Google-Chrome 'portable' 64-bit browser - (with updater!)

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh I am having an issue deleting saved logins of the Chrome portable, where do they reside exactly. In KLV when final packaging the bootable ISO the Chrome saved stuff remains. This I need to track down and delete before squashing and iso'ing the root file system. Can you guide me to the location when a distro runs the portable?

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

Umm....'kayyy. So; what exactly is it you're doing here? You're packing an ISO which contains a copy of the Chrome-portable, yes? Are you not doing so in a 'clean' state? (By which I mean, deleting the PROFILE directory completely, and letting it start again from scratch..?)

I mean, for simply deleting saved passwords, etc, you'd normally go into Menu->Settings->Autofill->Passwords. Unfortunately, once there, each site's login info can only be deleted individually.....Big Bruvva won't let you bulk-delete all at once. They used to, some years back, but that option got removed some time ago. Why? Beats me; I don't know why that ability was removed.....OR what their reasoning was.

AFAIK, you CAN still "bulk-delete" if doing so from a Google a/c....

Or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh I am not packing the Google-Chrome64 portable into KLV. What appears to be the case is the PROFILE containing the saved logins is stored somewhere in the KLV-Airedale rootfs. That running the Chrome portable from out side of the system is storing information somewhere in the filesystem. It's like the login history is being stored somewhere in the rootfs, so when I squash it it's not "clean" and has traces of sessions run on the system before it was packaged.

I need to know where Chrome portable stores saves logins.

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

Well, if running as root you would look for 'google-chrome' in /root/.config and/or /root/.cache. I know you've set KLV up in such a way that you CAN run stuff as 'spot', though since there's no spot directory I don't quite know how that works here....

(*shrug*)

Normally, /root/.config/google-chrome only contains a single directory called 'Crash Reports'.....at least, insofar as the 'portable' version of Chrome is concerned.

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh All of the "users" are in /home
There should be

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/home/spot <owner=spot:spot, password=spot>
/home/weedog <owner=weedog:weedog, password=weedog>
/home/void <system user>

There is also 2 scripts, run-as-spot and run-as-weedog. But in most cases sudo -u spot <some_package> will do better
You can for now symlink /home/spot to /root/spot

Next build of beta17 will include that symlink

Looking for /google-chrome in the rootfs so far I can not find it when the system is not running and I am looking at it through the eyes of a Fossapup64. I will have to boot it up.

As Arnie says, "I'll be back"

[wiak]

Attached: screenshot of mpv playing a video, and another instance of mpv playing a video through a vertical flip filter. I have a horizontal flip using the F key, like this: (in /root/.config/mpv/input.conf

Coincidentally have been doing similar things the past few days, albeit with mpv commandline args. My partner recorded a zoom video on her phone that turned out rotated 90 degrees and was small window in phone shaped video image (i.e. like large black bars top and bottom, but actually part of the recording...). Didn't want to crop/transpose/scale the video, but instead just zoomed in and had mpv rotating such that end view in fullscreen was pretty good without any transposing/re-rendering:

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mpv --video-zoom=1 --video-rotate=270 video.mp4

[baraka]

Hello, Mike!

I tried the link form your first post and Chrome doesn't start in Tahr64.
Line 47 from the LAUNCH script should be modified to look like this:

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if  grep -q 'Quirky April64\|tahrpup64' /etc/DISTRO_SPECS

(the last Chrome still working in Tahr64)

[mikewalsh]

@baraka :-

Ah, that's MY fault. That 'Quirky April64' shouldn't even be there.....it's exclusive to MY kennels.

That line should read:-

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if grep -q 'tahrpup64' /etc/os-release

.....for the simple reason that Quirky - being one of Barry's 'special', ground-up builds - never had the 'os-release' file in the first place. So MY mod was to grep the 'DISTRO_SPECS' file instead.

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

Portable's 'LAUNCH' script edited & tarball re-uploaded. I've been meaning to do this for a while anyway......I needed a kick up the arse to get me "motivated"!

Mike.

[Governor]

I have the same problem. Every time I start Linux I must reconfigure all the screen settings and browser settings. It is tedious and super irritating. I have read all the answers, but I have not had any luck with this problem. Also, I cant get Linux to boot from the harddrive. I am using fossapup64. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

[user1234]

I have the same problem. Every time I start Linux I must reconfigure all the screen settings and browser settings. It is tedious and super irritating. I have read all the answers, but I have not had any luck with this problem. Also, I cant get Linux to boot from the harddrive. I am using fossapup64. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Seems like you have lost your way ! This topic is google-chrome portable one, not saving settings on live usb!

Still helping you- just allow puppy to save your work on each shutdown. Puppy would ask you for that. I am doing the same thing.

