Changing the default browser from Firefox to Waterfox Classic

Many Firefox add-ons stopped working some years ago

A Firefox update stopped add-ons working. Switching to Firefox-ESR bought some time, but that got updated without insufficient warning to use the same engine that disallowed those add-ons. Since then Firefox has not had the functionality I wanted.

Waterfox Classic uses an engine that still supports those addons.

Add-ons I miss

• name? Automatic Tab resizing.
• name? Password exporting and importing. This one was the most important to me.

Installing Waterfox, and failing

So you go to the Waterfox site and download it. But that does not install it.
So you realise it is a compressed file you downloaded and you unzip it. But that does not install it.
So you realise there is an executable waterfox in a subfolder download location/waterfox and you run it. But that does not install it.
So you realise you need to set it as the default browser and you do that. But that does not install it. It is not in the menu and still not the default browser for other applications.

Alternatively:
So you go to the Waterfox site and download it. But that does not install it.
So you realise it is a compressed file you downloaded and you unzip it. But that does not install it.
So you realise there is an executable waterfox in a subfolder download location/waterfox and you run it. You get:

~/Downloads/waterfox$ ./waterfox
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/simon/Downloads/waterfox/libmozsqlite3.so:
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /home/simon/Downloads/waterfox/libmozsqlite3.so)
Couldn't load XPCOM.

because it has been compiled to use a more recent version of the clib library than the current Long Term Support version of Xubuntu.

There is no advice on the Waterfox web site on how to actually get it working.

Installing Waterfox more successfully

A contributor to Waterfox has produced his own repository. Click on Ubuntu here, choose your distro and version (in my case "xUbuntu_18.04 x86_64") then click on 'Add repository and install manually' to expand the section of instructions, in my case (they will be different for you or me in the future):

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hawkeye116477:/waterfox/xUbuntu_18.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox.list"
wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox/xUbuntu_18.04/Release.key -O Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install waterfox

You now have Waterfox in the menu.

You still need to:

• Remove Firefox from the Favourites part of the menu
• Add Waterfox to the Favourites part of the menu
• Go in to Waterfox and set is at the default browser
• Go in to Firefox and tell it to stop checking it is the default browser
• Go in to Preferred Applications and /usr/bin/waterfox-classic which shows the new Web Browser as 'waterfox-classic' with a command line of /usr/bin/waterfox-classic "%s"
• Drop into a command line session and run:

sudo update-alternatives --all

Press Enter through the items can be changed except for the ones referring to firefox. Change them to waterfox-classic:

There are 3 choices for the alternative gnome-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser).   
 Selection    Path                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/firefox            40        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/firefox            40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/waterfox-classic   40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/waterfox-current   40        manual mode 
Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2

and

There are 3 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

 Selection    Path                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/firefox            40        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/firefox            40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/waterfox-classic   40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/waterfox-current   40        manual mode
Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2

No doubt there will be other settings elsewhere...