Firefox 45.9.0 for OS/2 GA2

This is a refresh of Firefox 45.9.0 GA1 released in April 2018. We fixed a number of OS/2-specific bugs and made some minor performance and stability improvements. Among those are improved UI responsiveness and fixed Japanese character display.

Please note that Firefox primary distribution format is now RPM. This makes installing it as easy as selecting the firefox package in Arca Noae Package Manager or typing yum install firefox on the command line. Note that you will need a valid Arca Noae OS/2 and eCS Drivers & Software subscription in order to install Firefox from RPM (visit http://arcanoae.com for details). A 7Z distribution is still provided but it's automatically generated from the respective RPM files and you will still need ANPM or the RPM/YUM environment in order to install Firefox dependencies, see below. PLEASE NOTE that the RPM packages undergo internal testing and are currently available only to ArcaOS beta testers. Availability of the packages to all ArcaOS licensees will be announced by Arca Noae separately in their blog.

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

Installing from a 7Z archive

1. Install ANPM if you prefer GUI or YUM if you prefer command line.
2. Download the 7Z archive using the download link above and unpack it with arcview or similar to a directory of your choice.
3. Inspect the RPM_REQUIREMENTS file and install all packages listed there with either ANPM or yum install PACKAGE.
4. Run the update command in ANPM or yum update on the command line to make sure that you have recent versions of dependent software.
5. Start Firefox by executing firefox.exe from the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory of the unpacked archive.
6. If your system does not use the UNIXROOT environment, you may discard the entire contents of the archive except the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory (which you may move somewhere else and discard the @unixroot/usr/lib part). Note also that starting from Firefox 45.9.0, you don't need to play with LIBPATHSTRICT or use the Run! utility to start multiple copies of different Firefox or Thunderbird versions: firefox.exe does that for you.
7. If your system uses UNIXROOT, then it's best to move the entire contents of the @unixroot directory from the archive to your UNIXROOT directory (so that @unixroot/usr ends up as %UNIXROOT%\usr and so on). In this case, you will be able to start Firefox by launching %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin\firefox.exe (or just typing firefox.exe on the command line if %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin is on your PATH). Note that in non-UNIXROOT environments the launcher from @unixroot/usr/bin will not work.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-debuginfo archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 45.9.0 for OS/2 GA1.1

This is a refresh of Firefox 45.9.0 GA released in 2017. We fixed a number of OS/2-specific bugs and made some minor performance and stability improvements

Please note that Firefox primary distribution format is now RPM. This makes installing it as easy as selecting the firefox package in Arca Noae Package Manager or typing yum install firefox on the command line. Note that you will need a valid Arca Noae OS/2 and eCS Drivers & Software subscription in order to install Firefox from RPM (visit http://arcanoae.com for details). A ZIP distribution is still provided but it's automatically generated from the respective RPM files and you will still need ANPM or the RPM/YUM environment in order to install Firefox dependencies, see below. PLEASE NOTE that the RPM packages undergo internal testing and are currently available only to ArcaOS beta testers. Availability of the packages to all ArcaOS licensees will be announced by Arca Noae separately in their blog.

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

Installing from a ZIP archive

1. Install ANPM if you prefer GUI or YUM if you prefer command line.
2. Download the ZIP archive using the download link below and unpack it to a directory of your choice.
3. Inspect the RPM_REQUIREMENTS file and install all packages listed there with either ANPM or yum install PACKAGE. Note that the libc-devel package is a technical reference and is not actually required for running Firefox so you may skip its installation.
4. Run the update command in ANPM or yum update on the command line to make sure that you have recent versions of dependent software.
5. Start Firefox by executing firefox.exe from the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory of the unpacked archive.
6. If your system does not use the UNIXROOT environment, you may discard the entire contents of the archive except the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory (which you may move somewhere else and discard the @unixroot/usr/lib part). Note also that starting from Firefox 45.9.0, you don't need to play with LIBPATHSTRICT or use the Run! utility to start multiple copies of different Firefox or Thunderbird versions: firefox.exe does that for you.
7. If your system uses UNIXROOT, then it's best to move the entire contents of the @unixroot directory from the archive to your UNIXROOT directory (so that @unixroot/usr ends up as %UNIXROOT%\usr and so on). In this case, you will be able to start Firefox by launching %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin\firefox.exe (or just typing firefox.exe on the command line if %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin is on your PATH). Note that in non-UNIXROOT environments the launcher from @unixroot/usr/bin will not work.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-debuginfo archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 45.9.0 for OS/2 GA

