Chromium-based 64-bit packages for Puppy...

peterjammo · 01-11-2018, 05:19 PM

Thanks Mike,

that's useful info. To be specific, while I agree with you on UK TV content (we ditched our TV and license years ago) I still watch the odd thing on All4 (4OD as was) which isn't pay TV yet. Whilst Netflix is working fine on Firefox, I haven't cracked All4 as it requires Flash, and Firefox won't allow the newest version of Flash I can get on PPM to load because it's apparently too old and vulnerable to be safe.

My wife's Samsung Netbook is running Xenial 7.5 32 bit, and it's Firefox updated it's flash plugin to V28 automatically, but still won't run All4. It gets further than mine (older Fujitsu Li2727 running Tahrpup 64bit), but still stalls before it gets to the login screen (something which I understood to be a DRM problem, but maybe not).

I'll maybe try again with Chrome tomorrow, though getting my Ricoh SP100 printer working with Cups is ahead in the priority list. Did somebody say steepish learning curve..........I've been dipping my toe in the Puppy pool for about 10 years now on a variety of obsolete laptops, just working with whatever worked out of the box, but this is the first time I've tried to properly replace all of the family Windows stuff.

cheers
Peter

Mike_Walsh · 01-13-2018, 06:54 AM

Hallo, Peter.

Flash, eh? Hah!

You can't go by the PPM for stuff like that. It doesn't get auto-updated in the same way as mainstream distros (you have to do that manually).....and even then, neither the Puppy package lists, nor the Ubuntu/Slackware repos get updated quite that frequently.

Adobe go through spells of updating Flash every few days at times; no maintainers can keep up with that, taking into account that the majority of folks that work in the Linux eco-system do so for nothing, usually in ther spare time, as a 'hobby'.

You might find this useful:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=100523

Puppy forum stalwart Geoffrey has developed an 'auto-updater' for Adobe Flash. One of our Russian colleagues, SFS, has adapted it for use with PepperFlash (the supposedly more secure Chromium-based variant).....it takes all the hassle out of keeping crusty, creaky old Flash up-to-date. And Firefox has, for long enough, been very fussy about only using the very newest version.

If you want my packages of SFS's PepperFlash version, you can find 'em here:-

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/p3e..._Auto-updaters

Puppy's more up-to-date & versatile than many people realise.....but what they don't realise is that the majority of Puppy software isn't distributed through the package management system, but rather through the Forum itself. A high percentage of this is actually compiled, packaged, and hosted by Forum members (I joined this 'happy band' a couple of years ago, and it's something I get a lot of satisfaction out of.)

The Murga-Linux 'Puppy' forums are worth investigating:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php

Anything else you want to know, don't hesitate to ask.

Mike.

diode84 · 01-13-2018, 12:33 PM

May not be any help but slimjet works for me on 32 bit tahr and its chrome based.

peterjammo · 01-14-2018, 02:26 PM

Hi Diode84. Does Slimjet work for Channel4 on yours? My Slimjet64 seemed to get as far as Firefox does on my wife's Xenialpup 32 netbook when I installed it first, but it also crashes X on mine now like Chrome more or les as soon as I try to do anything.

Mike, I installed Geoffrey's Auto-updater and it claimed to have updated to current version, but there was no change to the version available to Pale Moon plugins, and nothing at all in Firefox. Just to be sure, I renamed the .so file in usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and ran it again. This put a new .so file in, but now nothing appearing in Pale Moon or Firefox plugins. I deleted both versions of the .so file and ran the auto-updater again, but now it just hangs instead of updating. Maybe it need some version of Flash there to update? Also wondering if it can cope with 64bit versions?

I haven't tried your pepper sfs yet, but I'm getting increasingly uneasy about the number of failed installations, problem applications and standard stuff that worked last week but now doesn't (inc hardinfo not working at all and pfind hanging every other time I use it and whether left over bits and bobs possibly installed in the wrong places might now be causing other problems.

Last couple of times I booted up Vista (had to do some printing - cups still not working properly with it) it didn't go smoothly, with disc checks and repairs required. I may go back to Vista for a bit on my main laptop, and use my spare 2005 ish vintage Acer 3000 which is happily running a basic install of Tahrpup 32 to try to bring my understanding of what I'm doing with Puppy and Linux in general, before possibly going back to square one and reinstalling Puppy on the main one again.

