Firefox 3.5 (formerly known as 3.1) adds support for new web standards including audio and video tags and downloadable fonts, a private browsing mode, significantly improved JavaScript performance, and more.
Ubuntu will not be upgrading the default Firefox package to 3.5 until Ubuntu 9.10. However, the universe repository in Ubuntu 9.04 includes a special firefox-3.5 package. At the time of writing this package contains an old beta release. It should be updated soon, but here’s a workaround if you can’t wait any longer.
Update: I’m now recommending installing Firefox 3.5 using Ubuntuzilla rather than the methods described in this post.
Before you update, consider backing up your Firefox profile if you may want to go back to Firefox 3 after trying 3.5. Running the command below will backup your Firefox profile to firefox_profile_backup in your home directory. To restore from the backup, replace your .mozilla/firefox folder with the backup.
cp -r ~/.mozilla/firefox/ ~/firefox_profile_backup
Update: The firefox-3.5 package in Ubuntu 9.04 has now been updated, so it’s no longer necessary to use the Mozilla Security Team PPA.
Open the Synaptic package manager and select Settings->Repositories. Select the Third-Party Software tab and add the APT line for the Mozilla Security Team PPA, which has Firefox packages which are undergoing testing prior to wider release:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
Return to the main Synaptic window and click the Reload button to download the repository listings. Find the firefox-3.5 package and mark it for installation. Click Apply to install.
After Synaptic is done working, you can remove or disable the Mozilla Security Team PPA if you don’t want to get any more untested updates.
Unfortunately, this package is still branded as Shiretoko (the codename for this Firefox release). Start Firefox 3.5 from Applications->Internet->Shiretoko Web Browser.
Enjoyed this post? 
[...] Original post: Install Firefox 3.5 in Ubuntu 9.04 [...]
I’ve noticed with the firefox 3.5 from the mozilla daily ppa, the user agent string has shiretoko, not firefox, and places like facebook don’t recognize it, and thus don’t enable things like the in browser chat. user agent switcher seems to get around that, but annoying.
Any word on when/whether ff3.5 will be available for Hardy ?
Shiretoko branding isn’t the only problem with this way of installation, non-english users will also notice missing localization (which can be, on the other hand, installed separately as an add-on).
I recommend different way – check out Ubuntuzilla: http://ubuntuzilla.wiki.sourceforge.net/
This script installs official Firefox package from Mozilla to /opt/firefox, replaces symlinks and takes care of updates. As far as I have tested it, it works flawlessly. It’s not as clean as package installation, but it solves all issues with official packages of Firefox.
Hi Tom,
Problem with this solution is that Shiretoko is not compatible with many of the Firefox extensions you may have installed.
I think the best solution *right now* is to stick to the tarball distributed by Mozilla, that’s at least what I’m suggesting to my readers.
Thanks for the post. You can try installing using ubuntuzilla too. It is kind of a quick fix solution, but still easy to do, and you can revert back to initial state without any hassles.
http://ubuntumanual.org/posts/193/installing-firefox-3-5-in-ubuntu-the-easy-way
W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net jaunty Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY A6DCF7707EBC211F
do you have the key?
Download the “signing key” linked to from the PPA page:
https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ppa
You can add the key using Synaptic.
If you don’t want any more updates from the PPA you can just ignore the error and remove the repository after installing Firefox.
[...] Read more at Tombuntu [...]
The branding is a minor problem. You can just edit the menu item and use the firefox icon and rename it “firefox 3.5″ or whatever you want it to be.
The addon non-compatibility is annoying, but it always happens whenever there’s a huge update. The same thing happened with 3.0. Essentially you just have to wait a while for the individual add-on creators to catch up with the newest version.
Can I suggest that if you want to install Firefox 3.5 then you visit here: Here
I should have amended my previous post by mentioning that it’s not shiretoko, it’s the completed version of Firefox 3.5.
When I go to Help –> About Shiretoko, I see:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre) Gecko/20090706 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Shiretoko/3.5.1pre.
Shouldn’t I just be 3.5 without any other garbage (.1pre)?
[...] I will wait and hope to test it in the next Ubuntu version (9.10), but if you are hurry to use it, it is possible to install this software in the current Ubuntu version (9.04 Jaunty). A tutorial is available here : http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2009/07/03/install-firefox-35-in-ubuntu-904/ [...]
So does this mean we are going to be getting an update w/o this work around soon?
[...] my previous post on installing Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04, I explained how to install Ubuntu’s firefox-3.5 [...]
But FF 3.5 shows a pretty evil performance – at least here on my 9.04 Bit Jaunty.
Read here
http://brainextender.blogspot.com/2009/06/ubuntu-javascript-benchmark.html
my 2 cents
brain extender
How do I uninstall this Shiretoko browser and install the firefox 3.5.1 browser. it’s so buggy i want to get rid of it!!
All the plugins ain’t available when using UbuntuZilla!
I have 64bit Ubuntu and Firefox 3.5.1 installed whit Ununtuzilla, but I jast can’t get any plugins to work. About:plugins says that there is no plugins. This must mean that the profile folder is somewhere but where?
Its not: home/username/.mozilla
Its not usr/lib/firefox/
Its not usr/lib/firefox-addons
etc…
still doesn’t work. needs a gpg key again.
Finally, I find a helpful post. Thanks.