[Phil_54]

I've been running this portable for about 3 weeks since a fresh install. I happened to check the size of the extracted folder and it was 1.3Gb. About 300mb was in the chrome folder, and just under 1Gb in the PROFILE folder. Is this normal? Any way to trim the fat?
The extracted folder is in root of partition on SDcard. i.e. not in any frugal folders.

[mikewalsh]

@Phil_54 :-

Hi, Phil.

Oh, yes. For these Chromium-based browsers, that's totally normal. The cache fills up like crazy, like you wouldn't believe. Although the main profile also occupies a shed-load of space, too...

My own profile currently occupies around 1.35 GB. The cache only accounts for around 300 MB of that. If I delete any stuff out of that remaining 1 GB, the browser will stop working..! Hard to believe just how svelte & lightweight the thing was when first released, a decade and a half ago...although most people tend to judge app size by that of the package it comes in, forgetting the thing will swell by between 250%-300% once decompressed and installed.

Unfortunately, unlike 'zilla-based browsers - where you can set a maximum cache size (so it never gets any larger) - the best you can do with the 'clones' is to periodically clear it out......and that all depends on how big you're prepared to let it get.

To clear it, Settings Menu (hamburger, top right)->Privacy & Security. First item in the Privacy & Security sub-section->Clear browsing data. Then decide exactly what you want to clear.....

Mike.

[amethyst]

It seems one can not manually set the browser cache size with Chrome/Chromium which really sucks. I've read somewhere that Chromium's cache size is maxed out at 2GB, don't know if that is correct.

[mikewalsh]

@amethyst / @Phil_54 :-

One way round it is to add this snippet of code to the end of the Chrome 'LAUNCH' script:-

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yad --undecorated --center --text="                        Do you wish to clear Chrome's cache? " \
--button="YES PLEASE - clear cache":2 \
--button="NO THANKS - don't clear cache":1 \
#
foo=$?
#
[[ $foo -eq 1 ]] && exit 0
#
if [[ $foo -eq 2 ]]; then
rm -rf $HERE/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome/Default/Cache/*
/usr/lib/gtkdialog/box_splash -placement top -bg "#07FE18" -fg black -timeout 5 -text "   ~~~ CACHE CLEARED! ~~~" && exit 0
fi

This is modified from the one I've been using for a while with Ungoogled Chromium, which doesn't possess the ability to manage its cache like most other 'clones'. At close, it pops-up a wee GUI, which asks if you want to clear the cache or not. If 'Yes' is selected, it deletes the contents of the cache.

It should work with the versions of YAD most newer 64-bit Puppies come with OOTB, but if not then I've attached a 'generic' 64-bit .pet of YAD to this post. Less than a meg installed, and enables functionality with many newer utilities, too.

Mike.

[amethyst]

@amethyst / @Phil_54 :-

One way round it is to add this snippet of code to the end of the Chrome 'LAUNCH' script:-

Code: Select all

yad --undecorated --center --text="                        Do you wish to clear Chrome's cache? " \
--button="YES PLEASE - clear cache":2 \
--button="NO THANKS - don't clear cache":1 \
#
foo=$?
#
[[ $foo -eq 1 ]] && exit 0
#
if [[ $foo -eq 2 ]]; then
rm -rf $HERE/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome/Default/Cache/*
/usr/lib/gtkdialog/box_splash -placement top -bg "#07FE18" -fg black -timeout 5 -text "   ~~~ CACHE CLEARED! ~~~" && exit 0
fi

This is modified from the one I've been using for a while with Ungoogled Chromium, which doesn't possess the ability to manage its cache like most other 'clones' .At close, it pops-up a wee GUI, which asks if you want to clear the cache or not. If 'Yes' is selected, it deletes the contents of the cache.

It should work with the versions of YAD most newer 64-bit Puppies come with OOTB, but if not then I've attached a 'generic' 64-bit .pet of YAD to this post. Less than a meg installed, and enables functionality with many newer utilities, too.

Mike.

Clearing the cache is not a problem for me, I'm talking about manually setting a size limit like with other browsers.....

[Phil_54]

I've been running this portable for about 3 weeks since a fresh install. I happened to check the size of the extracted folder and it was 1.3Gb. About 300mb was in the chrome folder, and just under 1Gb in the PROFILE folder. Is this normal? Any way to trim the fat?
The extracted folder is in root of partition on SDcard. i.e. not in any frugal folders.

Have had some freeze ups today so I checked PROFILE folder size. It was now 2.3GB. I don't go on many sites and probably only reddit is a heavy site to my viewpoint. Anyway, I googled and found there are some files that could be deleted.
Looking in the following place
Google_Chrome-portable/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome/Default/File System/010/p/00/
I found below (sorry position is not correct)

This is screenshot from trashbin. I don't know why it shows duplicate as I only trashed them once. Anyway you can see the size. I put them in trash in case they were important, but apparently not, as I relaunched chrome and typing there now. Current Profile size is 945Mb. Probably more could be deleted but this seems quite good so far. The google search suggested they might be copies of download files, that I've since deleted, but chrome hasn't. Clearing cache etc, didn't change much of anything.
Hope this is of use.

