Firefox-78.9.0

Introduction to Firefox

Firefox is a stand-alone browser based on the Mozilla codebase.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-10.1 platform.

Package Information

[Note]

Note

The directory name is firefox-78.9.0

Extracting the tarball will reset the permissions of the current directory to 0755 if you have permission to do that. If you do this in a directory where the sticky bit is set, such as /tmp it will end with error messages:

tar: .: Cannot utime: Operation not permitted
tar: .: Cannot change mode to rwxr-xr-t: Operation not permitted
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

This does finish with non-zero status, but it does NOT mean there is a real problem. Do not untar as the root user in a directory where the sticky bit is set - that will unset it.

As with other large packages which use C++ (or rust), the SBU times to build this vary more widely than you might expect. The build times will increase significantly if your machine has to swap.

Although upstream prefer to use PulseAudio, for the moment Alsa can still be used. Both may need runtime configuration to get sound working.

Firefox Dependencies

Required

Autoconf-2.13, Cbindgen-0.18.0, dbus-glib-0.112, both GTK+-3.24.28 and GTK+-2.24.33, libnotify-0.7.9, LLVM-11.1.0 (clang, used for bindgen even if using gcc), nodejs-14.16.1, NSS-3.63, PulseAudio-14.2 (or alsa-lib-1.2.4 if you edit the mozconfig; now deprecated by mozilla), in either case please read the Configuration Information, Python-3.9.2 (rebuilt after installing SQLite-3.35.4), startup-notification-0.12, UnZip-6.0, yasm-1.3.0, and Zip-3.0

Recommended

[Note]

Note

If you don't install recommended dependencies, then internal copies of those packages will be used. They might be tested to work, but they can be out of date or contain security holes.

Optional

cURL-7.76.0, Doxygen-1.9.1, FFmpeg-4.4 (runtime, to play mov, mp3 or mp4 files), liboauth-1.0.3, OpenJDK-15.0.2, Valgrind-3.17.0, Wget-1.21.1, Wireless Tools-29, libproxy

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/firefox

Installation of Firefox

The configuration of Firefox is accomplished by creating a mozconfig file containing the desired configuration options. A default mozconfig is created below. To see the entire list of available configuration options (and an abbreviated description of some of them), issue ./mach configure && ./configure --help | less. You may also wish to review the entire file and uncomment any other desired options. Create the file by issuing the following command:

cat > mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine, all cores will be used by default.

# If you have installed (or will install) wireless-tools, and you wish
# to use geolocation web services, comment out this line
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# API Keys for geolocation APIs - necko-wifi (above) is required for MLS
# Uncomment the following line if you wish to use Mozilla Location Service
#ac_add_options --with-mozilla-api-keyfile=$PWD/mozilla-key

# Uncomment the following line if you wish to use Google's geolocaton API
# (needed for use with saved maps with Google Maps)
#ac_add_options --with-google-location-service-api-keyfile=$PWD/google-key

# startup-notification is required since firefox-78

# Uncomment the following option if you have not installed PulseAudio
#ac_add_options --disable-pulseaudio
# or uncomment this if you installed alsa-lib instead of PulseAudio
#ac_add_options --enable-alsa

# Comment out following options if you have not installed
# recommended dependencies:
ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
ac_add_options --with-system-webp
ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
ac_add_options --with-system-nss
ac_add_options --with-system-icu

# Do not specify the gold linker which is not the default. It will take
# longer and use more disk space when debug symbols are disabled.

# libdavid (av1 decoder) requires nasm. Uncomment this if nasm
# has not been installed.
#ac_add_options --disable-av1

# You cannot distribute the binary if you do this
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding

# Stripping is now enabled by default.
# Uncomment these lines if you need to run a debugger:
#ac_add_options --disable-strip
#ac_add_options --disable-install-strip

# Disabling debug symbols makes the build much smaller and a little
# faster. Comment this if you need to run a debugger. Note: This is
# required for compilation on i686.
ac_add_options --disable-debug-symbols

# The elf-hack is reported to cause failed installs (after successful builds)
# on some machines. It is supposed to improve startup time and it shrinks
# libxul.so by a few MB - comment this if you know your machine is not affected.
ac_add_options --disable-elf-hack

# The BLFS editors recommend not changing anything below this line:
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-updater
# enabling the tests will use a lot more space and significantly
# increase the build time, for no obvious benefit.
ac_add_options --disable-tests

# The default level of optimization again produces a working build with gcc.
ac_add_options --enable-optimize

ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --enable-system-pixman

# --with-system-bz2 was removed in firefox-78
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib

# The following option unsets Telemetry Reporting. With the Addons Fiasco,
# Mozilla was found to be collecting user's data, including saved passwords and
# web form data, without users consent. Mozilla was also found shipping updates
# to systems without the user's knowledge or permission.
# As a result of this, use the following command to permanently disable
# telemetry reporting in Firefox.
unset MOZ_TELEMETRY_REPORTING

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/firefox-build-dir
EOF

Compile Firefox by issuing the following commands:

In the esr version of firefox-78, the code to ensure that add-ons are signed by the trusted root has been disabled, presumably for organizations which require their own add-ons. To enable it as an added security measure issue the following command:

sed -e 's/Disable/Enable/'            \
    -e '/^MOZ_REQUIRE_SIGNING/s/0/1/' \
    -i build/mozconfig.common

If the geolocation APIs are needed:

[Note]

Note

The Google and Mozilla API Keys below are specific to LFS. If using these instructions for another distro, or if you intend to distribute binary copies of the software using these instructions, please obtain your own keys following the instructions located at http://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys and https://location.services.mozilla.com/api respectively.

echo "AIzaSyDxKL42zsPjbke5O8_rPVpVrLrJ8aeE9rQ" > google-key
echo "613364a7-9418-4c86-bcee-57e32fd70c23" > mozilla-key
[Note]

Note

If you are compiling this package in chroot you must do two things. First, as the root user, ensure that /dev/shm is mounted. If you do not do this, the Python configury will fail with a traceback report referencing /usr/lib/pythonN.N/multiprocessing/synchronize.py. Run:

mountpoint -q /dev/shm || mount -t tmpfs devshm /dev/shm

Second, either as the root user export the $SHELL environment variable using export SHELL=/bin/sh or else prepend SHELL=/bin/sh when running the ./mach commands.

