%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ Firefox Firefox is a stand-alone browser based on the Mozilla codebase. With the introduction of firefox-3, the pkgconfig files for the Gecko engine (and for nss and nspr) are not installed. This means that applications such as Epiphany can no longer be built against firefox, and must instead be built against xulrunner (which is actually the same code, but built in a different way). If you wish to build other packages which use Gecko (for the moment, probably only gnome-2.24 or later versions will recognize xulrunner), build first. Firefox is updated frequently as new vulnerabilities are found. Consult mozilla security for details of what is fixed in newer releases. The editors cannot guess what will differ in newer versions: it should be straightforward to upgrade within the same series (3.0), but it is always possible that newer versions will have increased dependencies, or that something using the nss or gecko libraries will break. If you update, begin by updating xulrunner if you use that, then update firefox (ensuring the libxul-sdk option points to the new version). Package Information Download (HTTP): Download (FTP): Download MD5 sum: &firefox-md5sum; Download size: &firefox-size; Estimated disk space required: &firefox-buildsize; Estimated build time: &firefox-time; Firefox Dependencies Recommended which shares all these dependencies, or for a standalone firefox the following Required and Optional dependencies: Required , , and Note: libjpeg should have been installed before GTK+ and should exist on your system. If for some reason you haven't installed libjpeg, you should remove the --with-system-jpeg option from the .mozconfig file created below. Optional , , (only for crash-reporter), and (for gnome integration), , (patched for apng support), , . , Valgrind (only for testing the jemalloc code), and User Notes: 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 each one), issue ./configure --help. If you are going to use system-installed versions of the NSS and NSPR libraries, ensure you uncomment the two lines near the bottom of the file. If you are going to build the OpenOffice package and you want to use this Firefox installation as the default Mozilla source, ensure you uncomment the --enable-ldap option in the file created below. If you are building against Xulrunner you must uncomment the 'xulrunner' item. You may also wish to review the entire file and uncomment any other desired options. If you would prefer to download the file instead of creating it by typing or cut-and-pasting, you can find it at (the file must be installed in the root of the source tree mozilla directory, and named .mozconfig). Create the file by issuing the following command: cat > .mozconfig << "EOF" # This file contains the options used to build firefox on top # of xulrunner. If you do not wish to build xulrunner, make the changes # noted for a 'standalone browser'. You may need to specify additional # options for your specific build needs (if you are building 'standalone') # Use the information provided by running './configure --help' to # help you determine if you need to add any additional options. # Some additional options can be added by uncommenting the examples # in this file or adding options by inserting a line containing # 'ac_add_options --some-option-you-need'. # build the browser ac_add_options --enable-application=browser # Use the default settings specified in the source tree . $topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig # Create an object directory and specify to build the package in that # directory. If desired, modify the location of the object directory # to a directory inside the source tree by removing '../' from the # line below. mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/../firefox-build # Specify the installation prefix. If you would prefer Firefox # installed in a different prefix, modify the line below to fit # your needs. You may also need to modify some of the instructions in # the BLFS book to point to your desired prefix. ac_add_options --prefix=/usr # Compile with a minimal level of optimization ac_add_options --enable-optimize # (the --enable-system options) # comment this if you want to use whatever patched version of cairo # is in the shipped mozilla tree, together with the system headers ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo # comment this if you have not installed lcms - firefox will use # its own copy ac_add_options --enable-system-lcms # comment this if you have not installed sqlite, firefox will use # its own old copy ac_add_options --enable-system-sqlite # (the --with-system options) # comment this if you did not build libjpeg before gtk+-2 ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg # These two options enable support for building Firefox with # system-installed versions of the Network Security Services (NSS) # and Netscape Portable Runtime (NSPR) libraries. We build these # as part of xulrunner, so we can use them here. For a standalone # firefox you might want to comment these. ac_add_options --with-system-nspr ac_add_options --with-system-nss # comment this if you have not installed png with the apng patch ac_add_options --with-system-png # uncomment this if you are building nspr as part of firefox #ac_add_options --with-pthreads # zlib is in LFS ac_add_options --with-system-zlib # (options to disable parts of the package) # This option is used to disable the a11y support in the Firefox # binaries. Comment out this option if you require a11y support. ac_add_options --disable-accessibility # uncomment this if you did not build curl #ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter # comment this if you have built dbus-glib ac_add_options --disable-dbus # comment this if you have gnome-vfs and libgnomeui, and wish to # integrate firefox into your gnome desktop ac_add_options --disable-gnomevfs # This option is added so that the Mozilla Installer program is not # built or installed. The program is not required for a BLFS # installation of Firefox. ac_add_options --disable-installer # The mochitest is a separate test feature and has caused problems # in the past. ac_add_options --disable-mochitest # This option is added so that test libraries and programs are not # built. These would only be required for debugging purposes. ac_add_options --disable-tests # The updater is not useful if you build from source. ac_add_options --disable-updater # (options to add extra parts of the package) # This option is used to enable source tree included LDAP support in # the Firefox binaries. ################################################################### # # NOTE: