Installing and Configuring 32-bit Firefox on 64-bit Linux (Fedora)

On a x86-64 64 bit Linux system, sometimes we may want to use the 32 bit Firefox, although the support to 64 bit Firefox is getting much better. Just for needed ones, this post introduces how to install 32 bit Firefox on 64 bit Linux (Fedora as the example).

Install 32-bit firefox

First, install firfox.i686 package.

# linux32
# yum install firefox.i686

Firefox can simply run now. But we still need to fix some issues.

When run firefox, we may get these warnings:

(firefox:4860): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: “clearlooks”,
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module “pk-gtk-module”: libpk-gtk-module.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”: libcanberra-gtk-module.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

To fix these warnings, install needed packages:

# yum install libcanberra-gtk2.i686 
 gtk2-engines.i686 
 PackageKit-gtk-module.i686

However, there is no input method. To enable ibus-gtk2 input method in 32bit Firefox, install the ibus-gtk2 package

# yum install ibus-gtk2.i686

Install the flash-plugin

Enable rpmfusion repository: Enable RPM Fusion repositories

Install flash plugin

# yum install flash-plugin.i386

Set up flash plugin

# /usr/lib/flash-plugin/setup

There is no sound in flash. For sound support and curl support, install

# yum install alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 curl.i686

You should have sound. flash-plugin works.

Firefox should complain nothing and work well now. Enjoy it.

Additional gift:

Force to run firefox in 32-bit mode:

#!/bin/bash

setarch i686 firefox -new-tab $*