Containerized Firefox

Please Note: This is hosted at https://codeberg.org/ryangreenup/firefox-podman, if you’re viewing this on GitHub it is only a mirror. Please use the bug tracker on Codeberg for any issues.

Introduction

This runs firefox in a container, this makes it easier to rsync the firefox profile between machines because the version will be consistent.

Usage

Initial Setup

1. Clone the repo
2. Install the dependencies

   pip install click
       

3. Build the dockerfile

   ./run.py build
       

4. Make a Directory for the profile

   mkdir -p ./data/profiles/arkenfox
       

5. Run a shell in the container

   ./run.py run --shell --profile ./data/profiles/arkenfox
       

6. Create a new profile under ~/.mozilla/firefox/main_profile using the Profile Manager:

   firefox --ProfileManager
       

   Then exit the container

7. Run firefox from the container:

   ./run.py run --profile ./data/profiles/arkenfox
       

8. Optionally symlink ./run.py to ~/.local/bin/firefox-podman:

   ./run.py install
   # unisntall with
   # ./run.py uninstall
       

Usage thereafter

./run.py run --profile ./data/profiles/arkenfox

Implementation Notes

Wayland

If the host has XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland and XDG_USER_DIRS is defined, firefox will run through wayland and unset the X11 DISPLAY variable.

Sound

This uses pipewire pulse to communicate with pipewire on the host.

run.sh

A run shell script is included that can be used for debugging

Multiple Windows

Firefox only allows one instance of a profile to run at a time, it is configured to simply attach back to the last running session. This is confusing and not implemented here, instead, create new windows from the running session.

Troubleshooting

I had some grief running VPNs, I had to restart the container, I’ve since mounted /etc/resolv.conf and this should probably fix that.

Syncing profiles

One can use rsync or unison to syncrhonise profiles. Syncthing is not recommended because the files will change a lot during runtime and this will likely lead to a poor experience. I’ve used git and the experience was pretty good also.

target="my_other_pc"
user="username"
dir="$HOME/Sync-Current-rsync/containerized_applications/share/firefox"

rsync -avh "${dir}/" ${user}@${target}:"${dir}"