Flypig's gecko dev diary

My bet is that it needs a separate build than sailfishos-browser. And I would expect it to work just the same, minus the script injection done to detect images and links, specific to that usage, which is probably one more way rendering is only halfway the road.

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Thanks for the reply!

Let’s hope there’s at least a social/networking/collaborative component one can benefit from for the next ESR-to-ESR upgrade.

Reading this thread diagonally, I would say there is.

First of all, congratulations for the mega performance. I have one question: would it be possible to implement widevine? So you could easily use Netflix and co without an app in SFOS

Following your compilation guide went super smooth except for the trailing slash in my sdk workspace path. Thanks a lot @flypig

Now I’m lost again: I have scp’ed the whole RPMS folder to my device but since the versions are lower than the current versions for all packages (why actually?) zypper refuses to downgrade and I need to spell out each and every package and version:

zypper in --oldpackage sailfish-browser=1.18.14+sailfishos.esr91.20231003080304.8563696b-1 sailfish-browser-settings=1.18.14+sailfishos.esr91.20231003080304.8563696b-1 xulrunner-qt5=91.9.1-1 qtmozembed-q
t5=1.53.9-1 mapplauncherd-booster-browser=0.2.1-1

is there a better workflow? How do get back to esr78?

I think you can just use the filenames when installing, and wildcards, something like zypper install --oldpackage RPMS/*.rpm – assuming you only have Gecko-related packages there.

Not sure about the downgrade part, one way would be downloading the packages and using the same spell…

Thanks for trying out the build process @simonschmeisser; I’m glad it broadly went to plan. And thanks for raising these really good points. Should I change something in the instructions to take the ‘trailing slash’ issue into account?

I’m not sure why the versions are lower, but it may be that I just didn’t update the spec files properly yet. Are you building everything using the -c no-fix-version flag?

For packages you build locally I’d recommend installing using rpm rather than zypper, so that it only ever installs the packages you ask it to. You’ll probably need to specify all of the packages on a single line and can just reference them by filename as @direc85 says. Here’s the line I use for installing xulrunner (you’ll have to add in qtmozembed, sailfish-browser, and everything else as well if it’s your first time installing them):

devel-su rpm -U --force xulrunner-qt5-91.*.rpm xulrunner-qt5-misc-91.*.rpm \
  xulrunner-qt5-debuginfo-91.*.rpm xulrunner-qt5-debugsource-91.*.rpm

For reverting back, I personally use zypper and in this case using the -v flag is useful for finding out exactly which packages are needed. For example, for xulrunner I might do something like this:

$ zypper search -v xulrunner
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name                      | Type       | Version                      | Arch    | Repository
---+---------------------------+------------+------------------------------+---------+------------------
v  | xulrunner-qt5             | package    | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | aarch64 | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5
   | xulrunner-qt5             | srcpackage | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | noarch  | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5
i  | xulrunner-qt5             | package    | 91.9.1-1                     | aarch64 | (System Packages)
    name: xulrunner-qt5
v  | xulrunner-qt5-debuginfo   | package    | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | aarch64 | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5-debuginfo
i+ | xulrunner-qt5-debuginfo   | package    | 91.9.1-1                     | aarch64 | (System Packages)
    name: xulrunner-qt5-debuginfo
v  | xulrunner-qt5-debugsource | package    | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | aarch64 | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5-debugsource
i+ | xulrunner-qt5-debugsource | package    | 91.9.1-1                     | aarch64 | (System Packages)
    name: xulrunner-qt5-debugsource
   | xulrunner-qt5-devel       | package    | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | aarch64 | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5-devel
v  | xulrunner-qt5-misc        | package    | 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla | aarch64 | jolla
    name: xulrunner-qt5-misc
i+ | xulrunner-qt5-misc        | package    | 91.9.1-1                     | aarch64 | (System Packages)
    name: xulrunner-qt5-misc

$ devel-su zypper install --oldpackage xulrunner-qt5-78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla
[...]

It’s clear here that the 91.9.1-1 versions are the ones installed which I built myself, whereas the 78.15.1+git33.2-1.21.1.jolla versions are the official ones I need to use to get my phone back to its original state.

Hope that helps!

