BeZilla blog

Is Cairo on BeOS ready for prime time?

2008-07-25T19:22:39Z

A new bug has been filed to remove references to gfx for BeOS. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=446675
Has anyone proven the BeOS Cairo port stable enough to make this a safe thing to do? Does it even matter since we can't build trunk for BeOS and by the time we can, we may be able to port Cairo more easily to Haiku?

Firefox 2.0.0.16 builds completed - on BeBits

2008-07-22T05:32:11Z

The usual batch of builds: R5, BONE and Zeta. BONE builds have fyysik's Haiku patch applied (second version). I had some spare CPU time sitting around, so I've also posted Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 and yes, updated builds of Sunbird 0.9. BeBits has 'em all. Enjoy!

Firefox 2.0.0.16 builds delayed

2008-07-18T04:43:13Z

Seems either my HD is failing or maybe my (passively cooled) northbridge is overheating due to warm weather here. Either way, I'd just started building 2.0.0.16 when they system decided to reboot, then not boot at all. Posting this from the Xubuntu box in the garage. Hopefully this will be quickly rectified.

Update: so much for the "quickly" part. Somehow it seems all of my BFS partitions are hosed, as is the grub/boot partition on my HD. Very odd. I booted the machine from the Zeta 1.21 live CD and could read (and backup) all data from my NTFS and EXT2 partions. The BFS partitions are all there according to DriveSetup but the file system is unrecognized. Diskprobe shows the files appear to be there also but I have no idea how to save them. May be starting over on a few things...

Update 2: only the boot sector was trashed. Zeta 1.21 livecd doesn't have a BFS driver, as pointed out in the comments. My ignorance strikes again! Machine is happier now.

Bots here

2008-07-16T21:42:39Z

Hello, people. What do you think about switching CAPTCHA technology on here even for registered users?

(There is new trend here in LJ in last 2-3 days, lot of spam-bots created and activated. They try to post on topic, more or less, using theme recognition, but actually are bots with advertasion in single posting or info page)

Haiku Firefox and Thunderbird available now

2008-07-13T16:55:35Z

Sorry for the delay, fyysik. I had to test a bit; Thunderbird caused KDL Crash with r26384. I had to make sure the build wasn't bad but works fine under r26375.
Firefox for Haiku
Thunderbird for Haiku

These are (manually) reordered packages, ready to unzip and run. If anyone wants Sunbird, please reply and I'll build that also.

Edit: forgot to mention, these also have a version of tqh's revised NSPR. I don't know if it's the latest. tqh doesn't love me any more and hasn't sent his latest. ;-)

Haiku-compatible FF with Haiku-specific "launch-kill" fix.

2008-07-12T19:52:21Z

If someone needs Firefox which doesn't close other Mozilla apps and won't to be closed itself by others, there is such build for download - until Tigerdogs publishes full set of of Mozilla apps.

Works also on R5-BONE. As it was built on my own development code, it fixes problem with mouse sticking (lost mouse-up events), features filtering in File Picker, proper file-type recognition and also adds Postscript printing.

Also here is download for SeaMonkey users (Haiku, R5-BONE) with same critical fix and mentioned features.

I think those fixed version will be safer for use also in R5 and Zeta - as that bug with ports may lead to unpredictable things in BeOS-based OS-es too.

Look at older messages for solved problem explanation, e.g.
http://community.livejournal.com/bezilla/281777.html
http://community.livejournal.com/bezilla/282356.html

Mozilla and Haiku-OS kernel kit - who's guilty?

2008-07-10T11:15:49Z

That's again about misterious bug described in ticket 2049 - where launching some Gecko-based app instantly closes another running at the moment.

I got fix for that, at Mozilla code level, but actually this is Haiku problem - or feature?

We use for internal Mozilla communication BeOS ports,
and to have access for those ports from different components and threads we assign to ports name, which must be unique.
For that purpose we're using "current thread" identifier printed in octal form as port name - at stage of port creation. Then when we need somewhere to communicate, we are getting port by find_port - again, using portname created from current thread "number.
- see
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/xpcom/threads/plevent.c#382
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/widget/src/beos/nsAppShell.cpp#122
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/widget/src/beos/nsToolkit.cpp#93

To get current port ID we use methods PR_GetCurrentThread() from NSPR (NS runtime kit):
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/nsprpub/pr/src/bthreads/btthread.c#417

and there is something wrong. I'm not so competent yet to analyze btthreads code, but once I replaced all calls for PR_GetCurrentThread() in 3 places mentioned above,
plus this one (NB!!!, may be quite important, as it uses another PR method - mGuiThread = PR_CreateThread(PR_SYSTEM_THREAD,*)):
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/widget/src/beos/nsToolkit.cpp#231

with simple native find_thread(0) - all started to work as "expected" in Haiku - mozilla apps can now run simultaneously.

