Firefox: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:36, 30 April 2025

Firefox is a popular, open-source web browser.

Installation

To install Firefox, firstly enable the Community repository, then type in the terminal:

For the Extended Support Release (ESR) (firefox-esr):

# apk add firefox-esr

For the current release (firefox):

# apk add firefox

Alternatives

The Alpine packages does not disable most telemetry and similar tracking shipped by upstream. Consider using librewolf, a privacy-centric fork which disables Mozilla's first-party spyware and analytics:

# apk add librewolf

Stability

If tabs crash, then try disabling hardware acceleration, in the Preferences - Performance menu.

Notifications

For Firefox to use native notifications (e.g.: via a notification daemon) the libnotify package is required.

DRM content using Widevine workaround

To play DRM content (Spotify and other streaming websites) you will have to manually set it up. You will need:

# apk add gcompat patchelf

GMP sandbox needs to be disabled on launch:

# MOZ_DISABLE_GMP_SANDBOX=1 firefox

Now open about:config and enable media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled and media.gmp-widevinecdm.visible.

Open a DRM Stream test to load the plugin then patch the library:

# patchelf --add-needed libgcompat.so.0 ~/.mozilla/firefox/*/gmp-widevinecdm/*/libwidevinecdm.so

Finally, reload the page and it should be working (see sources below).

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 For Firefox to use native notifications (e.g.: via a notification daemon) the {{Pkg|libnotify}} package is required.
+== DRM content using Widevine workaround ==
+To play DRM content (Spotify and other streaming websites) you will have to manually set it up. You will need:
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{Pkg|gcompat}} {{Pkg|patchelf}}}}
+GMP sandbox needs to be disabled on launch:
+{{Cmd|# MOZ_DISABLE_GMP_SANDBOX{{=}}1 firefox}}
+Now open <code>about:config</code> and enable <code>media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled</code> and <code>media.gmp-widevinecdm.visible</code>.
+Open a [https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm DRM Stream test] to load the plugin then patch the library:
+{{cmd|# patchelf --add-needed libgcompat.so.0 ~/.mozilla/firefox/*/gmp-widevinecdm/*/libwidevinecdm.so}}
+Finally, reload the page and it should be working (see sources below).
 == See Also ==
 * [https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/log/?qt=grep&q=firefox Git repositories for Alpine Linux]
+* [https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/16783 firefox: plug-and-play widevine support]
+* [https://bugs.gentoo.org/910309#c12 crash when trying to play widevine protected content]
 [[category: Web Browser]]