Had to back-port part of the fix from mozilla bug 928547 and remove the --enable-necko-protocols line from the mozconfig (the default settings in FF24 are fine for our needs and the settings in the mozconfig were disabling some protocols that we actually need enabled including websocket and wyciwyg). Also had to give my vmware VM 3.5GB of ram (the maximum vmware will let me give it on my 8GB system) along with 6GB of swap.

But with those things done, hopefully libxul will now finally link and then the build process can continue (and hopefully give me a set of deb files at the end of it all)