Firedog 1.2 - a smarter, faster, more stylish browser suite

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whatshisname · #81 Post by **whatshisname** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 02:27

A fan boy post here!

I love puppy and have been *trying* to use it and promote it *but* all of the browsers on it are just buggy as hell on my Dell Inspiron 2600 laptop with 128 megs of ram.

Many of my problems went away when I discovered you just absolutely have to have a swap partition when using Puppy. Why that isn't a defacto part of the installation, I don't know. But without it, I could only browse for 5 or 10 minutes before the browser, any browser, would freeze and if I could get to the console, I'd have to kill it. Otherwise it was power down and reboot.

But even after that, I experienced all kinds of strange behavior browsing using Puppy. Moving the cursor to the left would traverse the history back 3 or 4 pages. Frequent browser crashes still. Browser freezing going into "Preferences", and on and on and on.

Finally, I tried Firedog. I'm 1 hour into my first use of it and *none* of the aforementioned problems have popped up on me. I'm truly thankful because I've been trying and trying for well over a year to get here -- a bug-proof browsing experience.

I've yet to try Puppy on any other hardware so I can only hope that my previous experience has to do with this old laptop.

Firedog is great! If you're having the kinds of problems I had, then give this "puppy" a try!

Thank you, sc0ttman!

Youdaman!

omskates · #82 Post by **omskates** » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 03:44

have to have a swap partition when using Puppy

Is your puppy version larger than the RAM space? If yes then, yeah, you need a swap partition of some kind to prevent those delays. Otherwise if puppy is able to load itself entirely into RAM, you don't have to have swap. If you have someone that wants to try it out and has sufficient RAM then it will run from RAM and never touch the HDD by selecting "Don't Save" at shutdown.
Cheers

sinc · #83 Post by **sinc** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 03:34

sc0ttman,

haven't you made a few more changes to firedog? don't you have a version 1.3.

if so i would love if you updated this thread so I could get it. i am playing around (learning) trying to make a puplet and I would love to use firedog in it. but i want to make sure i get any of the other tweaks you have made.

thanks

sc0ttman · #84 Post by **sc0ttman** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 06:38

sinc wrote:sc0ttman,

haven't you made a few more changes to firedog? don't you have a version 1.3.

if so i would love if you updated this thread so I could get it. i am playing around (learning) trying to make a puplet and I would love to use firedog in it. but i want to make sure i get any of the other tweaks you have made.

thanks

I currently don't have an official Firedog 1.3, but have added customised Firedogs to some puplets I made... However, all the changes were VERY minor (re-organising bookmarks etc) and can't really be called a 1.3.. I did indeed post somewhere about a 1.3, but it was actually a typo!!

On my usual Puppy install, I'm still rocking Firedog 1.2 - but I think 1.3 will be the same, but will also include:

- Updated bookmarks, inc lots of 'Translate to..' buttons... (Added from here)
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/232 (show/hide images)
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9923 (translator)
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14815 (google any to english)
- updated search icon for puppy search, if I can! (suggested by sinc himself)
These are mostly very small and should not slow down Firedog at all..

I'm still looking for a lightweight Keyboard-Shortcut addon, as SiteLauncher may be a little large, considering a lot of people want to use the mouse.. (not me!)

I also want FirePups shortcut to the Puppy IRC channel in there.. But I'm using Firedog, so can't get to the link.. Anyone wanna post it on here??? Please?

Other people should post cool ideas about Firedog 1.3, because as yet, it's not made.. Sorry sinc!

sc0ttman · #85 Post by **sc0ttman** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 06:39

Hey, omskates, did you get Firedog and FirePup all cleaned up and installed OK? Hope so!

sc0ttman · #86 Post by **sc0ttman** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 06:43

whatshisname wrote:I tried Firedog. I'm 1 hour into my first use of it and *none* of the aforementioned problems have popped up on me. I'm truly thankful... Firedog is great! If you're having the kinds of problems I had, then give this "puppy" a try!

Thank you, sc0ttman!

Youdaman!

