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

[mikewalsh]

@pp4mnklinux :-

Um.....gawd. D'you know, you've actually stumped me here..! I don't have a clue what to suggest, because I've never had an issue with Chrome's audio (either the older builds which used to run as root, OR the newer ones that now insist on running as a 'user', i.e., 'spot')....

Sorry!

Mike.

[vtpup]

Hi Mike,

sorry to have confused the issue with my woes here. All I was really reporting for this thread was that Mega.nz, (which is Google) your program storage site, doesn't allow downloading files using Semonkey to access the site.

I had tried downloading your Chrome portable. Nope. Not allowed. Seamonkey is not approved for that.

The chromebook issue (unrelated) cannot be solved via the USB method, now for the following reason (included here for your fun edification, not solutions or thread hijack):

I eventually switched to Firefox, after updating that, which allowed me to download your Chrome portable from snooty Mega.nz. Once Portable Chrome browser was running, I then installed Google's Chromebook recovery app.

Then when I went to run that I got a message saying Linux wasn't supported! Bwahahahaha!

The heck with it. In fact the real reason I wanted to get into the recovery program was even simpler. Just to see if my poor little 5 year old Chromebook was still supported for recovery. Ysee, there's no way to get this information otherwise.

That little Chromebook was modded to run Bionicpup. I just wanted to see if I could convert back. I didn't want to start a ROM firmware change without knowing for sure that Google itself would support recovery of its stupid OS. Since the 5 year span is considered possibly EOL by them.

Anyway, I give up.

[Clarity]

@vtpup
I'm not sure if this will work, but it sure sounds like you have a hosts file that is causing your woes. OR, you have a firewall that affecting download ports to be blocked.

The default hosts file (/etc/hosts) may cure your problem. A recent PUP I have that has Seamonkey as its browser needed to be changed. I used a hosts file with ONLY these 4 lines

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 localhost  your-hostname
192.168.1.1 pc2
192.168.1.2 pc3
192.168.1.3 pc4

If your hosts file is 'much' longer than this entry, you might try to substitute this to see if Seamonkey downloading will work. I advise you save/backup the prior hosts file before substituting this so that you can change it back after success/fail.

Hope this info helps

[mikewalsh]

@Clarity :-

I don't believe the issue here is that SeaMonkey can't download. Specifically, the issue that @vtpup has is that SeaMonkey won't download anything from Mega.nz.

I actually have the same issue. SeaMonkey won't download from Mega.nz for me, either.........AND, where until very recently I could download with PaleMoon from Mega.nz, that, too, no longer works for me.

(*shrug...*)

So, I use Chrome.....or Brave.....or Slimjet.....etc. Any of the Chromium-based "clones" are fine. Firefox, too, will work. The issue here - so I believe - is that both SeaMonkey AND Pale Moon - although based around 'zilla code - long ago diverged from the mainline code-base, and have been using their own "spins" of it for some years. And THIS is what Mega.nz doesn't seem to like.....

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

@pp4mnklinux :-

Um.....gawd. D'you know, you've actually stumped me here..! I don't have a clue what to suggest, because I've never had an issue with Chrome's audio (either the older builds which used to run as root, OR the newer ones that now insist on running as a 'user', i.e., 'spot')....

Sorry!

Mike.

Hi Mike, it is solved (well not solved, but identified, jaja)

When I modified files to make SLIMJET able to reproduce audio (viewtopic.php?p=102148#p102148) I lost it on Chrome, so the problem is that I CAN'T have audio with both browsers, I must choose Chrome with audio or Slimjet with it.

My option was slimjet, so I lost this option with Chrome.

Thanks a lot.

You can read more info at : viewtopic.php?p=102148#p102148

Or visiting- https://puppyxfcefusilli.wordpress.com/ ... slimjet39/

[Clarity]

@Clarity :-
I don't believe the issue here is that SeaMonkey can't download. Specifically, the issue that @vtpup has is that SeaMonkey won't download anything from Mega.nz....

Thank Mike, I see.

When I launch my Seamonkey, I am seeing this from that site. I thought I had used this PC for a download from a forum user, but seems I was wrong.

Here's what I am getting now (and my browser IS updated):

Seamonkey.png (97.12 KiB) Viewed 4627 times

Seamonkey2.png (11.66 KiB) Viewed 4627 times

.
I can only assume Seamonkey is unsupported...even though Firefox is.

[vtpup]

The term "not supported" in Googlease translates to intentionally blocked in English. Some day Chrome will be the only functional browser on the net, as everything else will be "unsupported".

