FireDragon
FireDragon is the default web browser of Garuda Linux. Its package description reads “FireDragon is a cross-platform, feature-rich and privacy-focused web browser”. It is based on Firefox with the privacy patches and settings of LibreWolf. On top of that it adds its own defaults, built-in add-ons and the Lepton skin.
This page covers FireDragon 13, the current version. Version 13 is a complete re-implementation on a new code base and replaces version 12. Workspaces and notes from version 12 are not migrated.
Packages
Section titled “Packages”All packages are at version 13.9.0 in pkgbuilds/. Each one provides and conflicts with firedragon, so only one can be installed.
| Package | Edition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
firedragon | Dr460nized | Built from source for x86_64 and aarch64, with PGO and LTO. Replaces firedragon-next. |
firedragon-bin | Dr460nized | Prebuilt release tarball for x86_64 and aarch64. Replaces firedragon-next-bin. |
firedragon-catppuccin | Catppuccin | Built from source. Replaces firedragon-catppuccin-next. |
firedragon-catppuccin-bin | Catppuccin | Prebuilt release tarball. Replaces firedragon-catppuccin-next-bin. |
The optional dependencies are hunspell-en_US (spell checking), libnotify (notifications), networkmanager (location from WiFi networks), speech-dispatcher (text to speech) and xdg-desktop-portal (screen sharing on Wayland). The source packages also list onnxruntime for local machine learning features.
The source packages are built with --disable-updater. Updates come through pacman.
Version 13.9.0
Section titled “Version 13.9.0”| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| Firefox | 158.0 |
| LibreWolf patches | 158.0-1 |
Flatpak
Section titled “Flatpak”The Dr460nized edition is also available as a Flatpak with the app ID org.garudalinux.firedragon. It uses the org.freedesktop.Platform runtime 25.08 with the org.mozilla.firefox.BaseApp base. There is no Flatpak of the Catppuccin edition. See Flatpak for general use.
Upgrade notice
Section titled “Upgrade notice”When the package is upgraded from an epoch 1 version, its install script prints a warning that recommends a new, separate profile. Create and switch profiles with:
firedragon -PEditions
Section titled “Editions”The two editions differ in branding and the theme that is installed on first start.
| Edition | Packages | Preinstalled theme |
|---|---|---|
| Dr460nized | firedragon, firedragon-bin, Flatpak | Sweet-Dark |
| Catppuccin | firedragon-catppuccin, firedragon-catppuccin-bin | Catppuccin Mocha Mauve |
The Catppuccin edition matches the Mokka desktop.
Which Garuda editions ship it
Section titled “Which Garuda editions ship it”From the Packages-Desktop lists in iso-profiles/garuda/:
| Garuda edition | Browser package |
|---|---|
| Dr460nized | firedragon and firedragon-extension-plasma-integration |
| Dr460nized Gaming | firedragon and firedragon-extension-plasma-integration |
| GNOME | firedragon |
| Cinnamon | firedragon |
| i3 | firedragon |
| Hyprland | firedragon |
| Mokka | firedragon-catppuccin and firedragon-extension-plasma-integration |
| Sway | firedragon-catppuccin |
| Xfce | None. It ships firefox. |
| KDE Lite | None in its package list. |
The community COSMIC profile also lists firedragon-catppuccin.
Add-ons
Section titled “Add-ons”The distribution policy installs these add-ons from addons.mozilla.org on first start:
| Add-on | Notes |
|---|---|
| uBlock Origin | Also allowed in private windows. |
| Flagfox | |
| Edition theme | Sweet-Dark or Catppuccin Mocha Mauve. |
Users can install extensions, dictionaries, themes and site permissions. Language packs are blocked. Dark Reader is no longer installed by default.
FireDragon also has built-in add-ons: a start page, notes, workspaces, a QR code tool, a troubleshooting page, the welcome dialog and its own settings page. Notes and workspaces sit in the sidebar next to history and bookmarks.
| Page | Purpose |
|---|---|
about:firedragon-welcome | The welcome dialog. It opens on first start. |
about:firedragon-settings | FireDragon settings. about:preferences links to it. |
Privacy defaults
Section titled “Privacy defaults”The defaults come from three presets that load in this order: librewolf, firedragon and overrides. The distribution policy adds the settings below.
