[arm] Cannot install runtime: Unsupported operating system or architecture!

[h-2]

Description

I migrated my home folder from my old (amd64) to my new (arm64) laptop. I have installted the official firefoxpwa package from the apt mirror. But I cannot install the patched runtime, because

Cannot install runtime: Unsupported operating system or architecture!

Steps to Reproduce

% firefoxpwa runtime install
09:06:07 [WARN] This will download the unmodified Mozilla Firefox and locally modify it
09:06:07 [WARN] Firefox is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0
09:06:07 [WARN] Firefox is a trademark of the Mozilla Foundation in the U.S. and other countries
09:06:07 [WARN] This project is not affiliated with the Mozilla Foundation in any way
09:06:07 [WARN] By using this project you also agree to the Firefox Privacy Notice: https://www.mozilla.org/privacy/firefox/
09:06:07 [WARN] Check the Firefox website for more details: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
09:06:07 [INFO] Downloading the runtime archive
thread 'main' panicked at src/components/runtime.rs:145:13:
Cannot install runtime: Unsupported operating system or architecture!
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

Additional Information

% uname -a
Linux HardSnapper 6.12.0-22-qcom-x1e #22-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Jan  8 15:22:58 UTC 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

% lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 24.10
Release:        24.10
Codename:       oracular

ThinkPad T14s Snapdragon.

Affected Websites

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Environment

• Operating system: Ubuntu 24.10
• System architecture: aarch64
• Desktop environment: Sway
• Installation method: DEB
• PWAsForFirefox extension version: 2.13.2
• PWAsForFirefox native version: 2.13.3
• PWAsForFirefox runtime version: none
• Firefox version: 134.0+build1-0ubuntu0.24.10.1~mt1

[filips123]

Mozilla currently doesn't provide official builds for ARM Linux, so automatic installation isn't possible.

You will have to manually copy Firefox to the correct directory from some other source (like your distro-managed Firefox). Check this for more details. Please let me know if you need help with this.

I will close this issue for now. When Mozilla adds official stable builds for ARM Linux, I will add support for downloading them automatically.

[h-2]

Really? Also not on packages.mozilla.org ?

I am currently using the "Mozilla-Team" packages at https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa which are at least somewhat official, or not?

I will try copying the files manually, but this will be a nuisance to keep up to date.

P.S.: If this stays as "not planned", it would be nice if the application itself would just tell me "The runtime cannot be installed on ARM computers. You need to follow the instructions at XYZ to install it manually.". The current error message is not really helpful and will likely bring other people to your bug-tracker 😉

[h-2]

I read my comment again, and realised that it sounds unfriendly. This was not at all intended! I appreciate the project very much. If there is anything I can do to help (like test things on arm64), please let me know!

[filips123]

Really? Also not on packages.mozilla.org ?

Currently not, at least not for stable versions. They started providing ARM64 builds for Nightly in April last year, but still haven't made them available for stable version. I guess they are still preparing their build infrastructure of testing builds. But hopefully it will be ready soon. And once the builds are available, it should be quite easy to add them to PWAsForFirefox.

I would prefer not to rely on Nightly for this, as it can break PWAsForFirefox too easily...

but this will be a nuisance to keep up to date.

I think that the version from PPA won't help here, as it has auto updates disabled, as it's normally updated through APT. PWAsForFirefox only downloads the initial version, and then expects the runtime to manage its updates itself.

it would be nice if the application itself would just tell me "The runtime cannot be installed on ARM computers. You need to follow the instructions at XYZ to install it manually.".

I think the setup page in the extension should already detect if a platform is unsupported and hide the installation button. There are also some basic installation steps under "advanced options" on the setup page:

Manually installing Firefox using package manager:

1. Install Firefox using your distro's package manager (e.g., sudo apt install firefox, sudo yum install firefox, …).
2. Copy the installed Firefox files (commonly stored in /usr/lib/firefox/) to the correct directory (see below).

The instructions could probably be better, but I'm not sure how to make them more specific, as they can depend on the user's system.

Hopefully in the future, I will also add better support for linking the system Firefox (#638 etc.) and maybe FUSE support, which should make using the distro-provided Firefox easier.

[h-2]

Thanks for your long reply! I postponed setting this up, but now I saw that arm64 binaries seem to have landed:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Firefox-136-Released

[filips123]

Automatic downloading for ARM will be added in the next version (71826df). But you can already use the ARM version if you manually download it from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/desktop-release/ and extract it into the runtime directory. This package has built-in auto updates so you should have to do it only once.

[h-2]

Thanks a lot for adding this!