Thunderbird build for Windows on ARM

[hndrk]

please also compile Thunderbird for Windows on ARM devices. Would lobve to use Thunderbird on my Surface Pro X without emulation.

Thunderbird 

[Ruby70]

Me too!! Just bought a Surface Laptop 7 as my daily business laptop. It's the first (successful) 'MacBook Air' attempt on Windows. I don't want to be in the claws of Apple. But that other giant refuses to support their own Exchange ActiveSync in Outlook on Windows 11. So, I am now a happy Thunderbird user. I can't wait for native support.

[Linkinsoldier]

I was waiting for this for ages (and still am) but for those waiting with me: I just updated my old ARM PC (GalaxyBookS) to Win11 24H2 and Thunderbird (not ARM) runs A LOT smoother than it did before. So if this is the reason for you to wait as well - maybe give the new 24H2 update a try.

[ddscentral]

I can confirm the Windows ARM64 version is buildable, at least the "comm-release" repository.

In addition to standard Thunderbird build instructions, you need to add "ac_add_options --target=aarch64" to mozconfig and manually add rust toolchain by running "rustup target add aarch64-pc-windows-msvc" in mozilla-build shell.

I did encounter some strange issues with clang compiler though, clang would hang while compiling librnp unless I disabled optimizations (compiler bug?). It could just be my system though, I'm not sure.

An official release would be better though, since updating locally built release means I will have to incrementally rebuild it every time.

[ddscentral]

It is buildable for Windows ARM64.
I did get it to build on my Windows 11 x86 build machine using the latest "-release" repositories (currently at 133.0.1) instead of "-central".
In addition to the usual Thunderbird instructions, you need to add "ac_add_options --target=aarch64" to mozconfig and run "rustup target add aarch64-pc-windows-msvc" in mozilla-build shell.

There are some weird issues with clang-cl though, it hangs while compiling librnp unless optimizations are disabled (compiler bug?). It could just be my system though.

[Linkinsoldier]

is there any way to adress this for the official staff to look at and get official builds?

[hohwille]

+1 for ARM release

[timpera]

+1, we need a Windows ARM64 version.

[macoud12]

I'll give this a +1 since my current laptop is arm64-based (Snapdragon X Plus) and shipped with Windows 11 24H2.

[ddscentral]

Sorry for my previous double post. My first message didn't show up after posting for some reason, I thought it was eaten by the spam filter.

I do have working installers for Thunderbird ARM64 versions 133.0, 134.0 and 135.0.1
Drop me a message at dds alpha ddscentral dot org if you need a link. I can give build instructions as well.
I will give some hints below.
The main issue why it doesn't build is a bug in the clang compiler they're using. It always either hangs or crashes on two particular files that are part of librnp:
comm/third_party/rnp/src/rnp/fficli.cpp
comm/third_party/rnp/src/rnp/rnpcfg.cpp

Versions prior to 135 would hang with the compiler processes using 100% of one core, while version 135 crashes the compiler instead with error "value evaluated as xxx is out of range" (xxx being a random number over 256). This issue can be resolved by disabling optimizations when compiling these two particular files.

My current workaround:

1. Run Process Explorer, set the update rate to 10 seconds.
2. Run the build as normal. Wait for it to fail or hang. Monitor compiler processes in PE.
3. If the build hangs, kill the stuck compiler processes. There will be 4 of them as the offending files are used in two different places.
4. Note the command lines used by failing/hanging compiler processes
5. Run the failing command lines without the -O option (I wrote a batch script for this).
6. Run the build again as normal. It should complete successfully. To create the installer, run ./mach package.

Not the most elegant solution but it does work.