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Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

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Wheelerof4te
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Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#1 Post by Wheelerof4te »

In order to help the Debian developer community to decide whether to switch to Wayland or stay on X for Debian 10's release, I call for this community to help test Firefox on Wayland. Firefox is officially and optionally available as Wayland-native application as of version 65.

I have Firefox 67 running native and smoothly on Wayland using Intel i915 driver. First, take a look at how Wayland is structured and how it differs from X here: https://wayland.freedesktop.org/archite ... ng_toc_j_0

So what we get here is direct rendering by the mesa lib and drivers, using DRM drivers and KMS from the kernel. I won't go into details, everything is explained in the above link. As a result, rendering under Wayland is faster, smoother and pixel-perfect, meaning no tearing. Just like any other modern compositor (Windows 7+'s dwm.exe, Mac OS's Quartz, whatever Android uses).

So far, I didn't encounter any major bugs, but this is only my use-case under Broadwell 8th gen graphics. I would like to hear from this community their experiences with this, as most of use a browser, and having Wayland-native option puts us closer to the Wayland-only desktop.

Buster is currently using FF 60, next ESR version is 68, and it should be ready for Wayland users. In the meantime, you can download the v67 tarball from Mozilla's site and test.
To make Firefox use Wayland, add env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 right after Exec line in firefox.desktop file. Like this:

Code: Select all

Exec=env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox %u

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#2 Post by CwF »

If Firefox on wayland is 'THE' test for switching away from X, I've picked the wrong OS.

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#3 Post by Wheelerof4te »

I am not the official or unofficial Debian developer. I am simply an user interested in future of Linux desktop with Wayland.
Buster is currently in testing phase, so my call is valid. We can help the developers choose now.
Or we can ignore this issue until Bullseye, when we'll have this same discussion.

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#4 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Wheelerof4te wrote: To make Firefox use Wayland, add env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 right after Exec line in firefox.desktop file. Like this:

Code: Select all

Exec=env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox %u
I'm sure you meant to add that if you have downloaded Firefox, you have to start it like this:

Code: Select all

$ MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ~/Downloads/firefox-67.0/firefox/firefox
or with whatever location you chose.

I tested Firefox with Xeyes and yes the eyes don't move over the Firefox Window when started as above, and they do when started normally.

Seems to work OK, except when un-maximising and re-maximising the window, when for a second it looks like a TV screen from my childhood, full of fuzzy horizontal lines.

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#5 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

How does running a version of Firefox that will never be included in buster help the developers?

The next ESR version will be added to buster when Mozilla release it, we can test it then.
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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#6 Post by milomak »

FreewheelinFrank wrote:
Wheelerof4te wrote: To make Firefox use Wayland, add env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 right after Exec line in firefox.desktop file. Like this:

Code: Select all

Exec=env MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox %u
I'm sure you meant to add that if you have downloaded Firefox, you have to start it like this:

Code: Select all

$ MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ~/Downloads/firefox-67.0/firefox/firefox
or with whatever location you chose.

I tested Firefox with Xeyes and yes the eyes don't move over the Firefox Window when started as above, and they do when started normally.

Seems to work OK, except when un-maximising and re-maximising the window, when for a second it looks like a TV screen from my childhood, full of fuzzy horizontal lines.
is this not something that can be set in about:config?

how does one actually run wayland?
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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#7 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

milomak wrote: is this not something that can be set in about:config?
Searched for "wayland" and nothing in about:config.
milomak wrote: how does one actually run wayland?
It's an option for Gnome in Stretch and the default in Testing.

Edit: overlooked second question.

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#8 Post by Wheelerof4te »

milomak wrote:is this not something that can be set in about:config?
It's not that simple. See above answers for a way to run Firefox on Wayland.
Setting

Code: Select all

export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
in your .xsessionrc will also do the job.
milomak wrote:how does one actually run wayland?
One does not actually run Wayland itself. You run Wayland compositors. GNOME is one of those compositors, mutter to be more precise.

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#9 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Wheelerof4te wrote:Setting

Code: Select all

export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
in your .xsessionrc will also do the job.
No it won't, that file is only read for X sessions.

The clue is in the name :mrgreen:

Also:

Image
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Wheelerof4te
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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#10 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:No it won't, that file is only read for X sessions.
Now I feel dumb.
Please use whatever display server you prefer.
:mrgreen:

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Re: Call for testing Firefox on GNOME/Wayland

#11 Post by n_hologram »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:How does running a version of Firefox that will never be included in buster help the developers?
I'd have to agree. This sounds like it will better serve the Firefox support forums. Was the intent supposed to be a general garnering of support for a Firefox/Wayland marriage?
So far, I didn't encounter any major bugs, but this is only my use-case under Broadwell 8th gen graphics.
Broadwell 8th gen was released around 2017ish. That's quite recent. I believe most people could intuit that a modern compositor and a modern browser works fine on modern hardware.
I call for this community to help test Firefox on Wayland.
Sure, but first, I'd like some reassurance that "the Wayland-only desktop" will run on older, affordable, libre, and embedded hardware.
https://catfox.life/2019/03/12/further- ... n-wayland/
I said in my article: “Wayland compositors universally require OpenGL profiles that older hardware, less expensive hardware, libre hardware, and most embedded chipsets do not provide.” GLESv2 is still not going to work on framebuffers, libre FPGAs, or embedded chipsets. At least, not without LLVMPipe, which would use a lot of CPU time and power on the hardware where it’d be relevant. That said, Drew wrote in his response: “writing an fbdev backend is totally possible and I’d merge it in wlroots if someone put in the time.”
Otherwise, it's not worth my time.
bester69 wrote:There is nothing to install in linux, from time to time i go to google searching for something fresh to install in linux, but, there is nothing
the crunkbong project: scripts, operating system, the list goes on...

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