Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

New to Puppy and have questions? Start here

Moderator: Forum moderators

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

There is a portable Palemoon 27 that runs in Puppy Linux 5.2.5 Lucid. It works on SSE systems.

Is there anything like Palemoon 28 like this, or, say, Firefox 52? That Deviantart problem is driving me crazy, and now I'm wondering if static.parastorage.com simply does not play nice with Puppy Linux, since modified Firefox 45 ESR, Basilisk 52, and Palemoon 28 take half an eternity to get anywhere using WINE in Puppy Linux mode but when run under XP mode are within acceptable limits. Even taking the slower times with WINE the difference in time is insane.

Last edited by Flash on Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Original title: Any and All SSE Browsers?
User avatar
Flash
Moderator
Posts: 978
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 3:13 pm
Location: Arizona, U.S.
Has thanked: 51 times
Been thanked: 127 times

Re: Any and All SSE Browsers?

Post by Flash »

Here's what SeaMonkey says when I try static.parastorage.com:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
<Error><Code>AccessDenied</Code><Message>Access Denied</Message><RequestId>ADDZH5QW98PEG3WW</RequestId><HostId>eg6jrGV/B73Nrvja0g2SPCKsAd4tGV9NTW05YiPOCKDZCuNle9d6XZzNPMBUMJSw9o0m7C6+0xE=</HostId></Error>

Chaos coordinator :?
User avatar
mikeslr
Posts: 2963
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:08 pm
Has thanked: 178 times
Been thanked: 918 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikeslr »

If I read this post correctly, the last Seamonkey which would run if your computer doesn't support SSe2 is version 2.40. https://blog.seamonkey-project.org/2016 ... s-and-sse/
More to follow. Have to break for dinner.
Had dinner & returned. At the bottom of this page you'll find links to "Old and Unofficial Releases". https://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/. The ones for Windows should run under Wine.
The last opera which could run on such computer was, perhaps, version 20. https://forums.opera.com/topic/16526/op ... -processor. You'll find links to old versions here, https://get.opera.com/ftp/pub/opera/desktop/
Frankly, I would not run any web-browser under Wine. Wine provides neither privacy nor security software. It warns that such must be provided by the operating system. When you run a browser under Windows you are almost certainly also running anti-malware; which is why it's so slow. Unless you are running Wine in a Chroot or container, programs under it have full access to everything on your computer; circumventing the Linux malware which exists but few of us bother with.
For Linux Web-browsers less demanding than palemoon, you might try opera 12.16. There are pets on ibiblio and smokey. I'll hunt them up if you really want one. But be warned most current websites won't allow access; and those which do may not render properly.
You're better off downloading MikeWalsh's Seamonkey 2.46 portable from here, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 6#p1024826 then:
UExtract the tar.gz. Within you'll find a folder just named "seamonkey32". Within that you'll find an "extralibs" folder and a file named "smky". Copy those into the extracted folder of the pre-40 seamonkey you downloaded from the above mentioned seamonkey repo. I think that's all that's necessary to a have portable pre-40 seamonkey. The application starts by left-clicking the smky file.

Exactly what situation do you have in mind where you think you need to run a Web-browser under Wine?

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

I'll try those- those sandbox methods you mention sound quite good, could you give me more details on how to do that?

I also should have been more detailed- by "SSE capable" I also meant any Puppy Linux browsers which would run as well for a Pentium 3 SSE laptop, the way Palemoon 27 SSE for Puppy Linux does- it's just not able to deal with sites like Deviantart.com, but maybe a version of Palemoon 28 would and run faster.

That crummy static.parastorage.com site only works for people who are logged in. When you have an add-on that detects and allows you to block servers that one always comes up; blocking it causes problems with the entire site- including the inability to do things like Reply, Comment, post Literature, post Journals, forcing you to use the tricks I did figure out to do other things (such as, say, using the search engine there). Until that incredibly lousy new site design nobody likes appeared Palemoon 27 SSE for Puppy Linux worked perfectly, as did older Windows browsers (e.g. Firefox 40). Even Opera Mini 5 could do just about anything there.