Thanks for your help again.

diode84 · 01-15-2018, 04:37 AM

Hello peterjammo
Channel 4 at the moment is not working in palemoon, constant buffering. Slimjet asks me flash player so wont work, I only use it for spot*fy and havent tried it in my 64 bit tahr only 32 bt.

Mike_Walsh · 01-15-2018, 08:58 AM

Hi again, Peter.

Ah, no; sorry.....my bad. I very rarely use Tahr64 these days, and use Firefox even less, although I do have the newest Quantum on there. I'd forgotten that Geoff's Auto-updater doesn't work for 64-bit Pups; it won't retrieve the correct version.

However, I've been investigating, and modifying, a Flash installer from elsewhere (modifying in that it never originally came with a Menu entry. Now it does!)

You can download it from here, at my MediaFire a/c (this is where I host all my Puppy packages):-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/bpv032...nstall-1.2.pet

Just download, and click to install. You'll find an entry under 'Menu->Internet' for 'Flash Installer'.

And here's how to use it...

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

1 ) First, fire up Firefox or PaleMoon. You'll need to download Flash in one of the Mozilla-based browsers, since Adobe detects the type of browser in use, and offers you the appropriate version of Flash accordingly.

2 ) Go to https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/, and in the drop down box, select 'tar.gz for other Linux'. Now hit the 'Download' button. Firefox automatically saves everything to the 'Downloads' directory.

3 ) Close your browser. Now, go into ROX and open your Downloads directory. You're looking for 'flash_player_npapi_linux.x86_64.tar.gz'. Leave this window open.

4) Menu->Internet->Flash Installer. Drag the flashplayer tarball you've just downloaded across to the small box near the bottom of the 'Flash Installer' window....and 'drop' it there. I've created a wee video so's you can see how this should work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3nw...ature=youtu.be

(Don't worry about the small pink window appearing which says to close your browser first. You should have already done this; just click on the pink window's 'X' to get rid of it, then the install goes ahead. It didn't do this in the 32-bit Pups, but then this particular app was written before the first 64-bit Puppies appeared around 3-4 years ago. It's easily 'worked around'.)

And that should give you the newest version of Flash for Firefox/PaleMoon/SeaMonkey/whatever. Let me know if it works for you; I don't think you can get much more straight-forward than that!

Just in case you're curious, here's the script:-

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#New flashplayer installer
ver=0.1

runningfunc()
{
ALLPS="`ps`"
   if [ "`echo "$ALLPS" | grep -E 'seamonkey|firefox|opera|chromium|iron|chrome'`" != "" ];then
   gtkdialog-splash -icon gtk-dialog-warning -bg hotpink -close box -text "Please close your browser before proceeding"
   fi
}
export -f runningfunc

installfunc ()
{
if [ $FLASH ];then
 TARBALL="`basename $FLASH`"
 if [ "`echo "$TARBALL"|grep "flash"|grep "gz$"`" = "" ];then 
  xmessage -c "Your selected file is not flash player!"
  exit
 fi
 mv -f $FLASH /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
 else xmessage -c "No file was selected"
 exit
fi

(cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins; tar -xf $TARBALL; rm -f $TARBALL)
if [ -f /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so ];then
 echo /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so > /tmp/flashplayer.files #register
 if [ -d /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/usr ];then cp -arf /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/usr / #new versions have userland stuff
   if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
     LINE1="`ls -R /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/usr|head -n1`"
     cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
     ls -R usr|grep -v "$LINE1" >> /tmp/flashplayer.files  #register
     cd $HOME
     rm -rf /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/usr
     echo "flashplayer" >> $HOME/.packages/user-installed-packages
     cp -f /tmp/flashplayer.files $HOME/.packages/
   fi
   if [ -f /usr/share/applications/flash-player-properties.desktop ];then #fix .desktop for menu
      OLDCATEGORY="`grep "^Categories" /usr/share/applications/flash-player-properties.desktop`"
      NEWCATEGORY="Categories=X-Internet;"
      OLDICON="`grep "^Icon" /usr/share/applications/flash-player-properties.desktop`"
      NEWICON="Icon=/usr/share/icons/flash-player-properties.png"
      sed -i -e "s%$OLDCATEGORY%$NEWCATEGORY%" \
			  -e "s%$OLDICON%$NEWICON%" /usr/share/applications/flash-player-properties.desktop
   fi
   if [[ -f /usr/share/applications/flash-player-properties.desktop && -f /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so ]];then
    gtkdialog-splash -bg green -close box -timeout 5 -icon gtk-apply -text "Flashplayer was successfully installed"
   fi
     fixmenus
     [ "`pidof jwm`" != "" ]&& jwm -restart
     
