Custom geo, locale, and update channels

There are instances where you may need to change your local build’s locale, geo, and update channel (such as changes to the visibility of Discovery Stream on a per-geo/locale basis in ActivityStream.sys.mjs).

Changing update channel

  • Change app.update.channel to desired value (eg: release) by editing LOCAL_BUILD/Contents/Resources/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js. (NOTE: Changing pref app.update.channel from about:config seems to have no effect!)

Changing geo

  • Set browser.search.region to desired geo (eg CA)

Changing locale

Note: These prefs are only configurable on a nightly or local build.

  • Toggle extensions.langpacks.signatures.required to false

  • Toggle xpinstall.signatures.required to false

  • Toggle intl.multilingual.downloadEnabled to true

  • Toggle intl.multilingual.enabled to true

  • For Mac and Linux builds, open the langpack for target locale in your local build (eg firefox-70.0a1.en-CA.langpack.xpi if you want an en-CA locale).

  • For Windows, use https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central-l10n/

  • In about:preferences click “Set Alternatives” under “Language”, move desired locale to the top position, click OK, click “Apply And Restart”