Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Tman]

** Initially, this post was for Firefox-11.0, but the same compiling options work with the Firefox-12.0 source.

* First, I recommend at least a dual-core cpu system to compile Firefox.
I was successfull in compiling Firefox in dpup exprimo, which has gcc version 4.4.5-8
In older pups, you may need to upgrade your version of gcc compiler for it to work.
Type: "gcc -v" in the console to find out what version you have. ( Of course, make sure you have the devx.sfs loaded first )

You can get the Firefox source from -> http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/12.0/source/
* get the firefox-12.0.source.tar.bz2 file (75MB)

1) Copy the source to a linux partition and extract with the following terminal command:

[chrome307]

Thank you for this guide demonstrating the steps on compilation.

btw .... it does take ages compiling even with a dual core cpu !!

[Tman]

There are so many apps to compile out there. It would be nice to see the .configure options for other peoples' compiled apps.

chrome307,
Yes, Firefox does take a long tme to compile. There are options to speed up the process if you have more than 1 cpu. Please see the attached link: http://linux.koolsolutions.com/2009/04/20/tip-compile-your-programs-fasters-with-multiple-processor-machines/

[01micko]

Hi Tman

I use the method recommended by mozilla with a "mozconfig". I do it for seamonkey too.

Here's the latest..

FIREFOX

[Tman]

Hi micko,

Thats an interesting technique; I will have to try it out sometime. Thanks for sharing.

[01micko]

[01micko]

Here's a patch for Firefox-3.6.28 to compile against 3 series kernels, works in 3.1.10.. YMMV in other series though the patch covers them. I may post it to mozilla, it's very simple.

Instructions:

[BarryK]

Regarding the .mozconfig technique, that is the officially supported technique.

I was actually forced to go over to using .mozconfig with SeaMonkey, as I got a bug in the Mail&News module otherwise. I think that is documented somewhere back in my blog or earlier news pages.

[Ledster]

Strange problem (to me!)
Decided to try this compile (for fun).
The first computer I tried it on is an Athlon XP2500 with Nvidia FX5200 graphics card. Using Slacko 533 PAE Himem it worked a treat, but took 2 hrs 30 mins. So tried it on a second computer (quad core i5, ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics, Slacko 533 PAE Highmem) to see how much faster it would be.
Would not configure. Error was:-

"checking for GL/glx.h... no configure: error: Can't find header GL/glx.h for WebGL (install mesa-common-dev (Ubuntu), mesa-libGL-devel (Fedora), or Mesa-devel (openSUSE))"

Tried symlinking glx.h into .../GL/, but made no difference.
So tried the same experiment on both computers with Slacko 531 - same result(s).
Tried again using Saluki 022 on both computers - same result(s).

I can only conclude that the difference between graphics drivers used by the two computers is causing this, but I'm out of my depth.
Can I disable WebGL (is it a good idea?).
I've looked on the slackware sites and cannot find any mesa packages, so I'm lost.

Ledster

[01micko]

Hi Ledster,

You need the mesa headers, aka mesa_DEV . See the "drivers" tab in Slickpet or PPM, you don't need the full mesa package, the headers are only small.

2.5 hrs isn't too bad on an old Athlon, for seamonkey; firefox should be quicker. Seamonkey takes me about 65 mins on an Athlon X2 3GHz, 2GB RAM, firefox about 45 mins, both on slacko-533 4g (fwiw, PAE version takes the same time)

[Ledster]

Hi 01Micko

Sorry I'm a bit slow getting back, been busy.
Installed the mesa_DEV-7.10.2-s, made all the difference. Configured, made, made install using DESTDIR=, removed the firefox-devel-12.0 directory and made a pet. Installed and am posting from it now.
I used a usb stick formatted ext3 for this - not a good idea. It took 2.75 hours to compile on a quad core i5! For interest I am going to try again sometime in a / directory (4 gigs of memory on this machine) to see how much faster it is.

Many thanks for the help.