Need Help compiling new Firefox with --enable-alsa

enorbet · 01-22-2018, 02:50 PM

Greetings

I am trying to compile Firefox source for either v57 or v58 and I have fixed many dependency-based ./configure failures but now I'm stuck.

This is the errors I now get

Code:

 ### ./configure --enable-alsa --disable-pulseaudio ###
..........
checking for gconf-2.0 >= 1.2.1 gobject-2.0 ... configure: error: * * * Could not find gconf-2.0 
DEBUG: <truncated - see config.log for full output>
DEBUG: #line 9513 "configure"
DEBUG: #include "confdefs.h"
DEBUG: #include <malloc.h>
DEBUG:                   #include <stddef.h>
DEBUG:                   size_t malloc_usable_size(const void *ptr);
DEBUG: int main() {
DEBUG: return malloc_usable_size(0);
DEBUG: ; return 0; }
DEBUG: configure:9544: checking for valloc in malloc.h
DEBUG: configure:9569: checking for valloc in unistd.h
DEBUG: configure:9724: checking NSPR selection
DEBUG: configure:10853: checking if app-specific confvars.sh exists
DEBUG: configure:12038: checking for gtk+-3.0 >= 3.4.0 gtk+-unix-print-3.0 glib-2.0 gobject-2.0
DEBUG: configure:12045: checking MOZ_GTK3_CFLAGS
DEBUG: configure:12050: checking MOZ_GTK3_LIBS
DEBUG: configure:12124: checking for gtk+-2.0 >= 2.18.0 gtk+-unix-print-2.0 glib-2.0 >= 2.22 gobject-2.0 gdk-x11-2.0
DEBUG: configure:12131: checking MOZ_GTK2_CFLAGS
DEBUG: configure:12136: checking MOZ_GTK2_LIBS
DEBUG: configure:12962: checking for gconf-2.0 >= 1.2.1 gobject-2.0
DEBUG: configure: error: * * * Could not find gconf-2.0
ERROR: old-configure failed

I did "dpkg -l | grep gconf" as root and got

Code:

 # dpkg -l | grep gconf
ii  gconf-service                                 3.2.6-4+b1                          amd64        GNOME configuration database system (D-Bus service)
ii  gconf2-common                                 3.2.6-4                             all          GNOME configuration database system (common files)
ii  gir1.2-gconf-2.0                              3.2.6-4+b1                          amd64        GNOME configuration database system (GObject-Introspection)
ii  gpgconf                                       2.2.4-1                             amd64        GNU privacy guard - core configuration utilities
ii  libgconf-2-4:amd64                            3.2.6-4+b1                          amd64        GNOME configuration database system (shared libraries)

What am I missing?

Ztcoracat · 01-22-2018, 10:11 PM

After reading this thread:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1305310

Maybe you are missing python-gconf and gconf-cleaner? <guessing>

https://packages.debian.org/search?k...s=python-gconf
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gconf

The problem is configure can't find gconf which doesn't make sense because dpkg confirms it's installed.

Maybe try looking in the Debian Forum if you have the time.
http://forums.debian.net/index.php

jim_p · 01-23-2018, 12:28 AM

The --enable-alsa parameter was removed in ff 54. It's pulseaudio or no-audio whether we like it or not. If you still want alsa, stick to firefox-esr.

And the worst thing is it was not written in any changelog! Here is a bug report from arch, where the maintainer states that he built ff with --enable-alsa until until ff 54.
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/53195#comment155941

enorbet · 01-23-2018, 07:52 AM

Thank you Ztcoracat, I will check that out. Thank you also, jim p but i don't think that's quite accurate. The ALSA support code is still in there, just disabled, or more accurately "deferred", by default. There is now a github selection possible for both v56 and v57 with ALSA enabled and Pulse disabled. Even though it is github I rarely just blindly install what amounts to a blob like that on my main so I have tried it on a secondary box and other than renaming Firefox to Nightly (easily altered in about:config but not needed) so far no issues and it definitely works with just ALSA. You can check it out here ====>>>>

--- Monsterovich GitHub Firefox-fuckPA ---

though I'd still prefer to compile my own so I will continue to work on this. With all the growing disdain for ALSA but with no workable alternative (Pulseaudio can't do ALSA's job, just direct it) something has to give. Nature abhors a vacuum, right?

Ztcoracat · 01-23-2018, 01:14 PM

You're Welcome-

BW-userx · 01-23-2018, 03:19 PM

don't know if this is still valid, don't see why not, it's worth a look see.

Firefox and ALSA sound without pulseaudio

enorbet · 01-25-2018, 03:50 PM

I hate to fallback on "the shotgun method" but that's what I had to do for the gconf dependency problem. I just upgraded to Buster and installed almost everything gconf, and replaced "pkg-config" with "pkgconf" and got past that obstacle. There were several more but they responded with just an install or two until finally ./configure completed without error.

Make is taking awhile. I'm typing this while it chugs along. I don't want to replace Firefox-ESR just yet as I want a fallback so I am yet undecided how to install it. In Slackware, at least with the blobs, I just untar them and copy to "/usr/lib64/firefox-version" and then create symlinks. I may try that after "make" as i don't want to "make install" and find myself unable to remove it it is unsatisfactory and I don't want to create a .deb package for fear it will replace ESR, so I'm still just following my nose and trying to be safe. I'll report back for any interested in rolling their own FF with ALSA support.

UPDATE: make failed with this error

Code:

 recipe for target 'force-cargo-library-build' failed
make[3]: *** [force-cargo-library-build] Error 101

so now I need to research why that failed and if forcing cargo is required or mot.

jamtat · 07-16-2018, 05:49 PM

Building Firefox for ALSA (non PulseAudio) Sound: http://shallowsky.com/blog/tags/linux/

cynwulf · 07-17-2018, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

Code:

DEBUG: configure: error: * * * Could not find gconf-2.0
ERROR: old-configure failed

One thing that jumped out at me, was that you did not seem to have libgconf2-dev installed. It's missing dev files which will usually generate these compiler errors rather than missing binary packages.

You can also disable gconf support via the mozconfig

//edit: Last error seems more like a compiler problem. You may need to build a newer rust... good luck...