Firefox

Mercurial (hg): https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-unified (releases)
GitHub: https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox

/usr/bin/firefox (140.3.0esr, Extended Support Release) actually works by setting in .bashrc.

alias firefox='MOZ_DISABLE_CONTENT_SANDBOX=1 firefox > /dev/null 2>&1'
 

Note that

With its handling of sandbox, it looks better to use the nightly builds below.
Applications may call /usr/bin/firefox as default browser (e.g., postman), so it may be appropriate to start it BEFORE the application.

ceuadmin/firefox

27/9/2025 Update

Module ceuadmin/143.0.1 is available and used as follows,

module load euadmin/firefox/143.0.1
firefox &
 

This is analogous to /usr/bin/firefox (140.3.0esr) described above yet more recent.

23/9/2025 Update

Module ceuadmin/145.0a1 is available and used as follows,

module load euadmin/firefox/145.0a1
firefox &
 

This is actually the nightly version.

7/9/2025 Update

Module ceuadmin/firefox/143.0a1 finally starts browsing normally.

It can be started as follows,

module load euadmin/firefox/143.0a1
firefox &
 

which uses only one CPU and is appropriate on a login node with heavy load (many users and/or processes). One may also check the definition (a way to facilitate) and increase the number to improve the performance.

alias firefox
# showing `alias firefox='MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 firefox > /dev/null 2>&1'` 
unalias firefox
# call with three CPUs
MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=3 firefox > /dev/null 2>&1 &
 

ceuadmin/143.0.1

export version=143.0.1
mkdir -p firefox-$version
wget -qO- "https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/$version/linux-x86_64/en-GB/firefox-$version.tar.xz" | \
tar -xJ --strip-components=1 -C firefox-$version/
cd firefox-$version/
MOZ_DISABLE_CONTENT_SANDBOX=1 firefox > /dev/null 2>&1 &
 

ceuadmin/145.0a1

Artifact mode

Web: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/contributing/build/artifact_builds.html

This approach takes advantage of precompiled objects but is less flexible compared to compiling from the source (Desktop).

./mach bootstrap
./mach configure --prefix=$CEUADMIN/firefox/145.0a1
./mach build -j5
./mach run --version
./mach install
./mach package
 

Command ./mach bootsrap shows that

Please choose the version of Firefox you want to build (see note above):
  1. Firefox for Desktop Artifact Mode [default]
  2. Firefox for Desktop
  3. GeckoView/Firefox for Android Artifact Mode
  4. GeckoView/Firefox for Android
  5. SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine
Your choice: 1

Would you like to run a few configuration steps to ensure Git is
optimally configured? (Yn): y
Configuring git...
Set git config: "core.untrackedCache = true"
 

and mozconfig:

ac_add_options --enable-artifact-builds
ac_add_options --disable-tests
 

It is helpful to use ./mach run for problems before ./mach install.

Desktop

Option 2 is more involved.

First, a mozconfig is created,

# Parallel build
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j5"
# Object directory
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-@CONFIG_GUESS@
# Application
ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
# Optimizations
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --disable-debug
# Use LLVM linker
ac_add_options --enable-linker=lld
ac_add_options --enable-default-toolkit=cairo-gtk3
 

Currently, ./mach is invisible of

cbindgen from cbindgen/
glib.h from /usr/include /usr/lib64
libstdc++.so.6 from sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

Therefore some preparations are made,

./mach boostrap
export SYSROOT="$HOME/.mozbuild/sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu"
mkdir -p $SYSROOT/usr/include/glib-2.0
cp -r /usr/include/glib-2.0/* $SYSROOT/usr/include/glib-2.0/
mkdir -p $SYSROOT/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include
cp -r /usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include/* $SYSROOT/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include/
 

The following version takes advantage of modules such as gcc/12.1.0, clang/19.1.7.

module load ceuadmin/gcc/12.1.0
module load ceuadmin/gtk+/3.24.0
module load ceuadmin/rust/nightly
module load ceuadmin/clang/19.1.7
export CC=clang
export CXX=clang++
export CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include $CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include $CXXFLAGS"
export DBUS_CFLAGS="$(pkg-config --cflags dbus-1)"
export CFLAGS="$DBUS_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$DBUS_CFLAGS $CXXFLAGS"
export BINDGEN_EXTRA_CLANG_ARGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include"
./mach clobber
env PKG_CONFIG=~/fakebin/pkg-config ./mach configure --prefix=$CEUADMIN/firefox/145.0a1 \
                --without-wasm-sandboxed-libraries
./mach environment
./mach build
 

