[Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

lenni · 2007-12-12 21:46:11

I might be a little fussy when it comes to fonts but I have the feeling that the beta of FF3 does not honour Gnome's subpixel rendering settings. I'm seeing this particularly in the user interface not so much in the rendered pages. Has anyone else observed this or am I just paranoid?

Does anyone know about a patch for this? There are a number of font-related patches applied to the FF2 Arch build, but they seem to be about pango.

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/13473/

Last edited by lenni (2008-01-03 16:56:47)

oliwer · 2007-12-12 23:42:22

What version do you have exactly ? I've read bad things about FF3 under beta2pre8.

lenni · 2007-12-13 02:06:42

Hmm, good question. I'm running the 3.0b2pre-1 build that is in AUR. This page

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ … est-trunk/

states that there is a beta 3 out, right? Maybe the problem will be solved there...

oliwer · 2007-12-13 11:18:03

Yeah well it's bit early to talk bout beta3. The beta2 will be available in late december so I guess beta3 won't be out before late january. But of course if you use the nightlies it doesn't matter.

BTW did the latest nightly fixed your problem ?

lenni · 2007-12-29 21:37:43

I found the culprit and a solution. Firefox 3 uses its own cairo version instead of my (patched) system one.

When building Fx3 the following build option needs to be enabled: "--enable-system-cairo"

If only I knew how to do that. Any ideas?

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-29 22:43:34)

skottish · 2007-12-29 22:04:13

The mozconfig file that's part of the AUR tarball has the compile options. Adding:

ac_add_options --with-system-cairo

to the file should work.

Note: makepkg will fail if you change that file because of md5sums. Delete that line out of the 'source' array to build.

kishd · 2007-12-29 22:09:13

I think that should be

ac_add_options --enable-system-cairo

skottish · 2007-12-29 22:16:57

Yes, of course. Thanks. Really it just need to be uncommented.

Last edited by skottish (2007-12-29 22:17:51)

fwojciec · 2007-12-29 22:21:37

But it requires cairo 1.5.4, which is the current "preview" version. I guess you'd have to update the cairo package manually before compiling firefox with it.

lenni · 2007-12-29 22:53:11

Is there a LCD patch for that preview version? Or has it merged upstream? I'm rather fond of the improved hinting...

Edit: I'm going to try cairo-ubuntu from AUR. I'm not sure what exactly the Ubuntu patch does but the version is 1.5.4.

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-29 23:07:44)

skottish · 2007-12-29 23:00:33

The cairo-ubuntu package in AUR has a version that's new enough for Firefox3 with the LCD patch. The newer Cairo versions are considered to be buggy though.

lenni · 2007-12-30 00:18:03

If they are buggy why does Firefox 3 use them?

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-30 00:20:35)

skottish · 2007-12-30 00:28:13

lenni wrote:

If they are buggy why does Firefox 3 use them?

Honestly, Firefox3 is very buggy. I've found many things that aren't working properly. I suppose the idea is that the bugs will be worked out of it and it's supporting libraries before the final release. After all, it's still in beta.

lenni · 2007-12-30 17:13:50

I was downloading the following build: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … ns=&SeB=nd

However, I can't find a mozconfig file. I also looked in the source tarball and no avail. How do I tell make to use a mozconfig file?

skottish · 2007-12-30 17:16:30

The link you posted is for the "nightlies". I was using the:

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … s=0&SeB=nd

lenni · 2007-12-30 17:19:31

This explains a lot! Thank you. I was just using the wrong AUR package all along.

