Firefox will be in the next release of EasyOS

As well as SeaMonkey!

I am problem-solving some issues with firefox. The sandbox causes a problem when firefox is run in a container. I posted about libGL error messages:

https://bkhome.org/news/202111/firefox-fixed-with-patch-for-libdrm.html

...and posted about a fix. Actually, that patch for libdrm is odd, it only works sometimes. I ended up bumping libdrm to version 2.4.107, that fixed it.

However, still get the libGL errors in a container. I read online that there are some variables that can be set to disable the sandbox:

MOZ_DISABLE_CONTENT_SANDBOX
MOZ_DISABLE_GMP_SANDBOX

However, they don't work. Instead, the libGL errors are fixed by inserting this line into /root/.mozilla/firefox/*/prefs.js in the container:

user_pref("security.sandbox.content.level", 1);

I have added code in /usr/local/clients/setup-client that will do this. The result is seen in the script /usr/bin/firefox.

There are other issues, that I have not resolved:

Firefox tries to do an automatic update, but fails. I have no idea why the failure.
It also keeps pestering, informing that update failed.

Firefox asks if want to be set as default browser. What does it actually do, if let it do that?

I have mentioned a few times recently, that seamonkey is failing on many websites, hence the move to firefox. But, I still want the features of the seamonkey suite. So, have kept both. Clicking on "www" on the desktop will launch firefox, in both cases, desktop and in container.

EDIT 2021-11-08:
Success, updating is now working. This is great, now we can be always running the latest and most secure browser. I set it to ask if want to update, instead of doing it automatically -- firefox checks periodically and will popup a window asking if you want to update.

Updating requires that firefox have write permissions in /usr/lib/firefox, and as firefox is running as user 'firefox', I did this (as root):

# chown -R firefox:firefox /usr/lib/firefox

Updating also works in a container, except as running as "crippled root" can leave everything in /usr/lib/firefox as root:root.

There is one remaining issue with running in a container, still get those libGL errors. I thought that had it fixed with setting security level to 1, but that doesn't do it in a container. There doesn't seem to be any way to completely disable sandboxing.

I want to get the next release of EasyOS out, so might have to leave that issue unfixed. It looks like users are better off running firefox from the main desktop rather than in a container, at least as far as playing videos -- but 1080p videos play ok for me in a container.        

Tags: easy