Ubuntu Mozillateam

In order to not loose upstream support for nss/nspr, we are working on upgrading nss to the latest upstream release in hardy, intrepid and jaunty. The plan is to first get some pre-testing in a PPA and if that works well, go through -proposed to -updates and -security.

Although nss and nspr follow really strict ABI rules – otherwise we wouldn’t consider to do this – this kind of update needs extra care and testing; even more so, because this has special implications on distribution upgrades. For example, the version in hardy-security will be higher than the version in intrepid-release, which can lead to tricky situations.

To document the progress of our efforts, we set up a wiki page. It also gives information how to test the special implications mentioned above.

OK, so here the instructions on what needs to be done:

Prerequisites:

Hardy, intrepid and jaunty users need to upgrade nss and nspr to the latest versions in the nss3.12.3 ppa. Just enable the PPA and update your system to do that.

Testing:

1. Use firefox and friends and report any regression you find (comment or IRC).
2. There are also other applications you use that might be affected and you would want to test; to spot those, please check the output of “apt-cache rdepends libnss3-1d libnspr4-0d”. Please test those thoroughly as well.
3. Besides from upgrading real installs to latest nss/nspr from the ppa, we also need to do two extra tests with intrepid and jaunty installs – pure installs, that don’t have any security/stability updates yet. See the wiki pages “special testing” section for background on this. As usual, all tests can also be done in VMs; for most a chroot would be fine as well.

Let me know about your test results – either comment here or drop me a message in #ubuntu-mozillateam on irc.ubuntu.com.

Edit: doing this has some risks; so if you rely on a rock solid ubuntu experience, don’t do this.

There is some valuable discussion about what the multisearch extension we just added to firefox in alpha3 does and why it does it the way it does it. Instead of replying to all the threads and bugs individually we decided that its better to put the information to a central place (like this blog).

So here the basic facts on what Multisearch is:

1. First of all it’s an experiment designed for an ubuntu alpha release (meaning: this is not expected to make all happy, nor should someone expect this to be of production quality now).
2. The multisearch extension adds a new search place to your browser experience, namely: newtab; hence the name “Multisearch”.
3. The multisearch extension changes search identifiers in all four search places (homepage, awesomebar, quicksearch, newtab); also we had to switch to Google’s “Custom Search” as that was technically the most feasible way for us to get the anonymous usage patterns we are looking for in this experiment.
4. The multisearch extension can be disabled in Tools -> Addons; this was done intentionally so you can easily (and should) do this if the Custom Search interferes with your workflow.

So that’s basically what it does; imo, there is not much else to wonder ‘bout, really! Also there is by far no conspiracy, nor do we want to remove features from your google search; it’s just that for now we want the data for your usage
patterns mentioned in 3.

Anyway, I don’t want to reply to each and every claim and rumor and conspiracy theory posted around the web; but still I want to remove some understandable concerns that sprung up. So here a few more points that I think are worthwhile to mention:

• “Multisearch” (extension id: me001@canonical.com) is not intended to stay forever – at least not in its current form.
• “Multsearch” 0.0.1 does not reflect how a newtab experience would look like, if we decide to implement something like that for karmic; check out the mozilla newtab efforts to get an idea [1][2]; something like that combined with our own ideas would probably be closer to any eventual karmic newtab experience. If you like the general idea of having a useful newtab experience and want to contribute, use this event as a chance to file bugs about it. Remember to tag your bug “multisearch”, as otherwise we might not see it when reviewing all the feedback we got.
• “Multisearch” is not a well thought out name ;); it was just choosen as a project codename; we didn’t want to put much thought in it for now; also I felt using “Multisearch” is a better name than just “me001@canonical.com”.

Last but not least, I want to answer a few core concerns I picked up from the various places I found:

• “You installed this without asking/permission”: We regularly change features for software during the development release; also we add new stuff to our default installs that will get automatically installed if you opted into ubuntu-desktop; I agree that it might have been better to move this to a standalone package and seeding that through ubuntu-desktop; but then its just an intermediate thing what you see now and you can always disable it in Tools -> Addons for the time being.
• “You are trying to make money from me”: For now nobody wants to make money from you. If we wanted to make money putting this in an early alpha release would probably be a pretty bad business decision. Even if we wanted to make money from you, we should still clarify what “we” means here; it basically means “ubuntu”: and even though it might practically mean canonical its obvious that getting a constant revenue stream will help to fund more talented developers and events to keep ubuntu the best distribution that exists.
• “Custom Search delivers an inferior search experience”: this is true, but using the “Custom Search” bits was the most feasible way of pursuing this experiment for us; we are also sure that this experiment will be of a great longterm benefit for the ubuntu project as a whole, so please be patient.

