Firefox-21.0

Installation of Firefox

There are two major methods for building Firefox. In the standard case, the entire suite of libraries is built and installed. In the other, most of the system is built using the procedures found in Xulrunner-21.0. This is advantageous if you are planning to build other related packages such as IcedTea-Web-1.3. With either build method, you need to run the main build procedure below with the appropriate options in the mozconfig file. Then use the appropriate install instructions depending on the chosen build method.

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. You may also wish to review the entire file and uncomment any other desired options. The commented line for --with-libxul-sdk has an escaped dollar sign - if you have chosed to paste the entries into a mozconfig file in your editor, you do not need the escape, it is only necessary when invoking a subshell in a HERE document. Create the file by issuing the following command:

cat > mozconfig << "EOF"
# If you have a multicore machine you can speed up the build by running
# several jobs at once by uncommenting the following line and setting the
# value to number of CPU cores:
#mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j4"

# If you have installed DBus-Glib comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-dbus

# If you have installed wireless-tools comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# If you have installed libnotify comment out this line:
ac_add_options --disable-libnotify

# Uncomment these lines if you have installed optional dependencies:
#ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
#ac_add_options --enable-startup-notification

# If you have not installed Yasm then uncomment this line:
#ac_add_options --disable-webm

# If you have installed xulrunner uncomment following two lines:
#ac_add_options --with-system-libxul
#ac_add_options --with-libxul-sdk=\$(pkg-config --variable=sdkdir libxul)

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

# It is recommended not to touch anything below this line
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --enable-application=browser

ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-tests

ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --enable-install-strip

ac_add_options --enable-gio
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --enable-safe-browsing
ac_add_options --enable-url-classifier

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

ac_add_options --with-pthreads

ac_add_options --with-system-bz2
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib

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

Compile Firefox by issuing the following commands:

sed -i 's@ ""@@' browser/base/Makefile.in &&
sed -i "/gre_path/s@DIST'\]@& + '/bin'@" toolkit/mozapps/installer/packager.py &&
make -f client.mk

This package does not come with a test suite.

If you have not linked Firefox against an installed Xulrunner:

make -C firefox-build-dir/browser/installer

Now, as the root user, if you have not linked Firefox against an installed Xulrunner, install the package:

rm -rf /usr/lib/firefox-21.0 &&
mkdir  /usr/lib/firefox-21.0 &&

tar -xvf firefox-build-dir/dist/firefox-21.0.en-US.linux-$(uname -m).tar.bz2 \
    -C /usr/lib/firefox-21.0 --strip-components=1 &&
chown -R -v root:root /usr/lib/firefox-21.0 &&
chmod -v 755 /usr/lib/firefox-21.0/libxpcom.so &&

ln -sfv ../lib/firefox-21.0/firefox /usr/bin &&

mkdir -pv /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins &&
ln -sfv ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox-21.0

If you have linked against an already installed Xulrunner, as the root user:

make -C firefox-build-dir install &&
ln -sfv ../lib/firefox-21.0/firefox /usr/bin &&
ln -sfv ../xulrunner-21.0 /usr/lib/firefox-21.0/xulrunner &&

mkdir -pv /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins &&
ln -sfv ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox-21.0

NPAPI Headers

The above instructions just install the parts you need to run Firefox. If you want to compile gnash-0.8.10, the open source version of Flash, copy some headers that Gnash needs into /usr/include, as the root user:

rm -rf /usr/include/npapi &&
mkdir -v /usr/include/npapi &&
cp -v dom/plugins/base/*.h /usr/include/npapi

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-21.0/icons/mozicon128.png \
        /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png