Discord-'portable'...now @ v0.0.18

[mikewalsh]

Howdy, gang.

Ah, dearie me; I've gone & done it again, haven't I?

I was having a nose around the system earlier, and suddenly realised that, yes; Discord is one of them there "Electron"-type apps, ain't it? Which makes it prime material for the 'portable' treatment, don'tcha know..?

So; here it is; currently @ v0.0.18.

Same principle as various other portables; the config stuff remains within the portable's directory/'container' at all times, and is merely sym-linked out to the expected locations at run-time. At shut-down, those sym-links are then removed, ready for next time.

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

You should always be able to find the newest version - time permitting! - at the following URL:-

Discord-portable

(Download; unzip; place anywhere you like.....outside the 'save', naturally! Click to enter, click 'Launch' to start. Easy-peasy.)

What more can I say? Enjoy!

Mike.

[r96chase]

You might want to update this sometime. The main version is at 0.0.1.5 now.

Thanks for contributing though. Really.

[josejp2424]

Howdy, gang.

Ah, dearie me; I've gone & done it again, haven't I?

I was having a nose around the system earlier, and suddenly realised that, yes; Discord is one of them there "Electron"-type apps, ain't it? Which makes it prime material for the 'portable' treatment, don'tcha know..?

So; here it is; Discord-portable, v0.0.14.

Same principle as various other portables; the config stuff remains within the portable's directory/'container' at all times, and is merely sym-linked out to the expected locations at run-time. At shut-down, those sym-links are then removed, ready for next time.

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

You should always be able to find the newest version - time permitting! - at the following URL:-

Discord-portable

(Download; unzip; place anywhere you like.....outside the 'save', naturally! Click to enter, click 'Launch' to start. Easy-peasy.)

What more can I say? Enjoy!

Mike.

thank you mikewalsh ...

[mikewalsh]

Right, gang. New version time....

Discord is now up to v0.0.15, so here's the 'portable' version for y'all.

Available from the link in post #1. Enjoy.

Mike.

[r96chase]

@mikewalsh This actually might work better than WebCord tbh. Especially on Puppy Linux. Thank you for continuing to work on this.

I also have a Raspberry Pi desktop with Twister OS on it and WebCord kinda lags a bit and stuff. Again, thanks.

Sincerely,
Chase E.

[mikewalsh]

@r96chase :-

No probs!

I look at it this way; it's a bit daft us now having our own Discord server, if there's no way to access it, wouldn't you say..?

I have to have a mooch around BC's Discord server from time to time - keep an eye on the great unwashed BC membership, like! - 'cos it's expected of me. Since I'm there anyway, it's a very short step to the Puppy server, so.....I have a look around there, too, while I'm at it.

I suspect 'take-up' is slow because folks are just SO used to using the forums. Discord is a much more modern, immediate way of chatting with like-minded enthusiasts, but folks are always slow to change. Most people know what they know, and see very little reason to change if that works.....

(*shrug...*)

Mike.

[r96chase]

@mikewalsh

Yeah. Although, I wouldn't know what to do with the server if it were to suddenly gain traction in use. I would get overwhelmed since I'm still somewhat of a novice user of Linux in general.

I might have to create a new Discord server altogether tbh. The current one is kind of a mess and I'm not sure if I could actually fix/reorganize it. Anyway, thanks again for keeping this portable version of Discord up to date.

[r96chase]

This is gonna sound weird, but have you ever tested this on a non-Puppy distro?

Wish me luck becuase I'm about to be the first.

[dancytron]

Seems to work fine in Debian Dog Stretch.

[r96chase]

@dancytron

It worked on antiX too, albeit without a tray applet, but it works.

[r96chase]

@mikewalsh Ayy. I think it might be time again to update the Discord portable app. The mainline app is at 0.0.16 now.
Just thought I'd let you know.

[mikewalsh]

'Kay, boys'n'girls.

Following the above reminder from our Discord 'janitor', here's Discord v0.0.16 in Puppy 'portable' format. Follow the updated link in post #1 to my MEGA.nz a/c.

As always - dl; unzip; place anywhere you want (preferably outside the 'save'). Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up. Simples!

Enjoy.

Mike.

