Installing the prerequisites
Git
Git for Windows is a good choice because it includes MinGW (Minimalist GNU for Windows)
Besides supporting all of the git commands you know and love, you can import your dotfiles from Mac or Linux to help make dev easier.
node.js
NOTE: Please choose the LTS version and also make sure you pick the right architecture for your machine (32-bit vs 64-bit)
Once the install is complete, you’ll want to open a new command window to run the following:
npm config set python python2.7npm config set msvs_version 2015 --global
C++ Compilers
You can either use Visual Studio or the standalone C++ tools.
Visual C++ 2015 Standalone Build Tools
Download the Standalone compiler, libraries and scripts installer.
Visual Studio 2015 with update 2 or newer
You can find VS 2015 available in MSDN and possibly elsewhere.
When the installer comes up, here are the items you need installed:
-
everything under
Programming Languages > Visual C++ - Windows 10 SDK via
Universal Windows App Development Tools > Windows 10 SDK - Windows 8.1 SDK via
Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.0/8.1 Tools > Tools and Windows SDKs
This install will take a while. Kick it off, take a break, and come back later to see how it’s going.
OpenSSL
This is required for secp256k1-node
It’s very important that you:
- Download (32-bit or 64-bit, depending on your system)
- don’t change the install path. It must be left as the default.
- We have filed an issue with secp256k1-node which you can see here so we can use a newer version from here.
NOTE: If you don’t install this properly, you’ll see an error like this when running npm install:
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'C:\OpenSSL-Win64\lib\libeay32.lib' [C:\Users\brian\Documents\GitHub \browser-laptop\node_modules\secp256k1\build\secp256k1.vcxproj]
Python 2.7
Make sure to add the install path to your PATH environment variable (default path is C:\Python27). A system reboot is required if the path has been added manually.
Environment variables
Here’s a link with more information if you’re not familiar with environment variables.
Let’s create the following system variables:
-
CHANNEL=dev -
GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2015
Let’s check the system PATH variable. Changes shouldn’t be required if you followed the installer properly, but it can’t hurt to check. If the values are NOT already there, you’ll want to append:
- The PATH for your Python install (default is
C:\Python27) - The PATH for your nodejs install (default is
C:\Program Files\nodejs\)
Depending on your system, a reboot may be required for these variable changes to take effect.
Getting the code
Open a new command window (make sure it’s the shell you picked for your Git client). Pick a parent directory on your machine and run a git clone.
cd ~\Documents\GitHub\
# For beta testers:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop
# For devs over HTTPS:
git clone https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop
# For devs over SSH:
git clone [email protected]:brave/browser-laptop.git
cd browser-laptop
Building
NOTE: If you’re following this guide, please don’t build Brave using Cygwin. Cygwin includes C/C++ compilers which causes complications when tasks are run which compile code (ex: npm install). Cygwin is fine to use for editing in vim, navigation, and git.
Before running this step, you may consider increasing the buffer size of your window, in case any errors show up. You can do this by right-clicking in the title and click properties (or for msys2 based shells like Git for Windows, right click > options, windows).
In your command window, at the root of the project (the browser-laptop folder), run:
npm install
This step will take a while. It’s going to install modules needed, some which need to be compiled from source.
Running
You need to open two command line windows.
- Window 1
npm run watch- Window 2
npm start
For the latest status, please see https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/wiki/(setup)-Windows-build-guide
