Artix Linux Forum

Artix Linux => Applications & Software => Topic started by: Roberto on 12 June 2021, 17:44:36

Title: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Roberto on 12 June 2021, 17:44:36
Hi all,

I have read and noted that the Arch repositories are disabled by default and in principle, I find this step logical and understandable, especially with regard to systemd.
But I would still like to know if a program like Firefox will be included in the Artix repositories soon.
I don't mean a fork like librewolf or dragonfly and certainly not ungoogled-chromium, but the original Firefox.

Thanks in advance.

Many greetings
Roberto
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: strajder on 12 June 2021, 17:58:43
Why not privacy-respecting forks? I found this website an eye opener when it comes to browser privacy: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/browsers.html

Also check this page about Firefox: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/mozilla.html
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: VictorBrand on 12 June 2021, 18:13:20
I have read and noted that the Arch repositories are disabled by default and in principle, I find this step logical and understandable, especially with regard to systemd.
You can enable 'extra' and 'community' Arch repos and take the packages from there in your Artix installation. There are plenty of packages in those repos which you need in order to build a fully-featured system, that's not only Firefox.
BTW there is firefox-esr in the 'universe' Artix repository, which I use. Those 'unofficial' Artix repos are quite interesting and definitely worth using on a desktop system.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: alium on 12 June 2021, 19:00:34
i personally use firedragon, and i see no difference between firedragon and Firefox regarding browsing. all websites works perfectly, drm works, as bonus less spy from Google...
but i agree with victorBrand. here is no reason have disabled archlinux repo. if you want use firefox or another programs from archlinux, just enable archlinux repos. i personally want never to have disable archlinux repos... i want have archlinux without systemd
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Roberto on 12 June 2021, 19:16:08
Please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against forks that respect privacy, quite the opposite.
It's just always a fine line between safety and comfort or even appealing optics.

I also know that I can include the Arch repositories again, but I don't want to do that in principle.

I just wanted to know if it is planned.

Thank you all for your opinions and assessments.

Many greetings
Roberto
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: VictorBrand on 12 June 2021, 19:26:43
Regarding those "privacy-respecting" browsers one must be aware that due to growing social demand in privacy there are a lot of baits, hoaxes and scam around this theme. Not every claim about "respecting privacy" should be believed.

There are a couple of good reviews (or rather surveys) on this topic, I'd recommend reading this article:
https://unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html
According to the article, best privacy-oriented browsers are GNU IceCat and then tweaked Firefox. Librewolf (still?) has some issues with "phoning home" and accessing cdn servers on startup.

And here is a guide on tweaking Firefox towards privacy:
https://12bytes.org/articles/tech/firefox/the-firefox-privacy-guide-for-dummies/

A common guide on Firerox tweaking:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox/Tweaks
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: artoo on 12 June 2021, 19:28:45
There are plenty of packages in those repos which you need in order to build a fully-featured system, that's not only Firefox.

I would again point out that this is not a true statement.
It purely depends on your perception of a "fully featured system".

With regards to firefox, we gonna add a default browser, but if it will be FF or maybe brave browser, or even another one hasn't been decided yet.  We not gonna add multiple browsers though, because they all tend to be resource hungry  monsters to compile.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Roberto on 12 June 2021, 19:34:52
Why not privacy-respecting forks? I found this website an eye opener when it comes to browser privacy: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/browsers.html
Reading what is described and written on this website, the only logical consequence is ... to uninstall the Internet.  :o
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: strajder on 12 June 2021, 22:29:02
With regards to firefox, we gonna add a default browser, but if it will be FF or maybe brave browser, or even another one hasn't been decided yet.  We not gonna add multiple browsers though, because they all tend to be resource hungry  monsters to compile.
If you are aiming at minimalism, I think the default should be what's already included on the LiveUSB images - midori, with Librewolf, ungoogled-chromium etc kept in universe like they are now.

I'd strongly advise against Brave, as in addition to spying on its users, it tries to promote its own cryptocurrency in a suspicious manner. I know Luke Smith is trying to promote it, but the page I quoted has more details on it, as well as the subreddit of Uphold (https://www.reddit.com/r/uphold/), the company supporting the BAT. Brave rewards themselves require sending government ID and detailed personal information, there is no trace of anonymity nor privacy.