Most welcome! I noticed a few people in other threads saying that Firedog is crap, buggy, very slow and didn't work etc...

I tried it on various installs and systems, always installed and ran fine, without problems.. So I'm glad I am not the only one!!!

Thanks for the kind words, it is very much appreciated, so I know I'm not wasting my time!!

omskates · #87 Post by **omskates** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 11:22

sc0ttman wrote:Hey, omskates, did you get Firedog and FirePup all cleaned up and installed OK? Hope so!

Wow, thanks for thinking of me

FireDog is in my menu but won't execute. Maybe I removed too much prior to the install. My /root/local/share/trash/files shows .mozilla FirePupv4 mozilla(has plugins) and the document "FirePup v0.04".

PetGet reported a whole bunch of missing libs but there is the file in place /usr/lib/firefox with libs inside. Maybe I'm missing a symlink somewhere?

/root/usr/bin has firefox but won't execute
/root/usr/share/applications has Firedog-browser suite and text has the right Exec path /usr/bin/firefox

sc0ttman · #88 Post by **sc0ttman** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 14:41

omskates wrote: FireDog is in my menu but won't execute. Maybe I removed too much prior to the install. My /root/local/share/trash/files shows .mozilla FirePupv4 mozilla(has plugins) and the document "FirePup v0.04".

PetGet reported a whole bunch of missing libs but there is the file in place /usr/lib/firefox with libs inside. Maybe I'm missing a symlink somewhere?

/root/usr/bin has firefox but won't execute
/root/usr/share/applications has Firedog-browser suite and text has the right Exec path /usr/bin/firefox

Yeah, sounds messy..

Well, I can firstly state the obvious, and you probably don't need me to tell you this, but you can always totally delete the firefox, seamonkey and mozilla folders.. Then re-install Firedog.

DETAILED INSTALL:

I removed the following before installing firedog:

/usr/lib/seamonkey-1.1.8
/root/.mozilla

then i installed firedog, which added the following

/usr/lib/firefox/
/usr/bin/firefox
/root/.mozilla
/root/.macromedia

I also have 2 symlinks, '/usr/lib/seamonkey' and '/usr/lib/seamonkey-1.1.8' that both point to '/usr/lib/firefox'

The version of SeaMonkey stated may be different on yours, change as needed!

I also have a '/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/' folder, which contains essential libs for gxine, as well as the Flash lib..

Hope this helps!

Aitch · #89 Post by **Aitch** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 18:26

sc0ttman

just a heads up...I posted a link here referring to Firedog

seems ITAMember has gone the chrome route too, see further down thread

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 192#359192

Aitch

sinc · #90 Post by **sinc** » Thu 12 Nov 2009, 23:46

sc0ttman, thank you sir for your response. I am enjoying firedog very much. One other question. Is it possible to make fire.fm work? I would add the play controls to the status bar if possible.

there are a lot of people that ask about steamtuner and streamripper if fire.fm won't work is there some other add-on that would act like these programs?

thanks

sc0ttman · #91 Post by **sc0ttman** » Sat 14 Nov 2009, 13:49

Aitch wrote:sc0ttman

I posted a link here referring to Firedog.. seems ITAMember has gone the chrome route too, see further down thread

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 192#359192

Aitch

Yeah, more choice is good. I can't think it's as stable as any FF or SM build, but if it's quick, some will love it..

@sinc - I never listen to radio, it drives me crazy - other people choosing the songs!! Aaarrh!

But I will get back to you, if no one else does soon.. I know there are a few addons for radio, I'll check them all out and let you know what (IMHO) is best for Firedog.

If they're small enough, they will probably make it into 1.3

Also, anyone found a good, tiny keyboard shortcut addon yet?

sc0ttman · #92 Post by **sc0ttman** » Sat 14 Nov 2009, 16:05

@sinc and anyone else who wants radio, music etc in Firedog

I actually can't find any good radio/media player addons, they are either no good, unsupported or very, very large..

Fire.fm doesn't work, Last.fm is crap, FoxyTunes is huge, Online Media Player doesn't work, and the others were poor, too...