With that sort of thing and the end of Flash is there an effort to ruin the Internet for more and more people?

User avatar
mikeslr
Posts: 2963
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:08 pm
Has thanked: 178 times
Been thanked: 918 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikeslr »

Gus, I was just being thorough by providing the exception to the rule "don't run web-facing programs under Wine". Containers and Chroots won't function well on computers with limited resources. To run Wine in a chrooted OS, you're running one OS to run another OS to run Wine which is almost a 3rd.

Would Palemoon 27 SSE still provide functional access to https://www.deviantart.com/ if you removed the addons? Mike's builds are portables: you can run two independent versions and --being self-contained-- they won't interfere with each other. One just for deviantart and other problem sites; the other for general web-browsing.
For 'security' you could configure the one for deviantart to 'run-as-spot'.
Just copy your current palemoon folder under a different name. Start the new one by Left-clicking the plmn wrapper. Go into its Menu>Tools>Addons>Extensions and remove any/all.
If that works, ask if you need help to run it as Spot.

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Neither Palemoon 27 Puppy Linux nor Windows can fully handle that site now. Even directly using the URLs for Journal and Literature fails. The problem is with that static.parastorage.com site (you cannot directly go there). In XP mode the new modified browsers work tolerably well but in Puppy Linux mode under WINE...no. It takes far too long to get anywhere. I figured out part of the problems by using URLs but it does not work for those four things I mentioned.

www.deviantart.com/?submit=journal

for example does not work (of course you must be logged in).

User avatar
mikeslr
Posts: 2963
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:08 pm
Has thanked: 178 times
Been thanked: 918 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikeslr »

I don't have any useful ideas just now. But, could you provide us with the specs of your computer. Maybe that will suggest some alternative.

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

It is a 2001 Sony VAIO, integrated Intel chip.

Windows XP Home Edition/Puppy Linux 5.2.5 Lucid.

16/24-Bit color, although Lemmings- which needs 32-Bit color- works in Puppy Linux mode.

Pentium 3 800MHz processor.

1024h x 768v resolution.

256MB RAM, SWAP file set for 2GB. This has enabled a SWF game called "Norby" to work.

I tried someone else's suggestion to use the Seamonkey browser, but while it seems to work tests on the ASUS show it cannot properly handle Deviantart.

Any portable browser that would work on the Sony's version of Puppy Linux, preferably portable and it MUST require no more than SSE instruction sets, a later version of said browsers, would be worth a try.

Are there any files one can add to Lucid or the browser folder itself that would enable browsers to stream MP4?

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

Hello,

I've complied Palemoon 28.17 with sse, it works under Precise Puppy (or newer of corse, 29.x versions seems to be only complieable under Debian 9 or newer), you could download here.

newmoonsse.jpg
newmoonsse.jpg (172.71 KiB) Viewed 1653 times
Last edited by Fenyo on Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@Fenyo :- Hallo.....and a warm :welcome: to the 'kennels'!

First of all, let me express my heartfelt thanks for making this 'NewMoon' build of 28.17.0 SSE available. It's enabled me to update the long-standing 27.9.4 SSE build that Walter Dnes originally provided for the community a few years ago. Cheers!

So.....

Here, boys'n'girls, is a very 'special' portable. A portable PaleMoon/NewMoon SSE-only build of v28.17.0, and running via watchdog's original 'glibc tweak' trick.....but nowadays, utilizing the very much newer glibc 2.28 from the Debian 'Buster'-based Pups. This should enable it to run in elderly Puppies.

(Since I've 'modularized' my 'zilla-based builds, literally all I had to do was to download Fenyo's Centos6 NewMoon package, unzip the tarball, and drop the 'palemoon' directory straight in.....and rename to 'palemoon32'. All the scripts & directories that used to be inside the browser directory now sit outside at the top level, and the separate glibc 'launch' script has now been 'absorbed' by the main LAUNCH script. Needless to say, this makes life a bit easier for me.)

