Google chrome installation not running

[MPA12[]]

I am using F96-CE_4.
Google chrome browser installation file was downloaded from

https://www.google.com/intl/en_in/chrom ... tbrowser=0

and the downloaded file

google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

was double clicked to install. The installation was successful and a new menu

Google Chrome web browser

was created. Unfortunately clicking on the menu does nothing. The menu is not working.

I want to get answers for the following questions

1. How to make the menu work

2. How to run the program without using menu

3. How to install a deb program (using command line or otherwise) and run it.

[fredx181]

@MPA12[]
The thing is that Puppy runs as 'root' and google-chrome doesn't allow that without a modification of the command (see below).

For to run as root the command (to run from terminal) should be google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox
But you can also run it as user 'spot', then: run-as-spot google-chrome-stable

To make it run from Menu, edit /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop.
Find the line Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable and change to either:
Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox (as root) or:
Exec=run-as-spot /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable (as spot)

edit: but it depends for to work that the .deb got properly installed (i.e. with the required dependencies)

[Clarity]

Here's a Chrome install PET that was created for FossaPUP64 (and all WoofCE PUPs) that continues to work properly with PUP's PPM.

Install it by downloading and clicking as you would ANY other PET. Open Menu>Internet>Get Latest Chrome Browser and it does all the work properly for you.

To upgrade Chrome at any time, about once-pre-week for security updates, open PUP's PPM and uninstall Chrome browser (BUT NOT the GetLatestChrome PET). Then reopen Menu>Internet>Get Latest Chrome Browser to get the latest from Google.

Its been around for over 5 years and there are NO reported issues! ... menu or operational.

P.S. This works within the PUP's package management (PPM) & session management. @mikewalsh provides a portable that will install, external, onto a storage unit.

[MPA12[]]

Thank you fredx181 for your quick response. I followed your instructions. See below.

1. The command google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox was issued from the terminal and the response starting with the line

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/root’: Permission denied was obtained.

2. Next the command run-as-spot google-chrome-stable was issued. Success. The browser was displayed. This is the answer to my second question. The path of the file is /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

3. The file /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop was opened as text file. Unfortunately the line Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable was not found. Instead the line Exec=google-chrome-stable was available.However this line was changed to Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox saved the file and menu clicked. Nothing happened. Menu failed. Then the line was replaced by Exec=run-as-spot /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable . There also the menu failed.

The fact that running as spot displays the browser proves that the .deb got properly installed (i.e. with the required dependencies)

[mikewalsh]

@MPA12[] :-

Mm. O-kayyy.....

Actually, you might get on better with the 'portable' version of Google-Chrome. Fred started me off down this road some years ago now, 'cos I'd always been wanting to create a portable version of Chrome that worked in 'Puppy' in just the same way as the Windows PortableApp version did.....everything self-contained in its own directory, including all the config/cache stuff, so you could move it around to a location of your choosing, or even run it from a flash-drive (and hence move it between machines).

We eventually got that one up-and-running about 5 years ago. You can either run it from its own directory, via its built-in 'LAUNCH' wrapper-script - and keep it 'portable' - OR you can add an entry, via included scripts, to the main Menu -> Internet section, then start it from there.

Fred also re-jigged the updater script I'd put together for it so that it works better now. Do be aware that the Linux variant doesn't update via the internal 'updater' in the same way that the Windows build does. Also - I felt I ought to mention this - because Google build Chrome to run with the 'standard' Linux 'multi-user' model, IF you install it via the .deb package it then interferes with Puppy's run-as-root model. It has a habit of messing-up permissions for CUPS, so if you install the Chrome .deb and your printer suddenly quits working, you'll know WHY.

You can find the Google-Chrome 'portable' thread here:-

viewtopic.php?t=146

Full instructions are there (somewhere!)

Mike.

[fredx181]

Well, yes, as Mike says, you can try the portable, but since you already installed the .deb, let's focus on that.

3. The file /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop was opened as text file. Unfortunately the line Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable was not found. Instead the line Exec=google-chrome-stable was available.However this line was changed to Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox saved the file and menu clicked. Nothing happened. Menu failed. Then the line was replaced by Exec=run-as-spot /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable . There also the menu failed.

Don't know why the --no-sandbox addition doesn't work (perhaps a change in the latest Chrome ). But running as spot works as you said.
After you changed to Exec=run-as-spot /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable or just Exec=run-as-spot google-chrome-stable (doesn't matter) in the google-chrome.desktop file, you need to do also:
fixmenus; jwm -reload (forgot to say earlier, it refreshes the Menu)
And it should work running from Menu.

[MPA12[]]

Thank you Clarity for your post. I followed your instructions and Google Chrome was installed. See below

1. Uninstalled existing chrome by PPM and clicked on this site GetLatest64bitChromeVersionWoofCE-MK15.5.pet to download the pet file to /root/spot/Downloads/. The downloaded file was successfully installed by double clicking on the file name. A new menu Get Latest Chrome Version was created under internet.

