Arcticfox
Problem
It is difficult to find a modern browser that will run on older ARM SoCs lacking the NEON instruction set. Most web browsers from current repositories require NEON. The following do not work: Firefox, Firefox ESR, Chromium, and Chromium ESR (from Alpine). If you encounter an "Illegal Instruction" error, your system is affected.
Compatibility
The binary was built with:
-mcpu=cortex-a9 -mfpu=vfpv3-d16 -mfloat-abi=hard
This build will run on most older ARM CPUs that support vfpv3. Let me know if you need a custom build for a different instruction set, e.g., armv6, armel, etc.
Arcticfox Web Browser
Arcticfox began as a forked and rebranded version of Pale Moon 27.9.4, retaining its classic interface. Many fixes and enhancements have been backported from Firefox and TenFourFox.
Arcticfox is designed as a desktop-oriented browser (Android support has been dropped, iOS support is lingering).
The goal is to backport improvements, security updates, and bug fixes to keep this browser as up‑to‑date as possible for aging systems – for example, macOS 10.6–10.11, PowerPC Linux systems, Windows XP, and others.
Build status
Github: Arctic-Fox-no-NEON
Download: arcticfox-47.2.en-US.linux-musleabihf-arm.tar.bz2
This is a fork of Arcticfox with patches applied to disable the NEON instruction set. Currently, there is no APK package – the project is a work in progress. Custom builds for various platforms will be released upon request.
Command line
If the browser fails to run due to an Error loading shared library, execute it with the shared library path set to the current directory:
# LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:./ ./arcticfox