It seems Brave portable is not portable after all

[Governor]

I downloaded Brave portable from this repository:
https://mega.nz/folder/6LYmRTzK#mXaNPN4 ... e/nT5SlB5R

I have it on my HDD on my laptop. But when I reboot, all of my settings are gone, including browser history, bookmarks, the works.
Seems like it is not portable afterall. Just thought people should know.

[geo_c]

I just downloaded Brave portable, ran it under one OS, changed the settings, then booted up ANOTHER OS, and ran the same Brave Portable, and the settings are saved.

You might want to change the title of this post to something that reflects what you might be doing to blow the settings.

[fredx181]

@Governor
It's portable for me too, I think it should be launched from a Linux formatted filesystem (e.g. ext3, ext4) are you running it from a FAT32 or NTFS partition perhaps ?
Or if not, please provide some more detailed info.
Btw, reports should better be posted here: viewtopic.php?t=6150 (EDIT: Don't know where you got that Mega link, I assume it's @mikewalsh 's share edit again: your mega url address is different from the address that Mike linked to here: viewtopic.php?t=6150 )

[williwaw]

sound like the problems you have been having since you first joined the forum.
if you are still booting from a CD, please describe the "HDD" specs, history of use, formatting etc.

[Marv]

Fully portable here since the getgo. Many pups share it. My boot partition on SSD is FAT32, all my portables are placed in either an EXT2 or EXT4 data partition on that SSD, depending on the machine, and called either by symlinks or more commonly from .desktop applications within the pup that execute the appropriate launch script in the portable install on that data partition. It will not work with the portable on a partition that does not support symlinks. I use the same scheme for Brave, Slimjet, Un-Googled chromium, Sylpheed, Master PDF Editor, LibreOffice etc. All are 'portable' and retain settings between reboots and between 4 or 5 pups.

Edited once, Marv, clarify wording on where it will not work

[Governor]

Brave is on my laptop's internal drive. After I rebooted my laptop, all Brave settings were gone.

After reboot, I go to the Launch command with Rox and run Brave, or I click on the desktop link/icon, which I place there every time I re-boot.

I don't know how to tell the difference between a normal link and a symlink, or what the implications may be.

I just finished configuring Brave. On next reboot, I will check if the settings are still there. It might be a while, because I don't reboot unless I have to, since I must go through the entire Puppy setup every time.

Thanks.

Fully portable here since the getgo. Many pups share it. My boot partition on SSD is FAT32, all my portables are placed in either an EXT2 or EXT4 data partition on that SSD, depending on the machine, and called either by symlinks or more commonly from .desktop applications within the pup that execute the appropriate launch script in the portable install on that data partition. It will not work with the portable on a partition that does not support symlinks. I use the same scheme for Brave, Slimjet, Un-Googled chromium, Sylpheed, Master PDF Editor, LibreOffice etc. All are 'portable' and retain settings between reboots and between 4 or 5 pups.

Edited once, Marv, clarify wording on where it will not work

[Governor]

Not helpful.

I just downloaded Brave portable, ran it under one OS, changed the settings, then booted up ANOTHER OS, and ran the same Brave Portable, and the settings are saved.

You might want to change the title of this post to something that reflects what you might be doing to blow the settings.

[Governor]

I have just about given up trying to get the Puppy OS to boot from my laptop.
Perhaps I could save my configuration to a bootable ISO file. Is that possible? Can you point to instructions to do that?

I should then have 2 possibilities:
1) Boot from the ISO on a CD.
2) Boot from the ISO on USB using Ventoy.

This alone would save me a great deal of time, and tons of frustration and anxiety.

Thanks.

sound like the problems you have been having since you first joined the forum.
if you are still booting from a CD, please describe the "HDD" specs, history of use, formatting etc.