--------------------------------------------------

For anyone who would like to give this a try - including @GusCE6 ! - you can find this build here:-

https://mega.nz/folder/zO52VZDQ#F3U5wZYxvb9FNy3aHvMs-w

YouTube works fine, though I can't make any predictions about the issues you're having with DeviantArt, Gus. I'll update the PaleMoon thread to include this build. Enjoy! Posting from it right now.

Mike. ;)

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

Centos 6 has glibc 2.12 so this is the minimal requirement of this build, Wary based on Lucid which has 2.11 :D , so unluckily isnt new enough, but if it has glibc tweak, it maybe work, i just tested under Precise Puppy which must too be good, because it has newer base (glibc 2.15) than Centos 6.

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@Fenyo :-

We've been using the 'glibc-tweak' trick that watchdog originally developed for some time now. It works very well, and has enabled quite a few of our community members who run very old hardware to maintain a reasonably up-to-date browser.....so it's "paid for itself", over and again.

This build of yours will enable them to keep that old hardware useful for at least a little while longer. Thanks!

(Just out of sheer curiosity, how long did this take you to compile? Are you on elderly hardware yourself, or was this built on a newer rig?)

Mike. ;)

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Thank you to everyone here, especially you Mikewalsh and Fenyo.

I just tested Palemoon 28 with Deviantart, and it seems to work fine (I tried it on the ASUS in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 6.0.5 mode).

It does crash on Twitch TV, but oh well.

The only foreseeable problem I can see right now is that GLIBC 2.28. The best Lucid can handle is 2.20, unless this is standalone here.

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

My build needs glibc 2.12 or newer, so every distro which has it least or newer has to be work, so Precise or newer base works out of the box, Lucid has only 2.11, so it need to be newer glibc, 2.20 that you mentioned is far enough.
If Twichtv use av1 decoder default, i could rebuild PM with disable-av1, because it seems buggy on PM 29.1 or erlier, only 29.2 or newer stable...

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@GusCE6 :-

GusCE6 wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:32 am

Thank you to everyone here, especially you Mikewalsh and Fenyo.

I just tested Palemoon 28 with Deviantart, and it seems to work fine (I tried it on the ASUS in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 6.0.5 mode).

It does crash on Twitch TV, but oh well.

The only foreseeable problem I can see right now is that GLIBC 2.28. The best Lucid can handle is 2.20, unless this is standalone here.

Good, good! Nice to hear it works for you, though Fenyo should get the lion's share of the credit; he DID, after all, do the 'grunt work'. All I've done is to re-package it.

In this context, that glibc 2.28 should not give you any issues. The only application that can use it is Pale Moon/New Moon itself, because it has specific $PATHs for locating and using it. Nothing else in Lucid will even see it....

I assume you have battleshooter's Glibc220 package installed in Lucid, yes? Or perhaps Barry's? The two should not conflict, in case that's what you're worried about.

Mike. ;)

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

Fenyo wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:27 am

My build needs glibc 2.12 or newer, so every distro which has it least or newer has to be work, so Precise or newer base works out of the box, Lucid has only 2.11, so it need to be newer glibc, 2.20 that you mentioned is far enough.
If Twichtv use av1 decoder default, i could rebuild PM with disable-av1, because it seems buggy on PM 29.1 or erlier, only 29.2 or newer stable...

Does this help at all?

https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2017/10/10/li ... c1c125f28/

Way over my head, but I thought the info it contains might perhaps be able to help you decide what compile "flags" may need changing.....