 fi
fi
}    
export -f installfunc
   
export FLASHDLG='<window title="Flash Installation '$ver'" resizable="false">
 <vbox>
  <hbox>
   <text use-markup="true"><label>"Click the <b>Flash</b> button to open your default browser at the Adobe Flashplayer download page. Once there you must choose from the <b>Select Version to Download</b> pull down list, <b>.tar.gz for other Linux</b>. Then click the <b>Download Now</b> button. You then open the location where the download was saved by your browser and drag it to the entry box below."</label></text> 
  </hbox>
  <hbox homogeneous="true">
   <button image-position="right" tooltip-text="opens your web browser at get.adobe.com/flashplayer">
    <label>Flash</label>
    <input file>/usr/share/doc/flashlogo.gif</input>
    <action>defaultbrowser http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ &</action>
   </button>
  </hbox>
  <hseparator></hseparator>
  <hbox homogeneous="true"> 
   <text use-markup="true"><label>"Drag your download to the <b>entry box</b> or select with the <b>file browser</b> then click <b>OK</b>. Make <b>sure</b> you close your <b>web browser</b> first."</label></text>
  </hbox>
  <hbox>
   <entry tooltip-text="Click OK to install the Flashplayer">
    <variable>FLASH</variable>
   </entry>
   <button tooltip-text="file browser">
	<input file stock="gtk-open"></input>
	<action type="fileselect">FLASH</action>
   </button>
  </hbox>
  <hseparator></hseparator>
  <hbox homogeneous="true">
   <button ok>
    <action>runningfunc</action>
    <action>exit:ok</action>
   </button>
   <button cancel></button>
  </hbox> 
 </vbox>
</window>'
I=$IFS; IFS="" 
for STATEMENTS in  $(gtkdialog4 -p FLASHDLG -c); do 
	eval $STATEMENTS
	done
IFS=$I
case $EXIT in
ok|OK)installfunc ;;
*)exit ;;
esac

The block of stuff down the bottom is all the 'GTK' window stuff.....

Mike.

peterjammo · 02-16-2018, 04:08 PM

Hi Mike,

sorry for the delay in responding, and thanks so much for all the work you've put in trying to help me out. I had stopped receiving email notifications for this and had assumed there was nothing further here.

I'm afraid I decided to try a different approach, and changed from Puppy to Mint 18.3 XFCE. Basically that's sorted out pretty much everything I was having problems with. I have fully updated FF with sound and up to date flash, as well as Chrome for a backup, Win FF working through Wine (that took a wee bit more effort) for Channel 4, Tor Browser and even have my Win only Ricoh SP100 basic laser printer working with Cups thanks to some drivers on Github. I can't think of much I currently need to boot into Vista for. I'm not sure if the approach I took was sane or sensible, but I cloned the HDD to a larger one with Aomei Backupper from Vista, had to reconfigure Grub4dos to get it to boot, then deleted the Puppy partition using windows disc management, and installed Mint. All went smoothly.

It's certainly much slower to boot than Tahrpup was, but although I'm sure it must be slower running too, it still seems pretty slick.

All the largely fruitless efforts with Puppy certainly helped me build some understanding of some of the basics, and that was a great help setting up Mint.

I may well return to the Puppy fold for another go at some point, but for now Mint is doing very nicely. I'm still running the 12yo basic Acer laptop on Tahrpup32 and my wife's Samsung netbook as a dual boot Xenialpup32/win7. Win7 hasn't been booted in weeks.

thanks again for your help.

Mike_Walsh · 02-17-2018, 05:51 AM

Hallo, Peter.

No worries. I often recommend Mint to many folks anyway, for the simple reason that it is that much simpler to set up & get working, right OOTB.

Puppy is lightning fast, once you know your way round her, and know just how to set her up.....but I wouldn't recommend her to a lot of people, unless they show a willingness to dive in and get their hands dirty! Despite being billed as for Windows refugees, it still helps to have some prior Linux experience before attempting Pup, I find. But perhaps that's just me.

Anyway, glad to hear you're sorted out now. There really are so many Linux distros, and preference is a very personal thing, anyway. You do have to try out at least a few before saying, 'Yes, that'll do....I can live with that. I've finally found 'the one' for me.'

Mike.