You must uncomment this option if there is any chance of # compiling the OpenOffice package from source code using this copy # of Firefox for your Mozilla support. # This has NOT been tested, current versions of OpenOffice are # assumed not to compile against this version of xulrunner! # ################################################################### #ac_add_options --enable-ldap # This option causes the installed binaries to have the official # Firefox name embedded in them. Due to license restrictions, you # may not distribute binaries created using this option. It also # means you get a popup EULA when you first run firefox. # If you disable this, the browser will call itself Minefield. ac_add_options --enable-official-branding # use the anti-phishing blacklist ac_add_options --enable-safe-browsing # This option is used so that the debugging symbols are removed from # the installed binaries during the installation process. Comment out # this option if you may have a need to retain the debugging symbols # in the installed binaries (the resulting binaries will be about 7MB # bigger). ac_add_options --enable-strip # Uncomment this option if you desire support for dual-monitor # display of Firefox using the X-Window Xinerama libraries. #ac_add_options --enable-xinerama # ('with' options) # This option identifies the default binary directory of the Firefox # installation and is used to locate Firefox's installed files. This # option is not required for end-user browsing, and is only used for # development purposes. #ac_add_options --with-default-mozilla-five-home=/usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version; # Point to the xulrunner libraries - comment this for a standalone browser ac_add_options --with-libxul-sdk=/usr/lib/xulrunner-devel-&xulrunner-version; EOF Compile Firefox by issuing the following commands: make -f client.mk build This package does not come with a test suite. Now, as the root user, install the package: make -f client.mk install If you are building firefox on xulrunner, as the root user enter the following symbolic link: ln -sv /usr/lib/xulrunner-&xulrunner-version;/plugins \ /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;/plugins make -f client.mk ...: Mozilla products are packaged to allow the use of a configuration file which can be used to pass the configuration settings to the configure command. make uses the client.mk file to get initial configuration and setup parameters, then depending on the target parameter (build or install), either runs the configure script and compiles the package or installs the package. ln -sv /usr/lib/xulrunner-&xulrunner-version;/plugins /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;/plugins: Firefox looks for plugins in its own directory, but when building on xulrunner the plugins were installed by that package. If you upgrade firefox, ensure that any additional plugins are moved to the plugin directory of the new version. No specific configuration is required as long as the firefox script is in the user's path. If Firefox is installed in a non-standard location, then make a symlink to the firefox script in the /usr/bin directory. If your Window or Desktop Manager does not allow you to configure a default mail client, you can add a configuration parameter to Firefox so that an email client will start when you click on a mailto: URL. There are two parameters you need to check. The procedure to check or modify any of the configuration parameters is quite simple and the instructions here can be used to view or modify any of the parameters. First, open the configuration dialog by entering about:config in the address bar. This will display a list of the configuration preferences and information related to each one. You can use the Filter: bar to enter search criteria and narrow down the listed items. Changing a preference can be done using two methods. One, if the preference has a boolean value (True/False), simply double-click on the preference to toggle the value and two, for other preferences simply right-click on the desired line, choose Modify from the menu and change the value. Creating new preference items is accomplished in the same way, except choose New from the menu and provide the desired data into the fields when prompted. The two configuration preference items you need to check so that Firefox uses a specified default mail client are the network.protocol-handler.external.mailto which should be set to True and the network.protocol-handler.app.mailto which should be set to the path of the desired mail client, e.g., /usr/bin/thunderbird. There is a multitude of configuration parameters you can tweak to customize Firefox. A very extensive and up-to-date list of these parameters can be found at . Many applications look for netscape when they need to open a browser. You may wish to make the following symlink for convenience (as the root user). ln -v -sf firefox /usr/bin/netscape For installing various Firefox plugins, refer to Mozdev's PluginDoc Project. If you have the already installed, create the following link as the root user to utilize the installed Java plugin: ln -v -s $JAVA_HOME/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so \ /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;/plugins Some packages install Mozilla plugins into the default system-wide directory /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. If you have not already done this for Xulrunner create symbolic links in the Firefox plugin directory /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;/plugins to the files in the default plugin directory (you should link to the actual files and not other links). Alternatively, you can move or copy the files in the default plugin directory to the Firefox plugin directory. An example of creating a symbolic link is shown below. Create the links as the root user: ln -v -s ../../mozilla/plugins/<plugin.so> \ /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;/plugins Installed Programs Installed Libraries Installed Directories firefox and firefox-config Numerous libraries, browser components, plugins, extensions, and helper modules installed in /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version; /usr/include/firefox-&firefox-version;, /usr/lib/firefox-&firefox-version;, and /usr/share/idl/firefox-&firefox-version; Short Descriptions firefox is a shell script that sets up the environment and calls the firefox-bin binary. firefox firefox-config determines the compile and linker flags that should be used to compile and link programs that use Firefox libraries and browser components. firefox-config