arm64/armhf firefox binary tarballs for packaging for ubuntu touch

[fuseteam]

Hiya, i'm looking how feasible it is to package firefox for Ubuntu Touch. i managed to get something working (but as of right now, no clipboard integration and no hardware accelleration yet) by extracting the debs from ubuntu manually and packaging it for the OS.

However the version i got is rather old (version 88), i would like to test a newer version of firefox to see how well it works. i recently discovered there's a amd64 binary tarball on the official site, i was hoping i could get a hold of arm64/armhf binary tarballs to test how newer versions of firefox perform on ubuntu touch. I'm hoping to see if can get firefox to use the wayland protocol on Ubuntu Touch, and see how far we can get.

A month ago i did post this in the ideas section, but after a few edits i made a few weeks ago to clarify that i mean arm binaries packaged as a tarball like the one on the official site it has been in moderation ever since. now that i found the discussion section, i have a feeling that i may posted in the wrong section and thought maybe i should repost it here. If i'm wrong and should be more patient feel free to redirect me

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am Quilty weavy. Why don't you try searching for the arm versions in https://ftp.mozilla.org or the mozilla github repository :- https://github.com/mozilla?

[fuseteam]

hi, i did take a look. there is arm builds there as far as i can tell, not yet anyway

[Anonymous]

 I have found a debian package for the armhf version of firefox :- https://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/firefox/firefox_100.0.2-1_armhf.deb will it do good?

[fuseteam]

in the meantime i have discovered this bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1677963
it seems there is some movement happening here, i'll be following that tracker to see where this goes

[sylvestre · Accepted solution]

Firefox Nightly on am64 is now available:

https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2024/04/19/firefox-nightly-now-available-for-linux-on-arm64/

Hopefully soon for beta & release

[fuseteam]

awesome, i've added the apt repo to my pipeline; now just waiting for the release

[covers-in-play]

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[xiaofuse]

Hi, @fuseteam here, my old account got borked so i'm now xiaofuse, as mentioned earlier mozilla's apt repo is build into an ubuntu touch packaging of firefox, there are still a few outstanding integrations to be done with ubuntu touch to know:
- no clipboard (systemwide ubuntu touch issues for apps running on wayland and xwayland)
- no content hub (for picking files for upload and opening downloaded files)
- launches with x, so tapping on the desktop icon while it is open won't do anything
- location, camera and audio don't work yet (media audio does work)
- in landscape mode touch only works for the "portrait width" of the screen (systemwide ubuntu touch issue with apps running on xwayland)
- auto dark mode does not work
- it does not keep the screen on while a video is playing
- it does not suspend in the background to preserved battery (ubuntu touch systemwide issue for apps running on xwayland*)

artifacts can currently be downloaded from gitlab.com/debclick/ufirefox

We are able to publish this to ubuntu touch's app store: open-store.io and automate publishing updates however we don't want to do so without permission from mozilla. Personally i would like to see better even better integration first, but i know many prefer to use firefox sooner than later

* firefox on Ubuntu Touch is currently running through xwayland as the current wayland implementation is too incomplete, once that matures i'll switch it back to wayland