As a workaround, I haven't bothered with trying an altered user agent string to identify Seamonkey as Firefox, since I'm through with trying to reinstall ChromeOS on that Acer R11. But at some point it might be nice to be able to access Mega.nz. for other perfectly normal reasons, like your, Mike's, Puppy files.

That one needs a "supported browser" simply to download a publicly available file from an open repository is of course ludicrous. There is nothing about Seamonkey or any other browser that is "too old" to manage a simple file download.

[mikewalsh]

@vtpup :-

Jeezus H. You're not suggesting that I find a different cloud provider - one without such ridiculous "restrictions" - and transfer everything across, are you?

Ouch...!

Mega.nz started me off with 50 GB.....which rapidly dropped to 20GB, of course. Even so, I don't know of any other providers that give you even that much storage on a free tier...

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

@vtpup :-

Jeezus H. You're not suggesting that I find a different cloud provider - one without such ridiculous "restrictions" - and transfer everything across, are you?

Ouch...!

Mega.nz started me off with 50 GB.....which rapidly dropped to 20GB, of course. Even so, I don't know of any other providers that give you even that much storage on a free tier...

Mike.

Hi Mike.- That is true, mega offers a big space to host files, but ... is it the bigger? @mikewalsh

That depends the way you consider this question, jajja... I'm usign google drive, media fire, opendrive... adding some of my FREE hosting files.

https://www.multcloud.com

(7 years working this way..... )

[vtpup]

@vtpup :-

Jeezus H. You're not suggesting that I find a different cloud provider - one without such ridiculous "restrictions" - and transfer everything across, are you?

Ouch...!

Mega.nz started me off with 50 GB.....which rapidly dropped to 20GB, of course. Even so, I don't know of any other providers that give you even that much storage on a free tier...

Mike.

Nope, Mike, just grousing. Not saying you should do differently. I will say that "Free", with G comes at the price of gradually stifling all competition. But that freedom is temporary. The real price for their coming mega-nopoly is yet to be paid.

[ozboomer]

Apologies for being a bit slow to the party here... but I'm trying to work out what to do with the Chrome-portable64.tar.xz file, as I'm wanting to get any version of Chrome working under F96_CE.

So, when I click on the file from Rox, xarchiver is run... but I don't know where/how/what to do with the archive.

Do I unpack this structure into /usr/local/Chrome-portable64 and then link something? into /usr/local/bin?

How do I actually install this package?

Thanks.

[mikeslr]

You don't install the package: it's a portable.

You download the tar.xz and extract it: e.g. Right-Click>UExtract or pExtract. Within the extraction folder will be another with the following contents:

Chrome-portable Extracted.png (29.33 KiB) Viewed 4206 times

I don't recall if the above folder originally had a longer name and (as I could) simply renamed it for convenience (Right-Click>Rename). The PROFILE folder won't exist until you LAUNCH G-C the first time.

Move the above described folder where ever you want. As a portable, it will run from anywhere. Suggested locations: (a) /mnt/home --outside RAM but always available; (b) /opt --uses RAM just to hold the application's files but if running under PupMode 13 from a USB-Key, you can unplug the Key and still use the G-C: as if you installed it. The portable is constructed so that cache, settings and downloaded files are stored within the folder, itself. Another reason to NOT place G-C in /opt or elsewhere other than /mnt/SOMEWHERE. Can be several layers deep.

LAUNCH does what it says and should be Left-Clicked to make certain G-C is fully working with your Puppy. If so, Menu-Add will create a Menu entry from where ever G-C is located. Menu-Remove, removes that.

UpdateChrome will do what it says. I don't recall if you still have to first SFS-Load the devx SFS. You used to. As a precaution, before I update any portable I Right-Click its folder, select Duplicate and create a duplicate with the name ending -O for old. It there's a problem, I can easily revert.

G-C runs as Spot. IIRC*, files you download --or want to upload-- will/must be in PROFILE/spot. You may want to bookmark that location for ease of access.

-=-=-=-=-=-

• Been awhile since I actually used G-C. Currently my choice of 'Chromiums' is Brave. But I've modified it to run as Root.

[mikewalsh]

@ozboomer :-

As t'other Mike says, it's a "portable" build. It's designed in such a way that you can run it from literally anywhere. All its config files'n'stuff are self-contained, and remain within the one directory. You can even run it from a suitably-formatted flash drive, should you wish.

I ran XP for the whole of its 13-yr life span. Although I was fed up to the back teeth with it by the time I kicked it into touch, during the final annual re-install I took a very different approach to things. I'd just discovered the Windows PortableApps, so instead of re-installing stuff the normal way, I stocked XP with nothing BUT portable applications. And it was a revelation; no glitches, no freeze-ups, no hanging.....just silky-smooth operation for the whole of that last year. Portable applications keep their config files in the same directory; Windows portable apps each have their own, self-contained 'mini-registry' (which never gets contaminated with all the usual crap).

