Arctic Fox web browser for 10.6 (32 & 64-bit)

[snowy moon]

Some observations on AF 39.2.mac64 on OS X 10.6.5

1. During first launch a dialog came up to accept incoming connections for ALF, application layer firewall, I never had this dialog with any browser before. I chose "deny" and websites are still loading fine.

2. Strange behaviour with add-ons. After installing one add-on, regardless which (even those which do not need a restart) browser has to be restarted, otherwise no further add-ons could be installed – curiously, if you look at about:addons all (also multiple) attempts are listed with stopped progress bar for each. Workaround: restart after every single add-on install.

3. Menu item File > Restart... is not working

4. No status bar

5. Youtube works relatively fine, even without mobile user agent, but not ad-free despite having recent versions of classic uBlock Origin and ηMatrix installed, which block YT ads fine in Spiderweb.

Looking forward for next AF versions, otherwise looks good so far, thanks!

 

[Varjak]

Unfortunately, watching YouTube and a few other video sites is ALL I use it for on the Mac Mini. Still looking for a solution to that issue.

 

[snowy moon]

Unfortunately, watching YouTube and a few other video sites is ALL I use it for on the Mac Mini. Still looking for a solution to that issue.

You could try one of the Invidious instances as alternative and relatively light-weight YT front-end for ad-free watching. Beware, from time to time instances could be down or bandwidth rated.
redirect.invidious.io

Edit: Invidious doesn't work in ArcticFox, I must apologise for the confusion, it plays well in TenFourFox though. Youtube videos run ad-free in ArcticFox, when you use /embed/ URL instead of /watch?v=...

 

[cpepper2]

On my Mac (10.6.8), the 32-bit version refuses to start: Symbol not found: _strndup Referenced from: /Applications/ArcticFox_39v2_w.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
Replacing libmozglue.dylib with the one from 39.1 helps. A fine browser that helps in keeping my old computer usable!

 

[xeno74]

I compiled Arctic Fox 39.2 for Linux PowerPC today.

Download: arcticfox-39.2.linux-powerpc.tar.bz2

 

[xeno74]

Compiling Arctic Fox 39.2 for PowerPC64 on Debian/Sid PPC64

Note: Arctic Fox needs gcc-6 to build. You can find it in the powerprogress repository.

1. su -

2. Add the gpg key related to the powerprogress repository
   
   

   # wget -O - https://repo.powerprogress.org/debian/conf/public.gpg.key| apt-key add

3. Edit the list of repositories checked by apt by adding it to the /etc/apt/sources.list
   
   

   deb [arch=ppc64] https://repo.powerprogress.org/debian sid main

4. Update the apt database
   
   

   # apt-get update

5. Install the following packages with the following command:
   
   

   # apt-get install build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev autoconf2.13 yasm libegl1-mesa-dev libasound2-dev libxt-dev zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libbz2-dev libpulse-dev zip python2.7 python-dbus-dev gcc-6 g++-6

6. # exit

7. $ cp .mozconfig Arctic-Fox-39.2/

   
   .mozconfig for PPC64:
   
   

   # This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
   # License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
   # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
   
   export CC="gcc-6 -flax-vector-conversions -O3 -falign-loops=16 -falign-functions=16 -falign-labels=16 -falign-jumps=16"
   export CXX="g++-6 -flax-vector-conversions -fpermissive -O3 -falign-loops=16 -falign-functions=16 -falign-labels=16 -falign-jumps=16"
   export LDFLAGS="-latomic"
   
   mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-ff-dbg
   
   ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
   ac_add_options --disable-tests
   ac_add_options --disable-debug
   ac_add_options --disable-updater
   ac_add_options --enable-mozril-geoloc
   ac_add_options --disable-webrtc
   ac_add_options --disable-safe-browsing
   ac_add_options --disable-parental-controls
   ac_add_options --enable-release
   ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi
   ac_add_options --disable-eme
   ac_add_options --disable-gamepad
   ac_add_options --enable-dbus
   ac_add_options --disable-gio
   ac_add_options --disable-pulseaudio
   ac_add_options --enable-strip
   ac_add_options --enable-install-strip
   ac_add_options --enable-application=browser
   ac_add_options --with-branding=browser/branding/arcticfox
   ac_add_options --enable-optimize="-O2 -fno-schedule-insns2 -fno-lifetime-dse -fno-delete-null-pointer-checks"
   ac_add_options --disable-jemalloc