[r96chase]

I know that the mainline Discord app hasn't been bumped up yet, but for when they do, I want to be prepared. And since you've been adding updaters to some of your portables lately, I was wondering if you could add one to Discord once it gets up 0.0.17. However, I'm not sure it'll be necessary since the Discord deb usually updates every 6 months...or so it seems.

Anyway, thanks for your hard work.

[mikewalsh]

@r96chase :-

I know that the mainline Discord app hasn't been bumped up yet, but for when they do, I want to be prepared. And since you've been adding updaters to some of your portables lately, I was wondering if you could add one to Discord once it gets up 0.0.17. However, I'm not sure it'll be necessary since the Discord deb usually updates every 6 months...or so it seems.

Anyway, thanks for your hard work.

I looked into this. Its a nice idea. But the Discord site combines the two worst possible traits.

• 1) It uses a re-direct to a second web-page, and it's the loading/rendering of this second page that triggers the download request to the server. This can't be replicated from a terminal, either with wget OR curl.

• 2) The specific release number changes with every build, making it very hard to accommodate from a script. (I daresay it can be done, but it's a long way beyond MY skill level ATM.)

They want you to download FROM the web-site. Simple as that. Bumps up traffic figures, etc, and keeps their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ratings as high as possible.

I am NOT learning a whole new programming language (Javascript) just to build a simple downloader. Sorry, but I draw the line at some things....

(Google & Iron are apparently unusual in making a direct download link available. Everybody else seemingly uses re-directs, doing everything the webmaster wants it to do.....including bumping up security, so that the repository can't be casually accessed by just anyone - the 'handshake' between web-site and download server is controlled BY the website. And of course, it all helps to keep those SEO ratings intact...)

Mike.

[baraka]

Code: Select all

wget -O discord.deb https://discord.com/api/download?platform=linux&format=deb

It's something wrong with the above method?! Or is the wrong software?

[mikewalsh]

Afternoon, gang.

Discord-portable now updated to v0.0.17, and re-built into my now 'standard' portable format. This also means you now have the ability to add a MenuEntry from wherever the 'portable' is located.....or remove one again.

Link in post #1, as usual. Enjoy!

Mike.

[GMBudwrench]

‘Morning @mikewalsh. I just got this to working and into use. It immediately nagged about an update, I think I downloaded it earlier in the week before your last update. My update was easy peasy; downloaded the Linux tar, not the deb, unzipped it and copied those files over into the main folder in your portable. It works perfectly, just need the location of the Puppy and BC dischord servers. Thanks a bunch guy, this is great.

[r96chase]

‘Morning @mikewalsh. I just got this to working and into use. It immediately nagged about an update, I think I downloaded it earlier in the week before your last update. My update was easy peasy; downloaded the Linux tar, not the deb, unzipped it and copied those files over into the main folder in your portable. It works perfectly, just need the location of the Puppy and BC dischord servers. Thanks a bunch guy, this is great.

Will this work with the new 0.0.18 version of the client? If so, maybe I'll nag on @mikewalsh less from now on. Then again, it's been awhile since the last update. Whoops.

Nevermind. It worked. Now I will bug mikewalsh even less now.

[mikewalsh]

@r96chase :-

‘Morning @mikewalsh. I just got this to working and into use. It immediately nagged about an update, I think I downloaded it earlier in the week before your last update. My update was easy peasy; downloaded the Linux tar, not the deb, unzipped it and copied those files over into the main folder in your portable. It works perfectly, just need the location of the Puppy and BC dischord servers. Thanks a bunch guy, this is great.

Will this work with the new 0.0.18 version of the client? If so, maybe I'll nag on @mikewalsh less from now on. Then again, it's been awhile since the last update. Whoops.

Nevermind. It worked. Now I will bug mikewalsh even less now.

That's all I ever do.

• Download the tarball & extract it.

• Go into the portable, and enter the "discord" directory.

• Delete the contents.

• Copy across everything except for discord.desktop & postinst.sh...

.....and fire it up. Works every time.

Mike.

[GMBudwrench]

@mikewalsh Im learning new things as I go along. OSS took me to free software, that took me to portable apps and pa.c brought me here. Portable apps, either in Wins or Linux is pretty awesome and easy to figure out. My update came from a post where you had explained updating an app. Credit goes to you.

