SlimJet 64-bit SFS packages

Browsers, email, chat, etc.
Message
Author
User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#136 Post by Mike Walsh »

Fair enough!

Let me know how you get on with it; I'm always keen to hear about any experimentation with the Chrome/Chromium browsers, as you know.

One thing I am curious about, though.....and that's why you needed to add the '--no-sandbox' switch? Slimmie should be running with almost full sandboxing anyway; the need for that 'switch' has been a necessity with the more recent 32-bit versions, but not the 64s. :?

(Mind you, I don't know the first thing about the 'Quirkies', I'll own...)

Keep me posted, please.


Mike. :wink:

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#137 Post by Mike Walsh »

*** NEW Version 15.0.3.0 now available***

Morning, all.

The current stable release, 15.0.3.0, is now available for download. These can be found at the usual location in post #2. This includes the newest version of Pepper; 26.0.0.137.

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

New stuff in this release:-

https://www.slimjet.com/en/whatisnew.php

NetFlix still working fine....... enjoy! :D

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

The previously-mentioned 'silent-launch' feature has been added to /root/Startup; if you look in /root/Startup, you'll find a new script, entitled 'silent_launch_slimjet'. What this effectively does is to launch SlimJet at boot, without 'opening' it; rather along the same lines as how modern Windoze works with hibernation and Fast Startup; it essentially holds it in 'standby-mode' until you launch from either desktop launcher or Menu entry. Upon doing so, it starts almost instantly. :)

If you don't want to make use of this, or wish to disable it, simply delete it from /root/Startup (or comment out the second line).

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

I don't anticipate any problems, but if there are, y'all know where to find me.


Mike. :wink:

orrin
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2016, 01:09
Location: sparks, NV
Contact:

#138 Post by orrin »

Mike Walsh wrote:*** NEW Version 15.0.3.0 now available***

Morning, all.

The current stable release, 15.0.3.0, is now available for download.
Hi Mike,

It seems to be OK so far... I'll let you know if I find any problems.

Thanks for your efforts!
[color=#FF0000]Engineer/Photographer/Webmaster[/color]
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/fL9MypfV/sig-image.png[/img]

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#139 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, orrin.
orrin wrote:Hi Mike,
It seems to be OK so far... I'll let you know if I find any problems.
Thanks for your efforts!
You're welcome, as always, mate.
Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:

orrin
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2016, 01:09
Location: sparks, NV
Contact:

#140 Post by orrin »

Hi Mike,

It looks as if the password save feature is broken in version 15.....

It asks to save the passwords, but does not! the password data from the previous version was wiped out.
Attachments
Screenshot.jpg
(47.92 KiB) Downloaded 294 times
Screenshot(1).jpg
(15.63 KiB) Downloaded 288 times
[color=#FF0000]Engineer/Photographer/Webmaster[/color]
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/fL9MypfV/sig-image.png[/img]

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

#141 Post by belham2 »

Hi ya, Mike!

Have a question...been using the Slimjet 15.0.0.0 sfs and grinning like a kid everytime after startup and before I can release my finger off the mouse after cllicking Slimjet it opens. These blink browser's "silent-launch" thing is pretty incredible :wink: . Have a question on your sfs though: every time it opens, it is locked where it opens. I can not increase the window size, drag it any where, or do anything. Have had it happen to me in Quirky and a few other pups. How do I get around this, so I can resize the browser window to what I prefer??

Thanks.
Attachments
slimjet.15.0.0-sfs-in-Barry's-latest-Quirky8.2.jpg
(16.82 KiB) Downloaded 263 times
Slimjet-sfs-locked-at-this-size.png
(229.38 KiB) Downloaded 267 times

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#142 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hiya, belham2.

Mm. Well, from what comes to the surface after stirring the pint of grey sludge in my skull, I came across the answer to this one recently.

If you're like me, and like as much screen 'real estate' as possible (and from the look of things, you do), then in Settings, under 'Appearance', you probably have 'Use system title bar & borders' unchecked. Apparently, to get control over re-sizing, you have to re-check this, and that hands control back to JWM, or whatever your window manager happens to be.

You should then be able to resize as usual. This is a change from the Chromium team during the last 12 months or so; you used to be able to do this without having that checkbox ticked.....'cos I remember being able to do it myself.

Change is the only constant, old son.....and it's not always for the better.

Like you, I like the 'silent-launch' switch; it's basically running in the background, but minimized.....and all you're really doing when you 'launch' it is simply maximizing it again. That's why it's so fast.....because it's already running.

There's literally hundreds of these 'switches' for controlling various aspects of the Blink engine. If you're curious, the list can be found here.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Mon 07 Aug 2017, 21:52, edited 1 time in total.