[Marv]

Just to help see what your drive/drives are, open a terminal and run blkid (blkid /dev/sd* should be a little more specific) and post the results. For example, my system shows:

Code: Select all

root# blkid /dev/sd*
/dev/sda: PTUUID="59f081e6" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="BOOT" LABEL="BOOT" UUID="2598-C220" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="59f081e6-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Data" UUID="6ab39809-81c1-4fc7-a3ee-9b65f029091d" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="59f081e6-02"
root# 

[geo_c]

I just downloaded Brave portable, ran it under one OS, changed the settings, then booted up ANOTHER OS, and ran the same Brave Portable, and the settings are saved.

You might want to change the title of this post to something that reflects what you might be doing to blow the settings.

I downloaded Brave portable from this repository:
https://mega.nz/folder/6LYmRTzK#mXaNPN4 ... e/nT5SlB5R

I have it on my HDD on my laptop. But when I reboot, all of my settings are gone, including browser history, bookmarks, the works.
Seems like it is not portable afterall. Just thought people should know.

Just thought you should know. I didn't realize there was a question there.

[fredx181]

@Governor
I think if you want help, you should put some more effort in helping too by replying to what has been asked about your situation (otherwise we can only guess).
(e.g. what format is your HDD partition where you launch Brave portable from, etc...).

[Governor]

I posted requested info here:
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 99#p113799

Brave is on my 3rd partition on the internal drive of my laptop.

@Governor
I think if you want help, you should put some more effort in helping too by replying to what has been asked about your situation (otherwise we can only guess).
(e.g. what format is your HDD partition where you launch Brave portable from, etc...).

[Governor]

Ok, here it is:

Code: Select all

root# blkid /dev/sd*
/dev/sda: PTUUID="ea6d421c" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="T7" UUID="F00F-1D48" TYPE="exfat" PARTUUID="ea6d421c-01"
/dev/sdc: PTUUID="ed86c620" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="MAIN_USB" UUID="18E1-1E2B" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="ed86c620-01"
/dev/sdd: PTUUID="b4871312" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="c-drv+I-bak" UUID="F67A373A7A36F6C9" TYPE="ntfs" PTTYPE="atari" PARTUUID="b4871312-01"
/dev/sdd2: LABEL="Win+Linux_bak" UUID="0840718640717B70" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="b4871312-02"
/dev/sdf: PTUUID="911bfe7f" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdf1: LABEL_FATBOOT="PUBLIC" LABEL="PUBLIC" UUID="916F-8A3C" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="911bfe7f-01"

Just to help see what your drive/drives are, open a terminal and run blkid (blkid /dev/sd* should be a little more specific) and post the results. For example, my system shows:

Code: Select all

root# blkid /dev/sd*
/dev/sda: PTUUID="59f081e6" PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="BOOT" LABEL="BOOT" UUID="2598-C220" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="59f081e6-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Data" UUID="6ab39809-81c1-4fc7-a3ee-9b65f029091d" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="59f081e6-02"
root# 

[williwaw]

I have just about given up trying to get the Puppy OS to boot from my laptop.
Perhaps I could save my configuration to a bootable ISO file. Is that possible? Can you point to instructions to do that?

I should then have 2 possibilities:
1) Boot from the ISO on a CD.
2) Boot from the ISO on USB using Ventoy.

This alone would save me a great deal of time, and tons of frustration and anxiety.

Thanks.

sound like the problems you have been having since you first joined the forum.
if you are still booting from a CD, please describe the "HDD" specs, history of use, formatting etc.

to save your configurations to an iso is possible, but not trivial, but search for remastering.
you could also boot from an iso on your harddisk also without ventoy, but why consider iso booting at all?
if you can save anything to your hard disk, you can make a savefile or a save folder to your hard disk and get a working puppy. that would be my priority.

[Marv]

I don't have exfat or ntfs partitions to play with but I refreshed my memory by placing a copy of one of the portables in my FAT32 partition and launching it from terminal. What is failing there is setting the permissions of the lib, PROFILE, and chromium directories to spot:spot. Therefore chromium, run-as-spot in the portables cannot 'see' the directory that contains/saves settings. I'm pretty sure this is true for ntfs and exfat also. If you have an extra usb port and thumbdrive, you could partition that as EXT2, put the portables there, and call them explicitly from there. Sorry this is a workaround but this isn't the only place where 'non-linux' partitions are a deal-breaker.