Since moving to Linux - first Ubuntu, then a bit of distro-hopping before settling-down with our Pup - I've been attempting to re-capture that paradigm. After nearly a decade, I think I've finally succeeded. That's why the community has been using so much 'portable' stuff in recent years.....because I'm not the only one to see its benefits. It works for me; I'm happy with it.....so I've shared it.

It's a very different approach to anyone that's used to the traditional 'full-install' method of software usage.......but it's SO versatile, I happen to think it suits Puppy down to the ground.

• Download it
• Unzip it
• Move the contents anywhere you want
• Click to enter
• Click 'Launch' to fire it up

Included scripts allow the addition of a Menu entry for your portable, regardless of where it lives....

Simple as that.

Mike.

[ozboomer]

Not browsing the forums in Puppy at present.. but Fanx! to TheMikes(tm) for the info. Might I suggest the 'usage' text be a bit of boilerplate to drop into the initial post for each of the 'portable packages' ...'coz it's not totally clear how to install and use these packages when coming to portables for the first time; the concept of a 'pet' is probably more well known and understood, I think..

The concept of 'portables' is a good idea when space isn't an issue... but is kinda contra- 'initial Puppy philosophy' of being small... but our Puppies have matured substantially nowadays... and are still small relatives to the other 'major' distros...

Further to 'portableness'.. I remember something that appeared in the middle history of Puppy where Rox packages were used for a time... and I think there are still some applications that are distributed that way..

I, too, have come to use PortableApps.com versions of quite a few things in the Windoze world, even when 'full' installations are available. Again, disk space is increasingly 'cheap' (in $$ and backup time) so the redundancy is a small price to pay for the simplicity. For many years, I used a 'Perl package' -type of executable for simple applications that were deployed organization-wide at work ('coz of an IT department being non-supportive of Perl installations) which contained dlls etc and extracted them into a private temporary location at each execution. However, the 'standard' way Python applications are built (under Windows) is ridiculous.. to carry _1GB for a 'Hello, World' program... mannnnn ('course I might be talking through my hat, as I'm not expert in Python).

Keen to try the new portable now I know how Fanx! a heap, once again...

Edit: 'tis working a treat under F96_CE. A little less stressed now...

[mikewalsh]

Morning, gang.

Now then; slight change with the updating, necessitated by a decomissioned URL.

The automatic update check no longer functions, due to the URL that was formerly used for the check having been taken out of service. I've looked into using information from the new site that the previous stuff was migrated to, but the data is presented now in a totally different way, and is unusable.......in addition to which, only info for Windows, Mac and Android is now given. iOS and Linux seem to have been left out of the loop from now on.

So; the portable's 'LAUNCH' script has been modified. I've attached this to post #1 of this thread. Just replace the existing 'LAUNCH' script with this modified one.......and from now on, you'll need to run the updater script manually, in the same way as those Fred's written for some of the other portable browsers. The only difference here is that you don't need to run the updater from the terminal; simply clicking on the script will suffice, since it was originally built to work this way.

Sorry for the 'inconvenience', guys. Blame Big Brother.....not me!

Mike.

[ozboomer]

As t'other Mike says, it's a "portable" build. It's designed in such a way that you can run it from literally anywhere. All its config files'n'stuff are self-contained, and remain within the one directory. You can even run it from a suitably-formatted flash drive, should you wish.

A couple of recent observations...

It might be my installation/booting operation ( and p'raps consider Re: Pinta-portable - 64-bit painting app... )... but to take my frugal installation of F96-CE as an example, where I have the 'Puppy files' (initrd.gz, vmlinuz, puppy_fossapup64_9.6.sfs, etc) located in a path: sda3/Puppy/F96-CE, I originally placed the 'Portable Chrome' into a path: /usr/local/Chrome-portable64. This means it will be part of the savefile (as @mikewalsh mentioned in his post).

