Firefox Quantum portable with apulse All-in

[fredx181]

*** Update to version 63.0.3 ***

Looks like I made a (big) mistake in previous versions.
Without realizing I had the apulse libs installed in my system (/usr/lib/apulse) and the apulse script included in the portable pointed to that.
Tested without apulse installed recently and the sound didn't work for me (when running the portable).

Big mystery for me, BTW, that there were earlier reports about sound working properly.

Oh well.. changed the portable setup now (includes "apulse" directory) and sound should work ok now.

Download links replaced at first post.

Fred

[Mike Walsh]

@ Fred:-

Interesting, this.

I've used this 'portable-ff' of yours ever since you first uploaded it, right? It's updated itself all the way through to the current 63.0.3 (which occurred this morning.)

I've never touched it. I've always allowed it do its own thing.....without any interference from yours truly. The only thing I've done to it was to import bookmarks from an HTML file when I first started using it, plus installing my usual extensions...

This same 'install' of 'Quantum-portable' is actually in a remote partition, sym-linked into most of my Pups (so that way, they're all 'singing from the same hymn-sheet', as it were.....and using the exact same profile). Looking at the 'firefox32' directory just now, I find that the very same libs that you've put in the 'apulse' directory are in fact in the main directory itself.....but I didn't put them there!

So; where d'you suppose they came from?


Mike.

[fredx181]

Hi Mike,

Okay... a bit confusing, I'll try to explain:

In the old setup, indeed, the "pulse" libs were in the main directory.
But in the "apulse" script :

Code: Select all

APULSEPATH="/usr/lib/apulse"

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$APULSEPATH${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH} exec "$@"

Which means that it's looking in /usr/lib/apulse (also it means: not portable)
If you have these libs in /usr/lib/apulse/, then sound probably works, otherwise not because these are not found.
(I earlier thought that these libs were automatically found in the main directory, but apparently not)

The change in the new setup is that in the "ff" script the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set (pointing to the ./apulse directory).
(so I moved these libs from the main directory to the apulse directory)

So the question is: If you did have sound with the old setup, did you have the pulse libs in /usr/lib/apulse ?
If so (sound works) and the libs in /usr/lib/apulse not existing, then it's still a big mystery for me.

Please (anyone?) help me out, I don't like mysteries (who does? )

Fred

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, Fred.

Mm. Okay....

Turns out I have in fact got all those pulse libs in /usr/lib. I tried so many variations on the 'apulse' theme when Mozilla first started all this business, and I'm pretty certain I didn't delete one lot before trying another.....so I have a whole 'collection' of various apulse libs now!

Now, then; what would be the easiest way to 'migrate' to the new set-up, without needing to completely re-do my profile (which would take ages)? Can I simply move the 'profile' directory to the new version, then run like that? Would that work?


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

@ Fred:-

Answered my own question. Transferred my 'profile' directory across to the new version, and fired it up from the 'ff' script. Of course, being portable, it literally will run from anywhere, won't it? I performed this experiment from a USB stick.

Radiotunes works (my main source of 'toons', day-to-day....and this site is FUSSY, believe me - if Flash and Pulse aren't just 'so', it doesn't want to know); NetFlix, too. Extensions & bookmarks (thousands of 'em!) - all present & correct. Yah; that'll do me, Fred. I'm happy with that. Excellent work, mate. Nice one.

So; I've replaced the common, 'remote' firefox32 directory with the new set-up. Job's a 'good'un'.

Cheers.


Mike.

[fredx181]

Thanks Mike,

Good to know that you had installed pulse libs already .

Conclusion:
For everyone else who didn't have it, sound couldn't work with earlier portable version.

So.. wasn't really portable (as the pulse libs couldn't be found if not installed in the system).
But with newer 63.0.3 now it is !

Fred

[Mike Walsh]

@ Fred:-

As an amusing 'aside', I thought I'd let you know your Quantum-portable is making itself useful elsewhere (apart from just Puppy).....