| Area | Default |
|---|---|
| Telemetry | Disabled by policy and at build time. Crash reporter and default browser agent are not built. |
| Studies and feedback | Firefox studies, feedback commands and Pocket are disabled. |
| New tab and suggest | Sponsored top sites, stories, highlights and all Firefox Suggest options are off. |
| HTTPS | HTTPS-Only mode is enabled. |
| DRM | Encrypted Media Extensions are disabled by policy. WebGL and DRM are handled as site permissions. |
| Tracking protection | Blocks trackers, cryptominers, fingerprinters, social trackers and email trackers in normal and private windows. |
| Cookies | network.cookie.cookieBehavior is 5 (cookies partitioned per site) in normal and private windows. |
| Other | Query stripping, fingerprinting protection and bounce tracking protection are on. |
| AI features | Smart tab groups, chatbot sidebar, link preview key points, PDF alt text, smart window and speech recognition are blocked. Translations stay available. |
| Content analysis | Disabled for all interception points. |
| Local network access | Enabled with tracker blocking and prompting. |
| Prefetching | Off. firedragon.config.prefetch.enable is false. |
| Geolocation | BeaconDB replaces Google as the location provider. |
| Default bookmarks | None. |
Resist Fingerprinting is not on by default. It can be turned on in the welcome dialog.
Network services in the defaults
Section titled “Network services in the defaults”| Service | Default |
|---|---|
| Firefox Sync | Enabled. It uses the Garuda sync server https://ffsync.garudalinux.org/token/1.0/sync/1.5. |
| Add-on installs | The preinstalled add-ons download from addons.mozilla.org. |
| Start page wallpapers | librewolf.externalWallpapers.enabled is true, so the start page fetches wallpapers from a CDN. |
| Support menu | Links to the FireDragon category of the Garuda forum. |
Performance defaults
Section titled “Performance defaults”FireDragon adds the hardware and performance settings of CachyOS. They turn on hardware video decoding, WebRender and a GPU process. They disable the disk cache in favor of a 1 GB memory cache, raise image, media and network caches, unload tabs when memory is low and use physics-based smooth scrolling.
Welcome dialog
Section titled “Welcome dialog”The welcome dialog about:firedragon-welcome opens on first start. It has these steps:
| Step | Options |
|---|---|
| Welcome | Introduction. |
| Language | Choose the browser language. |
| Appearance | Follow system theme, light mode or dark mode. |
| Search | Default search engine. Optional separate engine for private windows. Search suggestions, suggestions before history and suggestions in private windows. |
| Quick settings | See the table below. |
| Default browser | Make FireDragon the default browser (optional). |
| Finish | Opens the new tab page. |
| Quick setting | Preference | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Hide password manager (requires restart) | firedragon.hidePasswdmgr | Hides the built-in password manager, for users of their own manager. |
| Enable ResistFingerprinting | privacy.resistFingerprinting | More privacy. Breaks many sites. |
| Enable prefetching (requires restart) | firedragon.config.prefetch.enable | Sets network.prefetch-next to true and network.http.speculative-parallel-limit to 6. Faster page loads, more bandwidth. |
The prefetching toggle is also in the FireDragon settings.
Search engines
Section titled “Search engines”The default search engine is DuckDuckGo, in normal and in private windows. Private windows use the same engine unless the separate private engine is turned on.
FireDragon keeps these Firefox engines and removes their partner codes from the URLs: Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, Qwant, Startpage and Wikipedia. It adds these engines:
| Engine | URL |
|---|---|
| Brave | https://search.brave.com/search |
| DuckDuckGo NoAI | https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ |
| DuckDuckGo Lite | https://start.duckduckgo.com/lite/ |
| Garuda’s searX | https://searx.garudalinux.org/search |
| Garuda’s Whoogle | https://search.garudalinux.org/search |
| Kagi | https://kagi.com/search |
| MetaGer | https://metager.org/meta/meta.ger3 |
| Mojeek | https://www.mojeek.com/search |
| PrivAU | https://priv.au/search |
Config locations
Section titled “Config locations”FireDragon 13 supports the XDG Base Directories. Its profile directory is firedragon under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
~/.config/firedragon/ | Profiles, when $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set. |
~/.config/firedragon/firedragon.overrides.cfg | Your own preferences. FireDragon loads this file last, so it overrides the presets. |
<profile>/chrome/userChrome.css | Custom browser CSS. toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets is true. |
/usr/lib/firedragon/ | The installed browser. |
/usr/lib/firedragon/browser/defaults/preferences/vendor.js | Package preferences: system locale, system Hunspell dictionaries, no default browser check, GNOME Shell search provider. |
/usr/lib/firedragon/distribution/distribution.ini | Distribution ID and version. |
For general Firefox configuration, see Firefox.
Other defaults
Section titled “Other defaults”- Tabs are not drawn in the title bar on Linux, so the window uses server-side decorations.
- The vertical sidebar (
sidebar.revamp) is on. The Firefox Nova redesign is off and can be turned on in the FireDragon settings. - The support menu entry is called “FireDragon support”.