We are pleased to announce that starting with this new release, Firefox for OS/2 turns GA (General Availability)! The application is now mature enough to be recommended for general use. This release updates Firefox to version 45.9.0 ESR which brings a lot of security and performance fixes from the Firefox team. Also, more than 40 OS/2-specific bug reports were resolved when preparing this release. Here are a few highlights:

• Firefox primary distribution format is now RPM. This makes installing it as easy as selecting the firefox package in Arca Noae Package Manager or typing yum install firefox on the command line. Note that you will need a valid Arca Noae OS/2 and eCS Drivers & Software subscription in order to install Firefox from RPM (visit http://arcanoae.com for details). A ZIP distribution is still provided but it's automatically generated from the respective RPM files and you will still need ANPM or the RPM/YUM environment in order to install Firefox dependencies, see below. PLEASE NOTE that the RPM packages undergo internal testing and are currently available only to ArcaOS beta testers. Availability of the packages to all ArcaOS licensees will be announced by Arca Noae separately in their blog.
• Printing support was brushed up. Now you don't need any additional setup in Firefox in order to print to a PostScript printer configured in your system. As printing from Firefox is only supported to PostScript printers, all other printers will not be listed in the Print dialog. See README.OS2 for more information.
• We fixed many bugs introduced by an update from 31 ESR to 38 ESR and then to 45 ESR (like broken fullscreen or national characters in FIrefox Sync).

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

Installing from a ZIP archive

1. Install ANPM if you prefer GUI or YUM if you prefer command line.
2. Download the ZIP archive using the download link below and unpack it to a directory of your choice.
3. Inspect the RPM_REQUIREMENTS file and install all packages listed there with either ANPM or yum install PACKAGE.
4. Run the update command in ANPM or yum update on the command line to make sure that you have recent versions of dependent software.
5. Start Firefox by executing firefox.exe from the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory of the unpacked archive.
6. If your system does not use the UNIXROOT environment, you may discard the entire contents of the archive except the @unixroot/usr/lib/firefox-X.Y.Z directory (which you may move somewhere else and discard the @unixroot/usr/lib part). Note also that starting from Firefox 45.9.0, you don't need to play with LIBPATHSTRICT or use the Run! utility to start multiple copies of different Firefox or Thunderbird versions: firefox.exe does that for you.
7. If your system uses UNIXROOT, then it's best to move the entire contents of the @unixroot directory from the archive to your UNIXROOT directory (so that @unixroot/usr ends up as %UNIXROOT%\usr and so on). In this case, you will be able to start Firefox by launching %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin\firefox.exe (or just typing firefox.exe on the command line if %UNIXROOT%\usr\bin is on your PATH). Note that in non-UNIXROOT environments the launcher from @unixroot/usr/bin will not work.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-debuginfo archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 45.5.0 for OS/2 Beta 8

This is the eighth beta release of Firefox for OS/2 and OS/2-based systems which updates Firefox to a fresh release of the 45 ESR lifecycle. Beta 8 also makes it possible to start firefox.exe from any directory and run several Firefox versions in parallel without the need to use tools like run! or wrapper scripts that set BEGINLIBPATH and LIBPATHSTRICT because firefox.exe does it on its own now.

Note that starting from the previous release, we no longer support manual installation of Firefox requirements from ZIP files and therefore the corresponding information was removed from README.OS2. You should use either the Arca Noae Package Manager or the YUM command line tool to install the following packages in order to be able to use the Firefox application:

libstdc++6 nspr nss libicu pixman cairo pango fontconfig freetype libkai libvpx libjpeg-turbo libpng zlib bzip2 hunspell libcx

If you don't know how to do that, you will find more information in the Installation section of the README.OS2 file (the link to the online version of which is given below).

