# Firefox 22 has dropped support for OSS



## jrm@ (Jun 28, 2013)

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/963045


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## zeissoctopus (Jun 28, 2013)

FreeBSD ports www/firefox uses ALSA  as default audio backend since 16.0*.*


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## jrm@ (Jun 28, 2013)

It may have been the default, but OSS was still an option.  I just compiled www/firefox 22 with ALSA and it crashes on anything with sound.


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 29, 2013)

The port's Makefile says:


```
# OSS is gone after bug 852401
OPTIONS_SINGLE_AUDIO:=${OPTIONS_SINGLE_AUDIO:S/OSS//}
```

Commenting the line returns the OSS option to `make config`, but a compile renders 
	
	



```
===>  firefox-22.0,1 WEBRTC works only with ALSA and PULSEAUDIO audio backends.
```

Removing the WEBRTC option appears to solve that, but at the cost of disabling that option, which may not be what you want.


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 29, 2013)

Update: Firefox no longer crashes on sound with the settings in the previous post. But there's no sound at all. I'll just keep on using Chrome as I've done since it came out.


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## zspider (Jun 29, 2013)

Mine won't compile without choosing PulseAudio or ALSA, since I won't be choosing either of them, I will have to switch to Chromium. Nice going Linuxism, real nice...

Update: Oh, never mind. www/chromium wanted to drag in ALSA-lib, so I just installed www/opera instead. No disdain for good proprietary software here, as long as it's looked after.


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## zeissoctopus (Jun 30, 2013)

jrm said:
			
		

> It may have been the default, but OSS was still an option.  I just compiled www/firefox 22 with ALSA and it crashes on anything with sound.



I upgrade my Firefox to 22 with ALSA. It works great at any multimedia websites without any problem. I use gcc in ports and clang in 9.1-RELEASE-p4 base.


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## zspider (Jul 1, 2013)

Ah, I bit the bullet and reinstalled www/firefox. Hopefully someone will put things right. The www/opera port is fast but the plugins aren't as good and sometimes it just won't work with some sites.


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## jozze (Jul 1, 2013)

That's weird, www/opera works for me on all sites. I like it because doesn't pull down a lot of extra dependencies, and it is light(er) on the resources, but like you said, it's far from being the perfect solution.


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## zspider (Jul 1, 2013)

jozze said:
			
		

> That's weird, www/opera works for me on all sites. I like it because doesn't pull down a lot of extra dependencies, and it is light(er) on the resources, but like you said, it's far from being the perfect solution.



Sometimes sites just refuse to load on it. Though it's certainly fast and the smooth HTML5 performance is nice. 

My www/firefox crashes just as described as above unfortunately. The Freshport's page at www/firefox says that the upstream support was removed for OSS, but the Firefox bug report claims OSS was never supported? http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/963045


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## DutchDaemon (Jul 1, 2013)

The OSS support may have been hacked in by the porter.


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## zeissoctopus (Jul 2, 2013)

I compile www/firefox with following options.

```
---Begin OPTIONS List---
===> The following configuration options are available for firefox-22.0,1:
     DBUS=on: D-Bus IPC system support
     DEBUG=off: Install debug symbols
     GCONF=on: GConf configuration backend support
     GIO=on: GIO for file I/O
     GNOMEUI=off: libgnomeui support module
     GNOMEVFS2=off: GnomeVFS2 (virtual file system) support
     GSTREAMER=on: Multimedia support via GStreamer
     LIBPROXY=off: Proxy support via libproxy
     LOGGING=on: Additional log messages
     OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS=off: Use extra compiler optimizations
     PGO=off: Use Profile-Guided Optimization
     WEBRTC=on: Web Real-Time Communication
====> Options available for the single AUDIO: you have to select exactly one of them
     ALSA=on: ALSA audio architecture support
     PULSEAUDIO=off: PulseAudio sound server support
===> Use 'make config' to modify these settings
---End OPTIONS List---
```


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## philjor (Jul 3, 2013)

I rather need Firefox but the port just does not install. Version 17 was working fine. Now I realize I should have left it alone. Is there a solution to make it work? I'm running FreeBSD 9.1 x64 with Xorg 7.7. The present version seems to be 22 or thereabouts.