Firefox 2.x branch End of Maintenance is December 2008

2008-07-08T19:40:07Z

I just read, Firefox 2 is going to be maintained only through the end of 2008. Since the platform is already pretty stable and most holes appear to be patched, it'll have to work for us until Haiku is ready and we can resume development of trunk builds using gcc4.

Fixing simultaneous execution under Haiku

2008-07-06T15:36:33Z

As already discussed, starting one Mozilla app under Haiku closes others already running (see ticket 2049. Discussion in the ticket suggests separate ifdefs for each app in this code. If someone can provide a little more guidance, I'll try to add the ifdefs.

Firefox 2.0.0.15 now on BeBits

2008-06-17T16:50:05Z

Branch code has been frozen and spun off for Firefox 2.0.0.15. I went ahead and pushed to BeBits, even though 2.0.0.15 does not appear to have been pushed to main platforms yet. My calendar is getting full and I didn't want to miss it. No major BeOS updates, just a couple of security and cross-platform fixes.

Rewriting NSPR for Haiku

2008-06-05T08:49:10Z

Haiku has some nice locking primitives, I have an older rewritten NSPR. Both should improve speed quite a bit.

Oh, and how about dropping support for BeOS and Zeta?

Update:
NSPR is working fine and fast, only thing left is switch to Haiku locking primitives.

After that it is probably time to figure out how to run the packaging script while crosscompiling, and that damn redraw problem.

I suspect that we may have a reader!

2008-05-29T21:45:29Z

I think that Stippi is reading this blog from time to time, so I'm sending him a message :)

As Axel increased BLooper's message queue to 200 today I was curious if that might not be what is the big problem behind our redrawing issue under Haiku. This because we may take a lot of time when dealing with messages which may allow it to fill up faster than we can manage. (Shame on us).

Luroh who had a freshly built version of Haiku tested and he said he didn't experience any redrawing issues. Update: Apparently it's still there.

After that we went for punch and pie. Not really, but this is my story. Anyway I suspect that this might be the case and I will probably run some tests. Feel free to come with ideas, fix the issue or just not read this post :)

2.0.0.15pre for use with Haiku

2008-05-26T01:20:01Z

I've created BONE builds from the latest branch for use with Haiku.
Thunderbird
Firefox

Enjoy!

Branch Building Broken - or not

2008-05-24T19:35:36Z

Hello all!
I'm now settled into the new job and will hopefully be able to focus a bit more time on Firefox. As I updated my 2.x branch code this morning, I noted a rather large number of commits coming down the line. It seems bug 419030 now has the 2.x branch picking up changes in the security components that were being missed.

Update: As usual, changes to the code have broken BeOS building. Here's the latest problem.

Update 2: ...or not broken. I restarted a clean build and everything was fine. Very odd; may point to bfs weirdness on my HD, as fyysik diagnosed once before. At any rate, updated code builds cleanly. Looks like this was a system error.

Why firefox looks strange in Haiku

2008-05-22T19:45:18Z

Michael Lotz gave this hint in #haiku today:

the fonts in firefox are not broken, it just uses the wrong ones
it uses the "extra light" versions of dejavu
if you delete those firefox will look normal.

So how Firefox chooses fonts or the order returned by Haiku needs looking into.

Fyysik?

Is it needed to URL Encode ";" in file name on directory listing of file scheme ? (bug 412428)

2008-05-20T06:38:44Z

I filed bug of directory listing that does not URL Encode ";" in file name on file scheme.
It is bug 412428 (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=412428).
And I already wrote patch for the bug.
But, I don't know how should we handle ";" in filename on BeOS.
Current patch does not URL encode ";" in file name on BeOS.
Is it needed to URL encode ";" on BeOS?

