Icecat on Mobian on PinePhone

[3460p]

if you aren't married to debian-based distros, an easier way might be to use the AUR (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/icecat) on Arch/Manjaro
it would look something like
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/icecat.git
cd icecat
makepkg -As
pacman -U icecat-<version>.tar.xz

Haha thanks for the suggestion but for the moment I’m trying to get Mobile Debian working for me the way I want it. I’ve tried Manjaro before and made use of the AUR but didn’t enjoy it as much as Debian. If I return to being a “I use Arch btw” user then I’ll definitely make use of IceCat from the AUR!

---

It's 'potentially unsafe' because it hasn't come from a known repository so can't be checked for a valid signature or checksum by the package manager. Anyone could make a package claiming to be icecat and make it available for download, but unless they were using a repeatable build system (which most don't) it's hard to be sure that the binary was build from the source it claims it was, was modified somehow, or is a flat out trojan. If it _was_ built with a repeatable build system then you need to build it yourself to check. In your case you've made it from a different package format from another reputable source, but the package manager doesn't know that so it gives you a warning.

The workaround described at https://www.jertype.com/upgrading-glibc/ might work if you're lucky with the rest of the dependencies, but that page notes it's not a preferred solution.

I hadn't previously spotted the docker images Mobian provide for easier crossdev packaging:
https://gitlab.com/mobian1/wiki/-/wikis/Crosscompiling

Oh sure that I get but the “proprietary software” part?!

The most complete post I’ve found on the subject of installing more recent GLIBC libraries alongside that packaged in your distro is a post on Ubuntu forums (the link to which I will provide later when it’s in front of me) but I did go with the workaround on jertype.com :
I compiled GLIBC_2.34 in /opt and used the LD_PRELOAD argument to get IceCat’s libc.so.6 to use it from that directory but a few more errors then popped up, one of which was about libm.so.6 requiring GLIBC_2.35.
So I performed the same steps as described on jertype.com for that and used LD_PRELOAD again to get IceCat’s libm.so.6 to use it from the /opt directory and a few moments later IceCat was running!
Now I just need to figure out how to get IceCat to always look in /opt for those two dependencies so that it also launches when tapping the app drawer icon (currently IceCat only launches from the CL and only if I prefix it with the LD_PRELOAD argument).
Of course I understand that this is the less-preferred option but short of finding a native aarch64 build (which Ubuntu might have?), I think it’s really the best option for me at the moment.

Docker is on my todo list for things to learn! Funnily enough I’d tried searching “Mobian Docker” in DDG but that didn’t jump out at me from the results... I suppose another option could be running it in a VM via PiMox, for example, or via the F-Droid store on Waydroid.