However, if I place the file into sda3/Puppy/F96-CE/Chrome-portable64 (which I understand is external to the savefile)... and try running Chrome from that location, it doesn't work, as the privileges problem is back, viz:-

Code: Select all

#
# pwd
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/Puppy/F96-CE/Chrome-portable64
# 
# ls -al
total 53
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root   448 Jan 21 20:15 .
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root  4096 Jan 21 20:12 ..
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root  4096 Dec 14  2022 chrome
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root     0 Mar  7  2022 DATA
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14546 Jan 13  2017 .DirIcon
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  1296 Jan  6 16:11 LAUNCH
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  2741 Dec 14  2022 LAUNCH.org
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root  8192 Dec 14  2022 lib
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   287 Mar  7  2022 Menu-Add
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  1634 Aug  3  2021 MenuReadMe
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   181 Mar  7  2022 Menu-Remove
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  4714 Aug 21  2022 UpdateChrome
# 
# ./LAUNCH
ash: cd: line 7: can't cd to /initrd/mnt/dev_save/Puppy/F96-CE/Chrome-portable64: Permission denied
ash: exec: line 10: /initrd/mnt/dev_save/Puppy/F96-CE/Chrome-portable64/chrome/chrome: Permission denied
# 
# sudo -u spot ./LAUNCH
sudo: unable to execute ./LAUNCH: Permission denied
#

With only the one spindle in my PC, things get a bit problematic in terms of doing backups of the Chrome (portable) 'installation'... so, like Mike has mentioned, maybe I just wear the 'bloating savefile'... Still thinking about this some...

A suggestion, too, for the 'head' post in this thread...

Depending on the available space on Mike's archive, it would be helpful if the most recent.. plus 1 or 2 prior versions of the 'Chrome Portable' were available (and described in the post, with release dates) as that would allow for 'rollback' if something were found to be 'not quite right' in a given release for a specific installation.

...or maybe that's something for us users to manage ourselves? Yet another philosophical question...

I'm always finding more red herrings, huh? ....

[oliverjames]

@ozboomer :-

As t'other Mike says, it's a "portable" build. It's designed in such a way that you can run it from literally anywhere. All its config files'n'stuff are self-contained, and remain within the one directory. You can even run it from a suitably-formatted flash drive, should you wish.

I ran XP for the whole of its 13-yr life span. Although I was fed up to the back teeth with it by the time I kicked it into touch, during the final annual re-install I took a very different approach to things. I'd just discovered the Windows PortableApps, so instead of re-installing stuff the normal way, I stocked XP with nothing BUT portable applications. And it was a revelation; no glitches, no freeze-ups, no hanging.....just silky-smooth operation for the whole of that last year. Portable applications keep their config files in the same directory; Windows portable apps each have their own, self-contained 'mini-registry' (which never gets contaminated with all the usual crap).

Since moving to Linux - first Ubuntu, then a bit of distro-hopping before settling-down with our Pup - I've been attempting to re-capture that paradigm. After nearly a decade, I think I've finally succeeded. That's why the community has been using so much 'portable' stuff in recent years.....because I'm not the only one to see its benefits. It works for me; I'm happy with it.....so I've shared it.

It's a very different approach to anyone that's used to the traditional 'full-install' method of software usage.......but it's SO versatile, I happen to think it suits Puppy down to the ground.

• Download it
• Unzip it
• Move the contents anywhere you want
• Click to enter
• Click 'Launch' to fire it up

Included scripts allow the addition of a Menu entry for your portable, regardless of where it lives....

Simple as that.

Mike.

The download / install worked perfectly for me - launch, update, add to menu - when I extracted the download in the Downloads folder, but not when I tried extracting it to My_applications / bin., curious.

Incidentally, I also ran XP until about 2003. I'd pimped it with virtual windows, app menu on right click... as I was becoming increasingly impressed by the performance and ease of use of Linux. One day I just got so hacked-off with the Windows practice of interminable update times and lack of transparency that I switched to Linux. I tried many distros, Zenwalk (cool name) then Fedora, Mepis, Xubuntu,...until finally settling on Mint as my daily driver, and now MX-Linux (which impressed me as many of the extras that I'd immediately add after install were already included).
I stumbled across Puppy back in the day when the download was under 200 Mb, and was impressed by its portability.

Many thanks Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Right, boys & girls. Now then:-

The auto-updater is now back again, thanks to the ever-resourceful @fredx181 .....who took it upon himself to get it all functional again, then presented me with it as a fait accompli about 6 weeks ago - since when I've been testing it out.

It's been under test for quite some time because on the odd occasion, it tells you everything's been updated, then immediately turns round and tells you - at the next launch - that a new version is ready for download.....as though the update never occurred. However, Fred can't be held responsible for this because it used to happen just the same with my original updater; I believe the fault for this lies squarely at Google's feet, and is at their end. Most of the time, it all works flawlessly.....the scenario described above only happens occasionally.

Fred's located another, more reliable URL with which to perform the version check. The 'ar' stuff, which is used for the actual .deb extraction, has been tidied-up and concatenated into a single wee AppImage.....and the Launch and Updater scripts have been re-jigged to take this into account.

