B2G/FirefoxOS on FP2 (discontinued)

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Hello ! I dig a deserted topic, and I discovered that, although the development of Boot2Gecko/FirefoxOS is discontinued, it is still possible to install the last working image (“Juan Blob-free”) on Fairphone2 :slight_smile: :


The procedure is the following:

:warning: This process will wipe your phone, make a TWRP backup first :warning:

  • Download the “Ready to use” Virtual Machine image B2G Installer.ova (This is a 1.5 Go file!) direct link | source
  • Install Oracle VM VirtualBox on a 64bits computer with virtualization enabled
  • Install Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack, for USB2.0/3.0 support
  • (Linux only) Fix permissions by typing in terminal sudo adduser USERNAME vboxusers
  • Launch VirtualBox with the VM image B2G Installer.ova
  • In the VM :
    • Open Nightly (default web browser)
    • In about:addons, disable automatic updates for ADB Helper (it should stay to version 0.8.7)
    • Download the “Juan Blob-free” build FP2.blobfree-dist.zip direct link | source
    • Connect your device and open about:b2g-installer and follow the steps shown.
      (USB debugging has to be activated in Developer Option, accept computer fingerprint)
    • When asked, provide the build image FP2.blobfree-dist.zip
    • Congratulations: Your Fairphone2 should now be flashed with B2G/Firefox OS.

Cheers,
Olivier

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Note : I tried this on both Windows 7 64bits and Xubuntu 64bits, this worked only for Windows 7. On Xubuntu I could’nt make the Virtual Machine “capture” the Android USB device…

That’s because under a standard installation of most systems the user has no right to do that. You can chance this adding you to vboxusers as described here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/USB
ore here

PS: I for myself prefer Apps/Boxes - GNOME Wiki! for VM’s not because it is technically better, what I don’t think but you don’t have to install unfree addon’s to connect usb devices to the guest system

1 Like

That’s the trick, thank you :slight_smile: I added this line in the tutorial.

It’s really sad that the development has halted, but great you got it working anyway! :clap:

I linked this topic back from here and also changed the link in the #oslist to redirect to this topic.

Are there any basic functions not working?

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Only 1 SIM is recognized. Didn’t try the others functions, I will do it later and let you know :slight_smile:

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I have downloaded everything necessary, but the virtual machine does not detect the mobile in Fastboot.

In addition, the browser updates itself and the Firefox OS installer is no longer compatible.

However, ADB is not updated.

Did you follow the tutorial in the first post, especially the USB part? …

Hi @Flbr !
Indeed this is quite tricky as newer versions of the browser remove compatibility. I had do make several trials before succeeding the installation…
Type “about:b2g-installer” in the browser: if the setup page is not displayed then I advise you to reset the virtual machine: delete the session and re-import the OVA file.

One question: do you have a recent FP2 with the “new screen”? I wonder if you will have the “blue screen” bug or not, as B2G was not updated for a while…

If you really don’t succeed with the installation, pm me: I can send you the TWRP image I did just after the fresh install… (it’s only ~300Mo)

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Is B2G still worked on? I thought it was dying, unfortunately.

Indeed, sadly B2G is discontinued and not worked on anymore. :frowning:
However it is still possible (for curious people like myself or Flbr :wink: ) to install the last working image, just to get an idea of how it was …

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Ok, that’s what I thought. But there were people who were trying to bring it forward, just like the UBports people for UT, right?
Anyway, that’s a pity. I once installed it, but as I could not connect to mobile networks, it was a very short experiment :wink:

I just googled the topic and indeed some community are still active on the B2G development… https://discourse.mozilla.org/c/b2g-os-participation

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