How to build Firefox with Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition

[Dougieha]

Hmmm...I tried following the directions earlier today...but somehow something got messed up. Halfway through running the configure script, it died, saying it couldn't determine the host type.

[Lost User 12105]

you obviously have the .net framework 2.0 installed?

Enf...

Not as far as I know, not unless that's something that's bundled with Internet Explorer.

By the way, when I did some speed testing a while back with VC8 Beta1 builds, I got a bit better speed with builds using Ox instead of O2.

auenf's optimize line is:
enable-optimize=-Ox -GLA

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051109 Firefox/1.5 (Enf... SVG,MNG)

[mmoy]

Here's my fix_2005 batchfile:

f:
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpidl
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpt\tools
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla

[auenf]

you obviously have the .net framework 2.0 installed?

Enf...

Not as far as I know, not unless that's something that's bundled with Internet Explorer.

By the way, when I did some speed testing a while back with VC8 Beta1 builds, I got a bit better speed with builds using Ox instead of O2.

auenf's optimize line is:
enable-optimize=-Ox -GLA

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051109 Firefox/1.5 (Enf... SVG,MNG)

hmm, you may have it installed alread, just check in add/remove for it

also do a search for msvcr80.dll or msvcm80.dll and let me know if its in any particular places (ie, system32 or winSxS)

i dont have .net 2.0 at all on these work machines, and the 1109 by itself doesnt run

Enf...

[Dougieha]

Here's my fix_2005 batchfile:

f:
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpidl
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpt\tools
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla

Ummm...does that work? Considering that the .manifest files are created at compile-time and exist in the objdir not the source tree? I guess you could throw pre-compiled versions of the .manifests into the source tree.

[Dougieha]

you obviously have the .net framework 2.0 installed?

Enf...

Not as far as I know, not unless that's something that's bundled with Internet Explorer.

By the way, when I did some speed testing a while back with VC8 Beta1 builds, I got a bit better speed with builds using Ox instead of O2.

auenf's optimize line is:
enable-optimize=-Ox -GLA

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051109 Firefox/1.5 (Enf... SVG,MNG)

hmm, you may have it installed alread, just check in add/remove for it

also do a search for msvcr80.dll or msvcm80.dll and let me know if its in any particular places (ie, system32 or winSxS)

i dont have .net 2.0 at all on these work machines, and the 1109 by itself doesnt run

Enf...

I noticed that with the Express Edition of VC8, there is no vc/redist directory. So, I had to grab the libraries from the appropriate winSxS directory. I wonder if the omission of the redist directory was intentional or not.

[mmoy]

Here's my fix_2005 batchfile:

f:
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpidl
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpt\tools
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla

Ummm...does that work? Considering that the .manifest files are created at compile-time and exist in the objdir not the source tree? I guess you could throw pre-compiled versions of the .manifests into the source tree.

You run the file after it fails and then run the build again. I have one of these for Win64 as well due to some Javascript file naming issues.

[mmoy]

The fan has come on in my laptop and the processor is averaging 95% usage. That's on the 4200 RPM disk as I'm still using the 80 GB 5400 as a backup for my old Operating Systems. I'm itching to try a build with the 5400 as the build disk to see if I can get the average CPU usage closer to 100%. This build is looking good right now. I need to document the hack and the directions to use it and then try a real build (with patches) in the near future.

I'll see if I can upload those Moztools now.

[auenf]

Here's my fix_2005 batchfile:

f:
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpidl
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla\mozilla\xpcom\typelib\xpt\tools
copy *.manifest f:\mozilla\mozilla\dist\bin\
cd \mozilla

Ummm...does that work? Considering that the .manifest files are created at compile-time and exist in the objdir not the source tree? I guess you could throw pre-compiled versions of the .manifests into the source tree.

You run the file after it fails and then run the build again. I have one of these for Win64 as well due to some Javascript file naming issues.

would be easier to find where in the code is copies the exe's and tell it to copy the manifest also

iirc the point it errors it brings up a msgbox, it doesnt error out straight to the cmd prompt until the msgbox is closed, so that bat wont work too well in the long term

Enf...

[Dougieha]

Yeah...that was my experience too. I thought about a batch file...and I'll probably try to use mmoys for now, but this really needs to be fixed in the source. In fact, that patch in bug 249782 looks like it will work. I'll try it tomorrow when I get back to my vc8 environment.

[mmoy]

https://www.pryan.org/mozilla/firefox/m ... VS2005.exe

[auenf]

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/sourc ... fig.mk#526

my guess is we need to add something there

[Dougieha]

mmoy,

Thanks! One quick question...the folder they're in says moztools.vc8beta2, but these are from vc8 final, right?

[Lost User 12105]

hmm, you may have it installed alread, just check in add/remove for it

also do a search for msvcr80.dll or msvcm80.dll and let me know if its in any particular places (ie, system32 or winSxS)

i dont have .net 2.0 at all on these work machines, and the 1109 by itself doesnt run

Enf...

No listing for .NET in add/remove, although, as I said I recently had to install the latest IE and some other stuff to install the latest Acrobat reader so I might have picked something up there.

I have many copies of the msvcr80 dll with individual builds but don't find it in the system anywhere else. No msvcm80.dll anywhere.
Note that I'm using Win98se, if that makes any difference.

[mmoy]

mmoy,

Thanks! One quick question...the folder they're in says moztools.vc8beta2, but these are from vc8 final, right?

Yes. The reason for that directory spec is that the Makefile was built from a .in file so it picked up the hardcoded directory, presumably from pigfoot's original build. Since I was too lazy to edit the .in and then create the Makefile from that, the directory was the same. When I was building, I didn't actually know that so I just put the directory in the same place that was in the file. I figured out the .in stuff later on from something that I read.

BTW, my build failed on a missing ml.exe. I added the WINDDK to my path and am rerunning. My other option was to grab the ml.exe from the VS2003 kit. I don't think that adding a VS2003 directory to the path for a VS2005 build is a good idea.