Firefox (Application)

Firefox

Install

• from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/desktop-esr/
• and https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/

# shared/opt install schema v1.5.6

#### as common user ####
# define applications vars
export SOFTWARE_PATH="/home/shared/opt/software"
export NAME="firefox"
export VERSION="128.2.0esr"
export URL="https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/${VERSION}/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-${VERSION}.tar.bz2"
su - -w SOFTWARE_PATH,NAME,VERSION

#### as root ####
# install packages and prepare destination path
apt-get -q -y install wget coreutils findutils < /dev/null
apt-get -q -y install tar bzip2 libgtk-3-0 libdbus-glib-1-2 < /dev/null
mkdir -m 777 -p "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/tmp_install/" "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/${NAME}_${VERSION}/"
exit

#### as common user ####
umask 0027
cd "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/tmp_install"
wget -c --no-check-certificate "${URL}"
tar -xjf "firefox-${VERSION}.tar.bz2" -C "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/${NAME}_${VERSION}"
# (optional) disable firefox update
mkdir "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/${NAME}_${VERSION}"/firefox/distribution
cat > "${SOFTWARE_PATH}/${NAME}_${VERSION}"/firefox/distribution/policies.json << 'EOF'
{"policies": {"DisableAppUpdate": true}}
EOF
cd
su - -w SOFTWARE_PATH,NAME,VERSION

#### as root ####
# ensure permissions to destination path
cd "${SOFTWARE_PATH}"
chown -R root:users "${NAME}_${VERSION}"
find "${NAME}_${VERSION}" -type d -exec chmod a-s,u+rwx,g+rx,g-w,o-rwx {} \;
find "${NAME}_${VERSION}" -type f -exec chmod a-s,u+rw,g+r,g-w,o-rwx {} \;
rm -rf tmp_install
ln -s -f -T "${NAME}_${VERSION}" "${NAME}"
exit

#### as common user ####
# test the application
"${SOFTWARE_PATH}/${NAME}/firefox/firefox"

• update tips from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1420514#c137
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/managing-firefox-updates
• https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md#disableappupdate

Configure

Reset to factory

please note: backup plugin custom configs (e.g. ads blacklist, cookie whitelist)

got to 'about:support'

• click on 'Refresh Firefox...'

Basic configuration

go to Preferences, then:

-> General -> General -> Startup

• set 'Restore previous session'
• unset 'Always check ... default browser'

General -> Files and Applications -> Downloads

• set 'Always ask you where to save files'

-> General -> Files and Applications -> Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content

• set 'Play DRM-controlled content'

-> General -> Browsing

• unset all 'Recommend '* options

-> Home -> Home -> Firefox Home Content

• unset 'Web Search'
• unset 'Shortcuts'
• unset 'Recent activity'
• unset 'Snippets'

-> Search -> Search -> Default Search Engine

• set duckcuckgo in 'Default Search Engine'

-> Search -> Search -> Search Suggestions

• unset 'Provide search suggestions'

-> Privacy & Security -> Browser Privacy -> Logins and Passwords

• unset 'Ask to save logins and passwords for websites'

-> Privacy & Security -> Browser Privacy -> Address Bar

• unset 'Open tabs', 'Shortcuts' and 'Search engines' options

-> Privacy & Security -> Firefox Data Collection and Use

• unset all 'Allow '* options

go to 'about:addons'

• click on settings icon, unset 'Update Add-ons Automatically'

reopen Firefox

Performance Tweaks

Reduce child process to reduce memory consumption

go to Preferences -> General -> Performance

• unset 'Use recommended performance settings'
• set 'Content process limit' to 3

reopen Firefox

Reduce disk usage

from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1271481

got to 'about:config'

• set 'browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled' to false
• set 'browser.cache.disk.capacity' to 256000

reopen Firefox

Old Performance Tweaks

• from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox/Tweaks#Performance

Reduce child process to reduce memory consumption

go to Preferences -> General -> Performance

• unset 'Use recommended performance settings'
• set 'Content process limit' to 1

reopen Firefox

Tuning network requests

• from http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.max-connections-per-server
• and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

got to 'about:config'

• set 'network.http.connection-timeout' to 30 # default 90
• set 'network.http.response.timeout' to 300 # default 300
• set 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server' to 8 # default 6

reopen Firefox

Reduce disk usage

got to 'about:config'

• set 'browser.cache.disk.enable' to false
• set 'browser.cache.memory.enable' to true
• set 'browser.sessionstore.interval' to 60000

go to Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Cookies and Site Data

• click on 'Clear Data' -> unselect 'Cookies and Site Data' and click 'Clear'

reopen Firefox

Plugins

Basic

• uBlock Origin (config: update filter list and disable automatic updates)
• Undo closed tab
• Auto Tab Discard
• Cookie AutoDelete (config: enable automatic cleaning)

Plus

• Authenticator
• FoxyProxy Standard
• FireFTP
• User-Agent Switcher
• mock and modify HTTP requests
• A tool for viewing SAML and WS-Federation messages
• Laboratory (Content Security Policy / CSP Toolkit)

Media

• Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express
• YouTube High Definition
• Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder
• Print Friendly & PDF
• Easy Screenshot

Spellcheck

• Free Grammar Checker | Grammarly
• United States English Spellchecker
• Dizionario italiano
• Dicionário pt-BR

Olds

• Cookie Quick Manager
• Firebug
• Web Developer
• YouTube Flash Player
• FlashBlock
• FlashGot
• User Agent Switcher
• Awesome Screenshot Plus - Capture, Annotate & More
• Speed Tweaks

Other notes

Web developer tools

• network filters examples

-status-code:200
-regexp:.*(\.ico|\.ttf|\.png|\.svg|\.gif|\.css|\.woff|\.woff2|\.js|\.json|\.js?.*=.*|\.json?.*=.*)$

JRE plugin for browsers

• from Manual Installation and Registration of Java Plugin for Linux

Firefox old links to releases

• nightly builds
• official relases
• linux-x86_64 relases