[mikewalsh]

@GMBudwrench :-

It's largely the same procedure for most portables. Sometimes they entail slightly different procedures, and not all apps are as easy to access; the Brave-portable browser, for instance, entails quite a lot of chasing-around on GitHub to find a usable package. (They produce a ton of "Nightly", "dev" and "beta" builds, in addition to the "stable" builds, and everything is simply listed in chronological order, according to when it was released......which makes it a real marathon to locate the most recent "stable" build!) Quite a few others involve digging-around in the murky depths of PPAs (Personal Package Archives) on Canonical's 'Launchpad.net' site. Much of the effort is often expended in locating usable material in the first place.

Many other browser websites will insist on using a "re-direct" to a second page, from where the actual download request is sent. This not only helps to keep their repositories secure from direct public access - since the "handshake" is controlled BY the website itself - but it also helps to keep their SEO ratings as high as possible, because the only way to obtain the package is by visiting the website.

Some stuff will auto-update by itself; 'zilla-based browsers are a good example, except for some specialist items like LibreWolf. Where I'm able to directly download a package & build a working updater, I will. If the update procedure is an easy one to perform manually, I'm happy to explain it. The majority of browsers aren't quite so accessible, however, and most people don't want to go to the trouble of manually re-building things for themselves every 4-5 weeks, so for them I produce "ready-to-go" packages. Either that, or they'll use the traditional package install instead.....because it's easier.

Being "hands-on" is not something everyone enjoys.....even here in Puppyland.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Now then:-

I completely missed baraka's suggestion for downloading Discord via wget!

So; I put my considering cap on, and did some experimenting. You can download both .deb AND tarball manually. You can successfully extract both manually, and replace the main 'discord' directory, manually......all through the terminal.

However, you can't script it! When scripting for the tarball, for some inexplicable reason it downloads the deb package instead.....and neither gunzip OR 'ar' will work with it, because it ends up as a weird mish-mash of the two. Similarly, when scripting for the .deb package, it complains that it can't extract it, because it's not a 'proper' .deb package.....

So, all things considered, GMBudwrench's suggestion about d/l'ing the tarball, unzipping it and manually swapping the contents over IS my recommended option for this particular use-case.

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

The .deb package has a specific version number for every new release. Likewise the tarball, so this makes it hard to script for at my level. The only reason the Chrome, Iron & Zoom updaters work for me at all is that these three apps all provide a download that is simply a name, with NO version attached.

• Chrome - google_chrome_current_stable-amd64.deb

• Iron - iron64.deb

• Zoom - zoom.deb

And this name never changes. AFAIK, you can work around the version-number issue, but I then need to learn stuff like sed, awk, cut, etc. I haven't GOT that far yet, guys. Ya gotta bear with me on this stuff.....my scripting is a slow, steady journey, and we don't all take things in at the same speed, either..!

Mike.

[mikeslr]

I have MikeWalsh's last portable build. Trying to start it fails with a notice "This is your lucky day. There's a new version." I never used the old version I guess because it insisted that I log in. Trying to update it fails. The deb is downloaded, but not recognized even when the devx is SFS-loaded.

To update it, however, proved relatively simple. I suggest that you Right-Click the discord-portable folder and use Duplicate to make another copy to work on. Go to Discords' website and download the deb. Use UExtract to extract it.

Discord Folders.png (97.63 KiB) Viewed 2104 times

In the portable folder is a folder named discord next to the LAUNCH script. Open that folder and leave it open.
In the extracted deb you'll find a /usr/share/discord folder. Comparing its contents to the discord folder in the portable, you'll find that the portable version has a CONFIG, and an extralibs folder. Leave those, but delete the locales, resources and swiftshader folders*. Then copy the contents of the extracted deb's discord folder into the portable's discord folder OKing overwrites.
Clicking the LAUNCH script will start Discord. Mine went thru an update process before opening and requiring log in.

FWIW, while Discord seems to offer a worthwhile service for communicating within a community, there were suggestions that accessing discord via the browser of your choice had advantages: I think relating to privacy but having scanned the web 12 hours ago I've don't exactly recall.

-=--==-
* You probably don't have to delete these folder. But then you'll be asked if you want to merge the folder having the same names and overwrite each file within them.

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr :-

Looks like you're working with either v0.0.15 or v0.0.16, Mike.