Sorry about the formatting: doesn't work even if I reload - so much for Firefox.


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## sossego (Jul 3, 2013)

Unless I'm using NetBSD, there is no Linux compatibility for PowerPC(64) at the current moment. It took some time before Firefox had PowerPC support again. If enough people say something to the effect of


			
				 Just enough people to make a difference said:
			
		

> Could you possibly bring back OSS support on Firefox ?


, then maybe it will be returned.


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## throAU (Jul 3, 2013)

Somewhat off on a tangent, but is it just me or are the Firefox team making more and more brain damaged decisions in the past 5 years?

There seems to be a culture of being deliberately obtuse with regards to removing funtionality, removing configuration options (tickbox for Javascript gone in new version), refusing to fix bugs (Firefox still does not honor DHCP proxy auto-configuration, bug open since at least 2006), etc.

I'm seeing it with Gnome as well - attempting to dumb the UI down to the point of irrelevance.  I think it's a dangerous trend:  try too hard to emulate Windows or Mac and you'll end up with something just as bad except without the userbase...


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## Beastie (Jul 3, 2013)

^ I'm noticing that in pretty much all major projects.

Some Chrome bugs are also years old and there's no sign of a future fix.

As for Opera, just check the latest release (15, only available for Windows and MacOS) and try not to laugh.

They all seem to have gone crazy. :\


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## philjor (Jul 3, 2013)

Could anyone give me a hint as to how to reinstall firefox 17; I tried to install the package but it asks for cups client and I have no need for a printer so I have not installed CUPS and do not intend to.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jul 3, 2013)

Browsers are complicated beasts maintained by limited number of developers all while the sands are shifting under their feet. Fixing this breaks that but that is going away next year, maybe, and while it may be a bug, nobody uses it; or nobody should be using it. And on and on.


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## Chris_H (Jul 13, 2013)

Greetings,

There used to be a port called Firefox ESR. While I don't see it using the ports search @ freebsd.org. Given that Subversion is now de facto, it shouldn't be too hard to find in an earlier revision, and install from there. This _will_ provide for sound, and other complaints mentioned here. 

HTH

--chris

UPDATE: turns out that firefox-17.0.7,1 _is_ Firefox-ESR.


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## Chris_H (Jul 13, 2013)

philjor said:
			
		

> Could anyone give me a hint as to how to reinstall firefox 17; I tried to install the package but it asks for cups client and I have no need for a printer so I have not installed CUPS and do not intend to.


It _is_ possible, but you will need to copy the Makefile currently in that ports directory: `cp ./Makefile ./Makefile_ORG`. Then perform the following:

```
make extract
make patch
```
After that you will be able to modify the source located in the work directory, and enable/disable any options not already listed within the BSD Make system. It might also be worth a look in the files in /usr/ports/Mk. There might already be a KNOB or MACRO that enables/disables the option(s) you're looking for. 

Good luck.

--chris


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## wblock@ (Jul 13, 2013)

And fix the patch files.  And hope the distfiles are still out there.  Then deal with the other problems.

It's a better investment of time to fix the problem with the latest Firefox than try to run an old version.


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## Chris_H (Jul 13, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> And fix the patch files.  And hope the distfiles are still out there.  Then deal with the other problems.
> 
> It's a better investment of time to fix the problem with the latest Firefox than try to run an old version.


Agreed. But, for those less inclined, this will at least provide an interim solution.

--chris


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## Crivens (Jul 13, 2013)

Instead of hunting down a version recent enough to work well and old enough not to have attracted that lot of Linuxisms - has anyone tried out if the Windows build works in Wine? On the plus side, you would have an additional sandbox for the browser. Otherwise, there seems to be Opera and Chrome, but what else is there?


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