Set the Jupyter Notebook Default Browser on Ubuntu

This guide provides instructions on how to configure Jupyter Notebook to open with a preferred web browser, such as Firefox or Google Chrome, instead of your system’s default browser. While the steps illustrate how to set Firefox as the default browser on Ubuntu, we also include details for Google Chrome users.

Step-by-Step Guide

The following steps will show you how to set your default browser for Jupyter on Ubuntu.

Step 1: Check the Browser Installation

Ensure that Firefox or Google Chrome is installed on your system. To verify this, run one of the following commands in the terminal:

For Firefox:

firefox --version

For Google Chrome:

 google-chrome --version

These commands will return the current version of the installed browser. If the browser is not installed, use sudo apt install firefox or sudo apt install google-chrome-stable to install it

Step 2: Generate a Jupyter Configuration File

If you don’t already have a Jupyter configuration file, generate one with the following command:

jupyter notebook --generate-config

This command creates a file named jupyter_notebook_config.py in the ~/.jupyter/ directory.

Step 3: Modify the Configuration File

Open the configuration file in a text editor. For example, if using vim, the command would be vim ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py.

Search for the line #c.ServerApp.browser = ''. If it’s not present, add it at the end of the file.

Uncomment this line by removing the # at the start. Replace the empty quotes with ‘firefox’ for Firefox users, or ‘google-chrome’ for Google Chrome users. The line should look like this:

For Firefox:

c.ServerApp.browser = 'firefox'

For Google Chrome:

c.ServerApp.browser = 'google-chrome'

Save and close the configuration file.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve set your default browser, you may want to update your Jupyter Notebook environment variables.

Conclusion

Now, whenever you start Jupyter Notebook, it will open in the chosen browser by default. This guide provides a straightforward way to change the default browser for Jupyter Notebook to Firefox or Google Chrome on Ubuntu.

The same method can be applied to set any web browser as the default, provided it’s installed on your system and launched from the terminal.

Frequently Asked Questions