All my Pups live on the big Compaq's main hard drive. When I upgraded the Dell lappie's 32GB PATA/IDE SSD for a 64GB model, I 'installed' the 32 GB one into the Compaq.....and bunged AntiX on it.

After realising the portable is totally self-contained, I copied the directory into my '/home' directory in AntiX. I dragged the 'ff' script to the desktop (AntiX uses icewm/Rox by default, so I'm right at home with it!), tarted it up with an icon, and, bingo; .'portable' Quantum running happily in AntiX. Nice one.


Mike.

[fredx181]

Updated to version 64.0, added libatomic1 to extra libs (required for v64.0, updating from 63.0.3 to 64.0 isn't possible without it))
Download links replaced at first post.

Fred

[mikeslr]

Hi fred,

I'm not sure when the problem arose. Usually I boot into Xenialpup64. But have been working with Slacko 5.7.1 the last couple of days where firefox quantum is on /mnt/home; started by clicking ff. As I'm using Slacko 5.7.1 extensively I decided to import bookmarks into version 64. Tried several times, but each time firefox hung and had to be "killed". This happened on two computers.

As I still had the tar.gz for version 63, I unpacked it and again started firefox by clicking the ff script. Same result.

It doesn't matter if I try to import html file, or restore json file.

Attached are a screenshot of the Crash-Window-Notice and a print-out when firefox is started via terminal:

sh-4.2# exec /mnt/home/pup-apps/firefox59/ff "$@"

(firefox:9457): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:9506): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:9561): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:9581): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:9629): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(firefox:9457): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: Settings schema 'org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser' is not installed

ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 10082
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/minidump-analyzer: error while loading shared libraries: libatomic.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/pingsender: error while loading shared libraries: libatomic.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This WAS from firefox 64, and despite the line just above this, libatomic.so.1 is located in the extralibs folder as a symlink to libatomic.so.1.1.0 also located there.

[dancytron]

Did you try installing libatomic?

https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/libatomic1

[mikeslr]

Hi dancytron,

Thanks for the idea. I installed Mike Walsh's pet of libatomic. Still crashed. Then copied the libatomic symlink and file from extralibs folder to its parent firefox folder. I'm not sure which "eliminated that objection" but firefox still crashes when an attempt to import a bookmark file is made. However, the terminal read-out is now suggestive:

sh-4.2# exec /mnt/home/pup-apps/firefox59/ff "$@"

(firefox:13895): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:13949): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(/initrd/mnt/dev_save/pup-apps/firefox59/firefox-bin:14003): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: g_object_get_valist: object class `GtkSettings' has no property named `gtk-decoration-layout'

(firefox:13895): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: Settings schema 'org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser' is not installed Emphasis supplied.

ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 14232
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...


For the curious, the firefox folder is named firefox59 as I didn't know firefox would upgrade when I created a menu entry.

[Mike Walsh]

Hallo, Mike.

Y'know, this sounds suspiciously like the same problem we had with the Chrome packages some releases back. At one point, Chrome, too, crashed every time an attempt was made to download/upload anything.

peebee gave me a clue when he mentioned about needing this in his Chromium packages. Glib-2.0 requires the 'schemas' to be installed (the critical one here is the 'org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser.gschema.xml' file), and, more importantly, to be 'compiled' each time the browser runs. This post in the Chrome thread from Puppian mjmikulcik confirmed the 'fix', and got me pointed towards a solution...

Peter included the command in the Chromium start-up script; me, being the complete bumbler that I am, couldn't figure out how to do this with the Chrome wrapper-script, so I came up with an alternate method for doing so.

A small script has been placed into /usr/sbin, which runs the 'compile' command. (Don't ask me quite what this actually does; I'm still not clear on the mechanism. If anybody can shed some light on this mechanism, and, more importantly, what it does, I'm all ears!) That script is then sym-linked into /root/Startup to run it each time your Puppy boots. It only needs to be done once per session, and will hold for as many times as you start your browser during that session.