A patch regarding libstdc++.so.6, which surely works, is made as follows,

cp $CEUADMIN/gcc/12.1.0/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/bin/
module load ceuadmin/patchelf/0.18.0
patchelf --force-rpath --set-rpath '$ORIGIN' obj-*/dist/bin/firefox-bin
readelf -d obj-*/dist/bin/firefox-bin | grep RPATH
patchelf --force-rpath --set-rpath '$ORIGIN' obj-*/dist/bin/firefox
readelf -d obj-*/dist/bin/firefox | grep RPATH
MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 ./mach run
./mach install
./mach package
cp $CEUADMIN/gcc/12.1.0/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/firefox/
patchelf --force-rpath --set-rpath '$ORIGIN' obj-*/dist/firefox/firefox
cd obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist
tar -cJf firefox-145.0a1.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.xz firefox
 

The counterpart for ./mach boostrap is

export SYSROOT=$HOME/.mozbuild/sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu
cp $SYSROOT/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/bin/
cp $SYSROOT/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/firefox/
 

where $ORIGIN is not a shell variable but a special token understood by the dynamic linker at runtime. readelf -d obj-*/dist/bin/firefox | grep RPATH gives

 0x000000000000000f (RPATH)              Library rpath: [$ORIGIN]
 0x000000000000000f (RPATH)              Library rpath: [$ORIGIN]
 

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A shorter version attempting to use ./mach boostrap alone is also viable,

module load ceuadmin/rust/nightly

export MOZBUILD=$HOME/.mozbuild
export SYSROOT="$MOZBUILD/sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu"
export CC=$MOZBUILD/clang/bin/clang
export CXX=$MOZBUILD/clang/bin/clang++
export CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include -I$SYSROOT/usr/include $CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include -I$SYSROOT/usr/include $CXXFLAGS"
export DBUS_CFLAGS="$(pkg-config --cflags dbus-1)"
export CFLAGS="$DBUS_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$DBUS_CFLAGS $CXXFLAGS"
export LDFLAGS="-L$MOZBUILD/lib64 -L$SYSROOT/usr/lib64"
export BINDGEN_EXTRA_CLANG_ARGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include -I$SYSROOT/usr/include"
env PKG_CONFIG=~/fakebin/pkg-config ./mach configure --prefix=$CEUADMIN/firefox/145.0a1 --without-wasm-sandboxed-libraries
./mach build
 

Detailed configuration can be examined via ./mach configure > configure.log 2>&1.

The following attempts become unnecessary with ceuadmin/gcc/12.1.0.

It now requires gcc/10 or above, and gtk+-3.0 along with xproto, kbproto, xextproto, renderproto,

pkg-config --exists xproto && echo "xproto found" || echo "xproto NOT found"
pkg-config --exists kbproto && echo "kbproto found" || echo "kbproto NOT found"
pkg-config --exists xextproto && echo "xextproto found" || echo "xextproto NOT found"
pkg-config --exists renderproto && echo "renderproto found" || echo "renderproto NOT found"
 

and ~/fakebin/pkg-config is generated to enforce use alsa.pc from /usr/lib64/pkgconfig.

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=~/rds/software/firefox/rpms/usr/share/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
mkdir -p ~/fakebin
cat <<EOF > ~/fakebin/pkg-config
#!/bin/bash
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib64/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
exec /usr/bin/pkg-config "$@"
EOF
chmod +x ~/fakebin/pkg-config
export PATH=~/fakebin:$PATH
 

One attempt is additionally used customized my-clang and my-clang++ as follows,

module load ceuadmin/gtk+/3.24.0

export CC="$HOME/bin/my-clang"
export CXX="$HOME/bin/my-clang++"
export SPACK_VIEWS="/usr/local/software/spack/spack-views"
export GCC_TOOLCHAIN="$SPACK_VIEWS/rocky8-icelake-20220710/gcc-11.3.0/gcc-11.3.0/4zpip55j2rww33vhy62jl4eliwynqfru"
export LIBSTDCPP_INCLUDE="$GCC_TOOLCHAIN/include/c++/11.3.0"
export LIBSTDCPP_TARGET_INCLUDE="$LIBSTDCPP_INCLUDE/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
export LIBGCC_LIB64="$GCC_TOOLCHAIN/lib64"
export GTK_CFLAGS=$(pkg-config --cflags gtk+-3.0)
export GLIB_CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include"
export STDCPP_CFLAGS="-isystem $LIBSTDCPP_INCLUDE -isystem $LIBSTDCPP_TARGET_INCLUDE"
export COMMON_WARNINGS="-Wno-unused-command-line-argument"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include $GLIB_CFLAGS $GTK_CFLAGS"
export CFLAGS="--gcc-toolchain=$GCC_TOOLCHAIN $STDCPP_CFLAGS $CPPFLAGS $COMMON_WARNINGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="-include cmath $CXXFLAGS"
GTK_LIBS=$(pkg-config --libs gtk+-3.0)
GLIB_LIBS=$(pkg-config --libs glib-2.0)
export LDFLAGS="--gcc-toolchain=$GCC_TOOLCHAIN -L$LIBGCC_LIB64 -L/usr/lib64 $GTK_LIBS $GLIB_LIBS"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBGCC_LIB64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
chmod +x "$CC" "$CXX"
env PKG_CONFIG="$HOME/fakebin/pkg-config" ./mach configure --prefix="$CEUADMIN/firefox/145.0a1"
./mach build -j5
 

