Pale Moon 'portable' browsers - 32- & 64-bit

[wizard]

Aha, will let you know how it goes, the remaster will be for older hardware, here's why:

Ran an interesting experiment last week that surprised me.

Computer
Compaq n610c laptop, 2001-2003 vintage
cpu = Intel P4m 2ghz, single core 32bit
ram = 512mb
video = ATI Radeon 7500 1400x1050

All test run from frugal installs on internal HD using 1gb swap file.

My acid load test for a older computers is to run a Youtube video.
Puppy's tested:
-Precise Lite 572
-Dpup Stretch 7.5rc5
-Bionic32 8.0

Browser = Palemoon 29.4.1 portable.

Of the three Pups, Bionic32 was the only one that could run the video without
stuttering, pausing or stalling and badly freezing the mouse/keyboard. Stretch was second best.

All three pegged the cpu at 100%, but running the free command in terminal showed that
Bionic32 was managing the ram/swap better. It used almost all of the ram and a lot more of the
swap than the other two.

wizard

[mikewalsh]

@wizard :-

Hm. Interesting, indeed. Well, let me know how you get on with it, won't you?

Mike.

[wizard]

@mikewalsh

Finished the remaster of bionic32 8.0 with Palemon 29.4.4, turns out peebee had a .sfs from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/ ... /browsers/, which saved me some work. Added a few apps and help files similar to Friendly Fossa64 remaster, also has a newer Firefox running as a portable from /mnt/home.

Not a small package, about 700mb. I'll use it for older hardware and/or if cpu can't use x64. Not sure it needs publishing, but will upload for you if you'd like to try it.

If I should move this post elsewhere, let me know.

Thanks for your help
wizard

desktop.jpg (95.45 KiB) Viewed 3127 times

[mikewalsh]

@wizard :-

Heh. Are you taking a leaf out of MyCrudSoft's book with that wallpaper, eh?

I wouldn't mind taking a look at it, if you don't mind. I may try it on ye anciente Dell, though even Pale Moon will have the P4 pegged at 100% as it is. Firefox will be way too much for it.

Let me have a link or summat, yeah? Cheers.

Mike.

[wizard]

leaf out of MyCrudSoft's book with that wallpaper

As they say, you need some "curb appeal".

Here's a link, it problably still has some flies on it, but if you find some, let me know.

Thanks
wizard

Updated 2/10/22
https://sourceforge.net/projects/friend ... o/download

[mikewalsh]

@wizard :-

Cheers, wiz. I'll let you know how I get on with it; won't be till tomorrow at the earliest, maybe Thursday. Have to see how my week goes.....

Mike.

[wizard]

Are you taking a leaf out of MyCrudSoft's book with that wallpaper, eh?

Really can't believe you think I'd copy them.

wizard

Puppy Linux 11.jpg (67.3 KiB) Viewed 3091 times

[mikeslr]

Re: USE CAUTION BEFORE UPDATING TO Version 30. See this thread, viewtopic.php?t=5451

p.s. I followed by own advice given on the above thread and am now posting using Version 30. So far I am not experiencing any problems. But then, unlike peppyy, I don't store any login credentials within any of my web-browsers. [They are on a buried LibreOffice writer file which I only open when needed. They are not needed for a couple of sites --one being this one-- that I've memorized].

I suggest that you follow the link FeodorF provided to Palemoon's website to find out if and how version 30 may effect your usage.

[xenial]

Version30 did not play well with my computer and the constant high cpu usage was not acceptable and so i uninstalled.
Themes are not accesible at the moment and the GUID has been changed to firefox so that may have something to do with it.

[Dingo]

Version30 did not play well with my computer and the constant high cpu usage was not acceptable and so i uninstalled.
Themes are not accesible at the moment and the GUID has been changed to firefox so that may have something to do with it.

the same for me. even with hardware acceleration checked, My cpu usage is very higher than previous build

[mikewalsh]

Now then, gang....

Here are the current Pale Moon Puppy-portables. As stated previously, with Tobin's departure from the project v30.0.0 is "on ice" for the foreseeable future, so we're now at v29.4.5. 32- and 64-bit versions are both available.

(Moonchild now has to sort out all the coding issues for v30 by himself, so I guess we're going to be on v29 for a while..... (*shrug*))

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

Downloads at the usual link in post #1. CPU usage (and temps!) seem to be back within acceptable limits again. Any issues, you know where to find me.....

Enjoy.

Mike.

[keniv]

@mikewalsh
Hi Mike,
Installed the 32 bit version in DpupStretch and all appears to be working as usual.

Thanks again,

Ken.

[GusCE6]

If a version of Palemoon 28 does in fact work on Puppy Linux 5.2.8 is there a chance it will work on 5.2.5?

I installed that DEB PET but it had no effect. The versions of Palemoon 28 and 29 used were uninstalled portables (they work with later OS).