2. To install the latest version of Google Chrome, the menu Get Latest Chrome Version was clicked. Google Chrome 132.0.6834.159 was installed. The menu Google Chrome web browser was created and works fine.

3. The message You are using an unsupported command-line flag:--no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer.is displayed at the top.

[fredx181]

Thank you Clarity for your post. I followed your instructions and Google Chrome was installed. See below
...
3. The message You are using an unsupported command-line flag:--no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer.is displayed at the top.

That could be possibly fixed by adding:
--disable-infobars --test-type to the commandline.

[pp4mnklinux]

Thank you Clarity for your post. I followed your instructions and Google Chrome was installed. See below
...
3. The message You are using an unsupported command-line flag:--no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer.is displayed at the top.

That could be possibly fixed by adding:
--disable-infobars --test-type to the commandline.

Aha, with this code the information about --no-sandbox is not showed.

You can use it with the different portable browsers (Opera, Slimjet, Firefox...)

[fredx181]

Thank you Clarity for your post. I followed your instructions and Google Chrome was installed. See below
...
3. The message You are using an unsupported command-line flag:--no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer.is displayed at the top.

That could be possibly fixed by adding:
--disable-infobars --test-type to the commandline.

Aha, with this code the information about --no-sandbox is not showed.

You can use it with the different portable browsers (Opera, Slimjet, Firefox...)

Only for Chromium based browsers, not Firefox, it doesn't have such a flag --no-sandbox (and not the above mentioned).

[pp4mnklinux]

That could be possibly fixed by adding:
--disable-infobars --test-type to the commandline.

Aha, with this code the information about --no-sandbox is not showed.

You can use it with the different portable browsers (Opera, Slimjet, Firefox...)

Only for Chromium based browsers, not Firefox, it doesn't have such a flag --no-sandbox (and not the above mentioned).

Ok, but I am using it with my Opera portable and it works.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
# Launcher for 'portable' Opera browser

# Define the directory of the Opera installation
export HERE="$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")"

# Configure ffmpeg preload
cat > "$HERE/opera/resources/ffmpeg_preload_config.json" <<EOF
[
  "${HERE}/opera/lib_extra/libffmpeg.so"
]
EOF

# Link WidevineCdm (only if not already linked)
[ ! -L /opt/google/chrome/WidevineCdm ] && ln -s "$HERE/opera/WidevineCdm" /opt/google/chrome/WidevineCdm

# Ensure profile directory exists
mkdir -p "$HERE/PROFILE"

# Common Opera launch options
OPERA_OPTIONS="--user-data-dir=$HERE/PROFILE --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder --start-maximized --disable-infobars --test-type --no-sandbox"

# Set library path and launch Opera based on OS version
if grep -qE 'puppy_tahr64|puppy_xenialpup64' /etc/os-release; then
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HERE:$HERE/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH} "$HERE/opera/opera" $OPERA_OPTIONS "$@"
else
  "$HERE/opera/opera" $OPERA_OPTIONS "$@"
fi

[mikewalsh]

The message You are using an unsupported command-line flag:--no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer.is displayed at the top.

Ah, you WILL get that showing when you run-as-root.

Y'see, Google - because they've written Chrome to run under the usual Linux 'multi-user' paradigm - are expecting that the browser will be launched from a /home/user directory, with the associated 'restricted' permissions. Because Puppy's '/home' directory IS '/root' - with full access to everything - Chrome throws up a ton MORE error messages than usual.

Puppy never used to have a '/home' directory at all. We eventually came to the conclusion that we'd have to add it to the '/' file-system structure just so that Chromium- and Electron-based apps WOULD work correctly.

=============================

In mainstream Linux, users have been educated over a period of several years to be terrified of doing ANYTHING as 'root', along with copious dire warnings of what might (note that last word; "might") happen to your system. Long before 'sudo' ever became a thing, everyone in the Linux world ran as 'root'.....and you LEARNT to be 'careful' what you did. Sudo dumbed things down to such an extent that many users have become slapdash over the years, and no longer seem to know HOW to secure their systems and what you can (and can't) do.

In Puppy, you learn to be careful AND to know what IS (and isn't) possible. In a way, this makes you a 'better' Linux user, because you become far more aware than 'mainstream' users of what your system is really doing behind the scenes.

This is why I recommended the portable. FWIW, because it runs as the Puppy restricted user
'spot', full sandboxing is thereby available.....and that error message will never show. '--test-type' might 'hide' that banner, but the browser still knows it's running in a way its builders never intended. Personally, I don't think the 'tab' sandboxing is as big a deal as Google like to make out, but it keeps the browser happy..!

Mike.

[Clarity]

I am NOT speaking for @ETP but, IIRC, he allows that message to alert the user to the potential danger of running the browser as root user. This allow user to be conscious of the caution provided by Chrome developers to users of Linux.

It intends to be helpful. In my use over the years one merely clicks the "X" it presents.

