How to build a portable 'old' firefox

[mikeslr]

Having the newest version of an application is often advisable. But sometimes your Puppy won't work with it. If you've discovered that after your firefox has been updated, you can use the following instructions to create a portable of the version of firefox which did work. These instructions are for the 32-bit version of firefox-76.0 as that was the last version of firefox which a forum member's computer and/or Puppy could use.

1. Starting here, https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ you can follow the links to (I think) every version officially published by firefox, including from this link named “linux-i686”, https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/rel ... inux-i686/ thru en-US to the “firefox-76.0.tar.bz2” here, https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/rel ... .0.tar.bz2.

[If your operating system is 64bit, or language is not English, or even not the US-English dialect, just choose different intermediary links. Also note, that 76.0 is not the last of the 76.0 series. But I don’t know exactly how firefox’s naming convention lines-up with Puppy’s naming convention].

2. Download the desired tar.bz2 to a location where you can find it. Decompress it. In most Puppies file-browse to the file, Right-Click and select UExtract. This will generate a folder named, for example, firefox-76.0.tar.bz2.extracted, within which is another folder just named firefox. Move the firefox folder wherever you want. I recommend to /mnt/home. Don’t discard the original tar.bz2 yet.

3. On this post, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 19#1025219 in “blue” you’ll find a link named “32bit-additions” followed by the instructions “extract in new firefox folder (contains "ff" script and "extralibs" folder), Download the 32bit-additons.tar.gz and UExtract it. Within the extraction folder you’ll find a folder named “extralibs” and a file named “ff”. Copy them into your firefox folder. Don’t discard the 32bit-additions.tar.gz either yet.

That may be all you need to have built yourself a firefox-portable. If so, Left-Clicking the “ff” file should open firefox.

Possible Missing Libs: [If, like me you’re lazy, rather than testing for necessity, you can just install the gtk3 and glib-2.0_schemas pets from the links in the next paragraph].

However, your Puppy may not have installed required gtk3 libraries. File-browse into the firefox folder, Right-Click the binary named firefox and select “ListDD” from the pop-up menu. Left-Clicking the “Missing button” on the bottom will tell you --surprise, surprise-- what's missing . You can download and install Mike Walsh’s libgtk-3-0_3.4.2_i386_precise.pet from here. http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 764#989764. Don’t worry about it’s “precise” designation. I’ve used it in other Puppy versions.
Even if ListDD didn't tell you, you may also need to install Mike Walsh’s glib-2.0_schemas.pet, available from here http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 23#1013223.

Menu entry: You can start portable-firefox by file-browsing into its folder and left-clicking the ff file. But if you want a mentu entry, you can download and install Mike Walsh’s FF-Quantum-MenuEntry pet available here, http://www.mediafire.com/file/w5525xfpu ... y.pet/file. [It will also work fine with firefox-esr].

The firefox menu entry pet was written with the assumption that your firefox folder is named ‘firefox32’ and that it is located in the /opt folder. So, it won’t work OOTB with the above build. The script which starts firefox is located in /root/my-applicatons/bin and has the line:

/opt/firefox32/ff

You could change the name of your firefox folder to firefox32 and move it into /opt. My recommendation, however, is to rename the firefox folder but place it in /mnt/home; open the script in a text editor and edit it to read:

/mnt/home/firefox32/ff.

The build is portable and creates a ‘self-contained’ folder, meaning that your profiles (bookmarks, addons, settings) will be kept in that folder; as will –perhaps more importantly-- the cache of files web-sites place on your computer so that they can minimize their own bandwidth usage. Cache can quickly grow to hundreds of megabytes and under Puppies ordinarily results in RAM being used for static files. The portable on /mnt/home avoids wasting RAM as storage because cache will be kept in its own folder outside of RAM. [Do, however, remember to clear cache often. I recommend 'when firefox closes'].

If you move the files you downloaded into a safe location (/mnt/home or a different drive or partition) you can always rebuild the above. Or test other downloaded firefox versions with the stored components. Being ‘self-contained’ these portables won’t overwrite or otherwise interfere with each other.

Renaming the firefox folder to firefox32 as suggested above makes it easier to avoid confusion while testing the new build from its default named firefox folder.

[fredx181]

To stay on version 76.0 (prevent updating itself), download distribution.tar.gz here: viewtopic.php?p=243#p243 and extract it in your firefox directory so you get e.g. firefox32/distribution/ .
Then firefox automatic updating should be disabled.

Fred

[mikewalsh]

In fact, if you build your browsers the way Mike's described - essentially the same way I do them myself - you can run multiple browsers concurrently, "side-by-side", at the same time. Just make sure each one has a unique name, to distinguish it from the others.....RAM permitting, of course!

Admittedly, my present hardware specs would permit me to run anything with ease (even Win 10, if I was so inclined. Which I'm not.)

I think my current 'record' for this was 5 Chromium 'clones', all running simultaneously. Each with 3-4 tabs open, RAM usage was somewhere in the region of 7½-8GB occupied.

Since each 'portable' should have its own, inclusive profile (self-contained), each variant of Firefox should not interfere with any of the others, even when running more than one at a time.

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

@fredx181 :-

Refresh my memory, would you Fred? I know in a standard install you would pretty much remove the updater stuff lock, stock & barrel. Is it the same for the 'portable'? I can't see why not.....


Mike.

[JASpup]

I treat Firefox like it's special and consequently use it less than Chrome and Chromium, having a 40s version on tap for pretty much any Puppy I boot. Firefox beats them for that flexibility.

The goal remains to stay clear of the current release while maintaining website compatibility.

Forced updates alarm.

[mikewalsh]

Just an 'explainer' about the Menu-Entry 'construction' mentioned by Mike in his first post.

Strictly speaking, you could get away with just having the .desktop entry and icon. BUT; if you have to edit this to allow for a different $PATH, or a different name, you have to go through 'fix-menus' & a restart of "X" to get it to work correctly. Otherwise, it won't connect to the correct location until you re-boot.

If, however, you always point the .desktop entry to a correspondingly named script in /root/my-applications/bin, now all you need to do is to modify the $PATH/name/whatever within that script, then save it. And since the change here is immediate, and doesn't need to follow a particular routine to get it to take effect, your Menu entry can immediately point to different locations without the need to change anything else.

(This works well for myself, for instance, where I have a directory full of various different 64-bit 'portable' browsers, and an identical, adjacent directory containing their 32-bit 'equivalents' - where available. I've named things in such a way that all I have to do to make a specific Menu entry serve multiple purposes, is to substitute '32' for '64'...)

Of course, if using portables - with their self-contained profiles - it's perfectly possible to run multiple versions of the same browser alongside each other.....even simultaneously, should you wish (resources permitting!)

Mike.

[xenial]

The firefox 45 era is certainly my favourite firefox edition.The rendering of non media heavy websites is as fast if not faster than any other contemporary browser i have used on puppy.Plus it was more cosmetically pleasing than the modern iteration.
I have always loved firfox ever since i started using the web.