Add Firefox to Linux/arm64 browser images

[MikeMcC399]

What would you like?

Add Mozilla Firefox to Linux/arm64 browser images when this browser becomes available for arm64 on Linux via the cdn release location https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/.

Why is this needed?

Firefox is needed on Linux/arm64 to complement the availability on Linux/amd64 Cypress Docker images.

Mozilla is currently providing Firefox for arm64 on the nightly channel. See Firefox Nightly Now Available for Linux on ARM64 aka AArch64.

Firefox 136.0 released March 4, 2025:

On Linux, Firefox is now available on ARM64 (AArch64), with installation options via APT and tarballs. Flatpak support is coming soon.

Other

• Follows on from issue Add Arm browsers to linux/arm64 Docker images #695
• See examples/firefox-esr to use Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) in a custom Cypress Docker image

Upstream status

Edit: Status updated Mar 6, 2025:

• Firefox - Please provide an official linux ARM64 build opened Nov 19, 2020 - This issue is closed as resolved. The Linux ARM64 version is now available on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/desktop-release/
• Firefox Nightly Now Available for Linux on ARM64 dated April 19, 2024 - see https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-nightly-latest-ssl&os=linux64-aarch64 for download location - Firefox Linux ARM64 now available via Rapid Release Channel (in addition to ESR channel). See above.

Cypress Docker image status

• cypress/factory loads Firefox into arm64 image - available in cypress/factory:5.5.0 and above
• cypress/browsers contains Firefox in arm64 image
• cypress/included contains Firefox in arm64 image

[lhridley]

I built a custom cypress docker image with both Chromium and Firefox installed to execute Cypress tests on a Macbook Pro M3 Max. Both install and execute tests without issue. I did switch to Firefox ESR for more stability in testing, but Firefox Rapid Release also works without a problem.

Why is this still an open issue?

[MikeMcC399]

@lhridley

I built a custom cypress docker image with both Chromium and Firefox installed to execute Cypress tests on a Macbook Pro M3 Max. Both install and execute tests without issue. I did switch to Firefox ESR for more stability in testing, but Firefox Rapid Release also works without a problem.

It's great to hear that you were able to run Cypress tests on a MacBook Pro M3 Max with Firefox!

Could you share how you built your custom Cypress Docker image including Firefox? What was your download location for arm64 / aarch64 versions of Firefox for Linux?

[lhridley]

Ok to clarify a bit (I did leave something out here)...we are using DDEV for local development for Drupal sites, and to also build and test projects in our CI/CD pipeline.

DDEV web images are, at their base, Debian slim images, with PHP, NginX, and NodeJS (v20) installed. The current images are based on Debian "bookworm" (version 12). The base image that is used as the starting point depends on the host system, which in my case is Apple Silicon (aarch64).

With DDEV you can add additional build instructions to the base images before the dev environment spins up.

I have logic in in the additional build instructions that is based on the Dockerfile for the Cypress browsers-internal image for NodeJS 20, including the logic from lines 14 - 75, with the following changes:

• Remove lines 36 - 40, and instead install libayatana-appindicator3-1 via apt-get install.
• Install chromium and firefox-esr via apt-get install. (using the debian package manager).
• Remove lines 52-58

I then install cypress with npm after the web image spins up.

Since the current base image for NodeJS 20 for Cypress also uses Debian Slim bookwork, it logically makes sense that the base image can be modified to install chromium and firefox by default, and only check the processor type before attempting to install Chrome or Edge.

At least in this case, you get three browsers for testing using a docker image on ARM based processor machines.

[MikeMcC399]

@lhridley

Many thanks for your description! I hadn't realized that Firefox is also available from Debian for arm64 and nobody had mentioned it previously. Thanks to your feedback I found it on https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox! We can take account of this for future planning.

[MikeMcC399]

I've asked in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1678342 if there is any update.

https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2024/04/19/firefox-nightly-now-available-for-linux-on-arm64/in April 2024 said:

Our goal is to integrate ARM64 builds into Firefox’s extensive automated test suite, which will enable us to offer this architecture across the beta, release, and ESR channels.

so it would be good to know when (if at all) this is going to be Generally Available.

[MikeMcC399]

Firefox 136.0 released Mar 4, 2025 announces:

On Linux, Firefox is now available on ARM64 (AArch64), with installation options via APT and tarballs. Flatpak support is coming soon.

• See also sub-issue Enable Firefox arm64 in cypress/factory build #1306

[MikeMcC399]

cypress/factory:5.5.0 and above is now available to build Firefox 136.0 and above into custom arm64 Cypress Docker images

Published Cypress Docker images with Firefox on arm64 will follow after there is a new release of Node.js Active LTS after 22.14.0 or a new release of Firefox after 136.0.1