Firefox/Tegra/Build Notes

This is a work in progress, based largely on the Windows Mobile Build Instructions.

Initial Setup

• Follow the instructions in Windows Build Prerequisites, installing at a minimum:
  • the mozilla-build environment
  • Visual Studio 2008 (2005 ought to work, but this guide has been written with 2008 in mind), with Smart Device support

• To reduce pain, grab an updated Mercurial from http://mercurial.berkwood.com/ -- install it in C:\mozilla-build\hg (overwriting the hg install that's there).

• Install the Windows CE 5.00 Standard SDK. If you have a SDK provided by a Windows CE 6 device manufacturer, it ought to work as well; this has only been tested with the CE 5.00 SDK.

Downloading the Source

I tend to use 'c:\proj' as the root for most of my work; replace that path as appropriate for your usage. I would suggest a path without spaces, though.

Mozilla uses the Mercurial version control system. For more detailed information, see this page.

In 'C:\mozilla-build', there will be a few batch files -- fire up start-msvc9.bat to obtain a console window with paths set up for building. All commands are assumed to be executed within such a window.

Note: the MSYS environment that drives the build uses Unix-style forward slashes for path separators. Drive letters are also treated as directories, so "C:\proj" becomes "/c/proj". Note that MSYS will automatically translate "/c/proj" into "C:\proj" from the command line; this sometimes causes problems when trying ot pass arguments that start with "/" to programs. To get around this, use "//" -- for example, "dumpbin //exports". Or, use the - form of arguments if supported.

• First, create some directories:
  • mkdir /c/proj
  • cd /c/proj

• Then check out the current source tree; this will grab a copy of the source in a directory called mozilla-central in /c/proj:
  • hg clone http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central

• To update to the latest source, from the mozilla-central directory:
  • hg pull
  • hg update

Run autoconf to generate the configure scripts

You'll need to repeat this step if configure.in or js/src/configure.in change; it doesn't hurt to do it too often, so I usually do this whenever I update the source tree.

• From /c/proj/mozilla-central:
  • autoconf2.13
  • cd js/src; autoconf2.13

Set up a mozconfig

The mozilla build system uses a mozconfig file to avoid having to pass many options to configure on the command line. Here's a sample mozconfig that I use for building:

ac_add_options --enable-application=browser

# Either --enable-debug or --enable-optimize should be specified;
# --enable-debugger-info-mobules ensures that debugging symbols are available
# even with an optimized build.

#ac_add_options --enable-debug
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-debugger-info-modules

ac_add_options --enable-libxul

# Note that you need to give both CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS
CFLAGS="-QRarch6 -QRfpe-"
CXXFLAGS="-QRarch6 -QRfpe-"

# No need to build the tests for now
ac_add_options --disable-tests

# Disable some things that aren't necessary right now;
# these might or might not actually work should they be needed.
ac_add_options --disable-javaxpcom
ac_add_options --disable-accessibility
ac_add_options --disable-printing
ac_add_options --disable-oji
ac_add_options --disable-plugins
ac_add_options --disable-vista-sdk-requirements
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-installer
ac_add_options --disable-xpinstall
ac_add_options --enable-image-decoders="png gif jpeg"
ac_add_options --disable-dbm

ac_add_options --disable-spellcheck

ac_add_options --disable-windows-mobile-components

CROSS_COMPILE=1
MIDL=/c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 9/VC/ce/bin/x86_arm/midl.exe

ac_add_options --target=arm-wince
ac_add_options --enable-win32-target=WINCE
ac_add_options --enable-default-toolkit=cairo-windows

ac_add_options --with-wince-sdk="c:/program files/windows ce tools/wce500/standardsdk_500"

Copy & paste the above into a file in /c/proj, I'll call mine "mc-firefox-wince-opt".

Start a Build

• First, create a directory to hold the build tree. From /c/proj:
  • mkdir firefox-wince-opt

• Enter that directory, and run configure (note: you must specify the absolute path to the configure script; a relative path should work, but doesn't currently):
  • cd firefox-wince-opt
  • MOZCONFIG=../mc-firefox-wince-opt /c/mozilla-central/configure

• Fire off the build (the -s prevents a whole bunch of unnecessary spew from make)
  • make -s

• If all goes well, you should have a complete build/install dir in "dist/bin" inside your firefox-wince-opt dir.

Running the Build

Simply copy the entire bin directory to the device, and run firefox.exe.

NOTE: there's a bug currently with component registration; in the bin directory, delete the file called ".autoreg" to speed up startup.