Jaunty:

11:11 < asac> we only use official branding for our default browser
11:11 < asac> (default for jaunty is 3.0)
11:11 < asac> also we explicitly want both to be installable side by side
11:11 < asac> and same branding would make them indistinguishable on your desktop
11:11 < asac> another point to consider is that branding is part of top-level UI
11:11 < asac> and changing (top-level) UI is not something we do in stable/security updates anyway

Karmic:

12:12 < asac> we only use official branding for our default browser
12:12 < asac> good news is that firefox 3.5 will become our default browser in karmic soon
12:12 < asac> - which is when we will do the branding switch
12:12 < asac> if you are curious, there is a blueprint for transitioning to firefox 3.5 by default
12:12 < asac> it is called desktop-karmic-firefox-3.5 and has lots of TODO's
12:12 < asac> wanna help? join #ubuntu-mozillateam on freenode!

Update: firefox 3.5 is not called Shiretoko in karmic anymore. Thx!

Update: please read http://www.asoftsite.org/s9y/archives/161-FAQ-Why-is-my-firefox-3.5-still-called-Shiretoko.html#c927 before commenting on this post.

(See: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-karmic-firefox-3.5)

It’s definitely hot news today: firefox 3.5 was released – you can finally stop holding your breath!

Also checkout the release notes or get an overview on what is new in this great release.

So after all the partying, you might end up wondering: “Great, Where can I get it for ubuntu now?”

As usual, the answer depends on what Ubuntu version you are running:

Karmic and Jaunty users:

• just install the currently available firefox-3.5 (and firefox-3.5-gnome-support) package(s) from universe and wait. The final bits will be there really soon.
• If you want to have them earlier, enable ubuntu-mozilla-security PPA where the bits will land first. Enabling this PPA also will help us test security updates before they get rolled to the masses in future; so if you don’t mind a slightly increased risk of breakage keep this enabled; in the unlikely event that you see a regression from this archive, instantly report them to the ubuntu mozillateam.
• If the security PPA is still not bleeding edge enough for you, go for the daily PPA, a great service that is run by ubuntu mozillateam for quite some time now.

Hardy or Intrepid users:

• stay tuned and wait for further announcements. We haven’t decided where to make the bits available yet.
• In any case, if you don’t mind running daily builds you can use the ubuntu-mozilla-daily PPA now.

Update: firefox-3.5 and xulrunnner-1.9.1 available in karmic and in jaunty-security / jaunty-updates (yay!).

Hi,

thanks to Fabien we have now a daily PPA for bleeding edge mozilla packages set up and running.

A main reason to track those daily builds is to notice packaging or upstream regressions as they come. Its much easier and more efficient to fix bugs if we have a narrow regression window than debugging something whose commit we cannot easily spot.

To get things started we added firefox-3.1 (xulrunner-1.9.1) and firefox-3.2 (xulrunner-1.9.2) to our daily build bot for now; more packages will be added based on demand and time.

Fortunately, the ubuntu mozillateam uses packaging techniques having backporters in mind and hence can easily provide the same builds for all “current” ubuntu releases (meaning: hardy, intrepid, jaunty are supported for now).

If you are curious and want to track daily builds, subscribe to the “ubuntu-mozilla-daily” PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive.

Feel free to spread this around and encourage advanced users and mozilla fans to track that PPA, but remember that the daily packages are auto built without much testing and hence you might end up in unexpected bugs. So, be prepared to downgrade to the previous daily when that happens.

Also keep in mind that you shouldn’t file regressions of those daily packages in launchpad. Instead come to #ubuntu-mozillateam and let us know directly (alternatively send a mail to mailto:ubuntu-mozillateam@lists.ubuntu.com).

Enjoy!

Ever wondered how to get your plugin in the ubufox plugin finder wizard? Or ever asked yourself, what the Xb-Npp- fields mean that most plugin packages have in their debian/control entry? Even wondered which directory to link your plugin .so files to in order to make them available for all the packaged mozilla apps?

To give you some answers, there finally is a wiki page about the most important packaging magics you should remember when dealing with mozilla plugin packages in ubuntu:

Read: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins

Just ask if there are open points you would like to see addressed or clarified. We obviously can populate that wiki page with even more valuable content. Or just do it yourself

Please forgive that these go out so late … but as a matter of fact I tried to be on vacation .

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Meetings/Minutes/2008-11-02

Note that we have quite a few open Actions; so enough food for anyone who wants to help out in ubuntu mozillaland.

on friday, the great fta uploaded xulrunner-1.9.1 and firefox-3.1 to the ubuntu universe archive (jaunty). It took the weekend to get archive admin attention, but now it seems like it will show up on your mirror quite soon (hugs to all involved here).