From v0.0.17 onwards, I re-built Discord-portable along the same lines as the pattern I instigated when I re-built the Firefox-portables a while back. Originally, some of the "extra" directories were inside the "main" one, as you've pointed out. Ever since the re-jig, everything extraneous to the actual app directory itself has been moved outside of it. The idea is simple; it makes upgrading most of these recent portables very much easier, since only one item now needs to be replaced.

Simpler for me, and simpler for anybody else who doesn't object to doing their own upgrade. The current occupant of the Discord directory at MEGA is now v0.0.18.....uploaded earlier on this evening.

T'other Mike.

[mikeslr]

I noticed that the tray icon showing resource usage went 'red' and occupied a significant portion of the launcher when I tried to start Discord. So I opened Htop system viewer and had it opened when I tried to start Discord a couple of times. By comparison, opening Iron pushed CPU usage up to about 20 % during opening; dropping down to about 10 once opened; idling about 4% after a graphic rich web-page was opened. Discord went to 100%, then failed to open.

There have been questions on the web about what Discord may be doing behind the scene with the information it supposedly is just passing on from one user to another. I'm not ready to trust it.

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr :-

I noticed that the tray icon showing resource usage went 'red' and occupied a significant portion of the launcher when I tried to start Discord. So I opened Htop system viewer and had it opened when I tried to start Discord a couple of times. By comparison, opening Iron pushed CPU usage up to about 20 % during opening; dropping down to about 10 once opened; idling about 4% after a graphic rich web-page was opened. Discord went to 100%, then failed to open.

There have been questions on the web about what Discord may be doing behind the scene with the information it supposedly is just passing on from one user to another. I'm not ready to trust it.

Hm. Summat not quite right there, Michael. I've never had the Discord app use any more resources while starting-up than you would expect from any other 'Chromium-based' item. And now I've sussed-out how to run Discord in both 64- AND 32-bit browsers - so I can access both Puppy's AND BleepingComputer's servers at the same time - there's every possibility I may even let the app slide.

Audio & video are 10 times easier to setup and use in the browser than they are in the app itself. Any Chromium 'clone' detects my headset & webcam immediately; the desktop client is a PITA to get working with audio in any way, shape or form, and it won't remember the choice between runs, either..!

Admittedly, Discord are quite open about the fact that they've coded audio to work in a different way in the client to how it does in the webapp, even though they basically share the same code. And every time you open the webapp in the browser, they keep nudging you to "use the desktop client" instead.....despite the fact that for me, at least, it's the worse option of the two!

Mike.

[Zuzia]

Hi

My SO is Bionic.

I update discord to ver.18

But still i use browser becouse app work i can write to all but when i test in audio/voice options menu super loud anoing noisie only and i still cant choice my defoult speakers and mic. device...

Look screen:

discord portable 18.jpg (53.04 KiB) Viewed 1995 times

If anyone know how i can repair this please answer me Cheers from Poland.

Browser work normal on chromium only but still i wont use app if possible.

Thanks!

[Zedward]

Is it any way to run Discord on machine with Puppy Bionicle 32bit on board?

[mikeslr]

Is it any way to run Discord on machine with Puppy Bionicle 32bit on board?

I assume you mean "only Puppy Bionicle 32bit on board?"

Yes and No. As a unique application, No. Only 64-bit Discords are available. But Yes, you can open Discord in a Web-browser, https://discord.com/

I don't know of any limitations: architecture (64 vs 32 bit) or publisher (mozilla vs. Chromium, and their clones). But I would not be surprised if to login you will need to be using a reasonably current web-browser.

[mikewalsh]

@Zedward :-

Yah, t'other Mike's quite right. The ONLY way to run Discord in any 32-bit OS is to run it in the browser. And it will need to be reasonably up-to-date. For both Chromium 'clones' AND Mozilla forks, you can say anywhere from v90 onwards.

One tip; Discord can be fanatically fussy about log-ins, and it can take some doing to access your account from a browser. Once you've logged-in, go into your account settings and generate yourself a 'pack' of 10 backup codes.....especially useful if, like me, you have to log-in via 2FA for moderating duties.

I've had to use these several times when logging-in from the browser; they do come in quite useful. Each can only be used once, so don't forget to download another '10-pack' when you're getting low! Discord will happily let you generate these things as often as you like.

Mike.