Any suggestions?

Aitch · #93 Post by **Aitch** » Sat 14 Nov 2009, 16:57

I just googled these up

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... eight.html

http://sourceforge.net/projects/christine/

obviously untried/tested

Also 10 best, apparently

http://www.anewmorning.com/2008/05/21/1 ... o-players/

Aitch

whatshisname · #94 Post by **whatshisname** » Sat 14 Nov 2009, 17:09

> Is your puppy version larger than the RAM space?

Evidently so. According to "free", I only have 2864 bytes free.
So that has been my problem. I was eating up all my ram.

Still, since Puppy is often used on anemic systems like the one I'm using, I think it would be helpful to mention to folks in similar situations to mine, that a swap partition is essential to a positive experience with Puppy.

I'm an experienced Linux user but always followed the default Puppy install because, well, I figured Puppy knew best! I just wish I had followed the norms of other Linux distros and created a swap partition a long time ago. I would have saved myself a world of frustration.

It's good to be happy Puppy user on this laptop ... finally.

sinc · #95 Post by **sinc** » Sun 15 Nov 2009, 03:01

aitch, can those media players be turned into add-ons in firefox or are they just separate programs? i am sorry to ask but i just truly don't know.

sinc · #96 Post by **sinc** » Sun 15 Nov 2009, 03:15

thank you sc0ttman for looking into this. i always liked fire.fm b/c i could always play the music i wanted from last.fm. its not like listening to the radio when i get to pick the cd's it is choosing from.

not to bring up multiple things at once but i came across something else that didn't work for me. i went to http://www.970wfla.com and clicked the listen live button in the upper left hand corner (they air the local american football games) and it tells me i need mplayer and am missing a plugin but it works properly from seamonkey and starts up gxine.

just an fyi.

EDIT: okay I just symlinked /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and that took care of it. can you have firedog look for plugins from /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and usr/lib/seamonkey/plugins? just checking. thanks.

Aitch · #97 Post by **Aitch** » Sun 15 Nov 2009, 22:10

sinc

Aitch wrote:obviously untried/tested

sorry, sinc, no idea....

Aitch

sc0ttman · #98 Post by **sc0ttman** » Mon 16 Nov 2009, 19:40

@Aitch I checked the apps, they are nice, but standalone - not to be used within a browser..

@sinc That football site doesn't work on mine, so I'm guessing I didn't package Firedog with the required symlinks..

So here's what I did:

- I moved all the plugins to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
- Then I add symlinks to all these plugins in /usr/lib/firefox/plugins

Just gonna test now.. If it all works, I may reconsider adding or moving a few plugins and symlinks in the next Firedog, but things vary on different setups, so I dunno...

UPDATE: I can't test it, I live outside the US, apparently.
2nd UPDATE: creating the symlinks, as described above works a treat.

omskates · #99 Post by **omskates** » Thu 19 Nov 2009, 13:01

sc0ttman wrote:UPDATE: I can't test it, I live outside the US, apparently.

_________________________________

bjoenn · #100 Post by **bjoenn** » Fri 20 Nov 2009, 11:14

hello sc0ttman!
It took me a few seconds to realize: oh no! - that's not the usually shown selection of mozilla-addons, that's what already is implementet in Firedog.. So far: great job you did!!!
My question/wish for feeling like paradise: will it be possible to adopt Weave-extension to Firedog?
This would be the "non plus ultra" (to me

! ), as one could easily sync bookmarks, passwords e.g. between different (OS's) FF's/FD's. And doing so in a secure (encrypted) manner.
By example: I'm using FF from Stick, Firedog from Puppy on Stick, mostly with old PC's at school, where one PC accepts this, another one that, and at home there are Windows PC and old ones with CryptPuppy e.g.
So, it would be an easy way of stayin' up-to-date.
Regards, bjoenn

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Firedog 1.2 - a smarter, faster, more stylish browser suite

Firedog! The best! Thank you.

Re: Firedog! The best! Thank you.

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