Firefox: XtremeSystems Edition

[masterofpuppets]

I have recently got obsessed with compiling tweaked Firefox builds, and thought it would be a good idea if we had an ultra-tweaked, XtermeSystems edition, with XS icons, branding and GTK (or Win32) theme. I can't compile it for Win32 yet, but I have instructions on doing so, and tools for it. I will release a stable build (from the Aviary branch, which are usually candidates for the next stable release) and a more Xtreme, slightly buggy release (from the trunk tree, which is development for Firefox1.1/Mozilla1.8). I will compile an optimised release for different processors (including Pentium 4, P4 Prescott, AMD K7 based, AMD64 based (when I finish my FX55, so I can compile it properly) and possibly for Mac/PowerPC. I won't be releasing any XS branded builds until I have worked out what I can tweak for each architecture, and OS, but so far I have build a Pentium 4 build which is compiled with gcc4 and the O2 flag (optimiser level 2). If that gets me any performance boost, I will start branding the releases. Oh, I will also hardcode tweaks like HTTP pipelining, and other tweaks into the binary. I might also make a dialup binary (with dialup tweaks) and a DSL/Cable binary (with some DSL tweaks). Sound good?

[masterofpuppets]

Ok, the first build (Pentium 4) is nearly ready. All of my builds will be proprietry to the processor. So, the pentium4 one will REQUIRE a pentium4 CPU, the athlon4 or athlon-tbird build will also require the specified CPU. So I may need volunteers to benchmark certain builds for me. Just make sure ya got the Linux handy, since Win32 builds won't be ready yet.

[Mr_Slinky]

that sounds gggggg..reat i am glad to see there are more of the M$ haters out there granted i am writing this from a windows machiene but i would be intrested in testing it i only have mandrake 10.1 community/windows on my dual xeons right now so let me know when its out

[masterofpuppets]

Pentium 4 build complete! Features include:

XtremeSystems graphics & useragent string

Hard-configured tweaks

optimized with -O3, -march=pentium4, -mtune=pentium4, -mfpmath=sse, -msse, -msse2 and -mmmx, to take full advabtage of Pentium4's instruction sets.

I am now building a generic i686 build, with no extra instruction sets, then I will do the following builds: athlon (slot A to t'bird), athlon XP, k8 (A64, can't build properly yet!) and for a laugh, Pentium3. Here's some screens of Pentium4 build. No downloads yet, until I can get some more bandwidth. Oh, and thankyou to Kazoo for letting me use the official XS logo!

[chunkylover77]

Looks cool mop. So no go on A64?

[masterofpuppets]

Eventually I will. But no more builds on my P4 now, I think condensation has taken the life of my AGP slot :( I think it may have attacked my CPU too, cause just before it froze up, GCC produced loads of errors. If it's attacked my RAM too I think I'm gonna throw the junk from a 100 story building.

[IvanAndreevich]

And does your optimized P4 version pwn the generic Firefox?

[masterofpuppets]

Yep, in the official i686 1.0.3 build (eww, release builds) I get 1.9secs in scragz table test, in my build, well, just look at the screenies! :) Although, I got 1.6secs with my P4 build by luck once.

[IvanAndreevich]

Do a 64-bit build will ya

[masterofpuppets]

I don't think you've been reading: I can't do a PROPER 64-bit enabled build until I have a working 64-bit box. I could compile a non-64-bit K8 (A64) build, but there would be no 64-bit optimisations. But I will try and do some more builds when I fix everything. And, no windows builds until all of my Linux builds have any improvement in their native architecture.

[Bennah]

I love the idea, great idea and good work to get underway.

This takes alot of work and designing I bet so it shouldnt be rushed ;)

:toast:

[Mr_Slinky]

I love the idea, great idea and good work to get underway.

This takes alot of work and designing I bet so it shouldnt be rushed ;)

:toast:

very good point design and implementation would take a lot of time to do anything this big. So dont rush yourself!! If you need any help let us know what we can do to try to help you! cheers mate :toast:

[GoodOmens]

Wow neat! I can't wait for the AmD64 build!!

[nstabl]

very cool!!

[rick_fx]

Great idea :cool:

[kiwi]

Hehe, nice. Waiting some build for A64 :D

[DeltZ]

there there will be no 32 bit intel build?:(

[masterofpuppets]

Dude, didn't you read the first post? I am testing it with a 32-bit Intel build. No 64-bit Intel build though, since I have no 64-bit Intel chips, or have any intention of owning one until they bring out the next dual core (the current one is just an SMP setup on one PCB, pff).

[DeltZ]

yeah but i wasn't sure what happened concerning your compresser evaporator problem with condensation and a puddle on AGP slot thingy.
You finding many bugs? how near is it to final release (taking into consideration you're not rushing and taking it carefully..)

[Disposibleteen]

cant wait for windows, let us know when its done.

[trakslacker]

excellent idea. I'm very much looking forward to an A64 version!

