Firefox-12.0

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-12.0. This is advantageous if you are planning to build other related packages such as IcedTea-Web-1.2. 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 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. 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, but if you have a single core, delete this line:
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j4"

# If you have installed Yasm delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-webm

# If you have installed DBus-Glib delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-dbus

# If you have installed wireless-tools delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi

# If you have installed libnotify delete this option:
ac_add_options --disable-libnotify

# If you have installed xulrunner uncomment these two lines:
# ac_add_options --with-system-libxul
# ac_add_options --with-libxul-sdk=/usr/lib/xulrunner-devel-12.0

# Uncomment these if you have installed them:
# ac_add_options --enable-startup-notification
# ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
# 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

mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/firefox-build-dir
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr

# The rest of these options have no effect if you're
# building against an already installed xulrunner:
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-static
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --enable-shared
ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --with-pthreads
ac_add_options --with-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-png
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
EOF

Compile Firefox by issuing the following commands:

sed -i '/fcntl.h/a#include <unistd.h>' \
  ipc/chromium/src/base/{file_util_linux,message_pump_libevent}.cc &&
sed -i '/sys\/time\.h/a#include <unistd.h>' ipc/chromium/src/base/time_posix.cc &&
sed -i 's# ""##' browser/base/Makefile.in &&
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-12.0 &&
mkdir /usr/lib/firefox-12.0 &&
tar -xvf firefox-build-dir/dist/firefox-12.0.en-US.linux-$(uname -m).tar.bz2 \
  -C /usr/lib/firefox-12.0 --strip-components=1 &&
ln -sfv ../lib/firefox-12.0/firefox /usr/bin &&
mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins &&
ln -sv ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox-12.0 &&
chown -R -v root:root /usr/lib/firefox-12.0

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

make -C firefox-build-dir install &&
rm /usr/bin/firefox &&
cat > /usr/bin/firefox << "HERE_DOC" &&
#!/bin/bash
/usr/lib/xulrunner-12.0/xulrunner /usr/lib/firefox-12.0/application.ini "${@}"
HERE_DOC
chmod 755 /usr/bin/firefox &&
mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins &&
ln -sv ../mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox-12.0

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:

mkdir /usr/include/npapi
cp dom/plugins/base/*.h /usr/include/npapi

mkdir -p /usr/share/applications &&
cat > /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop << "EOF" &&
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Firefox
Comment=Browse The Web
Icon=firefox
Exec=firefox
Categories=Network;GTK;Application;Browser;WebBrowser;
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
EOF
ln -sv -f /usr/lib/firefox-12.0/icons/mozicon128.png /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png