ONE Seamonkey2/firefox browser folder for all frugal puppies

[trio]

Hi,

I use Firefox/Seamonkey2 browser from a folder outside pupsave, I usually put THE FOLDER in /mnt/home but you can also use other drive by automounting with Startmount

What you need to do next is make a desktop icon by dragging the executable to the desktop. That's it. (you could add a pixmap to make it look pretty )

Now you have ONE external firefox/seamonkey2 for all puppies installed in your computer.

I don't have a google chrome (maybe it can be the same way)

Cheers

[DMcCunney]

I use Firefox/Seamonkey2 browser from a folder outside pupsave, I usually put THE FOLDER in /mnt/home but you can also use other drive by automounting with Startmount

I'm confused. Firefox and SeaMonkey are two different products. They are both Mozilla products, but Firefox is just the browser, and SeaMonkey is an integrated suite including email, newsgroup reader, and HTML editor.

Are you using both from the same folder, or just using SeaMonkey and incorrectly calling it "Firefox/SeaMonkey"?
______
Dennis

[trio]

"/" means or ... Is it not obvious?

I use semaonkey2 OR firefox that way for all my frugal puppies...

All official puppies only has seamonkey version up to 1.1.8 I think

[DMcCunney]

"/" means or ... Is it not obvious?

As written, no. It's possible to have both SeaMonkey and Firefox installed (and I do), but they normally live in different folders. How do you have them installed in your Puppies?

I use semaonkey2 OR firefox that way for all my frugal puppies...

So you have both SeaMonkey and Firefox in the same folder. and use one of the other.

All official puppies only has seamonkey version up to 1.1.8 I think

Correct. SeaMonkey 1.1X is the default supplied with Puppy.
______
Dennis

[DaveS]

Trio, I tried this a while ago with Firefox/SM 1.1.18 but ran into a problem. The directory .mozilla ends up being shared by both Firefox and SM. This causes occasional security errors to be thrown up by 1.1.18. I put up a thread about it somewhere on here. The consensus seemed to be that the error was something to do with Flash, but I never resolved it. I am interested to hear if you have similar problems from time to time with SM2. Load times also were much greater than having the two browsers built into the 431.sfs via remaster, but obviously, only for the first load in any given boot. Nice solution though. Natch I keep .mozilla out of the save file these days. Interestingly, doing it this way, you can symlink into any Puppy you have on your drive, and effectively be using the same email and browser in all.

[DMcCunney]

Trio, I tried this a while ago with Firefox/SM 1.1.18 but ran into a problem. The directory .mozilla ends up being shared by both Firefox and SM. This causes occasional security errors to be thrown up by 1.1.18.

Having Firefox and SeaMonkey share a directory is possible, but is generally not a good idea. How well it works depends on which versions are installed.

Mozilla products use two directories: the application directory and the profile directory.

The application directory is where the product itself and the libraries it uses reside. There will be a wrapper script in /usr/bin that will find the actual executable (firefox-bin or seamonkey-bin), set up the environment, and run it.

The profile directory is where the user's files reside. Bookmarks, themes, add-ons, config files and the cache reside here. This is why you can upgrade to a new version conveniently: the upgrade replaces files in the application directory, but doesn't touch the profile directory.

The problem with having multiple products share the same profile directory lies in versions. Some add-ons work in one product but not another. Some add-ons work in either product, but may not work in differing versions.

For instance, SeaMonkey 1.1X uses the XPIInstall framework. Firefox 2.X and higher, and SeaMonkey 2.l0 and greater use the Gecko Toolkit. Add-ons written for one don't work in the other.

In addition, Firefox up to 2.X, and SeaMonkey through 1.1X store bookmarks in a bookmarks.html file. Firefox 3+ and SeaMonkey 2+ shifted to using an SQLite database. FF 2.x and SM 1.1X wont read FF 3.X/SM 2.X bookmarks files, and vice versa. (It's possible to export the SQLite databse to HTML readable by older browsers, and import older bookmarks.html files into more recent browsers, but it's a whole different can of worms.

It's probably better to use separate profile directories, and doing so is fairly simple.

