Automatically configure a Boot2Gecko Device. It's so ez!


License
Apache-2.0
Install
pip install ezboot==1.1.2

Documentation

ezboot

Automatically configure a Boot2Gecko Device. It's so ez!

This is a command line script for the convenience of developing on B2G such that you need to flash new builds to your device periodically and begin hacking ASAP.

Features:

  • Automatically downloads the latest build and flashes it
  • Configures WiFi on your device
  • Pre-installs apps that you commonly need
  • Puts custom prefs on your device
  • Easy, intuitive command line
  • You can use a config file for everything
  • Frictionless convention over configuration

Do you really need this? Probably not! ezboot is intended for B2G platform developers. If you are a B2G app developer you should try the Firefox OS Simulator first because that will have better features for you (such as Push To Device).

Requirements:

  • Mac or Linux.
  • You must use a build of B2G that has Marionette enabled. More details below.
  • Python 2.7 or greater (Python 3 isn't suported yet)
  • The pip command to install Python packages
    • The best way to set up Python and pip on Mac is to use homebrew. Once homebrew is installed type brew install python. This will give you the pip command.
  • adb needs to be on your $PATH. Get it from the Android SDK.
  • Some additional Python modules will be installed as dependencies

Caveats:

Contents:

Install

You need pip to install ezboot. For B2G versions 1.2 and greater, install the current version:

pip install ezboot

For older B2G versions, install the 1.0 version:

pip install ezboot1

The installation process pulls in some dependencies so you may want to use a common virtualenv and adjust your $PATH so you can use ezboot for any project, e.g. /path/to/.virtualenvs/ezboot/bin.

WARNING: If you want to run both ezboot1 and ezboot on your system you must install each within a virtualenv.

To install from source:

git clone git://github.com/kumar303/ezboot.git
cd ezboot
python setup.py develop

Source

The source is available at https://github.com/kumar303/ezboot/

Marionette

For this script to work you must flash your device with a B2G build that has Marionette enabled. The flash command will do that for you. Read this if you want to build various flavors of B2G with Marionette support yourself.

First Timers

You'll try anything at least once, right? The very first time you run ezboot flash you probably need to enable Remote Debugging first by digging into Settings > Device Information > More Information > Developer. Otherwise, adb won't be able to connect. This only applies if you had flashed with a B2G build that did not have Marionette enabled. If you've never installed B2G at all then you need to enable debugger connections on Android.

Usage

Run this for a quick reference:

ezboot --help

Using Ezboot To Work With Marketplace Payments

To whet your appetite, here is a full example of ezboot's intended use. This documentation shows you how to make a local config file and use ezboot to quickly prepare a B2G device for hacking on the Firefox Marketplace payments system.

Config file

You can set defaults for all argument values by creating an ezboot.ini file in the working directory. Make a section for each sub command with long argument names as keys. For example:

[setup]
wifi_ssid = mywifi
wifi_key = WPA-PSK
wifi_pass = my secure password with spaces
apps = https://marketplace-dev.allizom.org/manifest.webapp
       https://marketplace.allizom.org/manifest.webapp

[flash]
flash_user = ...
flash_pass = ...

Using a config file greatly simplifies ezboot because you won't have to set commonly used option values.

Commands

bind

This binds a hostname on your B2G device to the local IP address of the workstation that you are running ezboot from. Reference:

ezboot bind --help

The use case here is that you want to connect to http://fireplace.local or some URL on your phone and access a development server running at http://0.0.0.0:80/ on your workstation.

If you have trouble connecting make sure your mobile device is on the same network (you probably need WiFi for that) and that your development server is bound to your public IP. If it's a Django app, make sure you start with something like this:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

because the default, such as:

python manage.py runserver localhost:8000

will not bind to your public IP.

If you have multiple interfaces ezboot bind will show you the possibilities so you can choose one from the list of options.

Should you want to always use a specific interface then you can use:

ezboot bind --bind_int=...

Alternatively if you want to set a specific IP you can do so like this:

ezboot bind --bind_ip=...

and the same for host:

ezboot bind --bind_host=...

desktop

This downloads a fresh desktop B2G build and installs it for use. Here is a full reference:

ezboot desktop --help

With the default args it will grab the latest B2G18 build. If you need to install a different build just set the platform specific URL. For example, if you are on a Mac and you want to get 1.0.1, set this:

ezboot desktop --mac64-url http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/latest-mozilla-b2g18_v1_0_1/b2g-18.0.multi.mac64.dmg

dl

This downloads a device build and saves the Zip file to a custom directory. The build will not be flashed to a device and any subsequent reflash command will not attempt to use it. This is just a convenient way to grab a build without logging in; the same user/pass options from flash apply here.