Is there a particular version of 28 which needs to be used? Where can I download it from?

[mikewalsh]

'Kay, gang. Update time again.

Another update on the 32-bit 'portable', again making use of Steve Pusser's sterling compiling efforts - v29.4.5.1. This, according to Moonchild, is to fix a serious 'regression', so.....recommended to upgrade.

You can find it at the usual link in post #1. D/l - unzip - move it anywhere you like, outside the 'save'. Click to enter, then click 'LAUNCH' to run it as a 'portable', or use the MenuAdd/Remove scripts to add (or remove) a Menu entry if one is required.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Afternoon, gang.

Following a post from JASpup earlier on, it got me to thinking; could the 'zilla-based 'portables' be modified to run-as-spot in the same way as I've done for the Chrome-portable?

Answer - not unsurprisingly - yes, they can. And I know some of you prefer running this way.

So; here are alternative 'LAUNCH' scripts for both 32- and 64-bit versions of my portables. I've attached them to this post; choose the one you want, download, remove the fake .gz, and simply swap with the existing launcher.

Upon launching, this will create a 'spot' directory, along with 'profile' inside. Ownership & permissions are set accordingly, prior to starting up.

Downloads/uploads will, of course, now have to be moved out of/moved into the 'spot'directory, prior to doing what you want with them. To make this easier, my 'Spot2Root' .pets provide an easy, GUI method to manage this.....both in AND out.

mikeslr posted about them here:- https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=118078
And you can find them here:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Hope some of you find these useful.

Mike.

[keniv]

'Kay, gang. Update time again.

Another update on the 32-bit 'portable', again making use of Steve Pusser's sterling compiling efforts - v29.4.5.1. This, according to Moonchild, is to fix a serious 'regression', so.....recommended to upgrade.

You can find it at the usual link in post #1. D/l - unzip - move it anywhere you like, outside the 'save'. Click to enter, then click 'LAUNCH' to run it as a 'portable', or use the MenuAdd/Remove scripts to add (or remove) a Menu entry if one is required.

Enjoy.

Mike.

Hi Mike,
Just updated to v29.4.5.1 32bit as per your recommendation and it's working in DpupStretch. I'm posting from it now.

Thanks again,

Ken.

[mikewalsh]

Okay, gang. Upgrade time again....

Here's the 32-bit Pale Moon-portable, using Steve Pusser's invaluable work. We're at v29.4.6.....couple of weeks late, I'm afraid! Link as in post#1; navigate through and help yourselves, as always.

Just a bug-fix & security release, basically.

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

Usual routine:-

• D/l

• Unzip

• Move anywhere you like outside the 'save'

• Click to enter

• Click 'LAUNCH' to run as a 'portable; MenuAdd/Remove scripts give better system integration if required, by providing a Menu entry

Enjoy.

Mike.

[keniv]

Okay, gang. Upgrade time again....

Here's the 32-bit Pale Moon-portable, using Steve Pusser's invaluable work. We're at v29.4.6

Hi Mike,
Thanks for this. Posting from it now in DpupStretch 7.5. Thanks, as well, to Steve Pusser.

Regards,

Ken.

[xenial]

hello mike.!
Updated and running perfectly on xenial32.

Thank you kind sir.!

[mikewalsh]

@keniv / @xenial :-

You're very welcome, both of you. Enjoy.

Mike.

[xenial]

Just a warning to all palemoon users that most of the complete themes will become incompatible with the new version 31 which was updated 2 days ago.Not certain when a fix will appear from the themes developer.

I am personally finding the updated palemoon from version 30 onwards to be using far more cpu usage than usual and i have found seamonkey to be better in this regard.The palemoon project is down to one developer now so updates will be thin on the ground.

I am leaning more towards seamonkey which is a highly underrated browser and runs great on fossapup 9.5.

[mikewalsh]

@xenial :-

Cheers for that, mate. Something to watch out for.....

Mike.

[mikeslr]

Just a warning to all palemoon users that most of the complete themes will become incompatible with the new version 31 which was updated 2 days ago.Not certain when a fix will appear from the themes developer.

I am personally finding the updated palemoon from version 30 onwards to be using far more cpu usage than usual and i have found seamonkey to be better in this regard.The palemoon project is down to one developer now so updates will be thin on the ground.

I am leaning more towards seamonkey which is a highly underrated browser and runs great on fossapup 9.5.

Thanks, xenial, for the review. Personally, I prefer Waterfox-Classic. The publisher advises that using old technology may present a security risk you undertake on your own. However, it just received a security update quashing some, but not all, the reported vulnerability. I appreciate the publisher's honesty and am encouraged by its continued efforts to improve security.
What I like most about Waterfox-classic is THAT it does still use firefox's older technology. That means that the Classic Firefox addons can be installed and function, including those relating to privacy and security, and/or downloading videos. Like firefox, it's easy to start via alternate scripts, one for security the other for general web work.

Perhaps not the best

[mikewalsh]

Well, the problem's still there in PaleMoon 31. Starts off fine, but a few seconds after opening any new tab with a site, CPU usage starts climbing.....followed by temps.

• At idle; 2% CPU - 30C

• Open Pale Moon with one tab - Puppy Forums. 10 secs later -> 15% CPU - 42C

• Two tabs open (add Bleeping Computer). 10 secs later -> 22% CPU - 46C

• Add a third tab - YouTube. 10 secs later -> 38% CPU - temps now over 50C! (This thing averages out around 32-34C much of the time, unless I'm rendering videos or similar activity.)

And this is with a relatively recent, "Coffee Lake", 9th-gen Intel Pentium "Gold" quad-core - 3.7 GHz, TDP just 54W. I hate to think what this is doing to older-generation CPUs.

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

Anybody using 64-bit Pale Moon-portable, my advice is to stay with v29.4.6.1 for now. Don't accept the update. I performed the above experiment on a copy of the portable.....NOT my main one.

If Steve Pusser builds a 32-bit v31, I won't package a portable for it until and unless I'm satisfied that the problem has gone. Till then, the available version will remain at v29.4.6.1.

Mike.

[xenial]

@mikewalsh
Thank you for the test and confirmation.I don't have as powerful a machine as you so i was kind of expecting "higher" cpu usage but even with just my homepage open (DDG) the cpu was soaring to 64% which were intermittent spikes so i consider the update has inherited the problem from the previous recalled version 30.

Even chrome and chromium are lighter than palemoon at this present time..
Don't get me wrong it's a decent browser but it still has issues.

Peebees chromium builds always hang around the 4-5% mark with non media sites.
Obviously with age of my computer i'm not expecting perfect resource usage but 60 odd % is too high in my humble opinion.

[mikewalsh]

@xenial :-

I tend to find that opening more tabs has no effect on temps or CPU activity; all it usually does is eat more RAM (more noticeable with the 'clones', since every tab runs in its own separate sandbox).

There's definitely summat not right there. I wonder if Moonchild is more amenable to reports of problems than Tobin was?

As for Chromium, strictly speaking that's not peebee's work, any more than Chrome is mine. We're both of us re-packaging someone else's work.....in the case of Chromium, thanks are probably due to Eric Hameleers (better known as 'AlienBob' of the Slackware community).

Mike.

[geo_c]

I'm in version 31 v30 right this minute, and I want to say that I think it has threading issues. As I scroll the forum individual cpu threads on my i7 pop to 75%, while the rest stay around zero. They seem to take turns, starting at the top and working their way down the line, returning to the top. Very odd.

[mikewalsh]

Okay, gang.

Following months of messing-about after Tobin left the project and chucked a few spanners into the works by way of a parting-gift (!), I think we can say Pale Moon is back to behaving itself once again...!

Notwithstanding comments by @geo_c above, which I'm willing to concede may well exist, I've just been trying out the current version of Pale Moon.....ATM, v31.1.0. Watching YouTube vids, and generally browsing while doing quite a mixture of things, everything's remained around the 35° - 39/40° C mark. That's absolutely bang-on-the-nail normal for this HP desktop rig, so I for one am now quite happy to use it as a viable alternative once more.

I've updated the 64-bit version in the repo to v31.1.0, meaning that updates should perform as normal from now on, given that the past few months' "issues" seem to be behind us at long last. This should sidestep the updating issues that were present while Moonchild was trying to rebuild a fully-functional browser!

BTW, just so's y'all know, this is the GTK2 version.....NOT the GTK3 one. The GTK2 version is totally fuss-free, which is what we want.

I'll publish an update to the 32-bit version IF Steve Pusser decides to carry on with it.

Mike.

[geo_c]

Notwithstanding comments by @geo_c above, which I'm willing to concede may well exist, .....
Mike.

I'm going to edit that post, because I may have actually been on version 30. I had some updating issues as I may have incorrectly symlinked a profile folder! I currently am updated to version 31, and I've started a topic about it here: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6258

added: Running the portable v31, runs great! Still behaves as described in the above topic. But for me it's not a deal-breaker. It's very fast and responsive.

[peppyy]

Posting from Firefox again.

Made the mistake of updating Pale Moon Portable this evening to, 31.1.0 (because I was getting errors from eBay.)
Totally unusable now since update. Super high CPU and still can't connect to lots of sites.
How do I roll it back? Or preferably forward?

PS. FF 102.0 (64-bit) still is low CPU.
Is it time to switch?
I love Palemoon, although it seems that there are more and more sites that I can't use it on. My computer fans crank up as soon as I launch it.

Palemoon states in the site that,
"v31.1.0 (2022-06-07)
This is a major development update, focusing on media support, browser stability, performance and web compatibility."

Specs in signature.