Haiku 404

2008-05-18T16:31:32Z

Hi guys,

I'd like to change the usual error message, replacing it with a random haiku, like in NetPositive. What do you think?

I tried some things, but I don't have knowledge enough to make it work properly. The page opens, but nothing is seen.

I found out how to modify that page here.

Then I adapted a JavaScript that I found. Here's the code (sorry, but I can't attach the files):

//netError.xhtml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head> <title>Page cannot be reached</title>
<script src="haiku.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="chrome://global/content/customerror.css" type="text/css" media="all" /> </head>

<body>


<script LANGUAGE = "JavaScript">
// this you put into you html doc where you want your quotes to appear
document.write(haiku[rand(haiku.length)])
</script>


</body>
</html>

---------------------------------------------

// haiku.js file

// JavaScript Document
function makeArray(len) {
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) this[i] = null;
this.length = len;
}

// you add as many quotes as you want here just make sure to change the makeArray(number)

haiku = new makeArray(38);
haiku[0] = "The web site you seek\u
Lies beyond our perception\u
But others await.",

haiku[1] = "Sites you are seeking\n
From your path they are fleeing\n
Their winter has come.",

haiku[2] = "A truth found, be told\n
You are far from the fold, Go\n
Come back yet again.",

haiku[3] = "Wind catches lily\n
Scatt'ring petals to the wind:\n
Your site is not found.",

haiku[4] = "These three are certain:\n
Death, taxes, and site not found.\n
You, victim of one.",

haiku[5] = "Ephemeral site.\n
I am the Blue Screen of Death.\n
No one hears your screams.",

haiku[6] = "Aborted effort:\n
The site, passed this veil of tears.\n
You ask way too much.",

haiku[7] = "Morning and sorrow\n
404 not with us now\n
Lost to paradise.",

haiku[8] = "Not a pretty sight\n
When the web dies screaming loud\n
The site is not found.",

haiku[9] = "Site slips through fingers\n
Pulse pounding hard and frantic\n
Vanishing like mist.",

haiku[10] = "The dream is shattered\n
The web site cannot be found\n
Inside the spring rain.",

haiku[11] = "Bartender yells loud\n
Your site cannot be found, boy\n
Buy another drink.",

haiku[12] = "Chrome megaphone barks\n
It's not possible to talk\n
Not yet anyway.",

haiku[13] = "Emptyness of soul\n
Forever aching blackness:\n
"Blah.com not found."",

haiku[14] = "Click exciting link\n
Gossamer threads hold you back\n
404 not found.",

haiku[15] = "With searching comes loss\n
And the presence of absence:\n
The site is not found.",

haiku[16] = "You step in the stream,\n
But the water has moved on\n
The site is not here.",

haiku[17] = "Rather than a beep\n
Or a rude error message,\n
These words: 'Site not found.'",

haiku[18] = "Something you entered\n
Transcended parameters.\n
The site is unknown.",

haiku[19] = "Stay the patient course\n
Of little worth is your ire\n
The server is down",

haiku[20] = "There is a chasm\n
Of carbon and silicon\n
The server can't bridge.",

haiku[21] = "Chaos reigns within.\n
Reflect, repent, and retry.\n
Server shall return.",

haiku[22] = "Won't you please observe\n
A brief moment of silence\n
For the dead server?",

haiku[23] = "First snow, then silence.\n
This expensive server dies\n
So beautifully.",

haiku[24] = "Seeing my great fault\n
Through darkening dead servers\n
I begin again.",

haiku[25] = "Visit the home page\n
It can't be done easily\n
When the site is down.",

haiku[26] = "Cables have been cut\n
Southwest of Northeast somewhere\n
We are not amused.",

haiku[27] = "Site is silent, yes\n
No voices can be heard now\n
The cows roll their eyes.",

haiku[28] = "Silicon shudders\n
The site is down for the count\n
One big knockout punch.",

haiku[29] = "Yesterday it worked\n
Today it is not working\n
The web is like that.",

haiku[30] = "Errors have occurred.\n
We won't tell you where or why.\n
Lazy programmers.",

haiku[31] = "The code was willing\n
It considered your request,\n
But the chips were weak.",

haiku[32] = "Error reduces\n
Your expensive computer\n
To a simple stone.",

haiku[33] = "The ten thousand things\n
How long do any persist?\n
The file, not there.",

haiku[34] = "A file that big?\n
It might be very useful\n
But now it is gone.",

haiku[35] = "Server's poor response\n
Not quick enough for browser.\n
Timed out, plum blossom.",

haiku[36] = "To have no errors\n
Would be life without meaning\n
No struggle, no joy",

haiku[37] = "Login incorrect.\n
Only perfect spellers may\n
Enter this system."