Mike. ;)

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

I've tested the browser with TwittchTv on an Atlhon Xp machine and it seems stable for hours, but only works if you have new enough ffmpeg, gstreamer codecs, even Precise isnt good enough, just saying video format not supported, but Trusty or Jessie or newer base is ok, i dont know whether Puppy has a newer codecs for Precise or even Lucid (Lucid seems to be too old for current usage, maybe Precise is the sweet spot for really old P3's, on an Athlon Xp/ K7 Sempron or Tua P3's with enough ram and with supported vga (Ati Radeon 8500+, Geforce4+) is good enough for currently supported Debian base (9+) distros, if the window manager is light enough (Xfce or lighter)).
Update: the oldest distro which has new enough gstreamer-ffmpeg for twitchtv is Centos 6, it has 3rd party repo called epel and nux-desktop, and it has newer codec packs than vanilla Precise, even though it has older base, but it was a really long supperted distro (2010 to 2020). I dont know whether it lighter than Puppy (always depend on the machine hardware config too), but Centos 6 in epel has xfce and even icewm packages, so you could config realtivly up to date system (support ended just november of 2020 compared with Lucid which EOL april of 2015) with light but outdated window manager, although Trusty or Jessie based distro with a newer and comfortable light wm is not seems heavier, so you have to try to be able to decide which one is the most suitable for your hardware...

Last edited by Fenyo on Fri Oct 22, 2021 10:31 am, edited 4 times in total.
GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Hoo boy.

I tried that browser and it works well- on the mighty ASUS with Tahrpup 6.0.5, which has been greatly enhanced thanks to the people here.

BUT- upon trying it on the 2001 Sony VAIO with its Lucid 5.2.5 I get this on the terminal window:

"libxul.so: undefined symbol: gdk_window_get_visual"

Note that libxul.so file appears in the portable Linux Palemoon 27, which works fine- but it is of a different size so I assume it works differently as a different file.

I've tried looking on the Internet, but the information is vague.

I get this feeling that the problem is very nearly solved, though, I just have to find out what this is.

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@GusCE6 :-

"libxul.so: undefined symbol: gdk_window_get_visual"

Mmm. Oh, dear. That's somewhat ominous.

In every 'zilla-based/forked browser, libxul.so IS the bulk of the browser code. Yes, I know it's not a 'binary'.....instead, it's a shared library - but that's the way most browsers work.

In the case of Firefox, a small binary 'fires up' the data from the big shared library. Rather in the same way that D7 & D8 Caterpillar crawlers used to use a small 'donkey-engine' to fire up the main engine, it's basically the browser's 'starter motor', for want of a better simile.

(In the case of the Chromium-based clones, instead of a binary 'starter motor', a 'wrapper-script' is used to kick-start the big shared library into life....)

-----------------------------------------

Lucid Puppy is at least a decade old by now. In computing terms, this puts it at somewhere around 'prehistoric' status.....and that's being kind. 'Dinosaur' might be nearer the mark (it's an extremely fast-moving world. Nothing stays the same for very long).

Browsers are only ever going to work back to a certain point in time, due to incompatibility between the dependencies they were compiled against & those to be found in the distro in which they're running. Lucid has a point beyond which it simply isn't possible to upgrade it; beyond that point, you 'break' the distro due to glibc status.....this being the one item against which everything else in the distro has to work - the 'foundation' around which everything else is built.

There was always going to come a point in time at which Lucid's abilities were going to fall too far behind browser requirements - even WITH modifications! - for a useable browser to ever be a reality again. As of this moment in time, you're in pretty much the same position with Lucid as those stalwarts still struggling on with Windows XP. It hasn't been supported for years, and software developers/coders have long since left it behind.

It sounds like it's way past time to retire the Vaio. I know it's a wrench, especially if it's still fully functional; I've hung onto my own 2002 Dell Inspiron up until now because it's in really nice condition (despite not having had a battery for years), and it would still run a new enough Puppy to work with a recent browser. This is P4-based, BTW.

I got a shock the other day. I fired it up for the first time in several months. Even using Pale Moon - the lightest browser that used to work competently in it - upon trying to load several of my regular sites, they refused to do so.....because every one of those websites is now so loaded down with crap as to make the browser unusable.