Similar to what we did for firefox 3.0 in gutsy, we allow you to install this package next to your “production” firefox 3.0 install. This is done, by creating a copy of your existing firefox-3.0 profile the first time you start firefox-3.1. So don’t be scared to test this, just because you fear to bust your profile. Once 3.1 is final we will present you with a choice again where you can decide which profile to use in future.

A few more words on bugs:
If you have pending firefox-3.0 bugs that you feel would be important to get fixed for 3.1, please add the firefox-3.1 target to your bug and state which package version you are using.

From now on we will update the firefox-3.1 and xulrunner-1.9.1 package quite frequently, so if you file bugs, remember to check if they still apply if you receive an update.

Also to make bug triaging more easily, I would like to remind everyone that mozilla packages have a normalized bug description format ... which will allow us to swiftly forward your bugs to upstream on your behalf.

Enjoy!

Last week the Ubuntu Mozillateam had a scheduled meeting in #ubuntu-meeting on freenode.

During that meeting we mostly defined the ACTIONs and outstanding mozilla tasks for intrepid.

Thanks to Sasa Bodiroza (jazzva), the Minutes are now available for public consumption.

A few days ago, the ubuntu mozilla-extension-dev team published their first monthly report for Jul 08.

Thanks for all contributors that helped us to get where we are.

If you are interested in helping out on extensions, read the extensions team wiki page and start to lurk on #ubuntu-mozillateam on irc.freenode.net, our team will be surely be happy to help you and answer your questions.

Hi again,

first I would like to thank all that helped out testing the ffox 2.0.0.15
security updates a few weeks ago. We now have new batch of firefox
security updates going out soon. Please help testing them and give us
feedback through the mozilla qa tracker (http://mozilla.qa.ubuntu.com).

As usual, we need testers for all supported ubuntu releases. Those are:

To participate, visit the mozilla qa site (http://mozilla.qa.ubuntu.com)
and click on the package version you want to test and submit results for
the test-cases listed there.

The built packages are available from my PPA and you can find
instructions and the sources.list entries required on top of the
mozilla QA tracker page.

If you don’t have a native install of the above ubuntu releases, using a
VM or chroot is perfectly fine as well. Instructions on how to setup
VirtualBox can be found at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox.

As usual we expect it to be quite difficult to find testers for dapper,
feisty and gutsy. So if you have a few spare cycles and want to make a
difference, jump in, setup a VM and help out!

As always, in case you have questions or run into issues, feel free to
ask on #ubuntu-mozillateam or #ubuntu-testing on irc.freenode.net.

Thanks in advance for your help and happy testing!

mozilla is preparing an update for their firefox 2.0 product and the Ubuntu MozillaTeam [0] needs you to test the ubuntu candidate builds [1].

The testing is done by running a test plan [3] and submitting the results to the mozilla QA site [1]; in addition, just use the builds and look for regressions while doing your daily work.

If you need help, just join #ubuntu-testing or #ubuntu-mozillateam on irc.freenode.net and ask your questions.

Thanks a lot!

Note: We are looking for new testers on all supported ubuntu releases. That’s currently dapper, feisty, gutsy and hardy. In particular we have a lack of dapper and feisty testers and your contribution on testing those releases would be highly appreciated. So, if you want to help, but don’t have such a system installed (anymore), consider to setup a chroot or a VM (try virtualbox [2]).

[0] – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/
[1] – http://mozilla.qa.ubuntu.com
[2] – virtual box instructions are https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/VirtualBox
[3] – Testplan: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/QA

UPDATE: – I found out, that this mail went out to much more than just those who previously have contributed to the ubuntu QA tracker. I am sorry and apologize for hitting the wrong button. To compensate you for this minor annoyance, I offer free hugs in #ubuntu-mozillateam (just today) to everyone who received this mail by accident and shows up

Hi,

I feel thrilled to re-announce that we have a Ubuntu MozillaTeam meeting in #ubuntu-meeting on irc.freenode.net today!

The meeting starts at 1800 UTC and we have a proposed Agenda. If you have anything mozilla related you would like to discuss during the meeting, go ahead and add your agenda item to that list.

cu in a few.

In case you didn’t notice: firefox 3 was just released to the world and to hardy-updates.

Champagne!

Some might have read the breathtaking news; if not, here the delicious announcement: http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/11/coming-tuesday-june-17th-firefox-3/. Rock on Mozilla!

@ubuntu: help and test our packages in hardy-proposed now … if all goes well we might be a able to get those bits to hardy-updates on the same day.

Otherwise, prepare for party!