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@flypig has done a massive job so far with support & contributions from you all! I just created a task for the touch pipeline checking: Check esr91 touch pipeline · Issue #1037 · sailfishos/sailfish-browser · GitHub as @flypig mentioned in the blog that it’s borken.

Once I get a bit of more understanding, I’ll split this touch pipeline task into smaller tasks to improve visibility regarding progress, what’s missing, and where on the touch pipeline. Smaller and more concrete the task better it is.

Regarding issues in general, @flypig wrote down known issues to the browser like discussed in the community meeting few weeks back (label esr91 and milestone esr91). It’s a good practice to write down issues so that we remember to verify them and we don’t overlook them. This itself sheds light on the progress. So, please do create issues even if they might end up being wrong or duplicate or so.

I hope that this is fine for @flypig :heart: as well. Certainly, we can adjust as things move forward.

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Not only did @rainemak simply look at the touch issue; he also fixed it.
And if that wasn’t enough; @flypig is back to hacking and blogging. :slight_smile:

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I am still reading your blogposts @flypig and am impressed by your pace. Hope you’re back to normal soon :slight_smile:

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Thanks so much @thigg. It feels like very slow progress to me, but your kind words are always a genuine boost to my spirits!

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I will reply even when I shouldn’t but… It is really hard to follow when you missed 1-2 days, your post you want to reach is not from last 4-5 posts? Good luck! You need to reach December of last year? Here is 5 posts from December. Oh it was sixth? Haha fuck off, go click on latest you’ll get same last 5 posts, you want to go november, lol forget it
Seriously, just offer a full list of old posts where people can click and read, why the fukk do I have to consider how many posts I have missed divided by months passed by to get to the post I want?

Edit: pls just offer some kind of rss feed, last 5 just doesn’t work once you skip one

Edit2: seriously just a standard: list all; will do

Thanks for the feedback @throwaway69 and sorry that it’s been a pain to navigate the site. It’s true that I never really designed it for daily posts. But hopefully there are some things that can help.

If you’re interested in a particular month, jump to the bottom of the page and there you can find links under “Archives” that will show all of the items from a particular month.

There’s also an RSS feed link at the top of the page.

If you want to change the number of items shown you can add the list_num= parameter to the URL followed by the quantity that you’d like presented.

The following page will give you an index of all the posts if you want to jump to a specific date without having to download all of the content:

I’ve added a link to this index at the top of the page which I hope can help make navigation a little easier.

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Wish you feeling better soon :smiley:
Great work as always

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Thank you @Valorsoguerriero97! I’m buoyed by your wishes and determined to make better progress over Christmas!

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Thanks for keeping at it! It’s a mammoth task!

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@flypig my top priorities are that you stay healthy and in good mood and only then that you are making progress :wink:

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Thanks all; I appreciate all your kind words. I felt lousy for a few days but I’m over the worst of it now. I hope you’re all having a virus-free winter!

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Sigh, we had a two week ‘Covid grounds the whole family’ episode that has also just cleared this week. And it won’t stop raining!

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Hi! I just read the following on the diary:

There’s a silver lining though, in the form of the kind words I received from Thigg, Valorsoguerriero97 , poetaster and (privately) throwaway69 via the Sailfish Forum. Thank you! It really helps motivate me to continue onwards. And it amazes me that you have the stamina to keep up with these posts!

So I want to say, @flypig, they are not the only ones, don’t underestimate how many people are thrilled by your work! :smiley: Even if I/we stay silent, I read all the posts (some of them diagonally though, those gdb outputs and stacktraces are sometimes too complex, especially on mobile :sweat_smile:), and I’m sure I’m not the only one!
It’s so impressive how you manage to make those big progresses on such a complex project and write this clean and detailed summary in parallel, all of that on your free time! :astonished:

Your work + the Jolla reborn announcement are really exciting, thank you for that!! :raised_hands:
We are eager to see the next steps, but don’t burn yourself, the journey is as pleasant as the end result :slightly_smiling_face:
Happy holidays! :christmas_tree:

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All I can say is that I’m thrilled you continue to read. I know they don’t make the easiest of reading, which makes it all the more fulfilling to hear that you do!

Happy Holidays to you too :christmas_tree: :gift:

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