Discussion, talk and tips
https://forum.puppylinux.com/
Hi Oz - I tried to download the adrv that adds firefox but it appears to be only a couple of MB - is this just a downloader rather than a full Firefox?
If so - is it likely to include an update facility? (I don't like self-updating software so prefer packages that are "baked in" and stay consistent and unchanging. Hope that makes sense)
cheers!
@greengeek - yes, it's an initial get, then run, then update, system. Once installed, those 3 options are in internet menu.
I did it that way, as making an adrv (as I originally did), in a few months would be quite outdated & updating that may not work.
Hey ozsouth !
You make a great job here, right in the puppy philosophy, which tends to be reduced in recent time.BRAVO !
Best regards,
Amol
@Amol - glad you find it useful.
NOTE to all: mhwaveedit updated - see post 2 on page 1
I've downloaded this just to have some 64-bit backup system because I use Bionic32 all the time. Unfortunately I ran into the same problem as previously when I loaded the official fossa release without its ydrv. I need Firefox because Palemoon just does not work with (or are insufficient for) some google related content/sites. Firefox portable does not work with the system as is so I guess there are some libraries missing which are needed and have been included in the ydrv of the original release. I didn't check which are required but it may be worthwhile to include these missing components so that Firefox works. I think a working Firefox will make this distribution very useful. Oh and the included kernel took an age to load on my old laptop so users with an older machine may want to use an older kernel.
@amethyst - I have a firefox adrv, which I'll post & my last good 64bit 5.4 kernel 5.4.159 is in the kernels section of forum. I used it early in my testing.
Thanks. Yes, I'm using your 5.4 kernel now, it works fine. Firefox is crucial to me. None of the streaming sites I use work with Palemoon.
adrv for FirefoxESR v102.13 in post 3 on page 1. Use at own risk.
Some of these packages want to be run as spot. Asking for a password. Streaming sites not working for me, may have to install ffmpeg to see if it works. I see firefox loads to /opt, how do I save my settings?
Installed ffmpeg and gnome-mplayer. Still no go for me with the streaming sites. I think I'm going to give up on this...
@amethyst - sorry - I messed up the path. I'll reload in about an hour. Got a bad cold today.
You may be able to fix it by editing /usr/local/bin/firefoxesr64 , & changing (in the library path) apps to opt.
LATER - fix uploaded - see 3rd post, page 1.
V5 released - mostly an update. See first post.
@ozsouth
On the issue of running Firefox I would like to run Firefox-portable provided by forum member @mikewalsh however it does not run.
Below is the output from my attempt to run it in a terminal.
Code: Select all
root# ./LAUNCH
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /initrd/mnt/dev_save/Portables64/Firefox-portable64/firefox64/libmozgtk.so:
libgtk-3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.
It does run in full size Fossa64. All I can get from above is that the file libmozgtk.so seems to be in the portable so I guess it's libgtk-3.so.0 that's the problem. I don't know whether this would just start a chase for a lot of files but I wonder if you would be good enough to have a look at this to see it it could be fixed easily.
Regards,
Ken.
@keniv - probably a structural issue. I made a Firefox adrv a few hours ago with all the needed files (68mb) - see 3rd post. However, I will look at mikewalsh's portable & see if I can resolve this. Ah, the perils of my minimalsm!
However, I will look at mikewalsh's portable & see if I can resolve this.
Thanks very much for that.
Ken.
@keniv :-
Ken, I've just put together a .pet with all the necessary GTK 3.0 stuff for Oz's Fossapup-bas. Or, you can use the new adrv he's put together.
You can find the .pet here:-
https://www.mediafire.com/file/pa5pxg7b ... 4.pet/file
Entirely up to you, of course. 
@ozsouth :-
Oz, there doesn't seem much point in modifying 'customized' versions of the portable just for specific Pups. It then introduces additional issues when trying to share FF between multiple Puppies. Far better, I feel, to ensure the correct GTK 3.0 stuff is installed 'globally' on a per-Puppy basis (because it then works for everything).
I suppose you could modify the portable to only use very new GTK 3.0 components, but then you can't guarantee backwards compatibility with older Pups. And one of the main ideas I had in mind with these browsers was not just that of keeping them outside the 'save', but also of being able to share them between more than one Pup.....
Mike. 
@mikewalsh - I just uploaded a gtk3 .pet (2nd post, page 1) - THEN saw your post. I'd just a bit earlier opened your portable, which confirmed my thoughts. I reiterate that it is a reasonable expectation that today's puppies will have gtk3. But its of no use to the Palemoon gtk2 in my adrv, so this being minimalist, got the chop. I agree that your version shouldn't be modified as a case by case effort.
@mikewalsh, So far, all of your chromium based portable browsers, Brave, Slimjet, and un-googled chromium, run OOTB with Fossa64-bas v4.5, as does my portable sylpheed, Master PDF Editor and an older LibreOffice portable. When I run into a real need for gtk3, I'd like to deal with it in the OS, either by adding via pet to my ydrv or in the adrv for the browser that ships with the pup.
@ozsouth, As a lifelong minimalist, stay the course! This pup fits my circa 2012 hardware like a well worn saddle. It's a splendid bridge from fossapup 9.5 to the current world and the balance of main SFS, adrv, ydrv couldn't be much better for a solid base system. My daily for quite a bit now. Flawless wireless connection, lidsuspend, prints, browses, handles pretty much all text formats, spreadsheets, talks to my open source android flipphone with no timeouts, edits and views images, makes isos, ... My ydrv carries most of what your ydrv 'high' carries plus PCManFM and LXDE and comes in at 56MB. That puts my total install directory size at 193MB, pretty lean for these times.