// The random number generator.
function rand(n) {
seed = (0x015a4e35 * seed) % 0x7fffffff;
return (seed >> 16) % n;
}
var now = new Date()
var seed = now.getTime() % 0xffffffff

-----------------

2.0.0.14 Coming, now here

2008-05-01T05:01:20Z

I've completed builds of the next Firefox 2 point release, version 2.0.0.14. I am not able to post to BeBits. It seems the password for the Bezilla account is different than before. Anyway, for those who read this blog and want the latest in security updates, here are links to the usual three versions:

BeOS R5
BONE, Dano and derivatives
Zeta (requires i686 or later CPU)

Update: now posted to BeBits

absent for a while now...

2008-04-14T03:42:18Z

sorry I've been absent for a few weeks. I've been monitoring the blog and am very happy to see the great progress mmadia is making with reordering. I'm about to begin a new job, so I may be scarce again for a while. Everything is great, just very busy at the moment. I'll start building again as quickly as time allows and will definitely try to keep up with the .point releases if nothing else.

Experimental Re-Order .so , .so.stub Builds

2008-04-13T16:31:12Z

Some hosting has been provided by Master199 at http://bezilla.beuser.de
Right now, It's just a file repository.
A new BeZilla BeBits entry page has been created: Experimentally Built BeZilla Builds

As there are builds for FF, SM, TB, SB, and XULRunner,
I didn't want to litter all of the individual application pages.
Also, any problems that occur in one build, should occur in the others.
eg, reaching the 32mb add-on limit in R5 or incorrect *.so, *.so.stub placement

Once we feel reasonably confident that these builds do not introduce new issues,
that bebits app page can be deleted and links moved to their individual pages.

All comments are enabled for now.

425962 - re-order *.so

Testing and feedback on R5Bone is needed!

another note about embedding

2008-04-12T10:15:00Z

It seems XULRunner is the current method of embedding gecko.

quote:
Roll your own browser - An embedding HowTo
From MDC

Note: this document is out of date. According to Benjamin Smedberg: "build XULRunner and use that for all new embedding. You do not need/should not use embedding/config".
:etouq
linky

Main XULRunner dev page

here's a random email about embedding with xulrunner 1.8
link

Updates on bugs

2008-04-04T00:33:12Z

425962 - re-order *.so -- review request not set.
Should these builds be posted publicly before requesting review?
Not many people have been using these builds on net_server, bone, or zeta.

423182 - default MOZ_ZIP_FORMAT : patch landed on trunk and branch.
423183 - replace TARGET_OS/TARGET_CPU : patch landed on trunk and branch.
426083 - fix XULRunner build : approved for 1.9 and 1.8 branch. waiting for checkin on both.

default HOST_OPTIMIZE_FLAGS

2008-04-02T00:32:27Z

In http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/configure.in#1344
the default optimization level is set to '-O3'
isn't '-O3' highly unreliable for R5?
Should this get changed to -02 or even -Os?

Haiku support ...

2008-04-01T23:59:25Z

Even though Haiku is for the most part source and binary compatible with R5,
there are some issues.
Most notably, configure scripts break due to different values for `uname`
In particular, `uname -s` reports "Haiku" and "BeOS" respectively.

Currently mozilla's build system performs conditional testing on $(OS_ARCH), which is equal to `uname -s`

It's possible to pass --host=i586-beos or a similar line to configure to use the BeOS definitions, but this isn't an ideal solution.
Numerous beos-workarounds will no longer be needed.
For example, Haiku has better posix support.

For reference, the other beos-specific build system variables are:
BEOS_PROGRAM_RESOURCE :: for applying the .rsrc file,
defined in (application)/app/Makefile.in
used in http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/config/rules.mk#831
BEOS_ADDON_WORKAROUND :: for creating *.so.stub,
defined in http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/config/config.mk#114
used in http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/config/rules.mk#671 and #681

So how are we going to implement Haiku support?

