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Make firefox use system-provided location

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  • Last reply by cor-el

mvolf
mvolf
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Hello, is there a way to make Firefox 77.0.1 use system-provided location on Ubuntu 18.04?

When I use the gnome-maps program, I see a "gps" icon in top-right system status bar.

But when I use maps in Firefox, no system location request appears. Firefox just queries Mozilla Location Service on it's own (after setting geo.provider.network.url to https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/geolocate?key=%MOZILLA_API_KEY%, there was Google (which was failing for some reason) originally), seen in browser console.

Hello, is there a way to make Firefox 77.0.1 use system-provided location on Ubuntu 18.04? When I use the gnome-maps program, I see a "gps" icon in top-right system status bar. But when I use maps in Firefox, no system location request appears. Firefox just queries Mozilla Location Service on it's own (after setting geo.provider.network.url to https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/geolocate?key=%MOZILLA_API_KEY%, there was Google (which was failing for some reason) originally), seen in browser console.

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
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The Firefox version from the Ubuntu repositories doesn't include the Mozilla Location Service Key used for the geolocation service, you can check that on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page.
You will have to use Firefox from the Mozilla server.

cor-el modificouno o

mvolf
mvolf Question owner
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Yeah, I noticed that the key is missing, but that doesn't seem to be a problem - Firefox just sends "no-mozilla-api-key" instead of a key. I don't see any response in browser console (just 200 OK with no data, though content-length header is 77. maybe a bug?), but I'm located correctly. But that's completely unrelated to my question - how to use system location provider?

mvolf modificouno o

cor-el
cor-el
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It is possible for a website to do a reverse DNS lookup of your IP to get your location.
This might be less accurate depending on the gateway your ISP uses.
Without this key it won't be possible to use this service (only the official build includes this key), so it is your choice: either keep using Firefox from the repositories without location service or switch to Firefox from the Mozilla server and have access to this service.