FYI: Remote debugging disabled on Firefox OS devices as of Jan 10th

[Rob Hawkes]

Hi all,

For reasons unknown to me right now, remote debugging for Firefox OS
devices has been disabled for the foreseeable future. This is the latest
on MDN --
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Debugging/Setting_up#Firefox_OS
> As of January 10, 2013, device builds of Firefox OS have debugging
> disabled. There will eventually be a way to build your own build with
> it re-enabled, but this doesn't exist yet. This document will be
> updated once that happens. In addition, the preference for turning off
> out-of-process support has been removed. For now, you'll need to do
> your debugging in the Firefox OS Simulator
> <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Using_Firefox_OS_Simulator>.
In short, developers won't be able to debug apps running on real
devices, instead they'll have to debug them on their computer as they
would a standard website. This also means that there is currently no way
for developers to debug WebAPIs that aren't supported in the simulator
(most of the hardware ones). They also won't be able to programatically
debug real-world performance aside from judging things by eye on the device.

It's worth knowing so we don't set expectations for device debugging at
the London event next week, plus we're going to get asked about it a lot.

I'd love to know more detail about this if anyone has it!

Rob

[Eric Shepherd]

FWIW, I asked why yesterday as I tweaked those docs and did not get much of an answer. At least the docs are clear on the situation as to where you can debug.

I've asked them to keep me apprised on the status of getting this back, at least for people who build their own B2G.

Eric Shepherd
Developer Documentation Lead
Mozilla

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[Robert Nyman]

My two ören (the Swedish equivalent of cents):

With all the focus on Firefox OS and building Apps, being able to remote debug apps is a complete necessity to succeed and to be able to compete in this market.


Best regards,
Robert

[Eric Shepherd]

I agree strongly. This is bad; people need to be able to debug the stuff that only happens on a real device. Debugging solely on simulators doesn't work.

We had that come up at PalmSource time and again. Stuff that worked great on sims and emulators but not on devices. Or worked fine until you tried it on a device with a particular hardware component the sims didn't cover enabled.

This is a very bad idea.

Eric Shepherd
Developer Documentation Lead
Mozilla

[Christian Heilmann]

also: why do we give out phones then... this is terrible

[Dietrich Ayala]

Why is this conversation not on the B2G or Gaia lists? If y'all want
actual details/solutions/workarounds, you'd probably get far more
action where there are B2G developers who can talk about it.

[Christian Heilmann]

Agreed. This goes both ways though. If we as the people telling the world about B2G and running porting events have to find that out from the Wiki without getting a heads up with the reasons for the decision, then there is a communication problem we have to tackle from both sides.

[Eric Shepherd]

Indeed. I only found out because someone was talking about it on IRC and I happened to see it go by. If not for that, the docs wouldn't have been updated already.

And as it is, the text is pretty sketchy, since there's no information on why this was done or how people can get this much needed ability back.

Eric Shepherd
Developer Documentation Lead
Mozilla