This is NOT the fault of the hardware.....or even the Puppy. It's a fact of life with the modern web, which HAS become so 'heavy' that only a reasonably powerful machine with plenty of resources has a hope of being able to cope with it. If we could wave a magic wand, and make the web go back to how it was even ten years ago, both your Vaio and my Inspiron would still cope happily. But you might as well try to stop the sun from setting every night; it ain't gonna happen.

At some point with old hardware, you've just gotta hold your hands up, and say "Enough is enough. It stops HERE."

I know it's not what you want to hear, but.....it's a fact of life, unfortunately.

--------------------------

That failure line contains the clue;

Code: Select all

'gdk_window_get_visual'

.....tells me it's something to do with GTK+ 3; the browser wants a newer version, or it can't find it. Have you go GTK3 installed in Lucid? I seem to recall - from my own Lucid - that was an uphill task.....finding one that was new enough for browsers which would actually function in Lucid. A version of GTK3 compiled for Lucid was invariably too old for the browser. A version of GTK3 that satisfied the browser wouldn't function under Lucid, due to all the dependencies called BY GTK3 being too old to work with it.....

Code: Select all

ldd

.....run against libgdk.so.3 will produce a list of between 40 and 55 other dependencies which ALSO have to be new enough to satisfy the particular version of GTK3, depending on the Puppy and the age of the browser/version of GTK3 that's required. They, in their turn, will demand a whole host of newer libs against which they've been compiled..... (D'you see where the term 'lib-chase' comes from..?)

You're gonna struggle with that one, I think. You literally ARE on "a hiding to nothing".

---------------------------------------

Probably a stupid question, but.....will the Vaio run Precise? Did you ever try it?

Mike. :|

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Yes, I have tried Precise 5.7. It simply takes too much. 5.4 may work, though.

Is there something similar to the browser I tried but uses the older code? I do not care if it's somewhat slower.

I just want this browser to work- and for idiots to stop making life miserable for other people, as Wix did with Deviantart. Or the ending of Flash. There has to be a browser that works on this VAIO in Puppy Linux mode that will do the job. Say something that uses the same thing as Palemoon 27 but is Palemoon 28 enough to get the job done.

Or is there a distro that will do the job but demands no more than Lucid in power? I'll try that. But to be honest, I am sick and tired of endless problems, which is what the Internet seems to be now. There is no question the Internet was a better experience a decade ago.

How can I tell if gtk3 is installed, and if not how do I try- and what exactly is it? Why do I not get the same error message with Palemoon 27, what is the difference between those two files? Can Palemoon 28 be compiled with that other file?

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

Maybe try Precise Light with ffmpeg could do the job, but i'm not a puppy expert, or just try to add some sd soddim ram to your old P3 laptop, usually in local used pc parts stores is very cheap now.

Update: I've found a solution for Precise and live streams (like Twitchtv), just go to the about:config in Palemoon and enable media.libavcodec.allow~obsolete and restart the browser and it already works. :thumbup:

Last edited by Fenyo on Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@GusCE6 :-

GusCE6 wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:52 pm

Yes, I have tried Precise 5.7. It simply takes too much. 5.4 may work, though.

Is there something similar to the browser I tried but uses the older code? I do not care if it's somewhat slower.

I just want this browser to work- and for idiots to stop making life miserable for other people, as Wix did with Deviantart. Or the ending of Flash. There has to be a browser that works on this VAIO in Puppy Linux mode that will do the job. Say something that uses the same thing as Palemoon 27 but is Palemoon 28 enough to get the job done.

Or is there a distro that will do the job but demands no more than Lucid in power? I'll try that. But to be honest, I am sick and tired of endless problems, which is what the Internet seems to be now. There is no question the Internet was a better experience a decade ago.

How can I tell if gtk3 is installed, and if not how do I try- and what exactly is it? Why do I not get the same error message with Palemoon 27, what is the difference between those two files? Can Palemoon 28 be compiled with that other file?

Whooah! You're asking more now than even most folks good at compiling can handle.

Y'see, the author of the source code will have written his code to expect certain minimum versions of everything. Newer versions of dependencies come with newer instructions and options. Unless you're competent in whatever language it's been written in, and know just HOW to modify the code - and WHERE! - you can easily make a total hash of it. What you're asking simply isn't that EASY, mate.

