | iceape-browser | firefox | abrowser | galeon | rekonq | konqueror | opera | epiphany | chromium (>> 10.0.64-8.114~r75702-1~) | chromium-browser | xulrunner-1.9 | xulrunner-1.9.1 | xulrunner-1.9.2 | xulrunner-2.0

This list did not change for many years.

So if one uninstalls the only installed browser from this list, apt-get would try to install another.

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Full remove, including configurations files: sudo apt-get --purge autoremove firefox

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    Keep in mind the purge only removes configuration files from /etc and as far as I know Firefox does not have any files there. This means the purge command will not remove your personal Firefox configuration, which resides in the ~/mozilla/firefox folder. That can only be removed manually. Nov 7, 2010 at 15:33
  • thanks! this explains why after --purge command there still were configuration files
    – Anarchj
    Dec 24, 2010 at 15:28
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If you want to remove,do it by:

sudo apt autoremove firefox
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    it iss till also install epiphany.
    – squallbayu
    Nov 7, 2010 at 14:52
  • It doesn't. Please post the output of your terminal. Nov 7, 2010 at 15:33
  • Yes, it does. I have replicated this today on Debian 11.1. If no other browser is installed then APT tries to install Epiphany. A workaround is to install chromium first, then remove Firefox, then install (say) a newer Firefox, then remove Chromium again. Dec 9, 2021 at 18:49
  • ~> doas apt autoremove firefox-esr Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: epiphany-browser epiphany-browser-data libdazzle-1.0-0 libhandy-1-0 Recommended packages: evince yelp The following packages will be REMOVED: firefox-esr The following NEW packages will be installed: epiphany-browser epiphany-browser-data libdazzle-1.0-0 libhandy-1-0 0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 4666 kB of archives.
    – Istvan
    Jan 16, 2022 at 0:06
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Full remove = sudo apt-get purge firefox (delete the preferences too)

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    Keep in mind the purge only removes configuration files from /etc and as far as I know Firefox does not have any files there. This means the purge command will not remove your personal Firefox configuration, which resides in the ~/mozilla/firefox folder. That can only be removed manually. Nov 7, 2010 at 15:34

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