Each update wipes out my browser

[ldalen]

So, second time its happened.
Update =
1: First time, Firefox was gone! All my bookmarks, everything - wanted to reinstall.
1b: So installed Chrome... yay, for Google! this wont happen again.

2: Today - log in... and no fox, no google - and all my bookmarks will have to be...
... remade! (yeah, I know, it should sync from cloud, etc.
2b: Be that as it may - its not... and more-so, why is STEAM wiping out my browser from the update so that I have to reinstall in the first place.

This... I admit, is frustrating -
Thanks

[fmillion]

I could be wrong, but I believe they treat the core OS as a "blob", as in, the boot OS and everything that's part of it is considered replaceable. The only thing that is intended to get preserved is the /home directory. (I recall needing to run a command to remount the root filesystem as read-write before I could even install any Arch packages to begin with).

That definitely is a big oversight though, since Valve advertises it as a device capable of providing a desktop experience, so if it's true that updates overwrite the system partition that makes it a pretty useless "desktop".

But as I said I might be wrong, and maybe updates are just a collection of package files and the scripts just remount the root filesystem read-write to do the update. We'll need someone who's dug deeper into how SteamOS actually works (I haven't).

[ldalen]

Thanks...
What I found, at least with this update, is that Google had an update as well.
Didnt see that, and the icon, was removed from my task bar after the update.

Once I updated it, I simply had to re-add it to task bar.
Not that intuitive what happened...

... given that Firefox was wiped completely off, not even with an update notification.
Once it was reinstalled, all books marks gone.
(lucky for google, everything was there)

However - kudos to Valve on the clipboard.
Better than a copy/paste on the PC (just found it remembers urls, etc that you have - so, in theory, I can easily navigate back there if there is a wipe)

Hopefully, the taskbar can 'keep' the icons on updates (so as to alleviate confusion)

Thanks for the feedback!

[Big D The Icedman]

With regards to Firefox, Steam removed it from the OS update install, and required people to reinstall it through the Discover app. As the flatpack will be updated more then the version Steam was supplying.

[ldalen]

Thanks!

[Dave Sammish]

This same happened to me. I had just changed the font size to something readable for me and update wiped that and firefox duckduck n everything else I had done.

I squinted my way to settings and found no way to apply my settings changes.

I gave up. I dont want google or edge. Certainly not if I cant read them.

I should add that I am rather illiterate in the pc world. I do have friends who could interpret and apply the above or any advice that follows. And I am thankful there are folk more passionate about this than me. Im prolly just gonna wait till they are done messing with this beta and stop removing settings each update. Too annoying.

So yeah desktop mode is on my wishlist you might say.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Dave Sammish:

This same happened to me. I had just changed the font size to something readable for me and update wiped that and firefox duckduck n everything else I had done.

I squinted my way to settings and found no way to apply my settings changes.

I gave up. I dont want google or edge. Certainly not if I cant read them.

I should add that I am rather illiterate in the pc world. I do have friends who could interpret and apply the above or any advice that follows. And I am thankful there are folk more passionate about this than me. Im prolly just gonna wait till they are done messing with this beta and stop removing settings each update. Too annoying.

So yeah desktop mode is on my wishlist you might say.

Big D The Icedman is correct. They've removed the version of Firefox from the core OS as a pre-installed component that exists on the immutable filesystem because they realized that it will get more frequent updates (including security updates) by users installing the flatpak version from the Discover store.

If you install the Firefox flatpack from Discover your configurations and settings (bookmarks, etc.) shouldn't get wiped with future updates.

1) Boot to Gamemode
2) Update to the latest stable SteamOS (should be 3.3.1 as of now)
3) Boot up normally to Gamemode after update and verify you are on 3.3 or later
4) Reboot to desktop mode
5) Open the Discover App Store and install Firefox
6) Launch Firefox flatpak at least once and let it complete its first time setup

[Dave Sammish]

Smiling, nodding.. Thanks!

[birolay]

2024 and this is still happening

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by birolay:

2024 and this is still happening

Are you installing the browsers through the Discover store?

[birolay]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Originally posted by birolay:

2024 and this is still happening

Are you installing the browsers through the Discover store?

yea

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by birolay:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

Are you installing the browsers through the Discover store?

yea

Then something else is going on. I've had Chrome, Brave and Mozilla installed on my OLED since it's release. Nothing has disappeared or uninstalled. I did have that issue on my LCD initially when the Deck was launched as we were all downloading them via browsers rather than getting the flatpaks.

If you are talking about the hot bar at the bottom of the screen, that could be a different issue. If you don't see them in your installed apps, that's something different all together.

[Dave Sammish]

Still unable to use desktop in any meaningful capacity. It is a boondoggle.