Firefox-78.8.0

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:

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

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                                                  &&

mkdir -pv  /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins                             &&
ln    -sfv ../../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox/browser/

Set environment variables back to their values:

unset CC CXX MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH

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