[wpe-webkit] AArch64 builds in AUR

Wed Feb 27 05:53:36 PST 2019

Hello Andrea,

On Wed, 20 Feb 2019 23:24:56 +0100, Andrea Giammarchi <andrea.giammarchi at gmail.com> wrote:

> > While I am quite confident that things *should* work on AArch64
> 
> libwpe-git builds out of the box but wpewebkit is, indeed non-compilable
> from the Pi3+

Given that you tried building it already, I could mark “libwpe-git” as
available for AArch64. Is there any chance that you could also try the
“libwpe”, “wpebackend-fdo”, and “wpebackend-fdo-git” packages? Those are
small and should build fine in the Raspberry Pi itself.

As you point out, the main issue will be the “wpebackend-git” and
“wpebackend” packages. The “webkit2gtk” [1] package is available in
Arch Linux ARM, so 

> > Having packages readily available for Raspbian ...
> 
> That's the thing, ArchLinux has already everything updated compared to
> Raspbian, and AUR has, AFAIK, no Raspbian equivalent.

Yes, that is indeed a good thing of Arch Linux in genera: available packages
tend to be quite up to date :-)

> We could have stable on AUR, and dev/test builds still on AUR, as it's been
> the case for most platform that needs actual real tests, not just final
> stable user-land ready releases (i.e. proton, wine, and friends).
> 
> > The main issue I see here is that in particular the “wpewebkit” package
> > would take ages to build on the Raspberry Pi
> 
> My idea is that it doesn't need to be built on a Pi, and I'm sure there is
> a way to cross-build anything on ArchLinux, 'cause Cairo, GTK and others,
> are surely not built on a Pi.
> 
> Maybe we can start a thread in the ArchLinuxARM forum about this, and see
> what's the outcome?

Probably a good idea. Would you be interested in asking and getting the
discussion started?

I would greatly appreciate that someone else takes care of leading on that
front because my plate has already too much on it — I will be more than happy
to help out with doubts there may be (about WebKit, WPE, etc.) and maybe
helping out a bit on the side with the technical parts.

Regards,

-Adrián

---
[1] https://archlinuxarm.org/packages/aarch64/webkit2gtk

> On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 6:44 PM Adrian Perez de Castro <aperez at igalia.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hello Andrea!
> >
> > On Wed, 20 Feb 2019 14:29:59 +0100, Andrea Giammarchi <
> > andrea.giammarchi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Dear WPE WebKit team,
> > >
> > >   I've just recently discovered your project and I'm the author of the
> > > defunct project Benja [1] and also the post about having a minimalistic
> > > WebKitGTK+ kiosk mode on the Raspberry Pi 3.
> > >
> > > I've always preferred WebKit on ARM for the simple reason that Chromium
> > > never cared much to be there or, in general, to support Wayland where
> > > possible.
> > >
> > > The reason I am here is Sam Decrock and his recent post on how to build
> > WPE
> > > for the RPi3 via Buildroot.
> > >
> > > You probably know already that AUR contains already libwpe +
> > > libwpe-git, wpewebkit, and wpebackend-fdo, which I believe is the whole
> > > stack needed to start WPE.
> >
> > As a matter of fact, I am pretty much aware of the AUR packages, because
> > I am the one maintaining them :-)
> >
> > On top of those three packages (libwpe, wpebackend-fdo, and wpewebkit) you
> > will need an actual “web browser” or, as we prefer to call something that
> > is not a full-fledged browser, a WPE “launcher”. Given that your goal is to
> > have a kiosk mode browser, I would recommend Cog [1] — for which there is
> > a package in the AUR as well [2].
> >
> > > However, none of those packages target also aarch64, and on top of that,
> > > none of them is already built for the RPi3.
> >
> > The reason why none of the packages are marked as available for AArch64 is
> > simple: lack of testing. Personally I am not particularly comfortable to
> > add
> > the platform as supported if I have not built and tried the packages for a
> > new architecture. Which is also the reason why there is no “wpebackend-rdk”
> > package yet (my main focus is the “-fdo” backend).
> >
> > While I am quite confident that things *should* work on AArch64 because now
> > and then I do builds for the Raspberry Pi 3 myself using Buildroot, I do
> > not
> > have spare time right now to do the same for the AUR packages. If anyone
> > would
> > be willing to help out building and testing them for AArch64 (or other
> > architectures), then I would be super happy give some guidance and to add
> > AArch64 as supported.
> >
> > > Having a pre built, up-to-date version, of your stack, would make
> > > prototyping in the most used embedded device a no brainer, and it will
> > also
> > > help projects being updates, without the need to create yet another
> > > distribution platform to update non official stable releases.
> > >
> > > Accordingly, for the sake of providing the best browser out there for
> > IoT &
> > > DYI related projects, and for an officially declared LTS platform as the
> > > RPi3 is, I wonder if there is any interest in publishing these "bricks"
> > as
> > > AUR aarch64 packages that will make the creation of anything Web based
> > via
> > > ArchLinux finally a reality.
> >
> > I completely agree with you: having prebuilt packages (or images) for
> > popular
> > platforms like the Raspberry Pi would definitely help people who want to
> > try
> > out things quickly and tinker with WPE WebKit. Having packages readily
> > available for Raspbian (which is a very popular option) would be great as
> > well.
> >
> > One of my long term plans has been having ready-to-use images built using
> > Buildroot for the Raspberry Pi 3 built automatically for official releases,
> > and maybe even some kind of “tech preview” monthly builds. Just last week
> > we got the base packages and Cog into the “next” branch [3], so prebuilt
> > images are getting closer to being a reality.
> >
> > > I'm here to help as I can or, if you can tell me how to build from a PC
> > all
> > > the needed parts using system libraries so that I can produce such
> > > packages, I'd love to create rpi3-libwpe, rpi3-wpewebkit, and
> > > rpi3-wpebackend-fdo for the already awesome ArchLinuxARM community.
> >
> > The main issue I see here is that in particular the “wpewebkit” package
> > would take ages to build on the Raspberry Pi, and it could even be that the
> > linker would fail due to running out of memory. Ideally one would cross
> > compile from a powerful machine, which apparently is possible using distcc,
> > according to the Arch Linux ARM wiki [4]. That would still need a “master”
> > ARM device to distribute compilation to other machine(s), and the linker
> > would run on the master ARM device and running out of memory is still a
> > possibility :-\
> >
> > Do you have any idea if cross compiling an Arch Linux package is possible
> > without needing a “master” ARM device? That would be helpful.
> >
> > > Thank you in advance for any sort of outcome.
> > >
> > > [1] http://benja.io
> > > [2]
> > https://medium.com/@WebReflection/a-minimalistic-64-bit-web-kiosk-for-rpi-3-98e460419b47
> > > [3]
> > https://medium.com/@decrocksam/building-web-applications-for-wpe-webkit-using-node-js-3347146013f3
> >
> > I hope the above helps out a bit, at least to understand the situation.
> >
> >
> > -Adrián
> >
> > ---
> > [1] https://github.com/Igalia/cog
> > [2] https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cog/
> > [3] e.g. https://git.busybox.net/buildroot/tree/package/wpewebkit?h=next
> > [4] https://archlinuxarm.org/wiki/Distcc_Cross-Compiling
> >
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