Installing Pale Moon on Arch distros

Last updated : 20/6/2024 (keyserver.ubuntu.com now considered optional)

Introduction

This is my own guide for installing & updating Pale Moon on Arch distros (including Artix) using AUR. Keep in mind that this guide uses Git & terminal commands and not AUR helpers like yay, pamac, and/or octopi.

For Artix users : Usage of official Arch repositories are not necessary, as all of palemoon-bin (and palemoon-gtk3-bin by extension) dependencies are already available in Artix repositories.

First time installation

Make sure you have base-devel & git installed (sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git if you haven't installed them yet).

1. Open your terminal emulator of choice or log in to a virtual console (ctrl + alt + f2), as we will use the terminal to install and/or update Pale Moon. Be sure to do this in your own user account.
2. Update your distro packages using sudo pacman -Syu
3. git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/palemoon-bin.git
palemoon-bin can be replaced by palemoon-gtk3-bin. In that case, use git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/palemoon-gtk3-bin instead.
By default, git clone will create palemoon-bin (or palemoon-gtk3-bin) directory. If you want to make it so it's just palemoon, add ~/palemoon to the git clone command. It should look something like this : git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/palemoon-bin.git ~/palemoon


4. Change directories to the newly created directory containing the files : cd palemoon (or palemoon-bin / palemoon-gtk3-bin if not specified during git clone)
5. Check out the PKGBUILD (optional, but recommended)
For example, using the pager less : less PKGBUILD (or open PKGBUILD using your text editor?)

6. Import Moonchild & trava90's public PGP keys :
• Moonchild : gpg --recv-keys 8FCF9CEC
• trava90 : gpg --recv-keys C65285EC
This step is necessary, as Pale Moon for Linux can be released with either PGP keys (and not trusted via the Arch / Artix pacman keyring). Also, watch the latest Pale Moon for Linux release announcements for more information.
20/6/2024 Update : --keyserver=keyserver.ubuntu.com is now considered optional as I tested without it & I imported the PGP keys without any issue. For those who wants to use it, put it before --recv-keys.

7. makepkg -sirc
If you encounter a "One or more PGP signatures could not be verified" error, make sure you have the right PGP keys (or preferably both) imported. You could also skip integrity checks at your own risk, if you know how to.

Updating

1. Open terminal emulator / virtual console
2. Update your distro packages using sudo pacman -Syu if you haven't already did it
3. Change directories to the directory with the files : cd palemoon (or palemoon-bin / palemoon-gtk3-bin if directory is not specified when using git clone)
4. Update the files & changes by using git pull
5. Check out the PKGBUILD in case there's any changes (optional, but recommended)
6. makepkg -sirc

Random tips & notes

• If necessary, use git clean -dfX to delete all previously built package files & their sources.
• Regarding makepkg -sirc :
• -s : Installs missing build dependencies. Optional.
• -i : Automatically installs and/or upgrades the package after a successful build, allowing you to skip using pacman -U.
• -r : Removes packages installed with the -s flag. Optional.
• -c : Cleans up leftover files & directories after a successful build. Optional, but especially useful on smaller disks.
• For more information regarding makepkg, visit Arch's man page or wiki.

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