8. $ cd Arctic-Fox-39.2

9. $ ./mach build

10. $ ./mach run

11. $ ./mach package

    
    (Creates the self contained archive which you'll find in Arctic-Fox-39.2/obj-ff-dbg/dist)

Download: arcticfox-39.2.linux-powerpc64.tar.bz2

 

[wicknix]

40.0 is released. Mac builds now available. The repository has changed hands finally. Get it here:

Release 40.0 · rmottola/Arctic-Fox

The project has been moved from wicknix to rmottola, so this is now the main repository. A quite big release, full of fixes and enhancements. several JavaScript fixes, affecting all platforms and ...

github.com

Cheers

 

[RobJos]

40.0 is released. Mac builds now available. The repository has changed hands finally. Get it here:

Release 40.0 · rmottola/Arctic-Fox

The project has been moved from wicknix to rmottola, so this is now the main repository. A quite big release, full of fixes and enhancements. several JavaScript fixes, affecting all platforms and ...

github.com

Sounds interesting, but pray tell me, after spending 10 mns looking for it, where's the download link (Mac) in that github jungle (maybe just me getting older...?)

 

[Dronecatcher]

Sounds interesting, but pray tell me, after spending 10 mns looking for it, where's the download link (Mac) in that github jungle (maybe just me getting older...?)

At the bottom

 

[RobJos]

At the bottom

View attachment 2092656

Thanks, now that you say so I remember that's how things used to look like - except that now (in AF 27.11, but also in SpiderWeb, both 10.6.8) I'm only getting that churning wheel under Assets. I also remember that Github was giving some hassles, but in this case... that I should go and ask understanding soul to download it for me? Hmm...

 

[Dronecatcher]

that I should go and ask understanding soul to download it for me?

Which version do you need - 32 or 64bit?

 

[Dronecatcher]

Grabbed both:

32bit

64bit

 

[RobJos]

Grabbed both:

32bit

64bit

Very kind of you, but guess what - I'm getting blank pages in both browsers, even with everything OK wrt. uBlock and NoScript! I'll see after lunch if my daughter can do that for me.

 

[Amethyst1]

Very kind of you, but guess what - I'm getting blank pages in both browsers, even with everything OK wrt. uBlock and NoScript! I'll see after lunch if my daughter can do that for me.

Maybe a Linux VM with a current browser is worth setting up for these cases.

 

[RobJos]

Maybe a Linux VM with a current browser is worth setting up for these cases.

You are perfectly right. I have one such in daily use to access the increasing numbers of sites related to money matters and other instruments of social control which make use, at least in my part of the world, of fancy “Two-Way Authentication” methods that just don't work in Snow Leopard (in the old days it was Wz stuff that didn't work in the Mac, so we had to use VirtualPC). Then, I have another Linux VM that I keep as a template of sorts, with Firefox installed and kept updated, for heavy downloads from sites that are likewise allergic to SnL. Trouble is, when you use a VM like this, it swells and swells and swells endlessly. There is a way of cleaning a VM's empty space using the Mac's Terminal, but usually I prefer to make a copy of the template and overwrite the one I've used when I'm done.

That's if I really need it, which is rarely. Now, in our case, a small download, I think it's a bit preposterous (and I would never have guessed) that AF for 10.6.8 should be hosted on a site that is not functional in a 10.6.8 browser.

Anyway, my daughter got it for me from her Catalina. Let's now hope that contrary to the versions that came after 27.11 we'll be able to get it going.

