Chromium

nslay · #1 August 9th, 2009, 22:10

I just noticed that Chromium apparently builds and runs on Linux. I didn't find a chromium-devel port so I went to Google and found the build requirements:

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wi...sPrerequisites

Everything looks good except for libasound. How can Linux developers claim to be proponents of cross platform software (V4L, ALSA, /proc, what else?).

fronclynne · #2 August 11th, 2009, 02:01

If it were statically linked, would it run under linux-f10?

And yeah, I love that they think that oss should be deprecated. Savages. They probably use bash as their root shell, too.

nslay · #3 August 11th, 2009, 05:45

I was thinking an alsa wrapper library could be written that interfaces with OSS. I had a brief look at alsa-project.org to get an idea of how extensive the API is. Though, in all honesty I know very little about OSS or ALSA programming.

It seems awfully silly to write such a wrapper library. Why couldn't they just use OSS like everyone else? ALSA does support OSS after all.

ninjaslim · #4 August 18th, 2009, 05:49

OSS was encumbered software, but now it isn't. Yet, it's easier now to keep putting more band-aids on the mess that Linux sound is than to just switch to OSS4.

sprewell · #5 August 19th, 2009, 15:35

I was inspired by the recent Fedora rpms to try and install Chromium using the Fedora Core 10 emulation on FreeBSD 7.2. I wasn't able to get Chromium completely running but I thought I'd list what I did here, so others can try too. After installing the following ports using the information here and here (note: it should be OVERRIDE_LINUX_NONBASE_PORTS with an S at the end),

Code:

linux-f10-alsa-lib-1.0.19
linux-f10-atk-1.24.0
linux-f10-cairo-1.8.0
linux-f10-dbus-glib-0.76
linux-f10-dbus-libs-1.2.4
linux-f10-expat-2.0.1
linux-f10-fontconfig-2.6.0
linux-f10-gtk2-2.14.7
linux-f10-jpeg-6b
linux-f10-libxml2-2.7.3_2
linux-f10-nspr-4.7.3
linux-f10-nss-3.12.2.0
linux-f10-openssl-0.9.8g
linux-f10-pango-1.22.3
linux-f10-png-1.2.35
linux-f10-sqlite3-3.5.9_1
linux-f10-tiff-3.8.2
linux-f10-xorg-libs-7.4
linux_base-f10-10_1

I had to also install these rpms to get the shared libraries Chromium wanted

Code:

GConf2-2.24.0-1.fc10.i386.rpm
ORBit2-2.14.16-1.fc10.i386.rpm
libevent-1.4.5-1.fc10.i386.rpm
libxslt-1.1.24-2.fc10.i386.rpm
minizip-1.2.3-18.fc9.i386.rpm
v8-1.3.4-1.20090818svn2708.fc10.i386.rpm
chromium-4.0.202.0-0.1.20090818svn23628.fc10.i386.rpm

where I got the last two at that first link. I unpacked the rpms one by one using

rpm2cpio -q < chromium-4.0.202.0-0.1.20090818svn23628.fc10.i386.rpm | cpio -id

since rpm -i apparently doesn't work anymore, despite still being included in the FreeBSD handbook. After all this, the intro screen for /compat/linux/usr/lib/chrome-browser/chrome-browser popped up but then dumped core with the following error:

Code:

FATAL:/mnt/chromium/rpmbuild/BUILD/chromium-20090818svn23628/src/chrome/browser/zygote_host_linux.cc(57)] Check failed: socketpair(PF_UNIX, SOCK_SEQPACKET, 0, fds) == 0. 
Trace/BPT trap (core dumped)

I'm guessing the latest daily builds might be unstable and might start working again soon. Until then, the above should get you part way there.

sprewell · #6 August 20th, 2009, 03:11

I should also note that I am very interested in running Chromium on FreeBSD, but unfortunately I'm unaware of any ongoing effort on a FreeBSD port. My source analysis found that the Chromium codebase is mostly BSD-licensed, with almost all the new frontend source files from Google BSD-licensed and the Webkit backend now having turned mostly BSD, with the efforts of Apple and Google over the last couple years. This makes Chromium the only BSD-licensed web browser out there, reason enough for a FreeBSD port I'd think. I'd be willing to contribute money for a port, but I don't know what established money collection and programmer selection processes are in place for FreeBSD ports. At the very least, a linux-chromium port should be feasible, though I'd prefer a native FreeBSD one.

jrick · #7 August 20th, 2009, 03:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprewell

This makes Chromium the only BSD-licensed web browser out there, reason enough for a FreeBSD port I'd think.

w3m is MIT licensed, which is very similar to the 2-clause BSD license that FreeBSD uses.

nslay · #8 August 20th, 2009, 16:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjaslim

OSS was encumbered software, but now it isn't. Yet, it's easier now to keep putting more band-aids on the mess that Linux sound is than to just switch to OSS4.

