QA/Firefox/Alder Dogfooding

Welcome to our Simple How-To Guide on Dogfooding Alder Nightly builds which are our preliminary versions of the builds that will become our 33.1 Firefox Decade release. Anything you can do to help test these builds is extremely appreciated.

It's important to get as wide of an audience on these builds as possible, and we appreciate your contribution. It is also important to test these builds using a new profile, so this short guide will help you do that, and will have a way for you to get help if you need it.

We are going to assume that you already have a Firefox build installed, so the instructions will take that into account.

Getting the Builds

• Browse to the ftp site
• Download the build you want:
  • Windows
  • Mac
  • Linux 32 bit
  • Linux 64 bit

Install it

Windows

• Run the executable installer
• Click through the prompts until you get to the "Setup Type" screen. You must choose either "Typical" or "Custom" Choose Custom
• On the next screen, the installer will ask where to put the files, use a different path than the one suggested. One easy mechanism is to replace the last element of the path with the word "alder". You'll want to remember this path for future steps
• Uncheck the options to create icons on the next panel. We will create those later.
• Finish the install

Mac

• Open Finder
• Go to Applications
• Make a new directory called Alder
• Open the dmg file that you downloaded
• Drag the "nightly" icon into the Alder directory

Linux

• Uncompress the archive into any directory you'd like to use

$> mkdir ~/alder
$> cd alder
$> tar -jxf <filename_you_downloaded>

Creating a Profile For It

You need to create a new profile for this. Creating a new profile does not harm your existing data in any way. Now, you have the build downloaded. The build will ask to update each day. It is recommended that you keep the build up to date. If you don't see an update prompt, you can always force updates by going to the Help menu inside the Alder Nightly browser and select "About Nightly"

There are several helpful pages on MDN and SUMO for starting Firefox builds in new profiles. These pages will certainly help you quite a bit if you're unfamiliar with the process. You will need to find the firefox executable which is in the folder that you installed Alder to up in the installation instructions, so keep that in mind when you are following these steps. Note that the SUMO and MDN articles cover the same content, so use whichever is easier for you. Additionally, I recommend using 'alder' (no quotes) as the name of the profile in the steps below, choose the one for your OS:

• General Profile Management Instructions from Sumo
• General Profile Management Instructions from MDN
• Steps for Windows Profile
• Steps for Mac Profile
• Steps for Linux Profile

Congrats!

Now you are an official Alder Nightly tester! We will be sending out specific assignments for you to try out with this build. In between assignments, feel free to use this build and report anything that seems wrong to our mailing list: tilesfeedback@mozilla.com

The Alder Nightly build will automatically prompt you for updates each day when you start it up. If it does not you can force it to check for updates:

• Start Alder Nightly
• Go to the Help Menu, choose About Nightly
• Click the "Check for Updates" button or the "Apply Updates" button.
• If you don't see a button, you might see "already up to date" in which case you're fine! :-)

We ask that you make sure the build is up to date before trying any of the assignments that we'll be sending out.

Note that when you are running the Alder Nightly Browser, you won't have access to your history or your saved passwords, or addons or themes. That's because you're running in a different profile from the one you normally use with your Firefox. This also means that anything you do in Alder does not affect your normal Firefox.

Have Trouble?

If you have trouble with any of the steps above, feel free to ping the folks at support@mozilla.com to get a hand.

Found an Issue?

Think you've found a bug? Feel free to write it up and send to tilesfeedback@mozilla.com even if it has nothing to do with Tiles. We will look over it and let you know. You're also welcome to stop by in #qa and chat with someone there (good candidates are ctalbert, tracy, kbrosnan, kairo, juanb, or mschifer).

We look forward to working with you to make Alder something we will all be proud of.