The appropriate 'schemas' have been placed in their own directory in /usr/share, and are 'compiled' by the script in /usr/sbin.

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

This is totally architecture-agnostic, (it's only a bunch of scripts & xml files - no binaries), and hence is designated 'noarch'. I've extracted the appropriate bits from the Chrome package, and have run up a .pet, which I attach below. It'll run in both 32-bit and 64-bit Puppies, and is 'glibc'-agnostic, too.

I'm surprised Firefox is displaying this behaviour.....but then, I've probably never noticed it, since I have Chrome installed in all Pups. Thus, the 'glib_compile' stuff is always there, lurking somewhere in the background.

Use at your own risk, of course, but I very much doubt it'll hurt anything. If this works for you, maybe Fred'll want to build it into the Quantum-portable package.

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

As for importing bookmarks, I've only had to do it once with Quantum. Fred's 'Quantum-portable' sits on my remote data partition, the whole kit & caboodle simply sym-links into each and every Pup I run, and the 'ff' script is started from a custom Menu-Entry .pet I ran up for the purpose, which is installed to each Pup at the same time. I always import manually from a bookmarks html file. I do this because, in the process, I like to create an 'Other Bookmarks' directory, preserving the layout from Chrome on the bookmarks bar. But with 'Quantum-portable', since the profile directory is all self-contained, as I said, I've only needed to do it the once.....


Mike.

[slavvo67]

Works like a charm in RU Xerus64. Will be adding it for future updates there.

Thanks!!

Slavvo67

[mikeslr]

Thanks, Mike.

Will try it out after breakfast. And, yes, the problem seemed suspiciously like the same one I stumbled over in G-C.

Maybe someone who can attract the attention of the Woof Devs might mention it as the "the fix" will be needed for all modern browsers.

After it showed up in firefox Quantum, I tried running firefox 52.7.0 esr. Same result. Can Palemoon and Seamonkey be far behind?

p.s. Back from breakfast. Worked a charm. Posting from firefox quantum having reached the Forum from a bookmark.

Thanks again, Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, all.

Works like a charm in RU Xerus64. Will be adding it for future updates there.

Thanks!!

p.s. Back from breakfast. Worked a charm. Posting from firefox quantum having reached the Forum from a bookmark.

Thanks again, Mike.

Good, good; glad to hear it's behaving as expected.

Yes, I have to agree with you, Mike. Being as how this looks like it's now going to be a 'prime suspect' for all browsers for the foreseeable future, for the couple of Kb it occupies it may as well be included in new Pups as standard from now on.....and as previously stated, it's architecture-agnostic, so can be used in either.

I think it's fair to say we all of us use either a Chromium-based or a Mozilla-based browser. I don't think there's that many other options, TBH..!

(Needless to say, it's a Gnome thing.....but even after reading this I'm still none the wiser.....)


Mike.

[fredx181]

Thanks Mike and Mike for reporting, investigating and giving solution.

I know very little about these "glib schemas", anyway updated first post with some info about the issue and a link to Mike Walsh's attached glib-2.0_schemas.pet

Probably it's not possible to include this in the portable (well... maybe , but I don't know how)

Fred

[B.K. Johnson]

I know that this is a thread about 64 bit, portable and apulse, but my success with 32 bit Quantum-64 without apulse may lead to an avenue worth exploring.

FWIW, this is the setup that works for me with Firefox-64.0 running on tahrpup-6.0.6 32 bit.

tahr-6.0.6 has pulseaudio-4.0-tahr606-i386 installed (I think out of the box).
In Startup, there is a link to apulsestart which resides in the path (I have it in /root/my-applications/bin).
apulsestart is a script that launches pulseaudio --start.

The only problem I have is that the volume needs to be increased after booting. I suspect ALSA needs to be changed. I haven't figured how to do that permanently.

