Arch Linux

ruhagen

Member

Registered: 2021-11-10

Posts: 2

Running Firefox As An Isolated Linux User

I just did this guide to run Firefox as an isolated user -

https://www.burnison.ca/articles/runnin … linux-user

It's a nice idea for security and also I don't like .mozilla directory in my home. Mozilla Firefox developers won't add support for XDG Base Directory unfortunately.

Everything looks fine but speakers and mic doesn't work. I've got some warnings about it:

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
mesa: for the --simplifycfg-sink-common option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --global-isel-abort option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --amdgpu-atomic-optimizations option: may only occur zero or one times!
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
mesa: for the --simplifycfg-sink-common option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --global-isel-abort option: may only occur zero or one times!
mesa: for the --amdgpu-atomic-optimizations option: may only occur zero or one times!
[Child 101772, MediaDecoderStateMachine #1] WARNING: 7f463372f020 OpenCubeb() failed to init cubeb: file /build/firefox/src/firefox-94.0.1/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp:324
[Child 101772, MediaDecoderStateMachine #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f4643c11c00 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /build/firefox/src/firefox-94.0.1/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp:4001

Looks like I have to configure pulseaudio for my added firefox user.

I have tried this solutions but without luck:

https://dhole.github.io/post/pulseaudio … le_users/#
http://billauer.co.il/blog/2014/01/pa-multiple-users/

Do anyone have any idea how to fix it? Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by ruhagen (2021-11-10 03:58:19)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,756

Re: Running Firefox As An Isolated Linux User

The solutions in your linked posts should generally work, but you might to also want to expose your DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS to your other user and potentially explicitly set PULSE_SERVER as there have been a few changes in how the server and client interact since pulse has been made a systemd --user service instead.

Maybe check https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseA … dio_daemon rather than blog posts from the internet.

I'd also recommend to not use the audio group, since too many other logistics are tied to that group that could actually actively prevent you from doing this.

Last edited by V1del (2021-11-10 08:10:13)

dogknowsnx

Member

Registered: 2021-04-12

Posts: 648

Re: Running Firefox As An Isolated Linux User

The guide you mentioned was conceived almost 10 years ago - not sure how many (if any) sandbox solutions were floating around at that time. This is not supposed to be a 'solution' for your issue per se, but have you considered using a sandbox (e. g. firejail)?

---

RI - Rest your Eyes and Self

"We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion" - Maynard James Keenan

ruhagen

Member

Registered: 2021-11-10

Posts: 2

Re: Running Firefox As An Isolated Linux User

Hi V1del and dogknowsnx,

Thanks a lot. I just switched to ALSA from Pulseaudio. It works fine.