[mikeslr]

Phil_54, "I checked PROFILE folder size. It was now 2.3GB."

I'm currently posting from google-chrome which I rarely use but setup the same way as Brave and Iron which I often use. Google-Chrome's entire Profile currently uses 174 Mbs of hard-drive space. I've added two extensions, both for the specific purpose of deleting the junk which builds up automatically:

Chrome Extensions.png (24.56 KiB) Viewed 5814 times

Quick & Clean can be configured to clean when the web-browser closes; SmartClean when the web-browser opens. Both enable options as to what to delete.

There's a built in cleaner: Menu>More Tools >Clear Browsing Data. But then you have to remember to use it.

[Phil_54]

@mikeslr
Thanks Mike, I'll try those, but I do clear the browser through the menu regularly anyway. Currently using slimjet which has a profile directory size of 250mb after cleaning. I have been downloading a number of large files recently and chrome froze a few times, Also I sometimes have several tabs open and also experience freezes. These could leave junk in the profile directory I suppose.
I think had better install a new chrome portable and see if the refresh helps.
I've used brave and iron but wonder whether the --no-sandbox (as in slimjet too) is a real risk, whether I'm running as spot or not.

[Phil_54]

I've been monitoring the overall folder size for this chrome portable, and it continues to grow.
I ran a graphical disk map program (using KLV_Airedale, but others will have something similar) on the overall folder, and 1.3Gb was taken up by a folder called ¨optimization_guide_prediction_model_downloads¨ which was found in PROFILE/spot/google-chrome/Default/. It contains several/many sub folders.
It appeared to have some sort of downloads every day, possibly for every time I started chrome, as most days had several folders. Each of these sub folders are named with long alphanumerics similar to UUID's, but obviously are not that.
Researching this folder on google and elswhere, it appears to have been causing problems for a year or more, but I got lost in the details being discussed.

Anyway, I put this 1.3Gb folder into trash, and restarted portable chrome. Runs fine, but a new ¨optimization_guide_prediction_model_downloads¨ folder has appeared with several sub folders. It is 41Mb in size at the moment.

Deleting this folder from time to time I guess will save storage space.

I wonder if any other chromium based browser have this?
I only have a normal chromium in my Antix (oops, wash my mouth out! ) full install. It doesn´t have this particular folder (yet).

[mikewalsh]

@Phil_54 :-

Hi, Phil.

Mm. Well, researching this, I came upon a thread from the development team's internal messaging board, where this - and other things - were being discussed. I can't bring the link up, because I've just cleared my browsing history, cache, and whatnot, but the jist of it is as follows:-

You need to add a 'switch' to the launcher script's exec lines. On each one, add the following to the end of the exec line:-

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--disable-features=OptimizationGuideModelDownloading,OptimizationHintsFetching,OptimizationTargetPrediction,OptimizationHints

Copy the above, then, after

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--disable-infobars

.....leave a space, then paste it in. You'll need to do this for each of the exec lines in its "if.....then" clause. You can then delete those various 'Optimization' directories. Now restart the browser; all things being equal, those 'Optimization' directories should be gone.....and they shouldn't come back. I've just done this for my own install, and, touch wood, it so far seems to be working.

The exec section of the launcher wants to look like this:-

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if grep -q 'puppy_tahr64' /etc/os-release
then
	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HERE/:$HERE/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
	run-as-spot "$HERE/chrome/chrome" --user-data-dir=$HERE/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome --disable-infobars --disable-features=OptimizationGuideModelDownloading,OptimizationHintsFetching,OptimizationTargetPrediction,OptimizationHints "$@"
elif grep -q 'puppy_xenialpup64' /etc/os-release
then
	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HERE/:$HERE/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
	run-as-spot "$HERE/chrome/chrome" --user-data-dir=$HERE/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome --disable-infobars --disable-features=OptimizationGuideModelDownloading,OptimizationHintsFetching,OptimizationTargetPrediction,OptimizationHints "$@"
else
	run-as-spot "$HERE/chrome/chrome" --user-data-dir=$HERE/PROFILE/spot/google-chrome --disable-infobars --disable-features=OptimizationGuideModelDownloading,OptimizationHintsFetching,OptimizationTargetPrediction,OptimizationHints "$@"
fi

You may not have the Xenialpup section; I've had to add that for my own set-up, but it shows how each clause needs to look. Let us know if that helps, please.