Reading what is described and written on this website, the only logical consequence is ... to uninstall the Internet.  :o
If you want 100% privacy, that's true, but still we should aim to be as close to that 100% as realistically possible.

Regarding those "privacy-respecting" browsers one must be aware that due to growing social demand in privacy there are a lot of baits, hoaxes and scam around this theme. Not every claim about "respecting privacy" should be believed.
That's true.

Quote
According to the article, best privacy-oriented browsers are GNU IceCat and then tweaked Firefox. Librewolf (still?) has some issues with "phoning home" and accessing cdn servers on startup.
Currently, I'm using ungoogled-chromium with uBlock Origin, HTTPSAnywhere, Canvas Blocker and other privacy addons as my default browser. I was using Librewolf briefly, but it doesn't support dark mode setting.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Kyv on 18 June 2021, 03:00:37
Regarding those "privacy-respecting" browsers one must be aware that due to growing social demand in privacy there are a lot of baits, hoaxes and scam around this theme. Not every claim about "respecting privacy" should be believed.

You are right, but remember that you can monitor traffic on your network, just as the bloggers have done. The digdeeper neocities site mentioned above has a write-up on how to view the https traffic generated by a browser using mitm-proxy. A person interested in using a browser, especially one that makes lofty  privacy claims should at least cursorily test for themselves.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Roberto on 20 June 2021, 17:34:34
I have tried and tested Firedragon extensively and I can confirm, that this browser is a very good alternative for the previously used Firefox.
If someone can tell me how to teach the browser to stay in full screen on startup, I might switch to Firedragon. :)

greets
Roberto
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: strajder on 20 June 2021, 18:02:45
how to teach the browser to stay in full screen on startup,
You might want to check out a tiling window manager (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager) like dwm.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Thats_me on 20 June 2021, 18:33:04
@Roberto

What do you miss in the ESR FF from the Artix Repos?

Do you know this sites? For me they are the best if you use FF. (They are in german language ;) )
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/
https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/

Kuketz analyse different Browsers. This man is really great.

Have fun greetings TM
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: alium on 20 June 2021, 18:36:02
I have tried and tested Firedragon extensively and I can confirm, that this browser is a very good alternative for the previously used Firefox.
If someone can tell me how to teach the browser to stay in full screen on startup, I might switch to Firedragon. :)

greets
Roberto
about:config
look for entry "privacy.resistFingerprinting" this must be "false".
i find firedragon much better as default set up librewolf, it's my main browser now and i searched this option too, @Roberto 😅
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Roberto on 20 June 2021, 18:51:16
@Roberto

What do you miss in the ESR FF from the Artix Repos?

Do you know this sites? For me they are the best if you use FF. (They are in german language ;) )
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/
https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/

Kuketz analyse different Browsers. This man is really great.

Have fun greetings TM


Hi thats_me,

I don't like to use firefox-esr so much because it is at version 78.
I like the new design of version 89 and for this reason I test firedragon and also librewolf.

Many greetings
Roberto
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: luke.rp on 02 July 2021, 01:03:25
I installed Aritx by VirtualBox on April 28. On this date, I installed firefox browser with Pacman. Yesterday I installed the Artix on my machine definitively, but I can't find the firefox.

I enabled the Arch repository (pacman -Syu artix-archlinux-support).

And I'm trying to find any browser ( I saw the list on the ArchWiki) but I couldn't find any. (icecat, firefox, seamonkey, cliqz, librewolf, etc). What am I doing wrong?

