1926159 - Bootstrap failed with non-system-default Python version

Status: NEW

(Firefox Build System :: Bootstrap Configuration, defect, P5)

Description

[Reem Hamoui]

When I setting up and building Firefox for the first time on my system, I encountered an error:

Following this step in the process: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/setup/macos_build.html#bootstrap-a-copy-of-the-firefox-source-code, I ran the bootstrap command of python3 bootstrap.py --vcs=git, I was getting back an SSL error, which can be found here: https://paste.mozilla.org/gyOJEiaZ

During the time of running that command and receiving that error, I had been running Python3.12.7, which I had just freshly installed from the Python website.

I took this question to the #introductions channel on Matrix, and after some brief discussion, it was highlighted that the SSL error was appearing because I had not installed the SSL Certificates after downloading the new Python version. The following is a direct explanation from user arai on Matrix:

the error can happen if you're using non-system-default python, such as the package downloaded from python.org, which has separate certificate store
in that case, easy option is to switch to the system-default one, or setup the certificate store for the non-system-default one

So, the fix was, in the Python folder of the newly downloaded version (in this case, Python 3.12 is the folder name), double click on the file Install Certificates.command and wait for the command to be completed. This installs the SSL Certificates needed for the non-default Python version being used, and allows the python3 bootstrap.py --vcs=git command to run now.

I've attached the error below for when the preview URL above expires.

System used: MacOS (version 14.6.1)

Comment 1

[Reem Hamoui]

Attachment: SSL error copied from terminal

Comment 2

[Alex Hochheiden [:ahochheiden] [he/him]]

This has come up before. From what I recall there's nothing we can do on our end, since it's in the stand-alone script. It's up to the user to fix the problem themselves.

I suppose we could detect the issue and give better guidance on what to do, and I'll look into that when I have some spare time.

I'll also double check if anything has changed, maybe we can handle this automatically on our end now.