Further, any user has a choice of opening a terminal and "run-as-spot" their browser.

ETP's utility is very helpful and can be helpful to people who have sight issues where it announces, 'out loud' what it is doing during the setup and launch of the browser assuring successful installation to the user. I like it as the utility takes advantage of the multimedia features of our PCs.

Enjoy.

[MPA12[]]

As suggested by fredx181, I gave the command fixmenus; jwm -reload from the terminal and lo! The menu Google Chrome web browser started working.

Now I got the answer to my first question I asked in the first post. The question is

How to make the menu work?

The answer is given below.

After installing the deb package, change the line
Exec=google-chrome-stable
in the file
/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
to
Exec=run-as-spot google-chrome-stable
and save the file. Next run the command
fixmenus; jwm -reload
from terminal
This will activate the menu.

[MPA12[]]

Surprisingly the above post is also the answer to my third question raised in the first post i.e.
How to install a deb program (using command line or otherwise) and run it.

I believe that any deb program can be installed in the same way as Google Chrome browser was installed. Thus I installed the latest versions of Firefox and Opera. The deb file for firefox (firefox-135.0.deb) can be downloaded from

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/rel ... -135.0.deb

and that for opera (opera-stable_116.0.5366.71_amd64.deb) from

https://www.opera.com/computer/thanks?g ... tion%3D415

[MPA12[]]

For installing the latest version of gimp, I downloaded the file gimp_3.0.0~RC2-1_amd64.deb from https://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main ... _amd64.deb to /root/spot/Downloads and installed the deb file by double clicking on the file name and converted the line exec=gimp-3.0 in /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop to exec= run-as-spot gimp-3.0 and ran the command fixmenus; jwm -reload from terminal. Alas! The menu is not working. How to fix it.

Where can I get complete information on installing deb packages in puppy linux.

[fredx181]

For installing the latest version of gimp, I downloaded the file gimp_3.0.0~RC2-1_amd64.deb from https://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main ... _amd64.deb to /root/spot/Downloads and installed the deb file by double clicking on the file name and converted the line exec=gimp-3.0 in /usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop to exec= run-as-spot gimp-3.0 and ran the command fixmenus; jwm -reload from terminal. Alas! The menu is not working. How to fix it.

Where can I get complete information on installing deb packages in puppy linux.

You cannot do it like that, the deb package is for Debian Sid.
In the first place it's not recommended to install a package from Debian repository on a Ubuntu system (as F96-CE is based on) (btw, also not the other way around).
And the gimp version "belonging" to Focal Fossa is 2.10, you can install it by using the Package Manager.
(perhaps not impossible though to have gimp 3.0, perhaps on most recent Ubuntu 25.04 it works , not sure)
(edit: or run Debian Sid or other very modern system)

[MPA12[]]

Thank you fredx181 for your response. I could install gimp 2.10.18.1 from the PPM. Along with, it has also installed a lot of related packages.

If a package is available in ubuntu, how shall we make use of it in F96-CE_4.?

Now let me tell what is in my mind.

Puppy is great and I want to use it for my day to day computer work.

Puppy has many versions and it is difficult to keep track of them. We may choose a particular version and move with it. I have chosen F96-CE_4. Hence for me, this version must have all my favourite applications. A pool of applications may be maintained which should be updated regularly. In this direction, I have already shown here the procedure of installing new versions of Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera. Now gimp also added. Thanks to fredx181. Further I want to install LibreOffice, Python and so on. I failed to install latest versions of LibreOffice and Python from PPM

New versions are coming with xz, tgz, deb etc.extensions. While trying to install these packages, a lot of problems will come up. Two files are seen for Python new version. Python-3.13.2.tar.xz and Python-3.13.2.tgz. The procedure of installing these files is given in the readme file in the extracted directory. It is to navigate to the extracted directory and run the following commands from the terminal.

./configure
make
make test
sudo make install

Unfortunately the first command itself gave the following error.

configure: error: in `/root/spot/Downloads/Python-3.13.2':
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH

Hence unable to proceed further. Both the files behaved the same way.

To keep a distribution alive, users must know how to install new packages or innovations and also how to update existing ones. Hence we need information on installing xz, tgz, deb etc. packages.

Also I want to know whether there is any body who is using any Puppy version as described above i.e. with all necessary applications and facilities.

I think Installing and updating packages is a better name for this thread.

[fredx181]

@MPA12[]
Always best to start a new thread (e.g. about compiling Python or ... installing LibreOffice or ...) with one specific question that's also very clear by looking at the subject title.
That way you'll probably get better answers.

[MPA12[]]

@MPA12[]
Always best to start a new thread (e.g. about compiling Python or ... installing LibreOffice or ...) with one specific question that's also very clear by looking at the subject title.

Will follow your advice.

By the way,

My aim is to replace Windows by Puppy Linux because it is free and we are enthralled by its sheer versatility and unbelievable possibilities offered. But now I understand that it is not easy to realise this objective. A whatsApp group may help.