[fredx181]

I posted requested info here:
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 99#p113799

Brave is on my 3rd partition on the internal drive of my laptop.
.....

Extract Brave-portable tar in one of your ext4 partitions e.g. nvmen0n1p4 and run it from there, the nvmen0n1p3 partition is not suitable for it (on FAT32 won't work properly).

[mikewalsh]

@fredx181 :-

Yah; have to agree here. FAT32 does not support sym-links.....and that's the top & bottom of the issue.

Okay, the MenuEntry link into /usr/bin wouldn't work, though that's trivial; you'd just directly use the 'LAUNCH' script. But the big issue is the 'Singleton lock' files that any Chromium-based clone will create within its profile every time it fires up. These are sym-links into /proc - itself a directory the uninitiated will want to steer WELL clear of, because messing about in /proc will bork Puppy in a heartbeat - and if the browser can't create them, you get all sorts of errors in the terminal. It gets VERY "noisy".....and will refuse to behave itself. Period.

Mike.

[fredx181]

But the big issue is the 'Singleton lock' files that any Chromium-based clone will create within its profile every time it fires up. These are sym-links into /proc - itself a directory the uninitiated will want to steer WELL clear of, because messing about in /proc will bork Puppy in a heartbeat

Sym-links from /proc , didn't know, IMO it's weird that a browser does that, are you sure ? And how can I check that ?
EDIT: SingletonLock is a broken symlink in PROFILE/spot/Brave-Browser for me (after launching Brave-portable)
EDIT2 : Or perhaps you say only "if running from FAT32" ?

[mikeslr]

Because symlinks don't work from a Fat32 partition Mike's portables can't be used AS-IS. But you can use them to create an SFS:

1. Create an empty folder: e.g. Right-Click an empty space and from the Pop-Up menu select New>Directory and give it a name, e.g. temp.
2. Create an Brave directory within temp: Right-Click an empty space within 'temp', select New>Directory and give it the name Brave.
3. Copy the entire Brave-portable folder into the /opt/Brave folder.
4. Right-Click the Brave folder and from the pop-up Menu select dir2sfs. An SFS named Brave.sfs will be created.
5. Move it to you the same partition on which you've located the Puppy files. This partition automatically mounts on boot-up.
6. Right-Click the Brave.sfs and select SFS-Load from the pop-up Menu.
7. File-browse into the /opt/Brave folder and click the LAUNCH script to test, and if successful click the MenuAdd Script.

The above should work as SFSes function from Fat32 partitions; the /opt folder has been copied into RAM so the format of the partition from which it was copied is not relevant.

The downsides are (1) files in /opt occupy (use) RAM. All changes --bookmarks, extensions, customizations, settings-- will also occupy RAM. (2) Downloads will be to /opt/Brave/profile/spot/download, so also occupy RAM.

Don't forget to execute a Save after you've made the above changes. Don't forget to move any downloaded files before executing a Save. A Save will preserve those changes as well as that the Brave.SFS is to be loaded on boot-up.

(2) The files you download will be downloaded to /opt/Brave/profile/spot/downloads, so also occupy RAM.
(3) Not sure about whether you can update the version of Brave you've used. I think what would happen is that on boot-up the original version will be copied into RAM, then overwritten by the contents from your SaveFile which holds the new (updated) version if you've executed a Save.

I recommend that you obtain a small (8gb is sufficient) USB-Stick and format it Linux Ext3. This will provide you with a Linux partition when needed, such as updating Brave as follows:
(a) Create a Brave folder on the USB-Stick; within it create a folder named /opt.
(b) Copy the Brave-portable folder from /opt/Brave to the USB-Stick's /opt/Brave.
(c) Left-Click the UpDateBrave script to run it.
(d) After the update is completed, Right-Click the /USB/Brave folder and select dir2sfs. Replace the old Brave.sfs with the new one. Caution: Both your new Brave.sfs and your SaveFile will have a profile folder with your customizatons, extensions etc. You may want to SFS-(un)Load the old Brave.sfs, file browse into /opt to delete the profile folder and Save before replacing it with and SFS-Loading the new Brave.sfs.

