Install
the honest version
There are no binaries yet. Vimma is pre-alpha, and today you build it from source. Linux x86_64 is the only platform it is built and tested on.
Clone https://github.com/JRanne/vimma, then follow the steps below.
A source build has Safe Browsing off unless you add your own Google key: see below.
Requirements
- Linux x86_64.
- About 35 GB of free disk: the Firefox source and full build take 27 GB, the compiler cache 6.8 GB, Mozilla's toolchains 3.1 GB and the source download 0.8 GB.
- Node.js 20 or later, Python 3, git.
- Time: about 40 minutes for the first full build on a 16-thread machine, plus the Firefox source download.
Build
$ git clone https://github.com/JRanne/vimma.git && cd vimma $ npm ci # dev tools, including Surfer $ npx surfer download # Firefox source into engine/ $ npx surfer bootstrap # Mozilla's toolchains into ~/.mozbuild (once) $ npm run import # apply Vimma's files and patches $ npx surfer build # full build
Google Safe Browsing
Google Safe Browsing (phishing and malware protection) needs an API key, which is not in the repository. A build without one works but shows the protection as off. To turn it on, get a free key from Google and save it as ~/.config/vimma/keys/safebrowsing before building (the runbook has the steps). Release packages will be built with a key.
Run
$ npm start # your build, with its own profile $ npm start -- --fresh # a throwaway profile instead
npm start runs Vimma with a profile of its own (~/.cache/vimma-dev-profile), so your Firefox profile is never touched. Press ctrl+b ? to see every binding, and you are ready to go.
Vimma has no updater yet. To update, pull the latest main, then run npm run import and npx surfer build again.
Next: your first launch, then the rest of the docs.
Planned packages
Planned for a later milestone (M6), and not released yet: a tarball, an AppImage, a .deb and an AUR vimma-bin package for Linux x86_64, each with checksums, an SBOM and signatures. Releases wait until Vimma has proved itself as a daily browser.