such that my-clang is defined as

#!/bin/bash
GCC_PATH=/usr/local/software/spack/spack-views/rocky8-icelake-20220710/gcc-11.3.0/gcc-11.3.0/4zpip55j2rww33vhy62jl4eliwynqfru

if [[ "$@" == *"--target=wasm32-wasi"* ]]; then
    exec /home/jhz22/.mozbuild/clang/bin/clang "$@"
else
    exec /home/jhz22/.mozbuild/clang/bin/clang --gcc-toolchain="$GCC_PATH" -L"$GCC_PATH/lib64" "$@"
fi
 

and my-clang++ as

#!/bin/bash
GCC_PATH=/usr/local/software/spack/spack-views/rocky8-icelake-20220710/gcc-11.3.0/gcc-11.3.0/4zpip55j2rww33vhy62jl4eliwynqfru

# Check if compiling for WASM
if [[ "$@" == *"--target=wasm32-wasi"* ]]; then
    # Just call clang++ without linux-specific flags
    exec /home/jhz22/.mozbuild/clang/bin/clang++ "$@"
else
    # Native build: add gcc toolchain and lib paths
    exec /home/jhz22/.mozbuild/clang/bin/clang++ --gcc-toolchain="$GCC_PATH" -L"$GCC_PATH/lib64" "$@"
fi
 

respectively.

A hybrid of gcc/11 and clang (for newer libstdc++) is used via mozconfig above and mozbuild.sh but appears that higher version of gcc is preferable.

./mach bootstrap
source mozbuild.sh | tee mozbuild.log
 

Files from ~/.mozbuild/sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu/usr/lib64/crt*.o are built and tested as follows,

dnf download kernel-headers
dnf download glibc
dnf download glibc-common
dnf download --resolve glibc-headers
dnf download glibc-devel
export SYSROOT=~/.mozbuild/sysroot-x86_64-linux-gnu
cd $SYSROOT
for rpm in ~/rds/software/firefox/*x86_64.rpm; do
    rpm2cpio "$rpm" | cpio -idmv -D .
done
for dir in lib lib64 libexec share; do
    ln -s usr/$dir
done
echo 'int main() { return 0; }' > test.c
gcc -o test test.c -fuse-ld=bfd
gcc --sysroot=$SYSROOT -B$SYSROOT -o test test.c -fuse-ld=bfd
 

proto, etc. is similarly set up as follows,

# https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/
# https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/PowerTools/x86_64/os/Packages/
# https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/BaseOS/x86_64/os/Packages/
mkdir -p ~/rpms && cd ~/rpms
wget https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/x/xorg-x11-proto-devel-2020.1-3.el8.noarch.rpm
wget https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/PowerTools/x86_64/os/Packages/x/xorg-x11-xtrans-devel-1.4.0-4.el8.noarch.rpm
wget https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8/PowerTools/x86_64/os/Packages/x/xcb-proto-1.13-4.el8.noarch.rpm
rpm2cpio *.rpm | cpio -idmv -D .
# fixing .pc + also ln -s usr/include, etc. from rpms
PCDIR="~/rds/software/firefox/rpms/usr/share/pkgconfig"
NEW_PREFIX="~/rds/software/firefox/rpms/usr"
for pcfile in "$PCDIR"/*.pc; do
  echo "Fixing $pcfile ..."
  # Backup original just in case
  cp "$pcfile" "$pcfile.bak"