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

#143 Post by belham2 »

Mike Walsh wrote:Hiya, belham2.

Mm. Well, from what comes to the surface after stirring the pint of grey sludge in my skull, I came across the answer to this one recently.

If you're like me, and like as much screen 'real estate' as possible, then in Settings, under 'Appearance', you probably have 'Use system title bar & borders' unchecked. Apparently, to get control over re-sizing, you have to re-check this, and that hands control back to JWM, or whatever your window manager happens to be.

You should then be able to resize as usual. This is a change from the Chromium team during the last 12 months or so; you used to be able to do this without having that checkbox ticked.....'cos I remember being able to do it myself.

Change is the only constant, old son.....and it's not always for the better.


Mike. :wink:
Well I'll be hog-tied & whooped. I saw that in my clicking exploring around Slimjet and thought it couldn't possibly have anything to do with my problem, plus I sort of liked the look that way it was. Boy, someone (a recent green-behind-the-ears grad) thought real long & hard on this one, lol. One step forward, one and half back, haha.

Thanks, Mike!! Works like a charm now. Can't for the life of me understand why Firefox hasn't emulated this "silent-launch" thing? I mean, once people experience it, they like it. I mean really like it. Also, it then sort of gets on your nerves waiting those 2-4 secs for Firefox to load when going back to Mozilla. You feel sort of like the character "Data' in Star Trek Next Generation--", uh, no sir, I'm not bored. I was just re-calculating all the ship's possible orbit paths into & out of this current system while you were taking your few seconds remembering what you wanted to tell me.." :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#144 Post by Mike Walsh »

@belham2:-

I've added a bit extra to my previous post; you must have posted while I was outside, having a smoke.

You may find it interesting. The 'silent-launch' switch will work also for Chrome, Chromium itself, and Iron. AFAIK, ETP was the first to employ it in Puppy way back in early 2014, when he built the original Chromebook Pup, v.1 (which I used for nearly 2 years). He used it to emulate the wicked start-up speed of Chrome, running in a Chromebook proper.....and put that wee script together to enable it.

Most of the 'switches' are placed on the exec line of the wrapper script that launches 'em.....but that particular one will run as a 'standalone'. And to my mind, it's a cracker.....because it reminds me of why I fell in love with Chrome all those years ago. The start-up (and execution) speed of the original was a real eye-opener after FireFox, but, unfortunately, they've all turned into lumbering supertankers as the years have passed. This helps to put a little bit of the 'zing' back into it..!

The list gives you an insight into just how complex a modern browser really is.....and we all of us just take them for granted.

(*shrug*)


Mike. :wink:

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

--silent-launch option

#145 Post by belham2 »

Hi ya Mike,

Have a question that, while not directly puppy-related, refers to linux distros--specifically debian/ubuntu branch. As you know, I like very much the silent option stemsee & you made me aware of with Slimjet. It works great across the puppy-verse---even in Tahrs, Xenials and such.

But when I get up to a larger Linux distro, like Debian 9, or any variety based on it (i.e. the fantastic MX-16 and Bunsenlabs), I cannot get the "--silent-launch" feature to work. Have you ever gotten the the silent-launch feature to work outside the puppy-verse?

I have tried all sorts of mannerisms and entries, from scripts to init.rd to rc.local entries to .config/autostart entries to even creating a Startup folder (which Debian doesn't have). I've tried this all with --no-sandbox and without the --no-sandbox option in the line, even chrooting everything (script and/or folder) if necessary.....and still the doggone silent-launch for Slimjet will not work. Slimjet just starts itself like its Firefox or Chrome or whatever-----which we both know ain't no fun to a silent-launch junkie :(

So, the $69k question: how to get it to work in bigger linux OSes, because, well, it is Linux after all, so...what are my daily-diminishing brain cells missing here :?

Thanks

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#146 Post by Mike Walsh »

Now then, Master B...

Apart from 8 Puppies, the only other thing I run nowadays is AntiX 16.1. I've been running it for a couple of months now (I wanted to see what all the 'fuss' was about!)

I like it, I really do. The fact that it uses ROX helps enormously (although I've had to go back to moving stuff around via terminal; the one thing I always hated about multi-user systems. They seem designed so that you can't do the simplest thing without f***ing 'sudo' this, 'sudo' that; 'ls', 'cp', 'ln -s', rm', etc...)

Too much like hard work, learning all that crap. I may be the most 'ungeek-like' Linux user out there, but.....Pup's spoilt me, it really has! :D

Anyway; your post has reminded me that because of all the buggering about, setting AntiX up, I'd forgotten all about the silent launch thing. I only use it with Chrome; it works with Slimmie and Iron, but if you have all three set up to start that way, there's around 800 some-odd threads running before you even start doing anything. One out of the three's enough for me.