Now invoke the Python script to compile the package.

export CC=gcc CXX=g++ &&
export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH=${PWD}/mozbuild &&
./mach configure                           &&
./mach build

The mozconfig above disables the tests because they use a lot more time and disk space for no obvious benefit. If you have nevertheless enabled them, you can run the tests by executing ./mach gtest. This will require a network connection, and to be run from within an Xorg session - there is a popup dialog when it fails to connect to ALSA (that does not create a failed test). One or two tests will fail. To see the details of the failure(s) you will need to log the output from that command so that you can review it.

Now, as the root user:

./mach install

Set environment variables back to their values:

unset CC CXX MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH

Command Explanations

export CC=gcc CXX=g++ ...: Upstream now prefer clang so that they can use one compiler everywhere. On the X86 architectures clang now appears to support most of the same security-hardening options as GCC. With the current versions and the default flags, GCC creates a marginally bigger build but takes typically 2 SBU less time on a 4-core machine using the mozconfig above.

export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH=${PWD}/mozbuild: The build is now supposed to tell you that it intends to create ~/.mozbuild, and offer you an option to press <ENTER> to accept this, or Ctrl-C to cancel and restart the build after specifying the directory. In practice, the message may not appear until after <ENTER> is keyed, i.e. the build stalls.

That directory is used for a (probably random) telemetry identifier. Creating this in the build directory, and deleting that after the installation, prevents it being used. If you wish to participate in telemetry, export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH to point to its default directory.

./mach build: Firefox now uses this python script to run the build and install.

./mach build --verbose: Use this alternative if you need details of which files are being compiled, together with any C or C++ flags being used. But do not add '--verbose' to the install command, it is not accepted there.

./mach build -jN: The build should, by default, use all the online CPU cores. If using all the cores causes the build to swap because you have insufficient memory, using fewer cores can be faster.

mkdir -pv /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins: This ensures that /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ exists.

ln -sv ... /usr/lib/firefox/browser: This command creates a symbolic link to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. It's not really needed, as Firefox checks /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins by default, but the symbolic link is made to keep all the plugins installed in one folder.

Configuring Firefox

If you use a desktop environment like Gnome or KDE you may like to create a firefox.desktop file so that Firefox appears in the panel's menus. As the root user:

mkdir -pv /usr/share/applications &&
mkdir -pv /usr/share/pixmaps &&

cat > /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop << "EOF" &&
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Firefox Web Browser
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Exec=firefox %u
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=firefox
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=application/xhtml+xml;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;text/mml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupNotify=true
EOF

ln -sfv /usr/lib/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png \
        /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png

Configuration Information

The application settings for firefox are accessible by keying about:config in the address bar.

Occasionally, getting working sound in firefox can be a problem. Although upstream prefers pulseaudio, on balance using Alsa may be easier.

If you enabled Alsa for sound, you may need to alter one variable to get working sound. If you run firefox from a term and try to play something with sound you might encounter error messages like:

Sandbox: seccomp sandbox violation: pid 3941, tid 4030, syscall 16, args 48 2147767296 139909894784796 0 0 0.

That was on x86_64, on i686 the syscall number is 54. To allow this syscall, in about:config change security.sandbox.content.syscall_whitelist to 16 (or 54 if using i686).

If you use pulseaudio in a Desktop Environment, it might already be started by that DE. But if it is not, although firefox-57 managed to start it, firefox-58 did not. If you run firefox from a term and this problem is present, trying to play sound will encounter error messages warning Can't get cubeb context!

The fix for this is to close firefox, start pulseaudio to check it does start (if not, read the information on Configuring in PulseAudio-14.2) and restart firefox to check it is working. If it now works, add the following to your ~/.xinitrc: pulseaudio --verbose --log-target=syslog& (unfortunately, on some systems this does not work).

You may wish to use multiple profiles within firefox. To do that, invoke firefox as firefox --ProfileManager. You can also check which profile is currently in use from about:profiles.

Although WebRender (using the GPU for compositing) is not used by default, it now appears to work well on supported hardware (ATI, Nvidia and Intel GPUs with Mesa-18 or later. For an explanation, please see hacks.mozilla.org. The only downside seems to be that on a machine with limited RAM it might use more RAM.

To check if WebRender is being used, look in about:support. In the Graphics section Compositing will either show 'Basic' (i.e. not in use) or 'WebRender'. To enable it, go to about:config and change gfx.webrender.all to True. You will need to restart firefox.

It may be useful to mention the processes from firefox which can appear in top - as well as firefox itself, there may be multiple Web Content processes, and now an RDD Process (Remote Data Decoder) which appears when playing web videos encoded with av1 (libdav1d). If WebRender has been enabled, a GPU Process will also appear when firefox has to repaint (e.g. scrolling, opening a new tab, or playing a video).

Contents

Installed Programs: firefox
Installed Libraries: Numerous libraries, browser components, plugins, extensions, and helper modules installed in /usr/lib/firefox
Installed Directory: /usr/lib/firefox and /usr/lib/mozilla

Short Descriptions

firefox

is a GTK+-3 internet browser that uses the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine

Last updated on 2021-04-05 07:36:04 -0500