Firefox on Xbian

README.md

Firefox on Xbian

These scripts allow you to launch Firefox on XBian.

Usage

When you are in Kodi and you want to switch to Firefox, you just have to quit (no shutdown, just quit). Firefox will then start automatically. Now when you want to get back to Kodi, just quit Firefox and Kodi will start back automatically.

How it works?

The script will run in the background and check for the kodi.bin process.

1. If the kodi.bin process does not exist, it will start Firefox with a minimal X environment
2. When you close Firefox, it will start Kodi back
3. Back to 1.

Installation

As root, install git, clone this gist, and run the firefox_on_xbian.sh script:

apt install git
git clone https://gist.github.com/4b92d9b48ef203b6fcfcfeb2f7e95a6d.git firefox_on_debian
cd firefox_on_debian
chmod +x firefox_on_debian.sh
./firefox_on_debian.sh

firefox_launcher.sh

#!/bin/bash   

LOCK=/tmp/launcher
LOCKFILE=/tmp/firefox-running
STOPFILE=/tmp/firefox-stopped
DEBUG=${DEBUG:-0}

# rc.local seems to be launched twice, to avoid race condition, we use this little
# tweak with a random sleep and a lockfile
if [ "$DEBUG" == 0 ]
then
        sleep 30
        sleep $(($RANDOM%10))

        test -e $LOCK && exit 0
fi
touch $LOCK

log() {
        if [ "$DEBUG" == "1" ]; then
                echo $@
        fi
}

enable_nodm() {
        sed -r "s/^NODM_ENABLED=.*$/NODM_ENABLED=true/" /etc/default/nodm
}

disable_nodm() {
        sed -r "s/^NODM_ENABLED=.*$/NODM_ENABLED=false/" /etc/default/nodm
}

# make sure nodm is not started (because firefox consumes a lot of resources)
enable_nodm   
/etc/init.d/nodm stop &>/dev/null || true
test -e $LOCKFILE && rm $LOCKFILE
test -e $STOPFILE && rm $STOPFILE
disable_nodm  

log "Starting service..."

while true
do
        # we do something only when kodi is stopped
        pgrep kodi.bin &>/dev/null || {
                log "Kodi stopped"
                # if we just exited firefox, a $STOPFILE will be created
                # we can then stop nodm an restart kodi
                test -e $STOPFILE && {
                        log "Restarting Kodi"
                        enable_nodm
                        /etc/init.d/nodm stop
                        disable_nodm
                        pid=$(cat $STOPFILE)
                        ps $pid &>/dev/null && kill $pid
                        sleep 2
                        stop -q xbmc
                        start -q xbmc
                        rm $STOPFILE
                } || {
                        # kodi is stopped and there is no $STOPFILE so it means we can
                        # start firefox, unless it is already started
                        test -e $LOCKFILE || {
                                log "Starting Firefox"
                                enable_nodm
                                /etc/init.d/nodm restart
                                disable_nodm
                        }
                }
        }
        sleep 5
done

rm $LOCK

firefox_on_debian.sh

#!/bin/bash

GISTID="4b92d9b48ef203b6fcfcfeb2f7e95a6d"

apt install matchbox-window-manager xinit xserver-xorg-input-all firefox-esr nodm git

if [ ! -e "README.md" ]
then
        git clone https://gist.github.com/$GISTID.git firefox_on_debian
        cd firefox_on_debian
fi

cp xsession.sh /home/xbian/.xsession
cp nodm.default /etc/default/nodm
cp firefox_launcher.sh /opt/firefox_launcher

chown xbian: /home/xbian/.xsession
chmod +x /home/xbian/.xsession

chmod +x /opt/firefox_launcher

grep -vE "^/opt/firefox_launcher" /etc/rc.local || sed -ri 's,exit 0,/opt/firefox_launcher \&\n\n&,' /etc/rc.local

nodm.default

# nodm configuration

# Set NODM_ENABLED to something different than 'false' to enable nodm
NODM_ENABLED=false

# User to autologin for
NODM_USER=xbian

# First vt to try when looking for free VTs
NODM_FIRST_VT=7

# X session
NODM_XSESSION=/etc/X11/Xsession

# Options for nodm itself
NODM_OPTIONS=

# Options for the X server.
#
# Format: [/usr/bin/<Xserver>] [:<disp>] <Xserver-options>
#
# The Xserver executable and the display name can be omitted, but should
# be placed in front, if nodm's defaults shall be overridden.
NODM_X_OPTIONS='-nolisten tcp'

# If an X session will run for less than this time in seconds, nodm will wait an
# increasing bit of time before restarting the session.
NODM_MIN_SESSION_TIME=60

# Timeout (in seconds) to wait for X to be ready to accept connections. If X is
# not ready before this timeout, it is killed and restarted.
NODM_X_TIMEOUT=300

xsession.sh

LOCKFILE=/tmp/firefox-running
STOPFILE=/tmp/firefox-stopped

test -e $STOPFILE && rm $STOPFILE || true

#Turn off Power saver and Screen Blanking
xset s off -dpms

#Execute window manager for full screen
matchbox-window-manager  -use_titlebar no &

touch $LOCKFILE
#Execute Browser with options
firefox
rm $LOCKFILE

kill %1
sleep 60 &

pid=$!
echo $pid >$STOPFILE
wait $pid

I'd like to try your solution but first, could you tell me, if you use them, of course, if amazon video and netflix works with this trick and firefox esr version?

Regarding the version it should*:

xbian@xbian:~$ sudo apt show firefox-esr
Package: firefox-esr
Version: 52.4.0esr-1~deb9u1

* https://www.pcworld.com/article/3108544/linux/firefox-for-linux-will-soon-support-netflix-and-amazon-videos.html

Hi,

You can actually run whatever browser you like. I personally run firefox, but I successfully tried chromium as well.
I did not try amazon video nor netflix since I don't have access to these platforms, but I know youtube is almost unusable so I suppose you may expect the same unusability.

Hi,
it will not work, it tried more times on xbian but exit is always to shell. what i make wrong?
thx mcgunn

Can't get it to work either. Exiting Kodi leads to a shell login. When I try to run matchbox-window-manager manually, it complains that no display is found (also in the Xorg log file). Any ideas?

exit from kodi; enter 'xbian' and 'raspberry' as root login/pass; see a blue screen with list of settings; click 'esc' on your keyboard. You'll see the command line on the bottom of the screen.