  # Replace prefix and includedir lines
  sed -i "s|^prefix=/usr$|prefix=$NEW_PREFIX|g" "$pcfile"
  sed -i "s|^exec_prefix=/usr$|exec_prefix=\${prefix}|g" "$pcfile"
  sed -i "s|^includedir=/usr/include$|includedir=\${prefix}/include|g" "$pcfile"
done
echo "All .pc files fixed."
make
cd /tmp
cat <<EOF > test.c
#include <X11/Xproto.h>
int main() { return 0; }
EOF
gcc test.c -I~/rds/software/firefox/rpms/usr/include
 

which contains a test of bfd, as with necessary files from dnf.

mozilla-firefox

As of 13/5/2025, firefox is moved from gecko-dev (see below) to https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox. It also provides a GNUmakefile, which is simpler than the one described earlier, for immediate use but it remains necessary to prevent it from occupying all CPUs by adding flag j5 as in mozconfig earlier.

The usual git clone https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox gives error message:

fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output

and we use SSH instead.

# SSH
git clone git@github.com:mozilla/firefox.git
# the latest commits
git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:mozilla/firefox.git
cd firefox
export MOZCONFIG=/rds/project/rds-4o5vpvAowP0/software/firefox/mozconfig
./mach configure --prefix=$CEUADMIN/firefox/nightly
make
MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 ./mach run
./mach package
./mach install
 

We have

$ git clone git@github.com:mozilla/firefox.git
Cloning into 'firefox'...
X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0
remote: Enumerating objects: 11863463, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (21/21), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (8/8), done.
remote: Total 11863463 (delta 15), reused 13 (delta 13), pack-reused 11863442 (from 2)
Receiving objects: 100% (11863463/11863463), 3.64 GiB | 22.37 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (9503284/9503284), done.
Updating files: 100% (385169/385169), done.
...
Adding configure options from /rds/project/rds-4o5vpvAowP0/software/firefox/mozconfig
Created package: /rds/project/rds-4o5vpvAowP0/software/firefox/obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/firefox-143.0a1.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.xz
 

gecko-dev

(Experimental)

This is the nightly version, in an attempt to explore why the release to CentOS 8 crashes.

git clone https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev.git
cd gecko-dev
module load python/3.8.11/gcc/pqdmnzmw
./mach bootstrap
for f in $(ls ~/.local/bin); do ln -sf ~/.local/bin/$f ~/bin/$f; done
export TMPDIR=$HPC_WORK/work
export MOZ_DISABLE_GPU=1
./mach help
./mach configure --prefix=$CEUADMIN/firefox/nightly
./mach build -j4
./mach install
./mach run --setpref="layers.acceleration.disabled=true"
./mach run --disable-e10s
ulimit -a
./mach clean
 

There is also GNUmakefile (extended version as in here listed below) which can be used by gmake.

# This Makefile is a shim for users with muscle memory for the "make" command.
# It's not intended for production usage or anything important.

# Default target to pull, clean, configure, build, and install
all: pull configure build install

# Module loading function (macro)
define load_modules
  if command -v module > /dev/null 2>&1; then \
    . /etc/profile.d/modules.sh; \
    module purge; \
    module load rhel8/default-icl; \
    module load python/3.8.11/gcc/pqdmnzmw; \
  else \
    echo "Module system not available. Skipping module commands."; \
  fi
endef

# Pull the latest changes from the repository (without module loading)
pull:
	@echo "Pulling latest code..."
	git pull

# Configure the build environment
configure:
	@echo "Running configuration with prefix: $(CEUADMIN)/firefox/nightly"
	@# Ensure CEUADMIN is set or use a default value
	$(if $(CEUADMIN),,$(error "CEUADMIN environment variable not set"))
	$(call load_modules)
	./mach configure --prefix=$(CEUADMIN)/firefox/nightly

# Build the project
build:
	@echo "Building the project..."
	$(call load_modules)
	./mach build

# Install the project
install:
	@echo "Installing the project..."
	$(call load_modules)
	./mach install

# Clean the build
clean:
	@echo "Cleaning the build..."
	./mach clobber

# Mark targets that don't represent files
.PHONY: all pull configure build install clean
 

By default, the compile takes all the resources so it is a good idea to make it manageable.

ulimit -v 15728640 # Set virtual memory limit to 15 GB
export MOZCONFIG=/rds/project/rds-4o5vpvAowP0/software/gecko-dev/mozconfig
 

with mzconfig containing these lines

# Set the number of parallel jobs
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j5"
# Set the object directory
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-@CONFIG_GUESS@
# Enable application (Firefox)
ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
# Enable optimization and disable debugging
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --disable-debug

for instance, we see it translates to ` /usr/bin/gmake -C . -j5 -s -w install` near the end.