Boot to Gecko (B2G)

Boot to Gecko aims to create a complete, standalone operating system for the open web.

You can read more about B2G here:

http://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/B2G_OS

Follow us on twitter: @Boot2Gecko

http://twitter.com/Boot2Gecko

Join the Mozilla Platform mailing list:

http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.platform

and talk to us on Matrix:

https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#b2g:mozilla.org

Discuss with Developers:

Discourse: https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/c/b2g-os-participation

Build environment

As of today, only Linux hosts are supported.

You can read more about it on the following page :

https://source.android.com/setup/build/initializing

Building and running the android-10 emulator x86_64

1. Fetch the code: REPO_INIT_FLAGS="--depth=1" ./config.sh emulator-10-x86_64
2. Setup your environment to fetch the custom NDK: export LOCAL_NDK_BASE_URL='https://packages.preprod.kaiostech.com/ndk/android-ndk'
3. Install Gecko dependencies: cd gecko && ./mach bootstrap, choose option 1 (Boot2Gecko).
4. Build: ./build.sh
5. Run the emulator: source build/envsetup.sh && lunch aosp_arm-userdebug && emulator -writable-system -selinux permissive

Buiding for devices

Google Pixel 3a (sargo)

1. Fetch the code: REPO_INIT_FLAGS="--depth=1" ./config.sh sargo. This will also download the binary blobs for the device if they are not already present.
2. Setup your environment to fetch the custom NDK: export LOCAL_NDK_BASE_URL='ftp://ftp.kaiostech.com/ndk/android-ndk'
3. Install Gecko dependencies: cd gecko && ./mach bootstrap, choose option 1 (Boot2Gecko).
4. Build: ./build.sh
5. Boot the Android system, go to settings, enable developer mode and enable OEM Unlock
6. Reboot into fastboot mode and issue
   • fastboot flashing unlock
   • fastboot flashing unlock_critical
7. Flash: ./flash_sargo.sh

At boot time, you might need adb shell setenforce 0 for B2G to boot (flash_sargo.sh does it).

OnePlus X (onyx)

1. Fetch the code: REPO_INIT_FLAGS="--depth=1" ./config.sh onyx
2. Setup your environment to fetch the custom NDK: export LOCAL_NDK_BASE_URL='ftp://ftp.kaiostech.com/ndk/android-ndk'
3. Install Gecko dependencies: cd gecko && ./mach bootstrap, choose option 1 (Boot2Gecko).
4. Apply patch: ./patcher/patcher.sh
5. Build: ./build.sh
6. Boot the Android system, go to settings, enable developer mode and enable OEM Unlock
7. Reboot into fastboot mode
8. Flash:
   • fastboot erase userdata
   • fastboot flash system $gonk_path/system.img
   • fastboot flash boot $gonk_path/boot.img

If need to output a zip ROM file, you can use ./build.sh dist DIST_DIR=dist_output instead of ./build.sh in step 5.

Pixel 6a (bluejay)

Here are the steps to follow for this device:

• Make sure your device is up to date: Read https://developers.google.com/android/images#updating_pixel_6_pixel_6_pro_and_pixel_6a_devices_to_android_13_for_the_first_time first!
• The bluejay build is based on Android 13, which uses the Android NDK r25b and details can be found here
• Configure your build with ./config.sh bluejay
• Build with ./build.sh <target>

To flash your build, you can create a distributable archive with ./create_bluejay_dist.sh and run the flash.sh script it contains. This is Linux-only for now.

B2G Generic System Images (B2G-GSI)

More detail of which device is supported and which type for your device.

Build B2G-GSI base on Android 10

1. Fetch the code: REPO_INIT_FLAGS="--depth=1" ./config.sh b2g_gsi

2. Setup your environment to fetch the custom NDK: export LOCAL_NDK_BASE_URL='ftp://ftp.kaiostech.com/ndk/android-ndk'

3. Install Gecko dependencies: cd gecko && ./mach bootstrap, choose option 1 (Boot2Gecko).

4. Build: ./build-gsi.sh [your_device_type_name] systemimage

   type:

   • gsi_arm64_ab (arm64 partitionA/B)
   • gsi_arm64_a (arm64 partitionA)
   • gsi_arm_ab (arm partitionA/B)
   • gsi_arm_a (arm partitionA)

5. Flash: Follow the steps from click it or use the ./create_gsi_dist.sh script to create a self-contained archive with the image and flashing tools.

