source: xsoft/graphweb/firefox.xml@ 6aa631b

12.0 12.1 ken/TL2024 ken/tuningfonts lazarus plabs/newcss python3.11 rahul/power-profiles-daemon renodr/vulkan-addition trunk xry111/llvm18
Last change on this file since 6aa631b was efe8cf09, checked in by Thomas Trepl <thomas@…>, 11 months ago

Add a note about --disable-sandbox for platforms other than x86_64

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 23.3 KB
Line 
1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
5 %general-entities;
6
7 <!ENTITY firefox-download-http "&mozilla-http;/firefox/releases/&firefox-version;esr/source/firefox-&firefox-version;esr.source.tar.xz">
8 <!ENTITY firefox-download-ftp " ">
9 <!ENTITY firefox-md5sum "bd7f2946d5485eaf68615e7c873af2d9">
10 <!ENTITY firefox-size "484 MB">
11
12 <!-- NB with stylo, much of the build uses rust, and therefore cargo files.
13 But the extra cached cargo files, if any, seem to be minimal -->
14 <!ENTITY firefox-buildsize "6.4 GB (209 MB installed) without tests">
15 <!-- editors: with ff63 and rust-1.29, ./mach build -j4 is probably the
16 most practical way to get a timing on a machine with more cores, if taking
17 cores offline is not practical. If in doubt, round up -->
18 <!ENTITY firefox-time "20 SBU using -j4, without tests">
19]>
20
21<sect1 id="firefox" xreflabel="Firefox-&firefox-version;">
22 <?dbhtml filename="firefox.html" ?>
23
24
25<!-- indicate this is the ESR variant,
26 The point is that the stable release differs slightly.
27 <title>Firefox-&firefox-version;</title>-->
28 <title>Firefox-&firefox-version;esr</title>
29
30 <indexterm zone="firefox">
31 <primary sortas="a-Firefox">Firefox</primary>
32 </indexterm>
33
34 <sect2 role="package">
35 <title>Introduction to Firefox</title>
36
37 <para>
38 <application>Firefox</application> is a stand-alone browser based on the
39 <application>Mozilla</application> codebase.
40 </para>
41
42 &lfs113_checked;
43
44 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Package Information</bridgehead>
45 <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
46 <listitem>
47 <para>
48 Download (HTTP): <ulink url="&firefox-download-http;"/>
49 </para>
50 </listitem>
51 <listitem>
52 <para>
53 Download (FTP): <ulink url="&firefox-download-ftp;"/>
54 </para>
55 </listitem>
56 <listitem>
57 <para>
58 Download MD5 sum: &firefox-md5sum;
59 </para>
60 </listitem>
61 <listitem>
62 <para>
63 Download size: &firefox-size;
64 </para>
65 </listitem>
66 <listitem>
67 <para>
68 Estimated disk space required: &firefox-buildsize;
69 </para>
70 </listitem>
71 <listitem>
72 <para>
73 Estimated build time: &firefox-time;
74 </para>
75 </listitem>
76 </itemizedlist>
77
78<!--<bridgehead renderas="sect3">Additional Downloads</bridgehead>
79 <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
80 <listitem>
81 <para>
82 Required patch:
83 <ulink url="&patch-root;/firefox-&firefox-version;-consolidated-1.patch"/>
84 </para>
85 </listitem>
86 <listitem>
87 <para>
88 Required patch for new <xref linkend="ffmpeg"/> API:
89 <ulink url="&patch-root;/firefox-&firefox-version;-ffmpeg_6-1.patch"/>
90 </para>
91 </listitem>
92 </itemizedlist>-->
93
94 <note>
95 <para>
96 The directory name is firefox-&firefox-version;
97 </para>
98
99 <para>
100 Extracting the tarball
101 will reset the permissions of the current directory to 0755 if you
102 have permission to do that. If you do this in a directory where
103 the sticky bit is set, such
104 as <filename class="directory">/tmp</filename> it will end with error
105 messages:
106 </para>
107
108<literallayout>tar: .: Cannot utime: Operation not permitted
109tar: .: Cannot change mode to rwxr-xr-t: Operation not permitted
110tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
111</literallayout>
112
113 <para>
114 This does finish with non-zero status, but it does
115 <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> mean there is a real problem.
