Firefox on Linux: Snap, Deb or Flatpak, and Hardware Video Acceleration

Snap vs deb vs Flatpak

If the Snap works for you, there's no need to switch. People usually move to the deb because of startup time, a password manager or smart-card integration that doesn't work, or to keep everything managed by apt.

Switch Ubuntu to Mozilla's APT repository

Mozilla publishes its own deb packages at packages.mozilla.org. This works on Ubuntu 26.04 and 24.04 and on Debian.

1. Remove the Snap:

   sudo snap remove firefox

2. Add Mozilla's signing key and repository:

   sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
   wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null
   # the fingerprint should match the one on Mozilla's support page
   gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc
   
   sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.sources > /dev/null <<'EOF'
   Types: deb
   URIs: https://packages.mozilla.org/apt
   Suites: mozilla
   Components: main
   Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc
   EOF

3. Pin Mozilla's packages above Ubuntu's transitional package, so apt never brings the Snap back:

   sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla > /dev/null <<'EOF'
   Package: *
   Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
   Pin-Priority: 1000
   EOF

4. Install and check:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install firefox
   apt policy firefox

   The candidate version should come from packages.mozilla.org, not from the Ubuntu archive.
5. Restore your profile by copying the backed-up folder's contents into ~/.mozilla/firefox, or just sign in to Sync.

Language packs are separate packages, for example sudo apt install firefox-l10n-de. If apt update reports NO_PUBKEY, the key path in Signed-By doesn't match the file; see fixing NO_PUBKEY errors. The general repository pattern is explained in the apt guide. On Ubuntu, unattended upgrades only cover Ubuntu's own archives by default, so Mozilla's updates arrive with your normal apt upgrade.

Debian: regular Firefox instead of ESR

Use steps 2 and 4 above (no Snap and no pin needed). The firefox package installs next to firefox-esr; remove ESR afterwards if you don't need it.

Flatpak on any distribution

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox
flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox

Remove the distribution's Firefox afterwards if you don't want two copies. Codecs for H.264 and other formats are provided by Flatpak runtime extensions and installed automatically.

Hardware video acceleration (VA-API)

Hardware decoding moves video playback from the CPU to the GPU, which saves a lot of battery on laptops. Current Firefox releases enable VA-API decoding by default on supported Intel and AMD GPUs under both Wayland and X11, provided the system driver is installed.

1. Install and check the driver

# Ubuntu / Debian / Mint
sudo apt install vainfo intel-media-va-driver mesa-va-drivers
# Fedora (with RPM Fusion for full H.264/HEVC on AMD)
sudo dnf install libva-utils intel-media-driver
sudo dnf swap mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld
# Arch
sudo pacman -S libva-utils intel-media-driver
vainfo

Example output (Intel):

vainfo: Driver version: Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            :	VAEntrypointVLD

VAEntrypointVLD means hardware decoding is available for that codec. Older Intel GPUs (before Broadwell) use i965-va-driver / libva-intel-driver instead of intel-media-driver. For AMD on Arch, the Mesa VA-API driver comes with the Mesa packages (it was a separate libva-mesa-driver package on older installs); if vainfo finds no driver, check with pacman -Ss va-driver.

2. Confirm Firefox is using it

Open about:support and look at Media → codec support: hardware decoding should be listed for the codecs vainfo shows. Play a video and watch CPU use; it should be low. If a site serves a codec your GPU can't decode (AV1 on older hardware is common), Firefox falls back to software decoding.

3. Force it on or off

In about:config, media.hardware-video-decoding.force-enabled set to true forces decoding on for GPUs Firefox has blocklisted. Set it back if you see artefacts or crashes. NVIDIA GPUs need the community nvidia-vaapi-driver and some extra configuration; results vary by driver version.

In the Snap, hardware decoding depends on the Snap's bundled graphics libraries and works on most Intel and AMD systems; if it doesn't, the Mozilla deb with your system drivers is the more reliable option.

Fixing common problems

For other media apps, the VLC page covers codecs and hardware decoding outside the browser, and the Ubuntu post-install guide covers the other choices worth making on a new Ubuntu system.

Frequently asked questions