Is there an estimate for when Firefox will migrate from core22 to core24? Ubuntu 24.04 has been available for a year, yet the Firefox Snap is still based on core22. This older base has known compatibility issues, particularly with NVIDIA drivers (e.g., Bug #1967456). Additionally, Firefox could benefit from updated libraries in core24, such as newer versions of Mesa. It’s unclear why Firefox Snap updates consistently lag behind by at least a year when transitioning to newer core packages.
Isn’t the edge version on core24 already ?
Not sure which core the edge version is using. There is a latest/candidate/core24 channel based on core24, but that seems to only be updated for major versions. For example, currently it is at version 137.0 while the most recent release is 137.0.2.
latest/edge (revision 6045; firefox 139.0a1) is using core24 ; latest/beta (revision 6058, 138.0b9-1) is using core22; latest/candidate/core24 (revision 5964, core24, firefox 137.0-1).
I am not sure how mozilla handles core updates and also the edge channel for firefox. If the revision in the latest/candidate/core24 branch is too old for you, you probably could follow the edge channel. (As edge revision is lower than beta revision i assume mozilla does not publish all their newest builds to edge, but only the core24 builds).
I’d advice using a parallel installation though. Or at least a backup via snap save firefox before refreshing to the latest/edge channel.
Also the discourse may another place to get info; i did not have the feeling that mozilla is very active on the forums
I wish they’d document how they handle the channels in the snap description.
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I found chromium snap has migrated to core24. And the current firefox snap based on core22 bundled with its own mesa 25.
Hope the migration will make firefox snap size much smaller.
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Only a bit related, I found documentation for the snap packaging at mozilla (but sadly it does not have core related information)
https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/build/buildsystem/snap.html
But there are hints where the right place to complain about issues on core22 is: the mozilla bugtracker; there is a meta-bug where such a bug could be attached (core22 vs core24 issues)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1969815
There is already one for the codec issues:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1966290
It seems your info about mesa could be wrong. Both latest/stable/core24 and latest/candidate/core24are on rev7867; firefox 148.0-1 . Actually the core24 is about 20M bigger in download size and 66M bigger extracted than the core22 version. That is mostly in libraries (`/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu`), simply updated versions (many codec libs increased 10%; libavutil increased 50%)
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This is little disappointing. Snap chromium is 189MB currently, while snap firefox is 263MB, 40% bigger than snap chromium.
Well, download size would be the almost last thing i would optimize for. Stability, updateness, security, integration/compatibility, memory footprint, performance, … all come to mind first. And there is quite some work to do (especially on integration), so i doubt there are developer resources.
I could imagine an option to not use integrated codecs but host codecs via components, so someone might delibaretly turn that off, but not sure if that would be feasable and if that is desirable. But you should engage the mozilla bugtracker about that.
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From the mozilla bugtracker
core24 has been recently rolled out for Ubuntu 26.04 (which tracks the channel latest/stable/26.04). We’re giving it some time to catch issues; It will eventually follow suit for the latest/stable channel.
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Given that this size only applies to the very first time you install the snap I think this is neglect-able (all subsequent updates will use delta updates and you only get the changed bits between the two versions through the network … this is a default in the snap world FWIW)
This is just my personal experience.
I’ve found that in certain scenarios, Firefox snap cold starts feel significantly slower than Chromium snap.
For example, clicking desktop icon to cold start Firefox snap takes amount of time that feels acceptable.
However, when clicking a link in an email to launch(cold start) the system’s default browser, Firefox snap is much slower than Chromium snap.
I feel that package size has a significant impact on user experience. All of this is just my subjective feeling after all.
I doubt this has anything to do with the size itself but rather that Firefox uses more wrapper scripts and sets up more things on start-up (though I haven’t looked, just guessing)
Maybe open a bug in the bugzilla similar to “cold-start firefox snap is painfully slow; chrome snap is still good”. Maybe they’ll investigate(?)
