[B2G] Building the new OS from Mozilla

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adfad666

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jul 29, 2011
763
4,302
You may have heard that Mozilla are building their own mobile OS based on Firefox. To put it simply, if you've heard of ChromeOS, then it'll work in a similar way; the browser IS the OS.

What's interesting for us is that it's heavily based on android. Basically they've kept the HAL, hacked out Dalvik and anything java, and replaced it with Gecko. In theory any device that runs Android can run FirefoxOS.

It's still alpha software, it's supposed to eventually be compatible with ARMv6 devices, but as I found out while trying to build it for my LG Optimus One, Gecko is still hardcoded in many places to ARMv7. Their test devices include the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy SII, so special hardware isn't needed.

Therefore it should run fine on the Nexus 7 right?

Well, not quite. FirefoxOS is based on ICS, but Nexus 7 runs only Jellybean.

I've tried building with ICS sources and Jellybean sources, making the necessary changes to get it to build. However with Jellybean sources it doesn't get past the Google screen, and ADB loops without many error messages to analyse. With ICS sources ADB isn't even accessible, the kernel and/or the proprietary blobs are probably not compatible.


If anyone wants to take a look at my changes, they're at my github. Some of the changes to Gecko I got from this bug at Mozilla, but it's out of date and incomplete (there is a patch in the B2G repo).

Hopefully with more eyes looking at it, we'll get it working!
 

dsuycott

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2010
203
16
evanston, il
This seems very interesting...when do you think it will flashable for the 7, and will you be looking for testers?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
 

nodstuff

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2010
3,089
1,660
Cork
I built it for the gnex but it was nowhere near usable, it has no onscreen button support which as we know is no good for us nexus users.
I reckon give it a few months before trying to do anything with it, its buggy and has no features as yet. The market is invitation only for registered developers, I couldn't get any signal on it even though they said that it was working. WiFi worked but not very well.

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FitAmp

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2012
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Terrace
That page was last updated January 29th, things have likely changed since then.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
 
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TobiH8

Guest
I know that this thread is really old, but I think we should try to build because they got it working on the Nexus 7 2013 and it supports touch gestures for closing applications.
Maybe I'll do it some time but I have to learn how to build first with building Firefox OS for my Galaxy Nexus. Maybe someone with more knowledge could try to build. It would be great!
 

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    You may have heard that Mozilla are building their own mobile OS based on Firefox. To put it simply, if you've heard of ChromeOS, then it'll work in a similar way; the browser IS the OS.

    What's interesting for us is that it's heavily based on android. Basically they've kept the HAL, hacked out Dalvik and anything java, and replaced it with Gecko. In theory any device that runs Android can run FirefoxOS.

    It's still alpha software, it's supposed to eventually be compatible with ARMv6 devices, but as I found out while trying to build it for my LG Optimus One, Gecko is still hardcoded in many places to ARMv7. Their test devices include the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy SII, so special hardware isn't needed.

    Therefore it should run fine on the Nexus 7 right?

    Well, not quite. FirefoxOS is based on ICS, but Nexus 7 runs only Jellybean.

    I've tried building with ICS sources and Jellybean sources, making the necessary changes to get it to build. However with Jellybean sources it doesn't get past the Google screen, and ADB loops without many error messages to analyse. With ICS sources ADB isn't even accessible, the kernel and/or the proprietary blobs are probably not compatible.


    If anyone wants to take a look at my changes, they're at my github. Some of the changes to Gecko I got from this bug at Mozilla, but it's out of date and incomplete (there is a patch in the B2G repo).

    Hopefully with more eyes looking at it, we'll get it working!
    3
    There is no home button, assets are the wrong size, some screen resolutions are incorrect, wifi doesn't seem to manage to connect, but it launches, and the UI is pretty buttery smooth :)

    https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Nexus7

    see here :)
    2
    :D

    It's building :) I'm gonna upload it when it's finished. I also managed to map the volume keys to the home button since no softkeys will work.
    1
    ...FirefoxOS is based on ICS, but Nexus 7 runs only Jellybean.
    There was at least 2 cases of people who received Nexus 7 hardware with some dev version of ICS on it. Not sure if anyone has had any luck with getting that version of ICS up for download though.
    1
    That page was last updated January 29th, things have likely changed since then.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app