NOTE. In this release we temporarily disabled printing using native OS/2 printer drivers due to technical reasons. An attempt to print to any printer using the Print Dialog will cause a warning message box saying "An error occurred while printing". You may still print to PDF or to Postscript if needed (see README.OS2 for more details about printing).

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-dbgsym archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 38.8.0 for OS/2 Beta 7

This is the seventh beta release of Firefox for OS/2 and OS/2-based systems which updates Firefox to the latest release of the 38 ESR lifecycle. The Beta 7 release also fixes a couple of regressions from the previous Beta 6 release, brings the Open in New Tab functionality back, improves font rendering furthermore and enables MP4 video playback in HTML5 content using FFmpeg libraries.

Note that starting from this release, we no longer support manual installation of Firefox requirements from ZIP files and therefore the corresponding information was removed from README.OS2. You should use either the Arca Noae Package Manager or the YUM command line tool to install the following packages in order to be able to use the Firefox application:

libstdc++6 nspr nss libicu pixman cairo pango fontconfig freetype libkai

If you don't know how to do that, you will find more information in the Installation section of the README.OS2 file (the link to the online version of which is given below).

NOTE. In this release we temporarily disabled printing using native OS/2 printer drivers due to technical reasons. An attempt to print to any printer using the Print Dialog will cause a warning message box saying "An error occurred while printing". You may still print to PDF or to Postscript if needed (see README.OS2 for more details about printing).

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-dbgsym archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 38.2.1 for eCS (OS/2) Beta 6

This is the sixth beta release of Firefox for eCS (OS/2) which updates Firefox to version 38 ESR. This is another big step forward that brings a lot of improvements from the Mozilla team that we kindly adapted to OS/2.

Starting from this release, Firefox uses the original fontconfig library that we recently ported to OS/2 and that brings much better font substitution than the previous, reduced version. Another major improvement for the OS/2 platform is the switch from GPI to the Pango text layout and rendering engine that we also recently ported to OS/2. This, among other things, brings long-awaited support for the @font-face HTML attribute (aka downloadable Web fonts).

NOTE. In this release we temporarily disabled printing using native OS/2 printer drivers due to technical reasons. An attempt to print to any printer using the Print Dialog will cause a warning message box saying "An error occurred while printing". You may still print to PDF or to Postscript if needed (see README.OS2 for more details about printing).

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains a more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-dbgsym archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 31.8.0 for eCS (OS/2) Beta 5

This is the fifth beta release of Firefox for eCS (OS/2) which updates Firefox to version 31 ESR. This is a big step forward because the official Mozilla team dropped OS/2 support from the main development line between versions 24 and 31 and in this release we carefully restored it back including all previously existed OS/2 features. We also ported new Firefox code to OS/2 and fixed some old bugs. This includes reviewed JavaScript support where we finally fixed infamous crashes of Firefox on websites with heavy JavaScript usage and generally improved JavaScript performance.

This release also brings audio support in HTML5 content and in JavaScript. Note that this support requires the libkai library to be installed (otherwise you will get a message that XUL.DLL cannot be loaded). Just do yum install libkai if you use RPM/YUM or take the specified DLL from the corresponding RPM archive and place it into one of the directories on your LIBPATH:

• kai0.dll from http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/i386/i386/libkai-1.1.4-1.oc00.i386.rpm

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-dbgsym archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 24.8.1 for eCS (OS/2) Beta 4

This is the fourth beta release of Firefox for eCS (OS/2) version 24. It contains some UI fixes (makes the "Clear Recent History" dialog and most recent sites' thumbnails on the new tab canvas work again) and makes XUL.DLL finally loadable into high memory (using e.g. this tool). Also this release uses the new GCC runtime (version 4.9.2) which significantly reduces the size of executables and DLLs and the memory footprint of the running application (by about 5-6 megabytes).

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains more detailed list of changes.

The README.OS2 file contains software requirements and detailed installation instructions.