Here is a full reference:

ezboot dl --help

You can set a custom location with ezboot dl --location=.... By default it will save builds to ~/Downloads.

flash

This downloads a device build and flashes it to your device. Here is a full reference:

ezboot flash --help

You will have to specify which device you want to flash since every device has a separate build that must be used to flash it. You can do that like so:

ezboot flash --flash_device unagi

or, if you have the URL of your build, then do it like so:

ezboot flash --flash_url http://pvtbuilds.mozilla.org/...

You can also set these in your ezboot.ini config file:

[flash]
flash_device = unagi/inari

or:

[flash]
flash_url = http://pvtbuilds.mozilla.org/...

Note, that if you set both flash_url and flash_device, the value provided for flash_url will override the default URL for the device value you have provided. Please refer to the full reference.

Rest of the defaults will probably work for you. If you don't want to be prompted for your username/password each time, you can save them in an ezboot.ini config file:

[flash]
flash_user = the_user
flash_pass = secret$password

Captain Obvious says don't commit your password to a public repo.

http

This restarts your phone with HTTP logging temporarily enabled. Here is the full reference:

ezboot http --help

This runs B2G on the device until you interrupt it (^C). After you're finished the console will tell you where to find a log of all HTTP requests/responses. When you view the file it might warn you that it has binary content but that's typically just at the beginning of the file. Keep paging.

install

Install an app from the Firefox Marketplace.

ezboot install --help

This is an alternative to specifying manifest URLs in setup and will let you install an app by name. Example:

ezboot install --app 'Sliding Puzzle' --browser

install_mkt

Install a pre-production version of the packaged Marketplace app. This requires you to run mkt_certs first.

ezboot install_mkt --help

Example:

ezboot install_mkt --dev

Because some bootstrapping is necessary this will install the app from your B2G browser.

kill

This kills all running apps which may be useful when you need to reload styles, js or other assets.

ezboot kill --help

The recss command might be faster.

login

Make sure a Persona screen is open on the device then type ezboot login. Here is a reference:

ezboot login --help

This lets you type the username / password to a new Persona account from your nice desktop keyboard instead of the device keypad. In a real world situation this wouldn't be as annoying since Persona remembers who you are but for development you'll be typing new accounts all the time for testing.

mkt_certs

This pushes the cert files to your device so that you can install the Marketplace packaged app (dev version) with elevated privileges and install signed apps from that Marketplace. You obviously don't need this if you simply want to use the production version of Marketplace that is pre-installed on device.

ezboot mkt_certs --help

Ask someone for a cert file (see this issue), download it, and unzip it. You can install certs for the Marketplace dev packaged app like this:

ezboot mkt_certs --dev --certs_path ~/Downloads/certdb.tmp/

This command requires a device id unless you are using a unagi. You can configure this like so:

[flash]
flash_device = <device>
flash_device_id = <whatever is reported by adb devices>

If you're using an inari or if the device identifier looks like a mac address it will likely fail. If you have problems, run: adb devices -l and use the string prefixed with usb: as the flash_device_id. For example:

ezboot mkt_certs --flash_device_id 'usb:1D111300' --dev --certs_path ~/Downloads/certdb.tmp/

reflash

This flashes the last downloaded build without downloading a new one. This is an easy way to clear cookies and other saved artifacts on device.

ezboot reflash --help

See the flash command for more info.

recss

This reloads all stylesheets on the current frame. More info:

ezboot recss --help

setup

This sets up your flashed device for usage. Here is the full reference:

ezboot setup --help

It can do the following:

  • configure WiFi
  • pre-install some apps
  • put custom prefs on the device

The --apps argument takes multiple values. In a config file, add them one per line in an ezboot.ini config file like this:

[setup]
apps = https://marketplace-dev.allizom.org/manifest.webapp
       https://marketplace.allizom.org/manifest.webapp
wifi_ssid = ...
wifi_key = WPA-PSK
wifi_pass = ...

By convention, if you put a custom prefs file in ./ezboot/custom-prefs.js where dot is the working directory then it will be pushed to /data/local/user.js on the device. Any existing custom prefs are not preserved.

Why?

While automated functional tests are fantastic I also want to make sure developers are testing their changes manually on real devices with the latest builds. It's a pain to maintain a development device yourself so this created an itch that had to be scratched. There is plenty of prior art on B2G scripts but each had different goals or they were done with cryptic bash magic.