Thanks 
Works now, thanks.
I've only scanned the last several posts so may have missed something. While building Bionicpup64-revival I created a firefox64-esr_8.0.sfs, that can be independently downloaded from here, viewtopic.php?p=90667#p90667. It will run under any fossapup64 as it is essentially just Mikewalsh's portable repackaged so as to run from /opt. The instructions here, viewtopic.php?p=90667#p90667 explains how, once-downloaded, you can easily re-convert it to a portable so as to have all the benefits that offers.
@mikeslr - good to have options, but my minimalist pup not having gtk3 seems to be the issue. Once folk add that, things seem to work.
@Marv :-
Whoah! You've got a "portable" Sylpheed? Um.....care to share? Pretty please? (*bats eyelids becomingly...*) 
Is this by any chance that thing Jasper was working on?
Mike. 
The adrv of Firefox expands to /opt. So how do the changes to Firefox (configuration/bookmarks/addons) work because I don't see the cache files and mozilla folder in /root. I don't want these stuff recorded in the save file so how do I move it to the partition (where from, where is it?). Nevermind, I see it is in Spot. I've symlinked it out of there, hope it works.
I've merged the contents of the ydrv, ffmpeg.pet, Abiword/gnumeric.pet and gnome-mplayer.pet into a new ydrv. I now have quite a useful Puppy. 
Ken, I've just put together a .pet with all the necessary GTK 3.0 stuff for Oz's Fossapup-bas.
Hello Mike, Thanks for doing this, however, when I installed it Firefox-portable still did not open. I ran it in a terminal the output of which is shown bellow.
Code: Select all
root# ./LAUNCH
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /initrd/mnt/dev_save/Portables64/Firefox-portable64/firefox64/libmozgtk.so:
libatk-bridge-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.Hope this helps.
However, the version that @ozsouth uploaded does work (please see below).
I just uploaded a gtk3 .pet (2nd post, page 1)
Again thanks for doing this. I also downloaded your version when I downloaded Mikes and this does work. I'm posting from Firefox-portable now.
So far, all of your chromium based portable browsers, Brave, Slimjet, and un-googled chromium, run OOTB with Fossa64-bas v4.5
I have both Brave and Slimjet as portables. They both run on other pups but not on Fossa64-bas v4. I tried them again before I installed the .pet. I haven't installed v5 yet but I will do. I'll try and see why they don't run though I don't us them much.
As a lifelong minimalist, stay the course!
Well as 2.78MB as a .pet it's not adding much to Fossa64-bas v4
As to other things which also run as if they were "portables" I have Clamav and YRadio running though YRadio does need mpv (I installed the .pet) or mplayer.
Thanks again for the help,
Ken.
@keniv :-
I'm not surprised, TBH. I built it exactly the same way I did the GTK 3.0 packages for older Pups, although I used the relevant items from the "full" Fossapup64. Oz also seems to have included some browser-specific items.....but I haven't read the entire thread, I admit (so I don't really know what else might be missing). I also didn't test this out ( 
), because I have too many Pups on the go ATM.....I really don't have time OR space for yet another one!
I confess, with the vast amounts of RAM & storage I'm currently rocking, it's a bit pointless for me to run minimalist OSs. Doesn't make much sense, and minimalism has never really been my thing.
So long as you're functional, that's the main thing. Doesn't matter who GOT you 'up-and-running'; we're all here to help each other out.
Mike.
@mikewalsh
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the effort and as you say it's now working.
Ken.
@amethyst - if you want to use my Firefox adrv as root, DON'T use the updater - as a security measure, it will delete /root/.mozilla, when it goes to update. Running as root you don't need the updater anyway - updates should be offered anyway. To stop that deletion, delete /usr/local/bin/ffeupd . Palemoon similarly has pmupd.
** This is fixed in latest adrv , in post 3 on page 1 - no longer deletes /root files,
& Palemoon is fixed in V6, released today - see 1st post.
ozsouth wrote: ↑Thu Jul 13, 2023 11:44 pm@amethyst - if you want to use my Firefox adrv as root, DON'T use the updater - as a security measure, it will delete /root/.mozilla, when it goes to update. Running as root you don't need the updater anyway - updates should be offered anyway. To stop that deletion, delete /usr/local/bin/ffeupd . Palemoon similarly has pmupd.
** This is fixed in latest adrv , in post 3 on page 1 - no longer deletes /root files,
& Palemoon is fixed in V6, released today - see 1st post.
No, automatic updates were the first thing I turned off. I always do the necessary changes to settings BEFORE I even go on line with it for the first time. I've symlinked mozilla and .mozilla from Spot to my partition. It now works like I'm used to without affecting the save file. Working well with the streaming sites now. My new ydrv is 52 Mb (max compressed) containing contents of the old small ydrv, fffmpeg, abiword/numeric, gnome-mplayer, mtpaint. Installed a few small scripts for more functionality. Probably add a proper file renamer too and get rid of isomaster and use something like peasydisk instead. Nice little backup system for me. BTW - some people may not be aware of it but it is very easy to change the wallpaper with viewnor, don't need anything else to do it. Attached is the wallpaper of the standard release, down sized it a bit).