116 Do not untar as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user
117 in a directory where the sticky bit is set - that will unset it.
118 </para>
119
120 <para>
121 As with other large packages which use C++ (or rust), the SBU times
122 to build this vary more widely than you might expect. The build times
123 will increase significantly if your machine has to swap.
124 </para>
125
126 <para>
127 Although upstream prefer to use <application>PulseAudio</application>,
128 for the moment <application>Alsa</application> can still be used. Both
129 may need runtime configuration to get sound working.
130 </para>
131 </note>
132
133 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Firefox Dependencies</bridgehead>
134
135 <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Required</bridgehead>
136 <para role="required">
137 <xref linkend="autoconf213"/>,
138 <xref linkend="cbindgen"/>,
139 <xref linkend="dbus-glib"/>,
140 <xref linkend="gtk3"/>,
141 <xref linkend="libnotify"/>,
142 <xref linkend="llvm"/> (with clang, used for bindgen even if using gcc),
143 <xref linkend="nodejs"/>,
144 <xref linkend="pulseaudio"/>
145 (or
146 <xref linkend="alsa-lib"/> if you edit the mozconfig;
147 now deprecated by mozilla), in either case please read the
148 Configuration Information,
149 <xref linkend="python3"/> (rebuilt after installing <xref linkend="sqlite"/>),
150 <xref linkend="startup-notification"/>,
151 <xref linkend="unzip"/>,
152 <xref linkend="yasm"/>, and
153 <xref linkend="zip"/>
154 </para>
155
156 <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Recommended</bridgehead>
157 <para role="recommended">
158 <xref linkend="icu"/>,
159 <xref linkend="libevent"/>,
160 <xref linkend="libvpx"/>,
161 <xref linkend="libwebp"/>,
162 <xref linkend="nasm"/>,
163 <xref linkend="nss"/>
164 </para>
165
166 <note>
167 <para>
168 If you don't install recommended dependencies, then internal copies of
169 those packages will be used. They might be tested to work, but they can
170 be out of date or contain security holes.
171 </para>
172 </note>
173
174 <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Optional</bridgehead>
175 <para role="optional">
176 <xref linkend="curl"/>,
177 <xref linkend="doxygen"/>,
178 <xref role="runtime" linkend="ffmpeg"/> (runtime, to play mov, mp3 or mp4 files),
179 <xref linkend="liboauth"/>,
180 <xref role="runtime" linkend="pciutils"/> (runtime),
181 <xref linkend="valgrind"/>,
182 <xref linkend="wget"/>,
183 <xref linkend="wireless_tools"/>,
184 <ulink url="https://github.com/libproxy/libproxy">libproxy</ulink>
185 </para>
186
187 <para condition="html" role="usernotes">
188 Editor Notes: <ulink url="&blfs-wiki;/firefox"/>
189 </para>
190 </sect2>
191
192 <sect2 role="installation">
193 <title>Installation of Firefox</title>
194
195 <para>
196 The configuration of <application>Firefox</application> is accomplished
197 by creating a <filename>mozconfig</filename> file containing the desired
198 configuration options. A default <filename>mozconfig</filename> is
199 created below. To see the entire list of available configuration options
200 (and an abbreviated description of some of them), issue <command>./mach
201 configure -- --help | less</command>. You may also
202 wish to review the entire file and uncomment any other desired options.
203 Create the file by issuing the following command:
204 </para>
205
206<screen><userinput>cat &gt; mozconfig &lt;&lt; "EOF"
207<literal># If you have a multicore machine, all cores will be used by default.