All I've done is to copy the Chrome version of 'silent-launch' across to AntiX's /etc/init.d, from within Puppy (that way, the permissions are already correct..! There's method in my madness, you know..... :lol: ) I booted into AntiX. let boot settle down, clicked on Chrome.....less than 2 seconds later, it was up-and-running.

So, /etc/init.d would appear to be the place for the script, certainly in AntiX. That being the case, it ought to apply to Debian, too, since 16.1 is based on 'Jessie'. /Etc/init.d is also the place I put an 'auto-mount' script I hacked together for Precise 5.7.1; it doesn't use the later pMount (where it's all done for you), and I've never really got on with Startmount. It seems to run once, correctly, on initial install.....then never runs properly again after that.

Food for thought?


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Sat 19 Aug 2017, 18:23, edited 1 time in total.

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

#147 Post by belham2 »

Mike Walsh wrote:
Food for thought?


Mike. :wink:

Hi again Mike,

Rejection and dejection city here. :cry: No joy in Candy Land. Tried 3 different debian-based installs (one is Debian 9 itself), and I could not get "--silent-launch" to work. Dropped the script into "/etc/init.d", made sure permissions were correct, and upon reboot: nada. Took nearly 5-7 secs for Slimjet to startup. Now here's a question, and I am wondering if it is the source of my troubles: I am using the latest slimjet downloaded from their website. Do I need instead to use & unpacked your sfs, and then load it into my Debians, because you "set" the Slimjet flags so this silent-launch would work? If so, what flag is it? I looked at all the flags in Slimjet, and could not find one specifying "activate silent-launch". Thanks again.

orrin
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2016, 01:09
Location: sparks, NV
Contact:

#148 Post by orrin »

Hi Mike,

Ignore my post about the non-working password save feature in version 15. For some strange reason, it suddenly started working!
[color=#FF0000]Engineer/Photographer/Webmaster[/color]
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/fL9MypfV/sig-image.png[/img]

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#149 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, orrin. Ah, good, good. Glad to hear it.

I'll be packaging the newest release pretty soon. For some reason, Flashpeak appear to have changed the numbering scheme; instead of 15.0.5.0 being followed by 15.0.6.0, it's now followed by 15.1.0...

Make of that what you will. It'll be ready for download in the next day or two.


Mike. :wink:

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#150 Post by Mike Walsh »

*** NEW Version 15.1.0.0 now available***

Evening, kiddiwinks.

The current stable release, 15.1.0.0, is now available for download. These can be found at the usual location in post #2. This includes the newest version of Pepper; 26.0.0.151.

(Flashpeak seem to have abandoned their usual numbering system. The last version was 15.0.5.0, so, naturally, I was expecting this to be 15.0.6.0... Instead, we have 15.1.0.0. (*shrug*) Make of it what you will. :roll: )

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

New stuff in this release:-

https://www.slimjet.com/en/whatisnew.php

NetFlix still working fine....... enjoy! :D

One interesting feature has been added to Slimmie; the ability to video-capture the contents of any given tab, and to save it as a webm video file. It's got possibilities, though at present, if you attempt to access the feature from the main Menu, the browser crashes.....instantly! I suspect there's a few bugs there need attending to.

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

The previously-mentioned 'silent-launch' feature has been added to /root/Startup; if you look in /root/Startup, you'll find a new script, entitled 'silent_launch_slimjet'. What this effectively does is to launch SlimJet at boot, without 'opening' it; rather along the same lines as how modern Windoze works with hibernation and Fast Startup; it essentially holds it in 'standby-mode' until you launch from either desktop launcher or Menu entry. Upon doing so, it starts almost instantly. :)

If you don't want to make use of this, or wish to disable it, simply delete it from /root/Startup (or comment out the second line).

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

Any problems, I'm never very far away.


Mike. :wink:

orrin
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2016, 01:09
Location: sparks, NV
Contact:

#151 Post by orrin »

Hi Mike,

Version 15.1.0.0 loads and runs OK, but your download site made me turn off the ad blocker before it would let me have the file!
[color=#FF0000]Engineer/Photographer/Webmaster[/color]
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/fL9MypfV/sig-image.png[/img]

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#152 Post by Mike Walsh »

I can't say I'm surprised, mate. Like most of these cloud-hosting sites that offer the option, I suspect MediaFire have a heck of a lot more 'free' users than they do 'paid' ones.

I guess it's a case of make a buck or two wherever they can.....and if having to view a few ads is the price for access to the download for a brilliant browser, then.....so be it!

