Mach should have support for bootstrapping the development environment on Ubuntu. 1) Start with a fresh install of Ubuntu. 2) Obtain source code for mozilla-central (either a source bundle or repository clone) 3) Run ./mach and all build prerequisites are installed automatically. The goal is to make it super simple for people to build mozilla-central. Your terminal-literate grandmother should be able to do it. This bug essentially involves automating https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Developer_Guide/Build_Instructions/Linux_Prerequisites. Basically, query APT and offer to install missing packages. Ideally, bootstrap support would not require a full copy of mozilla-central. We could provide a one-liner for someone to `curl | python` and magic would ensue. This could just talk to hg.mozilla.org over HTTPS (not using Mercurial) and pull down the latest .py files needed to start performing more magic. This minimal bootstrap is beyond the scope of this bug, but it should be considered during implementation.

Tested on Mint and Ubuntu 12 and worked; still has build command in there to speed up testing; may be a few logic/syntax errors yet as it's not the copy I planned to upload

> apt-get -y build-dep firefox Don't do this. It requires deb-src entries, and pulls more stuff than needed. (and yes, the instructions on mdn suck, i though Chris Coulson was going to update them)

removed unnecessary package install on RHEL platforms; implemented platform module to ID specific distro

updating with working CentOS dependency installer; doesn't install libstdc++-static, but appears to build ( hopefully correctly ); already tested and working for Ubuntu/Mint

Marking as dupe. Bug 774112 will become a generic Linux bug.

Comment on attachment 657436 [details] use platform module to ID distro Old patch. Code already landed.

Comment on attachment 658168 [details] updated with working CentOS dependency installer Old patch. Code already landed.