208
209# If you have installed (or will install) wireless-tools, and you wish
210# to use geolocation web services, comment out this line
211ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi
212
213# API Keys for geolocation APIs - necko-wifi (above) is required for MLS
214# Uncomment the following line if you wish to use Mozilla Location Service
215#ac_add_options --with-mozilla-api-keyfile=$PWD/mozilla-key
216
217# Uncomment the following line if you wish to use Google's geolocation API
218# (needed for use with saved maps with Google Maps)
219#ac_add_options --with-google-location-service-api-keyfile=$PWD/google-key
220
221# startup-notification is required since firefox-78
222
223# Uncomment the following option if you have not installed PulseAudio and
224# want to use alsa instead
225#ac_add_options --enable-audio-backends=alsa
226
227# Comment out following options if you have not installed
228# recommended dependencies:
229ac_add_options --with-system-icu
230ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
231ac_add_options --with-system-libvpx
232ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
233ac_add_options --with-system-nss
234ac_add_options --with-system-webp
235
236# Unlike with thunderbird, although using the gold linker can
237# save four megabytes in the installed file it does not make
238# the build faster.
239
240# libdav1d (av1 decoder) requires nasm. Uncomment this if nasm
241# has not been installed. Do not uncomment this if you have
242# ffmpeg installed.
243#ac_add_options --disable-av1
244
245# You cannot distribute the binary if you do this
246ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
247
248# Stripping is now enabled by default.
249# Uncomment these lines if you need to run a debugger:
250#ac_add_options --disable-strip
251#ac_add_options --disable-install-strip
252
253# Disabling debug symbols makes the build much smaller and a little
254# faster. Comment this if you need to run a debugger. Note: This is
255# required for compilation on i686.
256ac_add_options --disable-debug-symbols
257
258# The elf-hack is reported to cause failed installs (after successful builds)
259# on some machines. It is supposed to improve startup time and it shrinks
260# libxul.so by a few MB - comment this if you know your machine is not affected.
261ac_add_options --disable-elf-hack
262
263# The BLFS editors recommend not changing anything below this line:
264ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
265ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
266ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
267ac_add_options --disable-updater
268# enabling the tests will use a lot more space and significantly
269# increase the build time, for no obvious benefit.
270ac_add_options --disable-tests
271
272# The default level of optimization again produces a working build with gcc.
273ac_add_options --enable-optimize
274
275ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
276ac_add_options --enable-system-pixman
277
278ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
279ac_add_options --with-system-png
280ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
281
282# Sandboxing works well on x86_64 but might cause issues on other
283# platforms. If not on x86_64, e.g. i686, it is recommended to
284# uncomment the following switch.
285#ac_add_options --disable-sandbox
286
287# Using sandboxed wasm libraries has been moved to all builds instead
288# of only mozilla automation builds. It requires extra llvm packages
289# and was reported to seriously slow the build. Disable it.
290ac_add_options --without-wasm-sandboxed-libraries
291
292# The following option unsets Telemetry Reporting. With the Addons Fiasco,
293# Mozilla was found to be collecting user's data, including saved passwords and
294# web form data, without users consent. Mozilla was also found shipping updates
295# to systems without the user's knowledge or permission.
296# As a result of this, use the following command to permanently disable
297# telemetry reporting in Firefox.
298unset MOZ_TELEMETRY_REPORTING
299
300mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/firefox-build-dir</literal>
301EOF</userinput></screen>
302
303 <para>
304 Compile <application>Firefox</application> by issuing the following
305 commands:
306 </para>
307<!-- Not needed with clang. Upstream bug at
308 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1729459
309
310 <para>
311 If building on a 32 bit machine, the following sed works around
312 an issue with an incompatible <quote>double</quote> type in one
313 header file:
314 </para>
315
316<screen><userinput>case "$(uname -m)" in
317 i?86) sed -e '/typedef[ ]*double/s/double/long double/' \
318 -i modules/fdlibm/src/math_private.h ;;
319esac</userinput></screen>
320-->
321 <para>
322 If the geolocation APIs are needed:
323 </para>
324
325 <note>
326 <para>
327 <!-- Taken from Arch Linux - an immensely helpful link - Thanks -->
328 The Google and Mozilla API Keys below are specific to LFS. If using
329 these instructions for another distro, or if you intend to distribute
330 binary copies of the software using these instructions, please obtain
331 your own keys following the instructions located at
332 <ulink url="https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys"/> and
333 <ulink url="https://location.services.mozilla.com/api"/> respectively.
