2008459 - Firefox does not detect system-wide Hunspell dictionaries on Linux unless spellchecker.dictionary_path is set manually

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: Spelling checker, enhancement)

Description

[Joschua Jaenicke]

Steps to reproduce:

Description

On Linux systems, Firefox fails to detect and use system-wide Hunspell dictionaries, even though the corresponding language pack is installed and the dictionary files are present on the system.

As a result, the spellchecker language cannot be set (e.g. German does not appear in the language selection), and spellchecking does not work for that language.

The issue can be resolved only by manually defining an undocumented configuration option in about:config.

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Firefox on Linux (tested with KDE Neon; also observed on other distributions like Mint Kubuntu and Debian).
2. Right-click on any written Text → Languages → add Languages
3. Install the German Firefox language pack (or any other).
4. Right-click on any written Text → Languages → installed Languages don't appear

Actual results:

• German is not available as a spellchecker language.
• Spellchecking does not work for German text.
• Firefox appears to ignore system-wide Hunspell dictionaries.

Expected results:

Expected Results

• Firefox should automatically detect system-wide Hunspell dictionaries.
• Installed dictionaries should be available without manual configuration.
• The spellchecker language should be selectable via the context menu.

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Workaround

Manually add the following preference in about:config:

• Name: spellchecker.dictionary_path
• Type: String
• Value: /usr/share/hunspell

After restarting Firefox, the German dictionary becomes available immediately and spellchecking works as expected.