I’m doing some research here initially. Following HarmonicResonance's lead (1st successful Firefox build - page 1), I successfully completed a current Firefox build on a VM (Parallels virtual machine - 8GB RAM & 2 CPU Cores allocated to it) on a Mac (prior generation Mac Pro single CPU - 6 cores - with 16GB RAM running OS X 10.11 El Capitan) - while slower than just using a non Virtual Machine environment (see HarmonicResonance's build time below) it still worked quite well (48 minutes to build successfully). This was good for getting familiar with a documented and working OS X build setup and process that will be somewhat similar to Pale Moon’s and validated doing this on a VM - this worked well and makes it easier for folks that want to help to jump in without making their normal home machine customized for Firefox / Pale Moon development (particularly since we may need to use a Lion 10.7 environment (not getting security updates anymore) to build a Firefox v24 or earlier process - after which Firefox's build / code changed significantly).
Next step will be to successfully build from Firefox v24 (time frame early to mid 2013) after which Firefox's build diverged from Pale Moon's.
What you'll need to build current Firefox without using a Virtual Machine - Quad Core Mac (you might be able to get away with a Dual Core, but I'd want to hear from someone first before recommending that), 8GB RAM (More RAM the better), 20 GB of disk space (Xcode etc. then add in Firefox source etc.) and you always want additional free disk space left over (20GB+) so the OS can increase its swap file size if needed.
To build with a Virtual Machine you'll want - Quad Core Mac (you'll be assigning 2 of these cores to the VM, so you have to have a Quad if you try to do the VM route), 16GB RAM (8GB goes to the VM) and lots of free disk space - each VM instance will need 30GB or so after all is said and done (you have to add a full OS installation in there)...and of course its good to back up (copy off to another folder) your VM environment as you go along setting it up...so you can go back and go a different route if needed. You also need the OS installation file for the OS you want to use.
Instructions on VM OS X installation at the bottom of this post.
Nice page on Xcode in Wikipedia showing versions & historic details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode
Based on asimperson's post (page 2) and noted elsewhere the Linux Pale Moon build will not successfully work with the newer Clang compiler...they still need to use the GCC compiler. asimperson also detailed what was being used for the Firefox build at v24 (probably similiar to Pale Moon prior to Firefox divergence) against the OS X 10.5 SDK and linked to the setup page of that time: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... ion/410177
As noted on page 2 a pure GCC compile option (wasn't the default) dissapeared after Xcode 4.1. A hybrid GCC/LLVM hybrid compile option, which was supposedly very compatible with GCC and might work(?), dissapeared after Xcode 4.6. I've installed a working Xcode 4.3.3 & Command Line Tools in a Lion VM (there were Xcode setup issues but you could work through them), however based on the forum conversations with asimperson & HarmonicResonance (page 2) we may need a pure GCC compile option so I will install Xcode 4.1 and its associated Command Line Tools in a Lion VM and detail the setup issues I run into (so others can benefit).
To obtain the out of date Xcode and Command Line tools please go to this Apple Website and use the search facility towards the top of the page (i.e. search "Xcode 4" or "Command Line Tools"):
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/
Xcode 4.1 (installxcode_41_lion.dmg) and Command Line Tool Installer (cltools_lion_march12.dmg) actually install very well in Lion - much better than Xcode 4.3.3 did. You'll get expired certificate warnings for both (cause they are so old) but you can ignore them and proceed with the installation which appears successful (Xcode runs fine). One note about the Xcode 4.1 installer (which is differen than later installers), this installs a Xcode 4.1 installer into your Applications directory - which you then have to launch from the Application directory and finally you'll get Xcode 4.1 installed and an icon placed on your dock. Of note, is that I could not visually see the Xcode 4.1 application in the Applications directory even though the icon in the Dock said it was there. Xcode appears to run fine & command line tools install appears to find it, so I'll ignore this issue.
How to use a Mac VM to run another copy of OS X
One note, the user experience is almost perfect for me...the only niggle in it is that occasionally I'll click on a drop down in the VM and it'll close itself, not enough to bother me.
Mac Virtual Machine Vendors (basic application is $79 from either, that's all you need, and both support running a Mac environment from within it, although I've only used Parallels & install notes will be for Parallels).
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
You'll need the OS X install file if you are going the VM route (Snow Leopard requires a Server DVD, which Apple still sells I believe, but Lion and beyond are all downloadable install files), if you've installed the version of OS X you want in your VM before or have a machine that came with it, your Apple ID should allow you to download it again (App Store look under "Purchased" - if it shows "downloaded" Google is your friend and you can get around it). Now if you want to run Lion, but you haven't installed it before (and don't have a Mac that used it) then you'll need to shell out the $19 and get the OS download (if you're doing a VM don't let it install after it downloads, it automatically starts, cancel the installation and the install file will remain on your system your Applications folder): http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion#
- Make sure you've got 16GB of RAM.
- Install Parallels. Make sure it has the latest updates.
- With the newer versions of Parallels all you need in the OS X install file (above) and you're good...no need to make a bootable drive for it etc..
- Start Parallels and choose "File / New" (or the + on the Parallels Desktop Control Center) and an install screen will pop up ready to guide you to install Windows and other OS's.
- Click on “Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file” then click “Continue”.
- Parallels automatically looks in your Applications folder and lists the OS X installs it finds (this is where OS X puts the OS installers by default...but you have to have cancelled their initial, non Parallels, installation or they get deleted by OS X on completion of their initial installation).
- You can also choose “Locate Manually” and find your install file if its not listed.
- Click on your OS X Install file and then click “Continue” again and the OS X installation will start and proceed like it would on your normal computer (requiring your interaction for language etc.).
- Now, after completion, if you resize the OS window you’ll notice it doesn’t scale...yuck, this looks awful. You’ll notice a yellow triangle with a “!” at the top of the VM’s window. We have to install the Parallels Tools (that integrates the VM into your desktop so it looks nice) for OS X (clicking on the yellow triangle often starts the process but if not use this as a reference): http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v ... /27001.htm
- Once completed, restart the VM, then be sure and update the OS to get that latest updates it has available (I skip iTunes).
- You’ll be able to resize the VM window and things look nice. There are also Parallels integration tools for Windows VM’s and Linux VM’s.
- Now go into OS X system preferences / settings from within your running OS X VM, click Energy Saver and move the Computer sleep slider to Never and uncheck the “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep whenever possible" – this prevents your VM from putting your HD’s and itself to sleep while your doing a big long Firefox build (I noticed this problem 20 minutes into a build ).
- Shut down the VM (you just shut down your OS X in the VM window like you normally would in OS X). Click on the settings symbol (a gear) for the VM, select “Hardware”, choose CPU and Memory at the top. Make sure 2 processors (only allocate ½ your active processors this is why you need a quad to do a VM) and ~8000 MB Memory (again only allocate at most ½ of your active RAM and you’ll need 6-8GB for your VM here if its Lion) is allocated to the VM...now you should be good to install Xcode and the Firefox build environment.
- Last thing after all this work, shut down Parallels, go find the VM you just created and make a copy of it to another (backup) folder/drive that you can get to (make sure you have the hard drive space, it’ll probably be between 20-30GB at this point). This if way if something gets messed up later on, or you want to change something in your Dev setup, you can just delete the current one, copy this one back in and be good to go.