[Mike Walsh]

Mm.

It would appear, from your post, that you're advocating using PulseAudio itself.....which, as I understand it, is the one thing Puppians in general are trying to avoid?

The trouble with using PulseAudio (if I have this correct) is that it adds a further layer of 'misdirection' to the proceedings. Which is why most mainstream distros, although they use it, don't, to my way of thinking, have such good sound quality. They all of them still use ALSA underneath all of this. Surely, it's better to engineer solutions that work with a more straight-forward setup, rather than try to fudge the issue further.?

I've said it before.....and I'll say it again. If we start down this 'slippery slope', we will end up, 'patch' by 'patch' by 'patch', re-writing Puppy into a clone of every other boring, mainstream distro out there.....and Pup will slowly but surely lose its unique identity.

I don't want to see that happen.. If Smokey01 & associates can manage to come up with an ultra-lightweight alternative to the now hugely bloated TeamViewer, I'm certain a permanent, long-term solution can be found that allows us to preserve the use of ALSA under all circumstances.

Just my two-penn'orth, FWIW.


Mike.

[B.K. Johnson]

It would appear, from your post, that you're advocating using PulseAudio itself.....which, as I understand it, is the one thing Puppians in general are trying to avoid?

You are wrong, Mike. I'm not advocating anything. pulseaudio came with tahrpup-6.0.6. Somewhere on this forum there was the instruction to do what I have done. As I noticed so many twists and turns about apulse, libgtk-3, mozilla:about etc. while I had no difficulty, I thought I'd share the success and invite you guys to explore.

If you can point me to the discussion(s) where Puppians discussed and generally agreed on the avoidance and reasons therefor, I'd like to read it, (just for my edification, you understand). From the stuff I remember reading, pulseaudio did not work in puppies and that sent us in search of alternate solutions.

If pulseaudio is off the table, and we are at a stage where the agreed alternative has a solid procedure, can someone please summarize. I appreciate Fred's offering, but I'd rather not be dependent on him to provide an archive when he can. No offense Fred.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, B.K. Looks like I kinda owe you an apology...

You are wrong, Mike. I'm not advocating anything. pulseaudio came with tahrpup-6.0.6.

Yup; strike one. I've just opened up 6.0.6's ISO and had a look. The PulseAudio libs are there by default.

(I was in 606 last night when I posted. I had a brief look, but I couldn't have told you what was what; when Mozilla started all this stuff with needing PulseAudio for sound, I tried so many of the alternatives that were published.....and with not always uninstalling one lot before trying summat else, there's a right collection of Pulse & apulse stuff in there! I've no idea what was original and what I'd added myself... )

If you can point me to the discussion(s) where Puppians discussed and generally agreed on the avoidance and reasons therefor, I'd like to read it, (just for my edification, you understand). From the stuff I remember reading, pulseaudio did not work in puppies and that sent us in search of alternate solutions.

Strike two. I don't believe there ever were any specific threads along those lines (though there may have been; I do 'miss' stuff!).....but overall, during the last couple of years, I just get the impression that the majority of Puppians want to avoid PulseAudio if they can. The available 'workarounds', generally speaking, make that possible. If I had to point in the direction of a solid alternative, I've always found Oscar's 'apulse' stuff to do the trick for me.

From what I can gather, it's certainly possible to use PulseAudio in Puppy, but not 'OOTB'. There's a fair bit of script-editing, sym-linking & stuff that seems to need doing, For many Puppians, it's probably fair to say it's too much hassle.

Apologies if I implied otherwise. My late-night 'diatribes' don't always make much sense the following day.....even to me!

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

You might be interested in this; I've just come across a very informative diagram that shows exactly how all the PulseAudio components interact with the rest of your average Linux system. Gawd, it looks complicated.....you can see just how much extra crap Pulse seems to add to the mix.

https://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-softw ... udio-works


Mike.