[Governor]

My other portables work fine on the FAT32 drive:
Firefox, Thunderbird, Audacity, LibreOffice.
Why is that?

I don't have exfat or ntfs partitions to play with but I refreshed my memory by placing a copy of one of the portables in my FAT32 partition and launching it from terminal. What is failing there is setting the permissions of the lib, PROFILE, and chromium directories to spot:spot. Therefore chromium, run-as-spot in the portables cannot 'see' the directory that contains/saves settings. I'm pretty sure this is true for ntfs and exfat also. If you have an extra usb port and thumbdrive, you could partition that as EXT2, put the portables there, and call them explicitly from there. Sorry this is a workaround but this isn't the only place where 'non-linux' partitions are a deal-breaker.

[Governor]

Wow, that is a fairly complex solution. Perhaps I should just move all my portables to an ext4 partition?

My other portables that work fine on the FAT32 drive:
Firefox, Thunderbird, Audacity, LibreOffice.
Why is that?

Because symlinks don't work from a Fat32 partition Mike's portables can't be used AS-IS. But you can use them to create an SFS:

1. Create an empty folder: e.g. Right-Click an empty space and from the Pop-Up menu select New>Directory and give it a name, e.g. temp.
2. Create an Brave directory within temp: Right-Click an empty space within 'temp', select New>Directory and give it the name Brave.
3. Copy the entire Brave-portable folder into the /opt/Brave folder.
4. Right-Click the Brave folder and from the pop-up Menu select dir2sfs. An SFS named Brave.sfs will be created.
5. Move it to you the same partition on which you've located the Puppy files. This partition automatically mounts on boot-up.
6. Right-Click the Brave.sfs and select SFS-Load from the pop-up Menu.
7. File-browse into the /opt/Brave folder and click the LAUNCH script to test, and if successful click the MenuAdd Script.

The above should work as SFSes function from Fat32 partitions; the /opt folder has been copied into RAM so the format of the partition from which it was copied is not relevant.

The downsides are (1) files in /opt occupy (use) RAM. All changes --bookmarks, extensions, customizations, settings-- will also occupy RAM. (2) Downloads will be to /opt/Brave/profile/spot/download, so also occupy RAM.

Don't forget to execute a Save after you've made the above changes. Don't forget to move any downloaded files before executing a Save. A Save will preserve those changes as well as that the Brave.SFS is to be loaded on boot-up.

(2) The files you download will be downloaded to /opt/Brave/profile/spot/downloads, so also occupy RAM.
(3) Not sure about whether you can update the version of Brave you've used. I think what would happen is that on boot-up the original version will be copied into RAM, then overwritten by the contents from your SaveFile which holds the new (updated) version if you've executed a Save.

I recommend that you obtain a small (8gb is sufficient) USB-Stick and format it Linux Ext3. This will provide you with a Linux partition when needed, such as updating Brave as follows:
(a) Create a Brave folder on the USB-Stick; within it create a folder named /opt.
(b) Copy the Brave-portable folder from /opt/Brave to the USB-Stick's /opt/Brave.
(c) Left-Click the UpDateBrave script to run it.
(d) After the update is completed, Right-Click the /USB/Brave folder and select dir2sfs. Replace the old Brave.sfs with the new one. Caution: Both your new Brave.sfs and your SaveFile will have a profile folder with your customizatons, extensions etc. You may want to SFS-(un)Load the old Brave.sfs, file browse into /opt to delete the profile folder and Save before replacing it with and SFS-Loading the new Brave.sfs.

[Jasper]

@Governor

Do you want to try my Brave SFS ?