 

[Amethyst1]

Now, in our case, a small download, I think it's a bit preposterous (and I would never have guessed) that AF for 10.6.8 should be hosted on a site that is not functional in a 10.6.8 browser.

That's a very good point, and I absolutely didn't mean my response to come across as one of these "Just do this instead" comments that can be interpreted as being more... condescending than actually helpful.

 

[wicknix]

Unfortunately all the version tracking sites (github, gutlab, gitea, etc) suffer with this issue on older browsers. Blame g00gle and their nonstandard web standards. ;-)

 

[nielshutch]

Just downloaded the hard-to-find version 40 (for 64-bit only), but Snow Leopard tells me:

"ArcticFox cannot be opened because of a problem.
Check with the developer to make sure ArcticFox works with this version of Mac OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and Mac OS X.
Click report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple."

I would post the log report here, in case it's useful, but this forum doesn't want me to attach a text file...

Still, it works reasonably well in El Capitan, for what that's worth.
I also got the spinning beach ball in Github, hiding Assets, when trying to get uBlock add-on. Safari couldn't stop it but, strangely, Chrome could.

 

[Amethyst1]

I would post the log report here, in case it's useful, but this forum doesn't want me to attach a text file...

Zip it up (right-click > Compress) and attach the .zip here.

 

[nielshutch]

Zip it up (right-click > Compress) and attach the .zip here.

Thanks, Amethyst, you're a gem!

 

[cpepper2]

Great, a new Arctic Fox!
Unfortunately, I cannot use it with Snow Leopard. Both 32- and 64-bit versions crash with:
Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: _strndup
Referenced from: /Applications/ArcticFox_40_x86.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
in /Applications/ArcticFox_40_x86.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
This time, just inserting an old libmozglue.dylib does not help me. I have MacPorts with libcxx (+universal) installed.
Is this common for all Snow Leopard systems or just for me?

 

[wicknix]

I'll have to look in to this. I haven't worked on AF in a long long time, and i just handed the repository over to Riccardo recently. Maybe there were changes that affect 10.6. I remember we had crash issues on 10.6 in the past.

I built both Mac builds on Lion like i always have, and it ran on there without issue.

In the meantime, i just updated interweb intel yesterday. Might want to grab that to tide you over for awhile until this issue is resolved.

Cheers

 

[cpepper2]

Fantastic news, wicknix, I will get the new InterWeb browser for sure! But, if Riccardo or you know what to change to keep Arctic Fox running with Snow Leopard, that would be great, I think all remaining Snow Leopard users love it (as we love SpiderWeb and InterWeb)! Thank you so much, wicknix and Riccardo, for keeping the browsers up to date!

 

[barracuda156]

Great, a new Arctic Fox!
Unfortunately, I cannot use it with Snow Leopard. Both 32- and 64-bit versions crash with:
Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: _strndup
Referenced from: /Applications/ArcticFox_40_x86.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
in /Applications/ArcticFox_40_x86.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
This time, just inserting an old libmozglue.dylib does not help me. I have MacPorts with libcxx (+universal) installed.
Is this common for all Snow Leopard systems or just for me?

This should save you:

PortGroup                       legacysupport 1.1

# strndup
legacysupport.newest_darwin_requires_legacy 10

Or pull it out from legacysupport if you build outside of Macports.

 

[RobJos]

Well folks, no luck at all. This time, I did something drastic. Whereas I had installed all the updates that came after 27.11 over the existing installation (attempting to take over the existing profile), this time I did a real clean install of sorts:

a. removed the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Arctic Fox
b. removed the files ~/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.arcticfox.plist and org.mozilla.arctic fox.plist (don't ask)
c. copied both the 32 and the 64-bit versions in the Applications folder itself (that's because for ever I've had all internet-related programs in a folder of their own inside Applications, but some programs don't like it.)

- on both a 2009 Core 2 Duo and a 2011 Core i7.

On both machines, I got right away the same result as ‪nielshutch‬: