LibreWolf

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LibreWolf is a freedom-respecting, independent fork of the Firefox web browser.

Introduction

LibreWolf aims to be a private, secure, and freedom-expanding alternative browser. All telemetry, data collection, and annoyances of Firefox are removed. This goal is reached with patch files that are applied to Firefox's source code.

This guide is a user-written guide - please check the official documentation given in librewolf.net.

Installation

Important
For proper localization support, review the Localization section before emerging. This will prevent a recompile to add location support later.

Prerequisites

Overlay

Manual

To manually add the official LibreWolf overlay, a new file needs to be created:

FILE /etc/portage/repos.conf/librewolf.conf

[librewolf]
priority = 50
location = /var/db/repos/librewolf
sync-type = git
sync-uri = https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/gentoo.git
auto-sync = Yes

Although in the official guide, the location of the repo is not given, the directory with the official Gentoo repo is /var/db/repos.

eselect

When adding the overlay through eselect repository, this command is necessary:

root #eselect repository add librewolf git https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/gentoo.git

The overlay also has to be synced:

root #emaint -r librewolf sync

USE flags

Although Librewolf is different from Firefox, the same Firefox USE Flags can still be used:

USE flags for www-client/firefox Firefox Web Browser

clang	Use Clang compiler instead of GCC
dbus	Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)
debug	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
eme-free	Disable EME (DRM plugin) capability at build time
geckodriver	Enable WebDriver support
gmp-autoupdate	Allow Gecko Media Plugins (binary blobs) to be automatically downloaded and kept up-to-date in user profiles
hardened	Activate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)
hwaccel	Force-enable hardware-accelerated rendering (Mozilla bug 594876)
jack	Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
libproxy	Enable libproxy support
lto	Enable Link Time Optimization (LTO)Uses BFD linker with GCC and LLD linker with Clang
openh264	Use media-libs/openh264 for H264 support instead of downloading binary blob from Mozilla at runtime
pgo	Add support for profile-guided optimization for faster binariesthis option will double the compile time
pulseaudio	Add support for PulseAudio sound server
screencast	Enable support for remote desktop and screen cast using media-video/pipewire
selinux	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
sndio	Enable support for the media-sound/sndio backend
system-av1	Use the system-wide media-libs/dav1d and media-libs/libaom library instead of bundled
system-harfbuzz	Use the system-wide media-libs/harfbuzz and media-gfx/graphite2 instead of bundled
system-icu	Use the system-wide dev-libs/icu instead of bundled
system-jpeg	Use the system-wide media-libs/libjpeg-turbo instead of bundled
system-libevent	Use the system-wide dev-libs/libevent instead of bundled
system-libvpx	Use the system-wide media-libs/libvpx instead of bundled
system-png	Use the system-wide media-libs/libpng instead of bundled (requires APNG patches)
system-python-libs	Use system's python site instead of bundled python libraries
system-webp	Use the system-wide media-libs/libwebp instead of bundled
wayland	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend
wifi	Enable wireless network functions

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2022-05-22 09:31 More information about USE flags

For librewolf-bin:

USE flags for www-client/firefox-bin Firefox Web Browser

alsa	When pulseaudio isn't set, this prefers apulse
ffmpeg	Enable ffmpeg/libav-based audio/video codec support
gmp-autoupdate	Allow Gecko Media Plugins (binary blobs) to be automatically downloaded and kept up-to-date in user profiles
pulseaudio	Add support for PulseAudio sound server
selinux	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
wayland	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2022-05-21 06:22 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Now, LibreWolf is ready to be emerged:

root #emerge --ask www-client/librewolf

Alternatively install the binary:

root #emerge --ask www-client/librewolf-bin

Configuration

Localization

Changing the UI language can be done by changing the L10N variable. For more information about localizing on Gentoo, the Localization article may help. All language tags can be found in this Language localisation wikipedia article. The following example shows how to enable the German language package for LibreWolf:

FILE /etc/portage/make.conf

L10N="de"

Removal

Unmerge

LibreWolf can be removed with unmerging it:

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose www-client/librewolf

For librewolf-bin:

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose www-client/librewolf-bin

External resources

• LibreWolf website - The LibreWolf main site.
• LibreWolf Gentoo installation - The LibreWolf installation for Gentoo Linux.
• LibreWolf Gentoo overlay - The official LibreWolf overlay for Gentoo Linux.