Take your time with this, and thanks a lot for all your hard work! :thumbsup:

[Mr_Slinky]

question where do you have the source code so we can test this out... i would like to try to see if it works well with different pairs of xeons.

[zabomb4163]

when will the windows version be released

[BigDov]

When it's done and ready to roll for Win32 and AthlonXP, I'll definitely use it! :D

[masterofpuppets]

Windows version will be out when I've finished my Linux builds, since I've never compiled a Mozilla app before. I am still not sure yet whether to use Visual Studio or GCC+Cygwin for compiling yet. But I hear GCC+Cygwin will produce a faster binary, plus, I know every optimization for GCC so I will use that. It's technically not my own release, as such. It's a build of the Firefox 1.1 beta (trunk) with Mmoy's Fx patches (ported to Linux, but I will also use em for Windows) and CPU optimizations which just take advantage of x86 extensions added by Intel and AMD, plus all of the standard binary optimizations. Anyone can get the source-code to the trunk I'm using. Just checkout the 20050422 source from mozilla's CVS server (instructions on mozilla.org).

DeltZ, my Max 3 is still alive and well except from the AGP MOSFET's being fried. I have a IC7-G Max 2 replacing it now, just sorting out insulation (and trying to mount it without the CPU falling out of the socket cause of the "grease" ;)). The latest build I did is the one in my sig, but I won't release it until all of the Linux and Windows builds are working. I may need volunteers to compile a couple of Windows builds, but I'll ask for help when I need it, not now, and I'll give any volunteers detailed and precise instructions so they don't get anything wrong ;)

[winterburnd]

*bump*

Take as long as you need to on those builds. :woot:

[masterofpuppets]

Bad news, after working with some MozillaZine members, it isn't currently possible to make a "stable" or functional Windows x64 build. Looks like everyone will have to join the Unix crowd to get x86_64 action! In other news, 2 couple of Linux builds are ready for download, one for SSE2/i686 and one for SSE2/P4. I have a few more to upload (a new P4 build, SSE/i686, and a generic i686, with Athlon/AthlonXP and possibly non-64bit A64 builds until I get a functional 64bit compiling system) and after that I'll try to get Visual Studio compiling it properly. I really can't be bothered to setup Cygwin (so I can run GCC on Windows) and sort out all of it's problems.

[rcofell]

:up: Thanks for the update and keep up the good work.

[Kjaks]

Exciting stuff! What about a Dothan edition? We all know that Dothan is the fastest cpu rendering web sites in FF, especially the overclocked ones ;)

[Order]

Yeah, I'd like to see a Dothan version for my laptop :).

[Ugly n Grey]

nice work man :)

[masterofpuppets]

Err this thread is considered "deprecated" now since I don't spend my free time compiling Firefox after Firefox after Firefox anymore :P If you people really want to try this thing, I'll start working on it again, I think I saved all my chrome files containing the XS branding. Dothan edition wouldn't do anything since there isn't any new instructions besides SSE/SSE2 which I can flip on with the -msse* flags anyway.

[masterofpuppets]

Also, you won't be seeing a Windows build for a LOOOOOOOOONG time since: 1. I don't have Windows, and 2. Even if I did, I'd have no intention of ever using it. But I'll see what I can do.

[Order]

No worries ;)
Your effort for the other devs is still greatly appreciated.

[unclean]

Hey, nice idea, i could compile up a 64-bit Linux build if you'd like?

EDIT: Ohhh, and some Free and Open (and even Net) BSD builds too?

[masterofpuppets]

Yeah some BSD builds would be nice, perhaps Solaris too? Hell, if I had some help I could get this thing compiled on some more "exotic" architectures. When I have time I'll send you my Firefox source tarball with "custom" branding for XS. The only rules are that you stick to my set of specified CFLAGS, and use GCC 3.4.4 SPECIFICLY! GCC 3.4.4 is a giant improvement over 3.3.*.

[unclean]

Yar, my good friend runs UNIX on RISC/PPC/SPARC2/StrongARM and a couple of other archs, I'll see what he can do for those as well ;)

I've got a Sun E4000 server w/Solaris i can most probably sort a build out for as well.

[Majistic]

yeah I like the idea

[eliminate]

yeah if you need any help I have a FreeBSD box doing nothing here. It has GCC 3.4.4 and I will agree to follow your compiling flags. :cool: Good luck with the other archs

[Reznik Akime]

Sounds great. Heres hopin for that Prescott optimized Windows version. :D

[Xyus89]

oftopic:

I'm number 2 in top 5 windows xp/firefox :) @ 2350mhz (I can hit 2650mhz)
6.53 seconds

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/47/nr2653edit1ny.jpg
If you want my tweakz I'll post them in the next reply.

xyus

[masterofpuppets]

Look, there will NOT be any builds for ages anyway. Don't request any until I say that I have enough free time. I promise I'll do some builds soon!

[Plague_oc]

just curious how are you making these skins?