That didn't stop the BSDs or other Unix flavors from maintaining their own branches of OSS. Regardless, ALSA has support for OSS software. The problem is, they're forcing ALSA on developers instead of encouraging cross-platform development. For what? Spite? What's unfortunate is that there are many articles from Linux sound buffs (for example, the sorry state of sound in Linux) who claim that OSS is superior to ALSA.

Google isn't making a cross-platform browser, they're making a browser for Windows, Mac and Linux, and calling it "cross-platform." Sort of like Google's "new" OS that's in actuality another Linux distribution. Their blog really gave me the wrong impression.

To paraphrase, "We're going to make a new OS and rethink what an OS is," which is later followed by, "We're going to use Linux and give it a new interface." So great, more old ideas. Sort of like, "let's take a 1966 Mustang and make it look cooler." As cool as that might be, it's still a 1966 Mustang built on top of old technology and it would be an outright lie to claim the effort was "making a new car" or "rethinking what a car is."

sprewell · #9 August 21st, 2009, 18:23

Looks like someone just started working on a Chromium port, in case anybody else wants to pitch in.

jrick, I tried the w3m FreeBSD port but it doesn't compile.

nslay, I agree, I don't see ChromeOS going anywhere because the web stack is fundamentally flawed. You may be interested in the ideas here.

nslay · #10 August 22nd, 2009, 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprewell

Looks like someone just started working on a Chromium port, in case anybody else wants to pitch in.

jrick, I tried the w3m FreeBSD port but it doesn't compile.

nslay, I agree, I don't see ChromeOS going anywhere because the web stack is fundamentally flawed. You may be interested in the ideas here.

I have mixed feelings about web applications. On one hand, they are very useful and convenient for applications like email, calendar, simple games and so forth. On the other hand, there's an extremist push by Microsoft and Google for a web OS. My interpretation is that they want to use the web application concept to protect intellectual property and collect valuable usage information. Otherwise, this is a terrible idea! Not everything can or should be a web application. This is a step backwards into 1960s computing ideas (e.g. MULTICS) and I hope that like DRM, consumers reject it.

And if Google wants to rethink OS and security and cater to an Open Source community, why not write a microkernel OS? At the very least, that would certainly be rethinking the OS. There's also security benefits of a microkernel design! But most of all, in an open source community where cutting-edge drivers are often unstable, it sure would be nice if misbehaving drivers didn't crash the system; another hypothetical benefit of a microkernel!

But this has gone way off topic (my fault)...thanks for the link.

graudeejs · #11 August 22nd, 2009, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by nslay

And if Google wants to rethink OS and security and cater to an Open Source community, why not write a microkernel OS? At the very least, that would certainly be rethinking the OS. There's also security benefits of a microkernel design! But most of all, in an open source community where cutting-edge drivers are often unstable, it sure would be nice if misbehaving drivers didn't crash the system; another hypothetical benefit of a microkernel!

http://www.minix3.org/

nslay · #12 August 22nd, 2009, 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by killasmurf86

http://www.minix3.org/

I'm aware. There's also Microsoft's Singularity.

However, it would also be nice to move away from a Unix-like system. Unix is cool, but its been 40 years and Google has proved to be innovative. I suppose they could use Minix's kernel since thats under the BSDL.

sprewell · #13 August 31st, 2009, 01:33

OK, work continues on a FreeBSD port of Chromium by a FreeBSD committer. He just told me he got much of it to build, with the exception of the parts that rely on NSS 3.12 and ALSA. Help from the FreeBSD community would be appreciated on those two fronts and on this Chromium port in general. I have an email out to the NSS port maintainer to see if any work is underway on NSS 3.12. As for ALSA, it'd be good if someone who knows more about sound could take a hack at porting Chromium's linux ALSA code to OSS, so that it can then output sound across the rest of the Unixes. If anybody would like to pitch in on either of those two dependencies or the port in general, follow that first link to get up to speed, then leave a comment there or PM me on here.