334 <!-- BLFS Devs, register an account at Google with your
335 @linuxfromscratch.org email address, and I'll make you an administrator
336 for the 'Google APIs for LFS' project (where the API and OAuth keys
337 were created for use in the book).-->
338 </para>
339 </note>
340
341<screen><userinput>echo "AIzaSyDxKL42zsPjbke5O8_rPVpVrLrJ8aeE9rQ" > google-key
342echo "613364a7-9418-4c86-bcee-57e32fd70c23" > mozilla-key</userinput></screen>
343
344 <note>
345
346 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
347 href="../../xincludes/mozshm.xml"/>
348
349 <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
350 href="../../xincludes/mozmach.xml"/>
351
352 </note>
353
354<!--<para>
355 Fix building Firefox with Clang 16 or C++ headers from GCC 13.
356 And, work around a build failure with Rustc-1.70.0:
357 </para>
358
359<screen><userinput remap="pre">patch -Np1 -i ../firefox-&firefox-version;-consolidated-1.patch</userinput></screen>
360
361 <para>
362 Apply the following patch so that firefox is able to play H.264 videos:
363 </para>
364
365<screen><userinput remap="pre">patch -Np1 -i ../firefox-&firefox-version;-ffmpeg_6-1.patch</userinput></screen>-->
366
367 <para>
368 Now invoke the Python <command>mach</command> script to compile the package.
369 </para>
370
371<screen><userinput>export MACH_BUILD_PYTHON_NATIVE_PACKAGE_SOURCE=none &amp;&amp;
372export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH=${PWD}/mozbuild &amp;&amp;
373./mach configure &amp;&amp;
374./mach build</userinput></screen>
375
376 <para>
377 The <filename>mozconfig</filename> above disables the tests because
378 they use a lot more time and disk space for no obvious benefit. If
379 you have nevertheless enabled them, you can run the tests by executing
380 <command>./mach gtest</command>. This will require a network connection,
381 and to be run from within an Xorg session - there is a popup dialog
382 when it fails to connect to ALSA (that does not create a failed test).
383 One or two tests will fail. To see the details of the failure(s) you
384 will need to log the output from that command so that you can review it.
385 </para>
386
387 <para>
388 Now, as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
389 </para>
390
391<screen role="root"><userinput>MACH_BUILD_PYTHON_NATIVE_PACKAGE_SOURCE=none ./mach install</userinput></screen>
392
393 <para>
394 Empty the environment variables which were set above:
395 </para>
396
397<screen><userinput>unset MACH_BUILD_PYTHON_NATIVE_PACKAGE_SOURCE MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH</userinput></screen>
398
399 </sect2>
400
401 <sect2 role="commands">
402 <title>Command Explanations</title>
403
404<!--<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
405 href="../../xincludes/SIOCGSTAMP.xml"/>-->
406
407 <para>
408 <command>export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH=${PWD}/mozbuild</command>: The build
409 is now supposed to tell you that it intends to create <filename
410 class="directory">~/.mozbuild</filename>, and offer you an option to
411 press &lt;ENTER&gt; to accept this, or Ctrl-C to cancel and restart the
412 build after specifying the directory. In practice, the message may not
413 appear until after &lt;ENTER&gt; is keyed, i.e. the build stalls.
414 </para>
415
416 <para>
417 That directory is used for a (probably random) telemetry identifier.
418 Creating this in the build directory, and deleting that after the
419 installation, prevents it being used. If you wish to participate in
420 telemetry, export MOZBUILD_STATE_PATH to point to its default directory
421 and remove the entry from the <filename>mozconfig</filename>.
422 </para>
423
424 <para>
425 <command>MACH_BUILD_PYTHON_NATIVE_PACKAGE_SOURCE=none</command>: Use the
426 system python to create a virtual environment for <command>mach</command>
427 without downloading any python wheels nor using the system python modules.
428 This prevents version mismatches between system modules and bundled ones.
429 </para>
430
431 <para>
432 <command>./mach configure</command>: This validates the supplied
433 dependencies and the <filename>mozconfig</filename>.
434 </para>
435
436 <para>
437 <option>./mach build --verbose</option>: Use this alternative if you
438 need details of which files are being compiled, together with any C or
439 C++ flags being used. But do not add '--verbose' to the install command
440 since it is not accepted there.
441 </para>
442
443 <para>
444 <option>./mach build -jN</option>: The build should, by default, use
445 all the online CPU cores. If using all the cores causes the build to swap
446 because you have insufficient memory, using fewer cores can be faster.
447 </para>
448
449 <para>
450 <option><envar>CC=gcc CXX=g++</envar></option>: BLFS used to
451 prefer to use gcc and g++ instead of upstream's defaults of the
452 <application>clang</application> programs. With the release of
453 gcc-12 the build takes longer with gcc and g++, primarily because
454 of extra warnings, and is bigger. Set these environment variables
455 <emphasis>before you run the configure script</emphasis>
456 if you wish to continue to use gcc, g++. Building
457 with GCC on i?86 is currently broken.
458 </para>
459
460 </sect2>
461
462 <sect2 role="configuration">
463 <title>Configuring Firefox</title>
464
465 <para>
466 If you use a desktop environment like <application>Gnome</application> or
467 <application>KDE</application> you may want to create a
468 <filename>firefox.desktop</filename> file so that
469 <application>Firefox</application> appears in the panel's menus.
470 As the &root; user:
471 </para>
472
473<screen role="root"><userinput>mkdir -pv /usr/share/applications &amp;&amp;
474mkdir -pv /usr/share/pixmaps &amp;&amp;
475
476MIMETYPE="text/xml;text/mml;text/html;" &amp;&amp;
477MIMETYPE+="application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;" &amp;&amp;
478MIMETYPE+="x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https" &amp;&amp;
479
480cat &gt; /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop &lt;&lt; EOF &amp;&amp;
481<literal>[Desktop Entry]
482Encoding=UTF-8
483Name=Firefox Web Browser
484Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
485GenericName=Web Browser
486Exec=firefox %u
487Terminal=false
488Type=Application
489Icon=firefox
490Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
491MimeType=$MIMETYPE
492StartupNotify=true</literal>
493EOF
494
495unset MIMETYPE &amp;&amp;
496
497ln -sfv /usr/lib/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png \
498 /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png</userinput></screen>
499
500 <sect3><title>Configuration Information</title>
501
502 <para>
503 The application settings for firefox are accessible by keying
504 <command>about:config</command> in the address bar.
505 </para>
506
507 <para>
508 Occasionally, getting working sound in
509 <application>firefox</application> can be a problem. Although upstream
510 prefers pulseaudio,
511 on balance using <application>Alsa</application> may be easier.
512 </para>
513
514 <para>
515 If you enabled <application>Alsa</application> for sound, you may need
516 to alter one variable to get working sound. If you run
517 <command>firefox</command> from a terminal and try to play something
518 with sound you might encounter error messages like:
519 </para>
520
521 <para>
522 <literal>Sandbox: seccomp sandbox violation: pid 3941, tid 4030,
523 syscall 16, args 48 2147767296 139909894784796 0 0 0.</literal>
524 </para>
525
526 <para>
527 That was on x86_64, on i686 the syscall number is 54. To allow this
528 syscall, in <command>about:config</command> change
529 <command>security.sandbox.content.syscall_whitelist</command> to 16
530 (or 54 if using i686).
531 </para>
532
533 <para>
534 If you use <command>pulseaudio</command> in a Desktop Environment, it
535 might already be started by that DE. But if it is not, although
536 firefox-57 managed to start it, firefox-58 did not. If you run
537 <command>firefox</command> from a terminal and this problem is present,
538 trying to play sound will
539 encounter error messages warning <literal>Can't get cubeb
540 context!</literal>
541 </para>
542
543 <para>
544 The fix for this is to close firefox, start pulseaudio to check it
545 does start (if not, read the information on Configuring in <xref
546 linkend="pulseaudio"/>) and restart firefox to check it is working.
547 If it now works, add the following to your <filename>~/.xinitrc</filename>:
548<phrase revision="sysv">
549<literal>pulseaudio --verbose --log-target=syslog&amp;</literal></phrase>
550<phrase revision="systemd">
551<literal>pulseaudio --verbose --log-target=journald&amp;</literal></phrase>
552 (unfortunately, on some systems this does not work).
553 </para>
554
555 <para>
556 You may wish to use multiple profiles within firefox. To do that, invoke
557 firefox as <command>firefox --ProfileManager</command>. You can also
558 check which profile is currently in use from
559 <command>about:profiles</command>.
560 </para>
561
562 <para>
563 Although WebRender (using the GPU for compositing) is not used by
564 default, it now appears to work well on supported hardware (ATI, Nvidia
565 and Intel GPUs with Mesa-18 or later). For an explanation, please see
566 <ulink
567 url="https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-fps-how-webrender-gets-rid-of-jank/">hacks.mozilla.org</ulink>.
568 The only downside seems to be that on a machine with limited RAM it might
569 use more RAM.
570 </para>
571
572 <para>
573 To check if WebRender is being used, look in about:support. In the Graphics
574 section, Compositing will either show 'Basic' (i.e. not in use) or
575 'WebRender'. To enable it, go to about:config and change gfx.webrender.all
576 to True. You will need to restart firefox.
577 </para>
578
579 <para>
580 It may be useful to mention the processes from firefox which can appear in
581 <command>top</command> - as well as firefox itself, there may be multiple
582 Web Content processes, and now an RDD Process (Remote Data Decoder) which
583 appears when playing web videos encoded with av1 (libdav1d). If WebRender
584 has been enabled, a GPU Process will also appear when firefox has to
585 repaint (e.g. scrolling, opening a new tab, or playing a video).
586 </para>
587
588 </sect3>
589 </sect2>
590
591 <sect2 role="content">
592 <title>Contents</title>
593
594 <segmentedlist>
595 <segtitle>Installed Programs</segtitle>
596 <segtitle>Installed Libraries</segtitle>
597 <segtitle>Installed Directory</segtitle>
598
599 <seglistitem>
600 <seg>
601 firefox
602 </seg>
603 <seg>
604 Numerous libraries, browser components, plugins, extensions, and
605 helper modules installed in /usr/lib/firefox
606 </seg>
607 <seg>
608 /usr/lib/firefox
609 </seg>
610 </seglistitem>
611 </segmentedlist>
612
613 <variablelist>
614 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
615 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
616 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
617
618 <varlistentry id="firefox-prog">
619 <term><command>firefox</command></term>
620 <listitem>
621 <para>
622 is a <application>GTK+-3</application> internet browser that uses
623 the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine
624 </para>
625 <indexterm zone="firefox firefox-prog">
626 <primary sortas="b-firefox">firefox</primary>
627 </indexterm>
628 </listitem>
629 </varlistentry>
630
631 </variablelist>
632
633 </sect2>
634
635</sect1>
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