You can easily enough compile against different CPU instruction sets, and versions of the glibc.....but it just isn't that easy to 'mix & match' bits and pieces of different code in the way you appear to think it is. This is "ubergeek" level stuff here....and browser source code is usually an enormous chunk of the stuff, probably encompassing tens of thousands of lines of code. Every line of that would need to be reviewed, and you would need to know HOW to modify things in such a way that everything would still work.

On top of all that - from what I understand - with many browsers, different parts are often written in different languages. And this is in the same overall chunk of code. So you would need to be competent at multiple disciplines...... Most folks simply have no idea of just HOW complex browser source code really is.

Do you see where I'm coming from?

(Google have a whole fleet of semi-autonomous "build-bots"; capable of churning out build after build after build, 24/7.....incorporating patches and fixes from developers all around the globe, as they come in, and still carrying on with the non-stop build process without missing a beat. I would imagine Mozilla probably have summat similar, though on nothing like the same scale, of course...)

---------------------------------------

The best lightweight browser I ever came across for elderly hardware was QtWeb.....super lightweight, and it would handle almost anything. But its authors quit developing it over 3 years ago; it still runs, but won't work with any sites, because it needs re-writing to work with modern network security levels....

I don't think you're going to have much luck finding a lightweight browser that will handle the crapfest that DeviantArt has now become. Not with 20-yr old hardware, built for a gentler period in time.

Mike. :|

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Fenyo-

That Precise 5.7 Lite is a big improvement over the normal one but still takes too much processing power. It also does not seem very stable after a time, at least in my case. Lucid has proven very stable.

I now use what could be called the "Norby Test." "Norby" is a SWF game that is VERY demanding with RAM and processing power, more than any other, even "Cubis Creatures," "Pet Rescue Saga" (online no less!), or "Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows." It never ran on the Sony in either mode until I was able to replace the default 199MB SWP file with a 2GB SWP file- thanks to William2 for the instructions!- so now it does run in Puppy Linux 5.2.5 Lucid mode.

Given how much raw power that particular browser-based Flash game requires, well, if it can be made to run then certainly Deviantart can be handled.

But even Precise Lite cannot pass the test. But it DOES run the browser and is much closer than Precise Regular.

Therefore, either a version of Palemoon 28 SSE portable that runs on 5.2.5 Lucid is called for, OR a distro that requires less power but runs that browser.

So- what is the earliest, least demanding distro known to run that version of Palemoon? I would simply install it, use minimal installation files but so it can use that 2GB SWP file, and try that- if it works than any online activity would use that one. It's worth a try.

Thanks. :thumbup2:

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

The earliest distro which is new enough for this build is CentOS 6, but you have to setup to be lighter (default is Gnome2, but icewm is in epel repos), out of the box light distros i known are Puppy Linux and antiX, the earliest base are enough for PaleMoon 28 are Precise (Ubuntu 12.04) and Wheezy (Debian 7), you tried Precise Light, another chance are Wheezy based light distros like DebianDog Wheezy and Antix 13.2.
256 Mb ram is very limited now try to add at least 256 more or even 1GB if you can.

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@GusCE6 :-

I rather think Fenyo's right, I'm afraid.

Canonical updated an awful lot of stuff between "Lucid" Lynx & "Precise" Pangolin. The NSS (network security stuff) for one thing; PAM - authentication modules; probably other stuff that doesn't immediately spring to mind, but which is all required for network security authentication (without which no browser will be able to connect to the 'net AT ALL.....because sites will refuse to 'talk' to it).

Just as an aside; your Pentium 3 is the ancestor of the entire modern Intel 'Core' series.....did you know that? Despite that Intel developed the Pentium 4 - the whole point of which was to hit ultra-high clock speeds with that ridiculously deep pipeline - it was never as scaleable as they would have liked. The "Netburst" architecture was kind of a 'blip' in Intel's roadmap, and was, by-and-large, something of a dead-end, so they went back a generation to find a base on which to develop the next generation of CPUs. They never looked back.