FF and SM include a Profile Manager that can create, manipulate, and remove profiles. To get to it, start the application as

Code: Select all

<program> -P

This will display a box that lists profiles the program knows about. From here, you can select a profile, or click the button that says Manage Profiles.

From the Manage screen, you can create a new profile, rename an existing one, or delete a profile. (You can choose the delete the profile entry from the list the product looks at but leave the directory it points to, or delete the profile entry and the directory is points to and the files in it.)

When you choose the Create Profile function, you are asked for a name to give the profile, which defaults to Default User. You can also use Choose Folder to specify where you want the profile to be created. In SeaMonkey, for instance, the default is /root/.mozilla/<something>.Default-User, but you can specify a different location. The name of the profile directory will match what you specified as the profile name.

Doing this makes in convenient to have separate profiles for each product, and more than one profile for the same product. (On Windows, for instance, I have a "production" profile for Firefox 3.6, and another customized for development, which loads a different set of add-ons.)

You can select which profile to use from the Profile Manager, or you can do so by specifying the profile you want to use on the command line, like

Code: Select all

seamonkey -P myprofile

I have custom shortcuts on Windows where the shortcut property specifies the profile. You can do something similar on Linux.

Obviously, doing this breaks some sharing between apps. What you do depends on what you want to share.

Bookmarks are easy between compatible versions. In SM 1.1X and FF2, there's a reference you can set to specify the bookmarks file you want to use. In FF 3+/SM 2, that poreference is no longer available, but you can create a hard link of the desired bookmarks file into the new profile directory. (If versions are not compatible, like trying to share between two products, one of which uses bookmarks,html and the other uses places.sqlite, it's possible but trickier. I'll discuss that in another post if you want to know.)

You probably don't want to share add-ons, because of version issues. Better to install desired add-ons separately into each product.

I believe can share the cache, but this is done from within the program, by specifying where you want the cache put. You can go into abouit:config in the product, and create a preference called browser.disk.cache.parent_directory, and set the value of the preference to where you want the cache to be. I'm experimenting with putting the cache into /dev/shm, the Linux tmpfs file system. Stuff there is in buffers in RAM or in swap, and never hits the hard drive. (It also goes away on reboot, but I don't care.)
______
Dennis

[DaveS]

Dennis, thanks for this, I know it takes a long time to put together a post like that. Loads to think about..............

[DMcCunney]

Dennis, thanks for this, I know it takes a long time to put together a post like that. Loads to think about..............

It actually didn't take that long. The limitation was on how fast I can type. I've been dealing with Mozilla products since the Netscape 6 days (yes, there was one, which should never have been let out the door...), and know a fair bit about them.

What you saw was a quick "off the top of my head" post on the issues involved. The big point is that you can create profiles and specify where they are located, which provides enormous flexibility in how you use the products. (Lots of folks using Mozilla products seem unaware of the existence and use of the Choose Folder function of Create Profile.)

Feel free to ask questions if you decide to play with any of what I mentioned.
______
Dennis

[trio]

no I mean ONE folder of seamonkey2 for all frugal puppies or One Firefox for all frugal puppies, you don't need to have firefox or seamonkey2 in each pupsave. That's what I mean.

Daves, I use this method all the time, I don't think I see a problem

[DMcCunney]

no I mean ONE folder of seamonkey2 for all frugal puppies or One Firefox for all frugal puppies, you don't need to have firefox or seamonkey2 in each pupsave. That's what I mean.

Okay, that makes more sense. The pupsave file should be for personal data that changes. If you will use an appliaction across pupsaves, there's no reason for it to actually live in the pupsave. It can live somewhere else and be available whichever pupsave you've loaded.