Code: [Select]
$ sudo pacman -Ssv firefox 
[sudo] password for ****:
Root      : /
Conf File : /etc/pacman.conf
DB Path   : /var/lib/pacman/
Cache Dirs: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ 
Hook Dirs : /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/  /etc/pacman.d/hooks/ 
Lock File : /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
Log File  : /var/log/pacman.log
GPG Dir   : /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
Targets   : firefox
world/dump_syms 0.0.7-1
    Symbol dumper for Firefox
galaxy/otf-fira-mono 2:3.206-4
    Mozilla's monospace typeface designed for Firefox OS
galaxy/otf-fira-sans 1:4.301-2
    Mozilla's sans-serif typeface designed for Firefox OS
galaxy/ttf-fira-mono 2:3.206-4
    Mozilla's monospace typeface designed for Firefox OS
galaxy/ttf-fira-sans 1:4.301-2
    Mozilla's sans-serif typeface designed for Firefox OS
luke-virtualbox:[luke]:~$ sudo pacman -Ssv icecat
Root      : /
Conf File : /etc/pacman.conf
DB Path   : /var/lib/pacman/
Cache Dirs: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ 
Hook Dirs : /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/  /etc/pacman.d/hooks/ 
Lock File : /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
Log File  : /var/log/pacman.log
GPG Dir   : /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
Targets   : icecat
$ sudo pacman -Ss seamonkey
$ sudo pacman -Ss cliqz
$ sudo pacman -Ss librewolf
$ sudo pacman -Ss firefox-esr

I installed any other applications with these commands (like emcas).

Which browser is available for Artix to do you recommend? Because I didn't find any
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Kyv on 02 July 2021, 01:36:54
You need to enable the repositories in pacman.conf.

https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Repositories
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: uniks on 20 September 2021, 14:45:42
You need to enable the repositories in pacman.conf.

https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Repositories

Hello! I tryed this. Since artix made the thing with arch-repos, I susseccfully used firefox-esr & icecat on void-linux musl. But after an update, I lost my 2nd browser icecat. It's not anymore in void repos  :(  
Now I tryed to install it on artix. Without sussecc.
I've wrote the system, world, galaxy, extra, community,  universe and omniverse to /etc/pacman.conf
And could install librewolf. But the 2nd browser I want to use is gnuzilla icecat. I know it's in the AUR. But I still can't install it.  Allways I try it, I get follow message
Quote
sudo pacman -Syy icecat
[sudo] password for unik:
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 system                                         262.6 KiB   821 KiB/s 00:00 [###########################################] 100%
 world                                         1918.2 KiB  4.46 MiB/s 00:00 [###########################################] 100%
 galaxy                                        1922.1 KiB  8.94 MiB/s 00:00 [###########################################] 100%
 extra                                         1568.8 KiB  2.10 MiB/s 00:01 [###########################################] 100%
 community                                        5.8 MiB  2.84 MiB/s 00:02 [###########################################] 100%
 universe                                        72.5 KiB  91.8 KiB/s 00:01 [###########################################] 100%
 omniverse                                       48.3 KiB   269 KiB/s 00:00 [###########################################] 100%
error: target not found: icecat

What i make wrong to install icecat?  Can help someone how to install it?
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: katinka on 20 September 2021, 17:40:14
If not yet done you need to install the package artix-archlinux-support.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Artist on 20 September 2021, 20:31:17
You can also find Firefox in https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Repositories#Omniverse
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: katinka on 20 September 2021, 20:36:33
He´s searching for Icecat @Artist‍.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: ####### on 20 September 2021, 20:54:09
To install Icecat from the AUR, either you do that manually using makepkg - see Arch wiki for details - or install an AUR helper with makepkg, then use (helpername) -S icecat-bin just like you would use pacman.

Something like (replace aur-pkg-name of course):
Code: [Select]
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/aur-pkg-name.git
$ cd aur-pkg-name
$ makepkg -si

But Icecat is very outdated, last release was 2019, it looks like an abandoned project. It has been removed from the Arch repos and is now only an AUR package. It would not be recommended for online use as it has not been getting security updates. If you install icecat (not icecat-bin) then you will get exactly the same version, but built from source code which is going to take a long while to download and compile.
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: uniks on 20 September 2021, 21:27:58
Ouuu!! Used void linux, I forgot that the aur pkgs are installing with makepkg -si.)))
Thanks to all after some hours of compiling I get it =))

Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: Drito on 22 August 2022, 13:09:02
Hello I installed firefox 103.02 in a newly installed xfce Artix.

My pacman.conf is default.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Firefox in the Artix repositories
Post by: corysanin on 22 August 2022, 22:51:49
No need to bump this thread, Drito. Last post was almost a year old. Firefox has been added to the official repos since then.