(The only thing the P4s will be remembered for is being pretty much unburstable....and the fact that it was the first architecture ever to deploy 'hyper-threading'.)

Mike. ;)

GusCE6
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:16 pm

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by GusCE6 »

Fenyo wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:35 am

The earliest distro which is new enough for this build is CentOS 6, but you have to setup to be lighter (default is Gnome2, but icewm is in epel repos), out of the box light distros i known are Puppy Linux and antiX, the earliest base are enough for PaleMoon 28 are Precise (Ubuntu 12.04) and Wheezy (Debian 7), you tried Precise Light, another chance are Wheezy based light distros like DebianDog Wheezy and Antix 13.2.
256 Mb ram is very limited now try to add at least 256 more or even 1GB if you can.

Are those actual Puppy Linux distros? Those are the only ones LICK can install. How does, say, DebianDog Wheezy compare to Lucid?

I just can't shake the hunch that I'm very close to solving this problem.

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

DebianDog Wheezy is a Puppy derivate, i don't know whether it lighter Precise or not, its pretty similar package base, but Deiban stable base usually longer tested and probably more stable. antiX is another lightweight distro which based on Debian stable, i was used 13.2 on 1Ghz P3 with 512mb ram and back in time it was quite useable. If you have usb port you could try Plop Boot Manager, you could add as an item to grub and you could boot from usb from and old machine too.

I could complie PaleMoon 29 series (it seems faster than 28 on an Athlon Xp machine) on CentOS 6 with SSE, here are the download links:
- 29.1.0 the latest Firefox legacy addons compatibility
- 29.4.1 the newest

User avatar
mikewalsh
Moderator
Posts: 6163
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:40 pm
Location: King's Lynn, UK
Has thanked: 795 times
Been thanked: 1982 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikewalsh »

@Fenyo :-

Wow. I mean that... Wow! I'm lost for words; I'm speechless.

Thank you so very, very much for providing those, and putting in the hard work to build them. You cannot know just how much they're appreciated, because this is the kind of thing that goes right to the heart of what Puppy is really all about.....keeping ancient hardware still useful. And these will enable the use of an up-to-date browser, even in old boxes where by necessity an older Puppy is the only thing that will work.

(Certain dependencies may still be needed for really old Puppy boxes, but those will be a minor matter compared to what you've done for us here; these put us 95% of the way there even for those...)

Did I say thanks? Oh wait; I DID. Well, I'll say it again.... THANK YOU! Image

--------------------------------------------------

I've packaged all of these in the same manner as the others; in portable format, with the glibc-228 'tweak'.....and they've been badged AS 'NewMoon' (because that's what they are. You deserve every bit of credit here, mate.)

So, boys & girls; you now have not just 1 rather out-of-date SSE-only build to choose from.....but THREE much newer versions, and one is the current build of the PaleMoon source code. Nice to have choice, ain't it? :D

All 3 builds can be found here:-

https://mega.nz/folder/zO52VZDQ#F3U5wZYxvb9FNy3aHvMs-w

Navigate through, and help yourselves to the one you want. And don't forget to thank Fenyo!

As always; d/l; unzip; move the portable directory anywhere you like.....though best outside the 'save', for obvious reasons. Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up.

Hope they're useful. I'll update the Pale Moon thread to include these. Enjoy.

Mike. ;)

User avatar
mikeslr
Posts: 2963
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:08 pm
Has thanked: 178 times
Been thanked: 918 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by mikeslr »

GusCE6 wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 1:32 am

... another chance are Wheezy based light distros like DebianDog Wheezy and Antix 13.2.
...
Are those actual Puppy Linux distros? Those are the only ones LICK can install. How does, say, DebianDog Wheezy compare to Lucid?

First, No there are no Anti-X Puppys or DebianDogs. No, Lick does not automatically create a boot-menu for DebianDogs. You'd have to edit the menu it does create.