I think I can live with that. MediaFire have been as good as gold the last 2 years for me; they even promptly sorted out a cock-up (on their end) that stopped me accessing any of my stuff for a few days, a while back.

I've got no complaints. They're OK in my book. :)


Mike. :wink:

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

#153 Post by belham2 »

Hi Mike and all,

Wanted to update about getting Slimjet (and Chrome, Iron, and all the blink browsers) working in either mini and/or full-build installs of Debian using the "silent-launch" feature (something that I am without shame addicted to now). All I can say is this: make sure you triple check when you set things up for silent-launch, if you are copying things over from Mike's SFS. :oops: You cannot imagine (or maybe you all can) how an intended space where there should be none can drive your best intentions to the funny farm :roll:

Silent-launch is now working across my Debian landscape despite myself, lol, and it is working all along with the pup watchtowers too.

Thanks again ETP & Mike!

belham2
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2016, 22:47

Slimjet and Youtube

#154 Post by belham2 »

Hi Mike,

Have a question for ya, hope it's something easy: since I finally got Slimjet installed (both using your great 64bit-sfs and also directly downloading it from Slimjet site for 32-bit)...but since I finally got it installed across my 32/64-bit puppy kennel, I am running into numerous problems with Slimjet and Youtube. Using an example from XenialPup (but the problem applies across many pups & Ddogs), it's best described by these pictures below. Are you seeing anything like this, and is there some simple fix (or maybe some setting) I am not considering? Thanks for any help/tips!
Attachments
Slimjet.png
(21.92 KiB) Downloaded 326 times
lattest-pepperflash-is-installed-slimjets-opt-folder.png
(14.37 KiB) Downloaded 330 times
pepperflash-setting-is-on-inside-slimjet.png
(38.66 KiB) Downloaded 329 times
a-lot-of-youtube-stuff-won't-play.png
(115.32 KiB) Downloaded 333 times

User avatar
Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#155 Post by Mike Walsh »

Mm. I don't think it is a 'simple fix', TBH with you.

Question; Are you having this problem with both 32- and 64-bit.....or just 32-bit?

I ask, because I've not been able to access Google, or indeed any Google-related site (and YouTube is part of Google's empire) since the release of Slimmie 14; that's when they made the switch to a Chromium 57 base. It's a big part of the reason why I switched to DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine.....and I certainly don't regret the move.

Yet the problem seems restricted to the 32-bit version only. The 64-bit version functions as you would expect.

I think this is Google being 'pushy' in their 'Big Brother' way, and attempting to speed up the switch to blanket 64-bit usage across the board. Apparently, in Windows, they're attempting to force the 64-bit upgrade on everyone, whether their systems can use it or not.....even 32-bit ones. Which strikes me as a wee bit over-zealous.

We know 64-bit is supposed to be safer, and more secure.....as well as being able to access much more up-to-date features, and a hell of a lot more RAM; necessary with all the video-streaming that occurs all the time nowadays. Those videos need processing.....and that uses even more of the stuff.

The problem is there on all Chromium-based 32-bit browsers. Iron's affected by this, too, as well as Chromium itself. And what everyone seems to forget is that Google control the Chromium Project. They sponsor it, and draw their own source code from it. Makes me laugh, all these folks who say they hate Google, and yet are happy to use Chromium. 'Oh, it's open source.....and it doesn't 'phone home' to the 'mother-ship'.....' Only because the API keys are disabled in the build.....but the design, and direction, of the browser itself is strongly influenced (read, dictated..!) by Google themselves.

And what Google have made no secret of is the fact that they believe everybody should make the switch to 64-bit computing, ASAP. They don't want you using 32-bit. Which makes it all the stranger that the Chromium Project are still developing a 32-bit version.....

At the time of the imminent release of Chromium 56, there were rumours floating around that Google wanted to become their own certificate authority. I think they've pulled a sneaky one, keeping the 'empire's' various site certificates up-to-date in the 64-bit release, while allowing those for the 32-bit browser to expire.

Just their way of giving you a 'nudge'...!! I think you're stuck with it. FlashPeak themselves can only work with the source code that they're given. I don't think there's a way to alter, or 'upgrade', the certificates.....or, if there is, then I've not found it. You're supposed to be able to add certificates to the browser yourself, but you'd have to find a way to not only use the 64-bit certs in the 32-bit browser, but also find a way to fool Google's servers into thinking that you are, in fact, running 64-bit hardware..... This is why I always keep a copy of Chrome 48.0.2564.116 around; the final 'true' 32-bit release before Google pulled the plug.....because it has none of these problems. It just 'works'.

Everywhere. (Even YouTube..!)


Mike. :wink:

Post Reply