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They are testing firefox against gnome-46-2404 that has as base core24.
snap refresh --channel stable/ubuntu-26.04 firefox
I needed to update in Ubuntu 26.04 because I got this issue: Bug #2111502 “[SRU] Mouse pointer stuck in GTK based snaps after...” : Bugs : mutter package : Ubuntu (Mouse pointer stuck in GTK based snaps after drag operation) and that update fixed it. The problem is that drag and drop (file, images) to Firefox is not working anymore (same with chrome, so it seems to be a common issue with core24/gnome-46-2404 )
$ snap info firefox --verbose
name: firefox
summary: Mozilla Firefox web browser
health:
status: unknown
message: health has not been set
publisher: Mozilla✓
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/firefox
contact: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/file-bug-report-or-feature-request-mozilla
links:
contact:
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/file-bug-report-or-feature-request-mozilla
website:
- https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
license: unset
description: |
Firefox is a powerful, extensible web browser with support for modern web application
technologies.
commands:
- firefox
- firefox.geckodriver
notes:
private: false
grade: stable
confinement: strict
devmode: false
jailmode: false
trymode: false
enabled: true
broken: false
ignore-validation: false
base: core24
snap-id: 3wdHCAVyZEmYsCMFDE9qt92UV8rC8Wdk
tracking: latest/stable/ubuntu-26.04
refresh-date: today at 09:39 CET
channels:
latest/stable: 148.0-1 2026-02-26 (7901) 266MB -
latest/candidate: 148.0.2-1 2026-03-10 (7967) 267MB -
latest/beta: 149.0b6-1 2026-03-09 (7963) 267MB -
latest/edge: 150.0a1 2026-03-10 (7970) 309MB -
esr/stable: 140.8.0esr-2 2026-02-24 (7866) 258MB -
esr/candidate: 140.8.0esr-2 2026-02-25 (7900) 258MB -
esr/beta: ↑
esr/edge: ↑
installed: 148.0.2-1 (7966) 287MB -
~$ snap info gnome-46-2404 --verbose
name: gnome-46-2404
summary: Shared GNOME 46 Ubuntu stack
health:
status: unknown
message: health has not been set
publisher: Canonical✓
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/gnome-46-2404
contact: https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/issues
links:
contact:
- https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/issues
source-code:
- https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/tree/gnome-46-2404
license: unset
description: |
This snap provides the GNOME 46 stack to other snaps that use it. It shares the base GNOME
libraries and desktop integration components through the content interface. This helps reduce the
size of snaps and helps developers to easily snap desktop applications.
**For users**
This snap is automatically installed and removed when needed. **Manually adding or removing this
snap is not recommended** and might break things.
* If you are having issues with **snaps** using GNOME, please contact the experts on the Snapcraft
forum: https://forum.snapcraft.io/
* If you want to install the GNOME Desktop Environment, then you are in the wrong place. Please
take a look at https://www.gnome.org/ for more information on how to get it.
**For developers**
* The `gnome` extension is the recommended way to use this in your own snap:
https://snapcraft.io/docs/gnome-extension
* You can report issues with this content snap on GitHub:
https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/issues
* The source code of this snap is available on GitHub in the `gnome-46-2404` branch:
https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/tree/gnome-46-2404
notes:
private: false
grade: stable
confinement: strict
devmode: false
jailmode: false
trymode: false
enabled: true
broken: false
ignore-validation: false
base: core24
snap-id: ew7OxpbRTxfK7ImpIygRR85lkxvU7Pzt
tracking: latest/stable
refresh-date: 49 days ago, at 17:12 CET
channels:
latest/stable: 0+git.f1cd5fa-sdk0+git.ca9c59c 2026-01-20 (153) 635MB -
latest/candidate: 0+git.b31ceab-sdk0+git.67f8d5c 2026-02-14 (162) 635MB -
latest/beta: ↑
latest/edge: 0+git.b31ceab-sdk0+git.67f8d5c 2026-02-14 (162) 635MB -
installed: 0+git.f1cd5fa-sdk0+git.ca9c59c (153) 635MB -
So did I understand correctly? recently drag and drop was not working in stable/ubuntu-26.06 with precise. And now is working after a mutter update (?)
Drag and drop was working fine, in the new version (using channel stable/ubuntu-26.04) it is failing for me, but it is also failing in chrome, maybe it is related to snap/gnome/wayland
Ok, I found the issue, bug reported. More details here:
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