Runs from a NTFS partition.

brave-browser-162.165
https://www.mediafire.com/file/gttor959 ... 5.sfs/file

[mikewalsh]

@fredx181 :-

Sym-links from /proc , didn't know, IMO it's weird that a browser does that, are you sure ? And how can I check that ?
EDIT: SingletonLock is a broken symlink in PROFILE/spot/Brave-Browser for me (after launching Brave-portable)
EDIT2 : Or perhaps you say only "if running from FAT32" ?

Sorry, Fred! My bad; I was in the middle of something else when I posted that, and was getting my details mixed up....

• SingletonCookie - this is a link to a long 12-digit number, with no indication of a location

• SingletonLock - this is a link to a host-name

• SingletonSocket - this is a link to a file in /tmp

These are always found inside the first level of the profile.

IF the above are going to appear - and they don't always do so - it's more often than not when you get a "messy" shutdown to the portable under one Puppy (for whatever reason; I can't be the only one that's ever had this happen!), followed by then launching the browser under a second Puppy.

(Personally, I never run Pups from FAT32, so I can't comment on your last statement one way OR the other. I simply have no experience with running 'em that way......)

Mike.

[williwaw]

Perhaps I should just move all my portables to an ext4 partition?

should you decide to try using a linux partition for your portables. maybe also try using the linux partition for a puppy frugal install.
Choose a puppy version you have never used before, and keep its save in the default same subfolder

[Governor]

How do I put the .sfs into use?

@Governor

Do you want to try my Brave SFS ?

Runs from a NTFS partition.

brave-browser-162.165
https://www.mediafire.com/file/gttor959 ... 5.sfs/file

[Governor]

I moved Brave and my portable apps to an ext4 partition.
When I start Brave I get this in my address bar:

Code: Select all

http://browser/Brave-portable64/Brave-portable64/PROFILE/spot/Brave-Browser 

That aside, Brave keeps changing some of my settings every time I start the app.

NOTE: Problems below appear to be fixed now after moving Brave to an ext4 partition.

It keeps turning on the following:
1)Leo
2)Allow privacy-preserving product analytics (P3A)
This completely anonymised info helps Brave estimate the overall usage of certain features and make them better for you.
3)Automatically send daily usage ping to Brave
This anonymous, private ping lets Brave estimate active users.
4)Hangouts
5)Webtorrent
6)Allow auto-fill in private windows
7)Show Brave News button
8)Show Brave Rewards button
9)Show Brave Wallet button
10)Show sidebar button

Also added to [Show autocomplete suggestions in address bar] is:
Leo AI Assistent

How can I stop these changes from happening every time I start Brave?

Because symlinks don't work from a Fat32 partition Mike's portables can't be used AS-IS. But you can use them to create an SFS:

[Jasper]

@Governor

Once downloaded 'Click' on the file to run the application

To remove the application once you have finished:

The files when in use will be located here:

The browser runs as "Root", so any files that you download will be located in your Home directory

[Governor]

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Everything worked exactly as indicated. I am, however, a little confused about how to use this browser in practice if it is only temporary.

@Governor

Once downloaded 'Click' on the file to run the application

To remove the application once you have finished:

The files when in use will be located here:

The browser runs as "Root", so any files that you download will be located in your Home directory

[geo_c]

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Everything worked exactly as indicated. I am, however, a little confused about how to use this browser in practice if it is only temporary.

I haven't used it awhile, but I think if you located the sfs in your boot directory, load it and do not unload it on shutdown, it will load automatically on next boot. It should store your settings in the pupsave. filesystem. As long as you save any pupsave changes before shutting down, you should see them on reboot.

[Jasper]

@Governor

Thanks for the detailed instructions. Everything worked exactly as indicated. I am, however, a little confused about how to use this browser in practice if it is only temporary.

I tend to use Palemoon on a daily basis as it is inbuilt.

However, if I encounter difficulties with certain websites eg banking then I will use a vanilla build of Firefox, Brave, Chrome just for that single purpose.

Once finished, then I just unload the SFS file and go back to Palemoon.