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

Mine didn't have anywhere near as many sub-directories as yours, but that's because my Chrome install actually only starts once per session; I have a small script in /root/Startup that fires Chrome up with the

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--silent-launch

.....parameter. This essentially launches Chrome in the background, but doesn't bring up the GUI.....so whenever you DO launch Chrome, it's near as dammit instantaneous. And if I suspend Puppy overnight, sometimes for several days, Chrome may have only been actually started once in an entire week!

Mike.

[Phil_54]

Thanks Mike. I'll be trying that later and will report back. Sounds fun.

[Phil_54]

@mikewalsh
Tried and tested. I deleted the 3 optimisation folders after editing LAUNCH script as advised. ReLaunched and no new folders added.
Rebooted into fossa64CE and launched same browser. All good. No extra folders apparent. There is a very small folder named OptimizationHints, which was probably there before.
Good work. Overall portable chrome folder for me now 705Mb which includes my settings etc. and probably some other google miscellany, but this is excellent.
Thank you.

[Gnimmelf]

google crome has lost some of its speed, on most parameters, getting the new updates?
anybody has a take on why? runing on the last F96-ce4 on a lenovo ideapad gaming.

look at test i made in link "google crome new" is the lates update while "google crome " was the first without update.

https://start.me/p/ekaokP/test

anybody has a take on this? is chrome just getting slower or is it something else?

kindly Gnimmelf

[mikewalsh]

@Gnimmelf :-

Mm. I wouldn't like to say.

As a long-term Chrome user - ever since the beta test program, in the summer of 2008 - I've followed Chrome through all its ups & downs. It had a spell in the mid-2010s when it became very slow, due to various things I won't go into (anybody can look this stuff up on the 'net, since it's all in the public domain). Over the last few years, despite getting larger and larger, the speed has improved again to a quite noticeable degree.....mostly due to what Big Brother calls "lazy loading", which only loads that part of a web-page the user is actually viewing at any given moment.

I can't say I've noticed any particular slow-down recently. It's functioning as well for me as it always has. Benchmarking always skews the results anyway, due to whichever way the test code has been written.....

(*shrug*)

Mike.

[Gnimmelf]

Thanks for reply - i was just curios

[mikewalsh]

Thanks for reply - i was just curios

@Gnimmelf :-

I never take any notice of published lists of benchmarked figures. If you know what you're doing, it's perfectly possible to make the things read whatever you want.....and in any case, I take most stuff on the 'net with a rather large pinch of salt. There's no way of knowing if the poster didn't simply make these figures up off the top of their head..!

I find the best indicator of "performance" usually comes down to one thing; subjective usage by the individual. If something seems faster to you, or smoother/more 'fluid' in operation, and you're happy with that.......isn't that all that really matters at the end of the day?

Mike.

[mikeslr]

Ditto what T'other Mike wrote. There are just too many variables --make/model of computer, operating system, RAM available, CPU-- to make the reports of even trusted sources more than just 'ball-park' indications. "Your experience may vary".

[vtpup]

Mike, unfortunately mega.nz (which is Google) is now preventing access by my Seamonkey browser, claiming it is "older" (which it is not, it's current). Ironic that I just need your Chrome portable temporarily, and that's the reason I want to make the download.

The need for Chrome is even more ironic -- I need to recover the ChromeOS on a Chromebook via thumb drive, and the only way Google will allow downloading that recovery file is by installing a ChromeOS recovery app on the Chrome browser.

So step A install Chrome browser, Step B download Recovery app for Chrome browser, Step C create recovery file on the thumb drive.

All I want to do is download a recovery file. I can't even get to step A via their policies.

[pp4mnklinux]

Hi again, and excuseme for so "specific" demands.

In my F96CE_XFCE_FUSILLI 4.4. I have no sound with this Chrome.

I am using it installed in distro xenialpup 7.5 and there is not any problem with this distro, so I think It doesn't need a big modification (probably a file as when using slimjet).

If you have time (if you are busy don't worry about) can you please explain me what must I do to have sound when browsing with this broser ¿?¿¿?

Thanks a lot in advance

Cheers and have a nice weekend.- THUMBS UP

[mikewalsh]

@vtpup :-

Um.....okay. I'm assuming here that this ChromeBook is an older model, yes?

Just been having a quick browse about this issue, and according to most sites the recovery process is now totally automatic? Works via the internet? "Physical rescue media" no longer required (so I'm reading).....

Can't help with this! The closest I've ever got to an actual Chromebook is running ChromeOS-Flex from a thumb drive (needs periodic updating with a new .img, 'cos the update mechanism only works when fully installed to a primary internal drive!) Bloody Google, huh? They do like trying to make ya dependent on their infrastructure.....

So; when you say "recover", um.....what's actually happened to the thing? Does it have to be done via this recovery app? I only ask, because by all accounts you're supposed to install ChromeOS-Flex the same way......but digging deep into the small print & documentation, I found a direct .img download link. I don't know if there's one kicking around for ChromeOS proper..?

(*shrug...*)

Mike.