Current package:- Opera-portable 113.0.5230.47
Afternoon, gang.
Now then; this will be the 'regular' thread for Opera-portable. I've always liked it, though some of you may recall the merry issues I had with the earlier releases as far as the media codecs/Widevine, etc., were concerned.
These problems have now been finally resolved. Hopefully, for good....
NetFlix, as many of you know, is a pre-requisite for me. A modern browser that won't access it is a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. The last couple of packages I released of this had made use of a small SFS for 'loading' libffmpeg/Widevine before starting the browser, which was - as I openly admitted - a somewhat 'clunky' workaround. It did the job, but the browser wasn't as easy-to-use as I would have liked it to be.
The issue has always revolved around Opera's refusal to 'read' Widevine from any other location than /opt/google/chrome.....a location we haven't really used in Puppy since Google flushed 32-bit Linux builds down the pan way back in 2016.
I've used a combination of approaches to 'fix' this intransigence on Opera's part. I'm using part of the 'tee'-command launch script seaside came up with last year, along with a bit of my own basic scripting.
The launcher now looks like this:-
Code: Select all
#!/bin/sh
#
# Launcher for 'portable' Opera browser
#
export HERE="$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")"
#
tee "$HERE"/opera/resources/pepper_flash_config.json >/dev/null <<EOF
{
"PepperFlashPaths" : [
"${HERE}/opera/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so"
]
}
EOF
#
tee "$HERE"/opera/resources/ffmpeg_preload_config.json >/dev/null <<EOF
[
"${HERE}/opera/libffmpeg.so"
]
EOF
#
mkdir /opt/google
mkdir /opt/google/chrome
#
ln -s $HERE/opera/WidevineCdm /opt/google/chrome/WidevineCdm
#
#
"$HERE/opera/opera-pup" "$@"
rm -rf /opt/googleLibffmpeg and PepperFlash are both quite amenable to being 're-located' via the tee command, so I've left those two clauses as they are, with very minor modification.
Experimentation has shown that although Opera pouts like a spoilt brat & refuses to play ball IF it can't read Widevine from /opt/google/chrome, said directory doesn't have to actually reside in that location. A sym-link is all that's needed, so the WidevineCdm directory lives inside the portable directory as normal.
At startup, a sym-link is created to /opt/google/chrome/WidevineCdm; thus, Opera finds the DRM stuff where it expects to, and behaves itself. When the browser is closed, the 'temporary' sym-link is removed from /opt by the removal of /opt/google + contents.
This all works as expected, so Opera-portable is properly 'portable' once again. Yay!
Usual procedure, as always:- D/l, unzip, place anywhere you want. Click to enter, click the launcher to fire it up. Simples! The MenuAdd/Remove scripts will let you install or remove a Menu entry, if one is required.
You will always be able to find a reasonably 'current' offering at the following location at my MediaFire a/c:-
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/w8h3k5 ... a-portable
This release now features, as an addition to the sidebar functionality, a 'player' button that will give you immediate access to multiple music sites.....like Spotify, YouTubeMusic, SoundCloud. In fact, anywhere you happen to have an a/c, you can sign-in & listen while you browse.
IMHO, this single item (in addition to the options for various messenger services built-in to the sidebar) is worth far more than all the ridiculous additions the Vivaldi team have been making to their browser over the course of this year..! Which is why I've always preferred Opera to Vivaldi, overall, because anything they add usually has a sensible reason for existing. I still can't figure out how the Vivaldi devs can justify adding an arcade game to their code-base.....or an internet 'pause' function!! 
Anyways; enjoy.
Mike. 
)