You have a difficult problem but are looking for an easy solution. Don't wed yourself to LICK. It was developed to provide an easy way for those who only had access to a Windows operating system to obtain a functioning Puppy. Once you have a functioning Puppy you have access to its tools for putting together the two components needed to boot into other Puppys or DebianDogs: (1) The files which make up the operating system; and (2) the boot-loader and associated menu.lst/grub.cfg that will find the OSes and boot them.
I don't know how many USB-Ports the 2001 Sony Vaio has [you never identified the model]. But it certainly has at least one. The Vaio long predates the employment of UEFI booting mechanisms and the complications that brought. [Just for those who don't know, computers employing UEFI can't use grub4dos as its boot-loader]. Using Lupu or precise or whatever Puppy you now have located on the Vaio's internal drive you can create a bootable Puppy or debiandog on a USB-Stick and (setting your bios to boot USB-Ports first) boot into it.
You can test a Puppy or DebianDog on a bootable USB-Stick without jeopardizing the operating systems you have installed to the internal drive. Once you have a bootable USB-Stick, you can replace the OSes on it and edit the boot-loader's menu.lst/grub.cfg to provide for the replacement. The downside is that booting from a USB-Stick will be 10-15 times slower. Once booted, there's little difference.

From a Puppy or DebianDog on a USB-Stick, you can reverse the process: copy a Puppy’s or DebianDog’s system files to the internal drive and install a NEW BOOTLOADER to the Vaio's internal drive.
Gyrog and shinobar have published new ‘boot-installers’: Frugalpup-Installer and grub2.config. You’ll find links to them on the System Section of the Addition Software Sub-Forum. AFAIK, they can be installed into older Puppy and used by them. But I don’t think they offer anything beyond the application you already have.
All older Puppys have Grub4dos built-in. When grub4dos runs it will install the boot-loader to whatever drive/partition you select, search the entire computer for operating systems it recognizes and create a menu.lst so that on power-on you can choose between them. [Optionally, you can select to have grub4dos only search the drive it is going to be written to.] Windows is one of the operating systems it recognizes. So, you can Multi-boot Windows and Puppys.
Grub4dos’ menu.lst is a simple text file. You can create or edit it using any text-editor.
Unfortunately, the DebianDogs are not among the operating systems Grub4dos recognizes. [I think that’s also true of Frugalpup & grub2config]. You can install grub4dos and choose to have it NOT write a menu.lst. And when it does write a menu.lst before terminating it offers you the chance to edit it. Either way, you can end up with a menu.lst among whose choices offered are the debiandogs.
A grub4dos menu.lst for a Debiandogs, including Wheezy, is similar to that for a Puppy. You can obtain DebianDog Wheezy, and some older ‘Dogs’ from here, https://github.com/DebianDog/Wheezy/releases/tag/v1.0. That site also provides a lot of information.[Newer Dogs have threads on this Forum]. Having just checked the site I discovered that a recommended DebianDog installer is available. About it, I know nothing. You can ask on one of the DebianDog threads. What I do know is that included in the ISO is a text file named Examples-boot-codes.txt which provides information consistent with its title. Other examples can be found on this and the ‘Old’ forum. And, of course, you can ask.
DebianDog Wheezy may well provide a solution. But one of the first question I would ask is what would be necessary to obtain a web-browser that would work with DeviantArt.

Fenyo
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:23 am
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Any SSE browsers that run fast in WINE?

Post by Fenyo »

I'm glad I could help, i've tried DebianDog Wheezy on a P3 with 512 mb ram (not fast but useable, depend on website, this site is fast with it :) ), and it's feel snappier than Precise.
Even youtube-dl + mpv with Smtube still usable with Precise and Wheezy. 8-)
Plop Boot Manager installable to WinXP mbr too, so you could chose usb boot before Win load.

Attachments
debiandogwheezy.jpg
debiandogwheezy.jpg (164.54 KiB) Viewed 1129 times
Post Reply

Return to “Beginners Help”