LAST MINUTE UPDATE

Unfortunately, the README file lacks references to a number of libraries required for manual installation. Here are the missing links. Take the specified DLLs from the corresponding RPM archives and place them into one of the directories on your LIBPATH:

• png1616.dll from http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/i386/i386/libpng-1.6.16-1.oc00.i386.rpm
• z.dll from http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/i386/i386/zlib-1.2.5-5.oc00.i386.rpm
• urpo.dll from http://rpm.netlabs.org/release/00/i386/i386/urpo-20150101-9.oc00.i386.rpm

There was also an error in an yum command: yum install libstdc++ is wrong and needs to be replaced by:
yum install libstdc++6

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the firefox-dbgsym archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 24.8.1 for eCS (OS/2) Beta 3

This is the third beta release of Firefox for eCS (OS/2) version 24. It contains an important fix that brings trap report generation back and also provides a new build of XUL.DLL that should be loadable into high memory (using e.g. this tool). Trap reports are very useful for the developers and loading XUL.DLL high may make more room for other heavy applications running in parallel with Firefox.

Please read the release notes of Firefox 24 Beta 2 in order to see the full list of current limitations and software prerequisites of this version.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the .symbols.zip archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.

Firefox 24.8.1 for eCS (OS/2) Beta 2

This is the second beta release of Firefox for eCS (OS/2) version 24. It contains an update from version 24.3.0 to version 24.8.1 which includes a number of performance enhancements and security fixes from the Mozilla developers. It also fixes broken spell checking functionality in text input fields on OS/2.

The CHANGES.OS2 file contains more detailed list of changes.

This is a beta release meaning that not all functions work properly. In particular, there are the following limitations:

• Due to bugs in MMPM, the current version of Firefox runs the Flash plugin in
  "in-process" (traditional) mode instead of the new OOP (out-of-process) mode
  used on other platforms. This will be fixed in future releases.
• The OpenJDK (Java) plugin is known to hang when activated (a regression of Firefox version 24). This is to be addressed in the next release.
• The @font-face HTML attribute is not yet supported. As a result, tiny boxes
  with hex numbers are displayed instead of characters on pages that use it.
• Fonts with names containing special characters (like Asian Unicode names)
  will not display correctly in the list of fonts in the Options panel.
• Mozilla apps will beep when copying more than 64 kB of text to the clipboard.
  This is to alert users that many applications (most notably the system
  editor, EPM, and applications running in VIO windows) cannot paste more
  than this.
• Other known problems can be found by following this link:
  https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/issues.
• The old list of bugs (for historical purposes, as it is mostly outdated)
  can be found by following the link "Current Open Warpzilla Bugs" on the
  OS/2 Mozilla page http://www.mozilla.org/ports/os2/.

The list of prerequisites for this version is as follows (sorry, GitHub has a surprising bug that prevents making clickable FTP links here so you have to copy-paste them):

• LIBC 0.6.5 Runtime
• Freetype Runtume

Also, if you don't use RPM/YUM, you will need the following DLLs:

• pthread v.20140425
• mmap v.20111102
• GCC 4.7.3 Runtime

If you do have RPM/YUM installed, you may still need to do yum install pthread mmap libgcc473 libstdc++ or yum update in order to run Firefox.

Please refer to README.OS2 for more information about this release and for detailed installation instructions.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

1. If you find a bug (which is likely), please create an issue at the issues page. But before you create a new issue, be sure it is not already reported by searching through the existing ones using the Search field at the top of this page.
2. When Firefox crashes it creates a trap report that may contain useful information for the developers. These reports are saved in .TRP files created in the directory where firefox.exe is installed. By default these reports contain only basic information. In order to make them even more useful (and therefore make a fix for your problem much more likely) please do the following:
   • Install the latest EXCEPTQ runtime from http://home.earthlink.net/~steve53/betas/ (currently, this one is the latest).
   • Install the Firefox symbol files by downloading the .symbols.zip archive from the link below and unzipping it to the same directory where you installed Firefox.
   • Make Firefox crash again and attach the resulting .TRP file to the issue describing your problem.