A Firefox extension that implements the Chromecast API and exposes it to web apps to enable cast support. Communication with receiver devices is handled by a companion application (bridge).
Install the Firefox extension (from within Firefox) and bridge application via the installer packages. These are two separate downloads that can be found on the website or in the GitHub releases section.
The bridge application is currently supported on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Important: On Linux platforms such as Arch, it may be necessary to configure local hostname resolution1.
Note: These packages are maintained by third parties and support likely will not be provided for any issues specific to these packages.
- Arch Linux (AUR)
fx_cast
— https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fx_castfx_cast-bin
— https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fx_cast-bin
Daemon configuration (systemd)
- Create a new
fx_cast
user:
$ sudo useradd --system fx_cast
- Create a service file in
/etc/systemd/system/fx_cast.service
:
[Unit]
Description=fx_cast daemon
[Service]
User=fx_cast
ExecStart=/opt/fx_cast/fx_cast_bridge -d
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
- Enable the service:
$ sudo systemctl enable --now fx_cast
Clicking on the toolbar button or Cast...
menu item in the page context menu will open a popup that shows a list of receiver devices will allow you to start casting the currently detected app2 or media.
The extension provides a whitelist for ensuring only trusted sites are allowed to load the cast API and communicate with receiver devices.
Sites may be added to the whitelist, either by clicking one of the whitelist options in the toolbar button context menu whilst visiting the site, or by manually entering a valid match pattern on the options page.
Whitelisted sites should then display a cast button as in Chrome, provided they're compatible with the extension/Firefox.
- Node.js v16.x.x
- Native build tools (see here)
- Bonjour/Avahi (on Windows/Linux respectively)
Cross-compiling native dependencies may be possible, but isn't tested or supported. Build script options are provided for building/packaging on other platforms, but assume they won't work. Packaging on Linux for other Linux package formats should work fine.
$ sudo apt install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev dpkg rpm
Runtime packages: avahi-daemon
.
$ sudo dnf install avahi-compat-libdns_sd-devel dpkg rpm-build
Runtime packages: avahi
, nss-mdns
.
$ sudo pacman -S avahi dpkg rpm-tools
$ git clone https://github.com/hensm/fx_cast.git
$ cd fx_cast
$ npm install
$ npm run build
# Install manifest for dist/ build. Installs to
# user-specific location and overrides a system-wide
# install. Call `remove-manifest` to restore previous state.
$ npm run install-manifest
$ npm run remove-manifest
This will build the ext and app, outputting to dist/
:
dist/app/
... contains the built bridge with launcher script and manifest (with the path pointing that script). Theinstall-manifest
npm script copies this manifest to the proper location (or adds its current location to the registry on Windows).dist/ext/
... contains the unpacked extension.
Watching ext changes:
$ npm run watch:ext
Launch Firefox with built extension (run in separate terminal):
$ npm run start:ext
Building a 32-bit version is only supported for Windows. If you're building from a 64-bit system, you'll also need to rebuild any native dependencies as 32-bit.
$ npm clean-install --prefix ./app --arch=ia32 # If on a 64-bit system
# If building without packaging
$ npm run build:app -- -- --arch=x86 --usePkg
# If packaging
$ npm run package:app -- -- --arch=x86
Extension build script (build:ext
) arguments:
--package
Should package with web-ext.--watch
Should run webpack in watch mode.--mirroringAppId
"<appID>"
Provide an alternative default mirroring receiver app ID.--mode
"production"
,"development"
Run webpack in a different mode. Defaults to"development"
unless combined with--package
.
Bridge build script (build:app
) arguments:
--usePkg
Creates a single executable instead of a compiled JavaScript files and a launcher script.--package
Builds and creates installer packages for distribution.--arch
"x64"
,"x86"
Select platform arch to build for. Defaults to current platform arch.
Build and package extension and bridge application for current platform:
$ npm run package
dist/app/
... contains the installer package:fx_cast_bridge-<version>-<arch>.(pkg|deb|rpm|exe)
dist/ext/
... contains the built extension archive:fx_cast-<version>.xpi
.
Packaging examples:
$ npm run package:ext # Packaging extension
$ npm run package:app # Packaging bridge application
# Linux platforms
$ npm run package:app -- -- --packageType=deb
$ npm run package:app -- -- --packageType=rpm
Bridge package script arguments (includes the build script arguments):
--packageType
"deb"
,"rpm"
Select the package type. Defaults todeb
. Only relevant when building for Linux.
Testing requires geckodriver (or chromedriver for Chrome parity testing). See selenium-webdriver installation instructions (ignore npm install
).
The test script expects a compatible installed bridge version and a packaged extension archive at dist/ext/
.
Test results will be displayed in the terminal and within the opened browser tab. Chrome may take some time to initialize the media router component before the cast API is available for testing.
$ npm run build:app
$ npm run install-manifest
$ npm run package:ext
$ npm test
# Or if testing in Chrome
$ SELENIUM_BROWSER=chrome npm test
These are somewhat outdated now, but show the basic function of the extension:
- electron-chromecast3
- Icons by icons8:
ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-cancel-120.png
ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-ok-120.png
ext/src/ui/options/assets/icons8-warn-120.png
Footnotes
-
By default, Arch does not configure Avahi to resolve
.local
hostnames via the name service switch (NSS), and the underlying mdns module used by this project relies ongetaddrinfo
to resolve these hostnames correctly. ↩ -
Some sites may only function properly when initiating casting from the in-page player buttons. ↩
-
Since it seems to be causing confusion, this project does not use electron. The electron-chromecast library was only used as a reference for the initial implementation of the API. ↩