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-30 17:20:31)

lenni · 2007-12-30 19:22:49

I have installed cairo-ubuntu now. Then I uncommented the "enable-system-cairo" line and tried to build but I get the following error message:

gfxPlatformGtk.cpp:(.text+0x6fb): undefined reference to `XRenderFindStandardFormat'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[4]: *** [libxul.so] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/firefox3/src/mozilla/toolkit/library'
make[3]: *** [libs_tier_toolkit] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make[2]: *** [tier_toolkit] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make[1]: *** [default] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make: *** [build] Error 2

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-30 19:23:07)

WiLLiE · 2007-12-31 05:00:49

"Bug 368576 – undefined reference to `XRenderFindStandardFormat' while compiling"

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=368576#c0 (scroll down a bit)

adding -lXrender to the command fixed the problem.
The problem seems to be that the Makefile only adds -lXrender to the LDFLAGS,
if MOZ_ENABLE_CAIRO_GFX is enabled (from layout/build/Makefile):

ifdef MOZ_ENABLE_CAIRO_GFX
EXTRA_DSO_LDOPTS += -lXrender \
$(NULL)
endif

Perhaps still a valid solution on 3.0b2?

lenni · 2007-12-31 12:06:29

Okay, it's getting complicated. I have added these lines to Makefile and Makefile.in now it throws me this error:

../../staticlib/components/libaccessibility.a: member ../../staticlib/components/libaccessibility.a(nsAccessibleWrap.o) in archive is not an object
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[4]: *** [libxul.so] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/src/mozilla/toolkit/library'
make[3]: *** [libs_tier_toolkit] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make[2]: *** [tier_toolkit] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make[1]: *** [default] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/var/abs/local/firefox3/src/mozilla'
make: *** [build] Error 2

Well, I can see we really going deep into the mozilla build system.

Last edited by lenni (2007-12-31 12:07:19)

WiLLiE · 2007-12-31 14:59:29

Dumb question, but did you run make clean first?

lenni · 2008-01-03 12:53:52

Well, I started all and deleted the pkg and src folders that had been created in the first build attempt and it throws me the old error. I guess I'll have to dig in the Mozilla bug tracker.

Thanks for your responses.

Edit: Success! I builds and runs! I had to add the following line to the PKGBUILD:

export LDFLAGS='-lX11 -lXrender'

After a bit of testing I will upload the whole thing to AUR.

Last edited by lenni (2008-01-03 16:55:31)

lenni · 2008-01-03 17:16:28

It is done: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … 1&ID=14498

brebs · 2008-01-03 17:25:18

Cool, but it should depend on cairo - it does not actually require Ubuntu's patches, it just needs a particular version of *cairo*, which is what cairo-ubuntu provides.

WiLLiE · 2008-01-03 17:28:34

Screenshot please.

lenni · 2008-01-04 11:18:21

Screenshot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24003367@N00/2165854596/

By the way, the del.icio.us add-on does work with Fx3. Just download the xpi-file, which is a renamed zip, and edit install.rdf:

Change the em:maxVersion variable to '3.0.0.'. I can't publish it (no derivatives license) but if you have problems I can email it to you. (source: http://devlicio.us/blogs/brendantompkin … ta-1.aspx)

Last edited by lenni (2008-01-04 12:19:36)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-12-12 21:46:11

[Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#2 2007-12-12 23:42:22

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#3 2007-12-13 02:06:42

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#4 2007-12-13 11:18:03

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#5 2007-12-29 21:37:43

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#6 2007-12-29 22:04:13

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#7 2007-12-29 22:09:13

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#8 2007-12-29 22:16:57

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#9 2007-12-29 22:21:37

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#10 2007-12-29 22:53:11

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#11 2007-12-29 23:00:33

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#12 2007-12-30 00:18:03

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#13 2007-12-30 00:28:13

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#14 2007-12-30 17:13:50

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#15 2007-12-30 17:16:30

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#16 2007-12-30 17:19:31

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#17 2007-12-30 19:22:49

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#18 2007-12-31 05:00:49

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#19 2007-12-31 12:06:29

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#20 2007-12-31 14:59:29

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#21 2008-01-03 12:53:52

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#22 2008-01-03 17:16:28

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#23 2008-01-03 17:25:18

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#24 2008-01-03 17:28:34

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

#25 2008-01-04 11:18:21

Re: [Sucess!] Firefox 3 beta: Subpixel font rendering

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