Breeze for Windows

Windows packaging for Breeze.

Building

This section will explain in detail how to build Breeze for Windows 10 x64. The building process is very similiar to building ungoogled_chromium. [1] If you encounter any problem while following this tutorial, feel free to open an issue.

Setting up the build environment

IMPORTANT: Please set up only what is referenced below. Do NOT set up other Chromium compilation tools such as depot_tools, since we have a custom build process which avoids using Google's pre-built binaries.

Build Requirements

0. PC Requirements

• Building chromium is a demanding process. It is recommended to have at least 8 GB of RAM, a high-end CPU to avoid a very long building time. Additionally, ~20GB of space will be needed to complete the whole build process.

1. Visual Studio 2019

• Download Visual Studio 2019. Community edition will do.
• Make sure to select Desktop development with C++, all its default add-ons and C++ MFC for latest version build tools (x86 & x64) in Visual Studio Installer. You must have Windows 10 SDK version 10.0.19041 or higher installed. This can be installed separately or by checking the appropriate box in the Visual Studio Installer in Additional components.
• SDK Debugging Tools must also be installed. If Windows 10 SDK was installed via the Visual Studio installer, then it can be installed by going to: Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features → Select the “Windows Software Development Kit” → Change → Change → Check “Debugging Tools For Windows” → Change. Alternatively, you can download the standalone SDK installer and use it to install SDK Debugging Tools. [2]

2. Python

• First install and configure Python 3.6+ following the next procedure:
  • Download Python 3.6+.
  • Add Python 3.6+ to PATH as py, select customize installation and make sure to check Install for all users.
  • At the end of the Python installer, click the button to lift the MAX_PATH length restriction.
• Then install and configure the latest Python 2.7 following the next procedure:
  • Download Python 2.7.
  • Select add python.exe to PATH.
  • Install pypiwin32 module using python -m pip install pypiwin32.

NOTE: To make sure both Python versions are installed correctly, open cmd.exe and make sure typing py starts Python 3.6+ while typing python starts Python 2.7 If this is not the case, in Environment Variables → System Variables → Path set Python 2.7 above Python 3.6+.

3. Other dependencies

• Install 7-zip.
• Install Git (to fetch all Breeze repositories).

Building

Run cmd.exe as administrator, change the current directory to the one in which you wish to build Breeze and run the following commands:

Cloning the repository

git clone https://github.com/privacyone/breeze-windows.git
cd breeze-windows
git submodule update --recursive --init

This will make a local main repository with all needed subrepositories.

Preparing chromium source files

py prepare_source.py

This will download and unpack archived chromium source files and required tools, prune_binaries and apply domain_substitution and url_substitution on the unpacked code. If no errors are encountered, this script should be run only once. If it fails, run the remove_src.bat script and wait for it to finish before trying prepare_source.py again.

Applying patches

py apply_patches.py

If no previous patches have been applied, this will apply all Windows specific and core patches. Otherwise, it will only apply updated patches.

Building

py build.py

This will start the build process. It may fail due to out of memory error or faulty code. The previous rarely occurs, while the latter is caused by anyone editing the source code. You can run the build again and it will continue the build process from where it previously failed. (Make sure to fix any faulty code!)

Once the build passes successfully, Breeze .exe file will be copied to out folder.

References

[1] ungoogled-chromium-windows

[2] Checking out and Building Chromium for Windows. Section Visual Studio.

License

See LICENSE