I wrote an email to Chris Coulson, asking for some assistance with the cflags. Hopefully he'll read it.
What you're saying about hardware requirements is not really true. Firefox is pretty demanding in terms of memory, yes, but per job mostly. On amd64 and if you build with gcc, it needs roughly 700 to 800 mb of ram per thread, and roughly double as much if you pass debug cflags along. Thats as bad as it gets, the demand in ram decreases a lot if you take clang instead, which is also a little bit faster and the binary seems to be a little bit faster as well (I'm actually writing this post from a clang built firefox) However, situation on armhf is more tense, because if you aim to compile nativly they are often limited by the amount of ram per job. rpi2 has only ~900mb free available at boot time, so we end up with just 200mb per core. This is not enough if you use gcc for compilation, the device would swap a lot, whereas with with -j2 and 400mb per thread it only swaps during some hefty code sections around the java script engine and close to the finish of the build, during linking. Swapping can be so slow, that it completly eats away the theoretical speed gain by allowing more cores to be used with make via -jN Also I would like to mention that we propably have to stick to gcc for compilation, because you can use clang to compile firefox on amd64, but not on armhf, due to a linking error. I think it is the same as in #72 of this bug report: ../../media/libstagefright/Unified_cpp_media_libstagefright1.o: In function `stagefright::SampleIterator::getChunkOffset(unsigned int, long long*)': ../../media/libstagefright/Unified_cpp_media_libstagefright1.cpp:(.text+0x554): undefined reference to `free' ../../media/libstagefright/Unified_cpp_media_libstagefright1.o: In function `stagefright::SampleIterator::getSampleSizeDirect(unsigned int, unsigned int*)' At the moment trying to use gold linker instead of bfd, we'll see if that makes a difference. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to firefox in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1711337 Title: Firefox crashes at start on armv7L after 55.0.1 update Status in Mozilla Firefox: Expired Status in firefox package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Firefox always crashes when launched after the 55.0.1 update on an Orange Pi PC Plus (a single-board computer similar to a Raspberry Pi), even in safe mode. I did a fresh install of Armbian (a Ubuntu Xenial 16.04 re-spin for ARM single-board computer) on a similar board (Orange Pi Plus 2e), installed Firefox and experienced the same problem--it won't load without crashing. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: firefox 55.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.2 Uname: Linux 3.4.113-sun8i armv7l AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.25. ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.10 Architecture: armhf AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC1: jim 1138 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC0: jim 1138 F.... pulseaudio BuildID: 20170814194718 Card0.Amixer.info: Card hw:0 'audiocodec'/'audiocodec' Mixer name : '' Components : '' Controls : 12 Simple ctrls : 12 Card1.Amixer.info: Card hw:1 'sndhdmi'/'sndhdmi' Mixer name : '' Components : '' Controls : 1 Simple ctrls : 1 Card1.Amixer.values: Simple mixer control 'hdmi audio format Function',0 Capabilities: enum Items: 'null' 'pcm' 'AC3' 'MPEG1' 'MP3' 'MPEG2' 'AAC' 'DTS' 'ATRAC' 'ONE_BIT_AUDIO' 'DOLBY_DIGITAL_PLUS' 'DTS_HD' 'MAT' 'WMAPRO' Item0: 'pcm' Channel: Unavailable CurrentDesktop: XFCE Date: Thu Aug 17 05:37:00 2017 Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing ForcedLayersAccel: False IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite) IpRoute: default via 192.168.10.1 dev eth0 default via 192.168.10.1 dev wlan0 proto static metric 600 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000 192.168.10.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.10.107 192.168.10.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.10.108 metric 600 Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing PciMultimedia: PciNetwork: Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=55.0.1/20170814194718 RfKill: 0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no RunningIncompatibleAddons: False SourcePackage: firefox Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/1711337/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