Composer is dead. Long live KompoZer, crash KompoZer has crashed.

2008-03-30T12:52:57Z

Just a small note, Composer on 1.8 is horribly busted on all OS's.
Compiling KompoZer, http://www.kompozer.net/ went easy enough...
It loads but it crashes as soon as something is typed.
It also crashes on exit.

Note: it appears the project is dead or very idle

In mozilla/composer/app/Makefile.in, this was added:
( i didn't bother checking if it actually needed -lgame though )
ifeq ($(OS_ARCH),BeOS)
BEOS_PROGRAM_RESOURCE = $(srcdir)/apprunner-beos.rsrc
ifdef BUILD_STATIC_LIBS
OS_LIBS += -ltracker -lgame
endif
endif

For the mozconfig, i edited mozconfig.linux , ripped out some parts and dropped in a block of common options for BeOS:

# sh
# Build configuration script for LINUX
#
# See http://www.mozilla.org/build/unix.html for build instructions.
#
export MOZILLA_OFFICIAL=1
export BUILD_OFFICIAL=1

export MOZ_STANDALONE_COMPOSER=1
mk_add_options MOZ_STANDALONE_COMPOSER=1

# Uncomment the two following lines if you want the Site Manager
# to use KDE mimetypes icons. Warning, experimental feature...
# You may have to edit the following files
# mozilla/composer/app/Makefile.in
# mozilla/editor/libeditor/html/Makefile.in
# mozilla/composer/src/ *
#export SITE_MANAGER_KDE_ICON_STYLE=1
#mk_add_options SITE_MANAGER_KDE_ICON_STYLE=1

# Uncomment and edit this line if you want to build
# outside of the source tree
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=/preR1/KompoZer-bone

# Comment out the following lines for a debug build
#ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --disable-debug

# You may need to uncomment and edit that line. On Linspire,
# just uncomment it
#ac_add_options --with-default-mozilla-five-home=/usr/lib/mozilla

# You probably have nothing to change below that line
ac_add_options --disable-svg
ac_add_options --without-system-mng
ac_add_options --without-system-png
ac_add_options --disable-ldap
ac_add_options --disable-mailnews
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-activex
ac_add_options --disable-activex-scripting
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-oji
ac_add_options --disable-necko-disk-cache
ac_add_options --enable-single-profile
ac_add_options --disable-profilesharing
ac_add_options --enable-extensions=wallet,xml-rpc,xmlextras,pref,universalchardet,spellcheck
ac_add_options --enable-necko-protocols=http,ftp,file,jar,viewsource,res,data
ac_add_options --disable-pedantic
ac_add_options --disable-short-wchar
# // I don't want to do strip yet
#ac_add_options --enable-strip-libs
ac_add_options --enable-crypto
ac_add_options --disable-mathml
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
ac_add_options --enable-toolkit=beos
ac_add_options --enable-default-toolkit=beos
ac_add_options --disable-freetype2

# Note: Only include icon for mac, windows and os2
ac_add_options --enable-image-decoders=default,-xbm

### // COMMON BeOS mozconfig stuff not found above.

### //EDIT THESE VALUES TO REFLECT YOUR LOCAL BUILD ###
export GLIB_CONFIG=/boot/home/glib-libIDL-beos/glib/bin/glib-config
mk_add_options GLIB_CONFIG=/boot/home/glib-libIDL-beos/glib/bin/glib-config

export LIBIDL_CONFIG=/boot/home/glib-libIDL-beos/libIDL/bin/libIDL-config
mk_add_options LIBIDL_CONFIG=/boot/home/glib-libIDL-beos/libIDL/bin/libIDL-config

### //Automatic updates not currently supported on BeOS. Delete this when we add this feature.
ac_add_options --disable-updater

### //Explicitly enable native BeOS threading
ac_add_options --with-bthreads

### //Build without Cairo
ac_add_options --disable-svg
ac_add_options --disable-canvas

### //Reduce build size and time by omitting test suite and IPv6 support (not needed on BeOS)
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-ipv6

### //Required configure options
ac_add_options --enable-cpp-rtti
ac_add_options --enable-static ## STATIC BUILD
ac_add_options --disable-shared

### //Eliminate lots of relatively useless warnings during build
ac_add_options --disable-cpp-exceptions

### Optional optimizations
ac_add_options --enable-optimize='-Os'