Build B2G-GSI base on Android 13

1. Preparations：Download the Android NDK r25b and install Rust and protoc, and details can be found here
2. Fetch the code: REPO_INIT_FLAGS="--depth=1" ./config.sh b2g_gsi-13
3. Build it: ./build-gsi.sh gsi_arm64_ab systemimage
4. Flash: Follow the steps from click it or use the ./create_gsi_dist.sh script to create a self-contained archive with the image and flashing tools.

Re-building your own NDK

Because it's using a different c++ namespace than the AOSP base, we can't use the prebuilt NDK from Google. If you can't use the one built by KaiOS, here are the steps to build your own:

1. Download the ndk source: repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b ndk-r21d
2. Get the code: repo sync -c --no-clone-bundle
3. change __ndk to __ in external/libcxx/include/__config:

diff --git a/include/__config b/include/__config
index 961acdb..b7ce8e3 100644
--- a/include/__config
+++ b/include/__config
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@
 #define _LIBCPP_CONCAT(_LIBCPP_X,_LIBCPP_Y) _LIBCPP_CONCAT1(_LIBCPP_X,_LIBCPP_Y)
 
 #ifndef _LIBCPP_ABI_NAMESPACE
-# define _LIBCPP_ABI_NAMESPACE _LIBCPP_CONCAT(__ndk,_LIBCPP_ABI_VERSION)
+# define _LIBCPP_ABI_NAMESPACE _LIBCPP_CONCAT(__,_LIBCPP_ABI_VERSION)
 #endif
 
 #if __cplusplus < 201103L

4. Apply this change to prebuilts/ndk:

diff --git a/platform/sysroot/usr/include/android/log.h b/platform/sysroot/usr/include/android/log.h
index 512c7cd..b2c902b 100644
--- a/platform/sysroot/usr/include/android/log.h
+++ b/platform/sysroot/usr/include/android/log.h
@@ -131,36 +131,6 @@ int __android_log_vprint(int prio, const char* tag, const char* fmt, va_list ap)
 void __android_log_assert(const char* cond, const char* tag, const char* fmt, ...)
     __attribute__((__noreturn__)) __attribute__((__format__(printf, 3, 4)));
 
-/**
- * Identifies a specific log buffer for __android_log_buf_write()
- * and __android_log_buf_print().
- */
-typedef enum log_id {
-  LOG_ID_MIN = 0,
-
-  /** The main log buffer. This is the only log buffer available to apps. */
-  LOG_ID_MAIN = 0,
-  /** The radio log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_RADIO = 1,
-  /** The event log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_EVENTS = 2,
-  /** The system log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_SYSTEM = 3,
-  /** The crash log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_CRASH = 4,
-  /** The statistics log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_STATS = 5,
-  /** The security log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_SECURITY = 6,
-  /** The kernel log buffer. */
-  LOG_ID_KERNEL = 7,
-
-  LOG_ID_MAX,
-
-  /** Let the logging function choose the best log target. */
-  LOG_ID_DEFAULT = 0x7FFFFFFF
-} log_id_t;
-
 /**
  * Writes the constant string `text` to the log buffer `id`,
  * with priority `prio` and tag `tag`.

5. Build the ndk: python ndk/checkbuild.py --no-build-tests
6. The build will end up in out/dist.

Note on building B2G which is base on Android 13

The bluejay and the B2G-GSI A13 build is based on Android 13, which use the Android NDK r25b. Please set up the environment for the following steps:

• Download the new patched NDK from https://bafybeics7ghfvyvjaumpr6j7vvn47d62yi5o4iaa7do3zbeyhkrjkanxia.ipfs.cf-ipfs.com/android-ndk-0-linux-x86_64.zip and install it in your $HOME/.mozbuild directory.
• Install protoc from https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases (eg. protoc-21.7-linux-x86_64.zip).
• Install Rust (https://rustup.rs/) and make sure you have the 1.63 toolchain installed with the aarch64-linux-android target.
• Run this command to workaround a Rust toolchain issue (see https://github.com/godot-rust/godot-rust/pull/920/files):

  find -L ${BUILD_WITH_NDK_DIR} -name libunwind.a -execdir sh -c 'echo "INPUT(-lunwind)" > libgcc.a' \;