Daves, I use this method all the time, I don't think I see a problem

As you just stated it, I don't either.
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Dennis

[ttuuxxx]

Usually I toss Seamonkey into /usr/lib and Firefox in /lib 2 different locations. Firefox in /lib will use the same flash as seamonkey in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
ttuuxxx
Ps offical puppy did have Opera, Firefox , Mozilla versions way back, like series 1,2 for a very short time.
http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/vintage ... irefox.iso
http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/vintage ... irefox.iso
http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/vintage ... irefox.iso
http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/vintage ... ozilla.iso
http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/vintage ... -opera.iso
ttuuxxx

[aarf]

have portable opera10.10.that is designed to work outside the pupsave as well. have been using it exclusively now for sometime. direct link to portable opera customised
main problem is not being able to click a downloaded/saved opera.mht file and have it open in opera. discussion at link above.

also separately corrupt the bookmarks file on a infrequent but significant number of times and that then locks up the partition that opera is on into read-only mode. it will stay in read only mode until i delete the corrupted bookmarks file and then import from backup on reboot. this read-only problem occurs most frequently in dpup484 and quirky, not so often much in upup or 431.
would be nice if someone with some knowledge in these areas could look at these problems. you may then also switch to opera in preference too:)

[don922]

no I mean ONE folder of seamonkey2 for all frugal puppies or One Firefox for all frugal puppies, you don't need to have firefox or seamonkey2 in each pupsave. That's what I mean.

Okay, that makes more sense. The pupsave file should be for personal data that changes. If you will use an appliaction across pupsaves, there's no reason for it to actually live in the pupsave. It can live somewhere else and be available whichever pupsave you've loaded.

Daves, I use this method all the time, I don't think I see a problem

As you just stated it, I don't either.
______
Dennis

In Puppy 4.12 I have installed FirePup which is based on Firefox 1.5.0.12. When I installed this browser it killed SeaMonkey 1.1.11 which is included in Puppy 4.12.

When you speak of one folder for Firefox and one folder for SeaMonkey outside of the pupsave area (in a different partition) what folders are you referring to? Both of these browsers have folders and files in several directories, ie, /root, /usr/lib, /usr/bin, and others.

[trio]

don922

If you download seamonkey 2.xx or firefox in tar.gz form when you extract it, it will only be 1 folder

[nooby]

Wow, I want to learn how to do this too.

From the comments it seems most all timers do get how you set it up but as the perennial newbie I read all the words but feel very unsure how you did it.

When you activate this Firefox in a one of your puppies, when you use it actively, why doesn't it get saved as part of the savefile?

I have a Firefox pet outside of the savefile area but as soon as I make use of it then it get included in the savefile.

[Béèm]

don922

If you download seamonkey 2.xx or firefox in tar.gz form when you extract it, it will only be 1 folder

Correct. I have done this for SeaMonkey 2.0.3
I made a desktop file for SeaMonkey 2.0.3 and it's now in the menu as well.
So no need to create a desktop icon for it.
And if needed I changed the defaultbrowser script as well, so SeaMonkey 2.0.3 is used as default browser.

[don922]

I want to install FirePup-0.04.3.1.pet in hdb6 as a tar.gz. I would I do the following:

Code: Select all

#pet2tgz /mnt/hdb6/FirePup-0.04.3.1.pet

#tar -zxvf /mnt/hdb6/FirePup-0.04.3.1.tar.gz

this would result in "one FirePup folder" in hdb6.

Edit: FirePup was the default browser so I edited /usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser with the following lines:

Code: Select all

!/bin/sh
##  this is the original entry
#exec /usr/lib/FirePupv4/firefox "$@"
 
##  this is a test 
exec /mnt/hdb6/FirePup-0.04.3.1/usr/lib/FirePupv4/firefox "$@"

Nothing else was changed on the desktop.

[nooby]

Don't we need an easy to follow description that even a newbie can follow because this is a good thing told.

As I have now. 15 puppies and I have to install Firefox 3.6 pet into all of them and the pupsave file have then 15 copies of it.

But if one can do as described here then one need only one Firefox that each puppy one test can use without having to save it in the save file?

But the description is way above my current knowledge and know how.

[don922]

@nooby

But the description is way above my current knowledge and know how.

After reading several of your posts most of which are silly!

Why do you show off your ignorance and substandard english skills by posting?

[nooby]

Because it can help others that even fail to write and get thing on my level and them would never even know how to ask these questions.

So I trust that even if I am annoying basically what I do is something that do help others.

I trust you doubt that to be so.

could you maybe describe how one does it so a newbie understand it instead of caring about me then.