(I have to wonder if this is going to turn into a repeat of the situation Geoffrey faced with his marvelous FlashPlayer auto-updater, some years back, where he was constantly re-writing it due to Adobe playing 'musical URLs', and regularly moving the download locations! Time will tell, of course, but trying to craft these things for third-party repos where you have no foreknowledge of the company's intentions is always fraught with uncertainty.)

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

The new version can be found at the usual location given in post #1. As always,

• Download

• Unzip

• Move the portable directory to a location of your choice.....outside the 'save' IS preferable, of course

• Click to enter, and

• Click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up

The included scripts let you add/remove a Menu entry from wherever it's located.....IF one is required.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[fredx181]

It's been under test for quite some time because on the odd occasion, it tells you everything's been updated, then immediately turns round and tells you - at the next launch - that a new version is ready for download.....as though the update never occurred.

HAHA.. funny coincident that I just PM'd you about a (probably) fix for that (in the UpdateChrome script).

[mikewalsh]

It's been under test for quite some time because on the odd occasion, it tells you everything's been updated, then immediately turns round and tells you - at the next launch - that a new version is ready for download.....as though the update never occurred.

HAHA.. funny coincident that I just PM'd you about a (probably) fix for that (in the UpdateChrome script).

Re-uploaded with the modification included...

Mike.

[lizardidi]

Tried this portable chrome yesterday... Facing one minor issue:

When using Whatsapp web, unable to attach any documents or file.. When try to do so, it says "the file you uploaded has 0 content" and hence attach failed. First i thought its because of the spot limitation, but no matter where you put the file, there's no way to attach the files and upload them.

Anyone here access Whatsapp web via this browser having same issue?

I am using Bookworm pup 64 bit by Radky

[mikewalsh]

@lizardidi :-

The usual way to deal with this is to install the "Spot2Root" permissions changer. I cobbled this together a long while ago - around 2017/8 - when we first had to start running Chrome as user 'spot'. I originally built it into the Chrome SFS package I was offering at the time, but a few folks complained that it made things confusing, so I rebuilt it as a separate package & left it up to the individual whether they wished to use it or not.

The current version - v4.3 - creates a folder in /root called 'SpotUploads'. Anything you want to upload to a browser running as 'spot', stick it in here. Then, click on the tray icon that controls the utility (it looks like a green arrow & a red arrow, one pointing up, the other pointing down), and click on 'ROOT-TO-SPOT (Upload)'. This will transfer it to the newly-created 'Uploads' directory in /spot, changing permissions as it does so.

You should now to be able to access your items when you want to upload stuff to the browser, since in theory the file-chooser will only show the 'spot' directory when you go to select an item for upload.

You can find it here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Hope that helps. (You use this same utility for anything downloaded from a 'spot' browser; just select the 'SPOT-TO-ROOT (Download)' option instead, and it moves the item into your Downloads directory - with normal root:root permissions - opening ROX in that location for immediate access to the downloaded item).

Mike.

[lizardidi]

@lizardidi :-

The usual way to deal with this is to install the "Spot2Root" permissions changer. I cobbled this together a long while ago - around 2017/8 - when we first had to start running Chrome as user 'spot'. I originally built it into the Chrome SFS package I was offering at the time, but a few folks complained that it made things confusing, so I rebuilt it as a separate package & left it up to the individual whether they wished to use it or not.

The current version - v4.3 - creates a folder in /root called 'SpotUploads'. Anything you want to upload to a browser running as 'spot', stick it in here. Then, click on the tray icon that controls the utility (it looks like a green arrow & a red arrow, one pointing up, the other pointing down), and click on 'ROOT-TO-SPOT (Upload)'. This will transfer it to the newly-created 'Uploads' directory in /spot, changing permissions as it does so.

You should now to be able to access your items when you want to upload stuff to the browser, since in theory the file-chooser will only show the 'spot' directory when you go to select an item for upload.

You can find it here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Hope that helps. (You use this same utility for anything downloaded from a 'spot' browser; just select the 'SPOT-TO-ROOT (Download)' option instead, and it moves the item into your Downloads directory - with normal root:root permissions - opening ROX in that location for immediate access to the downloaded item).

Mike.

Thanks Mike!

I tried the Spot2Root, follow all the steps but still unable to upload any files. Not only Whatsapp web, any website that require you to upload files, once you press the "upload" button, the file manager never popup to let you decide which files to upload. This browser's problem is only specific to upload, download no problem.

This is the error msg from terminal, when i try to upload file in VirusTotal site:

ERROR:select_file_dialog_linux_portal.cc(760)] Portal returned error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Portal operation not allowed: Unable to open /proc/2003/root