Oxyd · #14 August 31st, 2009, 03:08

I may be the only one not getting this, but I'll still ask: What the hell does a browser need a sound library for?

graudeejs · #15 August 31st, 2009, 05:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by nslay

I'm aware. There's also Microsoft's Singularity.

However, it would also be nice to move away from a Unix-like system. Unix is cool, but its been 40 years and Google has proved to be innovative. I suppose they could use Minix's kernel since thats under the BSDL.

Why to move away from system, which allows you to do so much?

aragon · #16 August 31st, 2009, 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxyd

I may be the only one not getting this, but I'll still ask: What the hell does a browser need a sound library for?

Possibly plugins like Flash, or more likely HTML5's multimedia features.

aragon · #17 August 31st, 2009, 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprewell

I have an email out to the NSS port maintainer to see if any work is underway on NSS 3.12.

Did you get any response? I've almost finished testing my upgraded port of NSS 3.12.4.

Oxyd · #18 August 31st, 2009, 18:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by aragon

Possibly plugins like Flash, or more likely HTML5's multimedia features.

Oh, right, we've got a bugless, fully-supported Flash plugin already, eh?

I peeked at the source and it looks like it's just a matter of getting someone who knows OSS (I don't, so I won't dare) and write an appropriate code for it. Writing a "null audio output" back-end shouldn't be that hard, though -- and at least it'd give us the browser even if without sound. My guess is that even if Chrome was working flawlessly on FBSD, making it work with Flash would be a pain anyway.

sprewell · #19 September 1st, 2009, 05:22

Haha, Oxyd, good question, looks like Chromium has a built-in media player, which makes sense if it's going to be the basis of ChromeOS. However, that's Google's problem if they want to run multimedia through the browser, may be better just to disable it for now if nobody cares enough to write an OSS version. However, I presume that Flash will work with Chromium, as it works with the linux Chromium now, and I have the linux-flashplugin9 working with various browsers on my FreeBSD desktop too.

aragon, no word from gnome@freebsd.org yet, I assume they get a lot of mail. Please post a link to your 3.12 port on Ben's blog if you think it's ready to be used, so he can try linking it into Chromium.

sprewell · #20 September 13th, 2009, 19:47

Ben continues to hack away at a FreeBSD build, he just told me he got it to finally build but it instantly died when run. Meanwhile, I tried to run the linux rpm on a i386 FreeBSD Virtualbox, as opposed to my amd64 system, and I think the linux Chromium build gets a bit farther on i386, failing on some GTK font issue as opposed to the networking issue before. I gave up on figuring out where Chromium/GTK is looking for fonts on my system, but if somebody wants to check this on their i386 system, it may be possible to run Chromium on the fedora 10 emulation layer for now. One nice benefit to come out of this effort already is that Aragon's NSS 3.12.4 update was committed to ports recently.

sprewell · #21 September 14th, 2009, 21:13

Alright, Chromium now builds and links on FreeBSD, with the audio player that uses ALSA on linux disabled for now, but the build doesn't run for long so if anyone wants to build and help debug, here's Ben's new patch and of course you'll need Ben's setup info. You may also need some other small patches, the closed ones have already been committed to Chromium svn.

**joel@** · #22 September 15th, 2009, 06:16

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/f...er/010380.html

sprewell · #23 September 15th, 2009, 23:34

Ben's run into build problems on his machine cuz it's not powerful enough, can anybody supply a better build environment for him? Thanks for the link, Joel, I hadn't seen that. I sent an email out to Ariff suggesting that he package that up as a FreeBSD port, so that any ALSA apps can easily run on FreeBSD from then on.

sprewell · #24 September 28th, 2009, 03:12

After a couple week's respite, we're back to building Chromium. John Companies has graciously offered a build server for Chromium, since Ben's machine didn't have enough memory. I've started building and will report progress and patches here. If anyone else is interested in building or testing, we'll put debug builds up there once we can get it built. PM me here or email me with the address there if you'd like to pitch in. Also, Ariff told me a couple weeks ago that libasound should be packaged up as a FreeBSD port soon, so that ALSA apps can easily use it as a wrapper to OSS.

CodeBlock · #25 October 9th, 2009, 17:36

AH! My linux-friends keep picking on me (and fBSD) because we don't have Chromium yet. Then I have to pull the ZFS card on 'em.

. Anyway I'll be keeping an eye out for this.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

The Following User Says Thank You to sprewell For This Useful Post:
thuglife (October 9th, 2009)