Google Chrome 64-bit packages - [CLOSED]

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Mike Walsh
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#286 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ Phil:-

You'll find a link for Chrome 73 on the other thread. Hope it's useful.


Mike. :wink:

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#287 Post by Mike Walsh »

Evening, fellow Puppians.....

The current stable version of Chrome - Google_Chrome-77.0.3865.75-amd64 - is now available for download, from the regular location as referenced in post #1.

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

Changes and updates in this release are as explained HERE, on the regular Chrome blog page.

A total of 52 security 'fixes' have been addressed with this release.....1 'Critical', and 8 with the 'High Severity' tag.

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

The glib-compile-schemas compile command now auto-runs at boot time. Downloads/uploads, therefore, work as they should.

The 'Spot2Root' file permissions changer has also been updated, and has been re-written to remove the need for the intermediate 'Spot2Root' directory in /usr/share.

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

1 item that I feel bears mentioning, for the paranoid amongst you. With the next release ( Chrome 78 ) through to Chrome 80, Google will be trialling a new feature, called 'Keep-awake'. Now, this sounds a bit drastic, given that it will give websites the ability to over-ride your screensaver, monitor settings, etc, and thus keep the screen 'active' for as long as they like. Google's explanation for this is that it gives web activities that take a long time to complete - complex calculations, on-line video-editors, lengthy uploads/downloads, etc - the ability to keep your focus on what's going on.

The downside to all this is that 'shady' websites may decide not to relinquish the 'WakeLock' API when requested to do so. And 'cryptocurrency miners' will, in all likelihood, see this as the perfect opportunity to keep things going for as long as possible. Wholesome stuff like that!

Google say that this is only a trial period, to see what feedback from app/extension developers is like, and whether there is in fact any real call for it. Interestingly, the code that enables all this has been available for at least 18 months.....

Watch this space. I'll try and keep you all updated on this thing's progress (or otherwise).

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

Credits (as usual) :-

battleshooter - for help with the self-contained NSS libs'n'stuff several releases back.
belham2 - for cobbling together the 'launch' script that is now employed.
And further back, 01Micko (the 'Chief Puppian'), and iguleder - both of whom have indirectly helped keep this thread going for as long as it has, with references & links.

Thanks must also go to OscarTalks and peebee, for suggestions and assistance over the last couple of years.

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

Any problems, or other little 'niggles', this is the place to post 'em. You know where I am!

Have fun.


Mike. :wink:

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New release - 78.0.3904.70-amd64

#288 Post by Mike Walsh »

Now then, boys'n'girls:-

The current stable version of Chrome - Google_Chrome-78.0.3904.70-amd64 - is now available for download, from the regular location as referenced in post #1.

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

Changes and updates in this release are as explained HERE, on the regular Chrome blog page.

A total of 37 security 'fixes' have been addressed with this release.....3 with the 'High Severity' tag.

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

The glib-compile-schemas compile command now auto-runs at boot time. Downloads/uploads, therefore, work as they should.

The 'Spot2Root' file permissions changer has also been updated, and has been re-written to remove the need for the intermediate 'Spot2Root' directory in /usr/share.

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

With this release ( Chrome 78 ) through to Chrome 80, Google are trialling a new feature, called 'Keep-awake'. This will give websites the ability to over-ride your screensaver, monitor settings, etc, and thus keep the screen 'active' for as long as they like. Google's explanation for this is that it gives web activities that take a long time to complete - complex calculations, on-line video-editors, lengthy uploads/downloads, etc - the ability to keep your focus on what's going on.

Google say that this is only a trial period, to see what feedback from app/extension developers is like, and whether there is in fact any real call for it. Interestingly, the code that enables all this has been available for at least 18 months.....

I'll try and keep you all updated on this thing's progress (or otherwise).

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

Credits (as usual) :-

battleshooter - for help with the self-contained NSS libs'n'stuff several releases back.
belham2 - for cobbling together the 'launch' script that is now employed.
And further back, 01Micko (the 'Chief Puppian'), and iguleder - both of whom have indirectly helped keep this thread going for as long as it has, with references & links.

Thanks must also go to OscarTalks and peebee, for suggestions and assistance over the last couple of years.

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

Any 'issues', or feedback, or whatever, drop me a line here. We'll see what we can do.

Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:

belham2
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#289 Post by belham2 »

Hi ya, Mike!

Hey, I've got two questions, and if I overlooked this then please forgive these old eyes.


[Background]
Netflix went and recently axed "officially recognizing" my Chrome (version 64), a version that you had made (and I helped with the script) a few years back.

I had stubbornly refused to change/update this Chrome since it ran so well and its only job was to run Netflix. No web-surfing whatsoever. But, alas, I open it now, and Netflix informs me:

"Sorry, chap, you are sh#t out of luck as this browser version is no longer supported".

Well, I've been running this Chrome on an old 2004 Compaq Presario Pentium-dual core laptop loaded with Xenialpup64. Even just starting this laptop up, with nothing loaded into Xenailpup64 except what Phil originlly put stock into it, this poor ole' Pentium chip---despite 4GB ram----barely keeps up. I threw a newer and more fat (read: bloated) Chrome browser on there to continue to use it only to watch Netflix, and now the laptop is really struggling, often stuttering in the middle of a Netflix show.


So, sigh, my questions are thus:

1) Is there any way for us to watch Netflix in a 32-bit pup, especially say something like Racy and/or Precise? If so, my problems would be solved as this laptop still loves Racy & Precise, even loves Radky's 32-bit creations.

2) I've tried all my Slacko-64bit woof builds, which don't seem to run to well on this laptop (driver and device problems). But, that said, have you had any other luck with any old 64-bit pup OSes, that maybe are a touch leaner than the fat Pup OSes we have today, in watching Netfix on them??


Thank for any reply/help. Never realized how addicted I've become to watching documentaries and shows/movies on Netflix---that is until it all was gone. :roll:

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#290 Post by Mike Walsh »

Morning, belham2.

Um; o-kayyy..... Well, you're not going to like what I have to say - you being such a staunch Chrome man an' all - but if that lappie prefers 32-bit stuff, and you want to watch NetFlix, then there's really only one way forward. Well; possibly two.....

I'm in very much the same kind of boat as yourself. This old Compaq Presario desktop tower is 64-bit, yes.....and it's dual-core, yes. But this is extremely early 64-bit tech; first-gen Athlon64 X2, from around 15 years ago. In terms of instruction sets. etc, an Atom would run rings around it, so; 32-bit Pups just seem to fly on here, where the 64-bitzers are , shall we say, sedate (in terms of performance).

I keep Xenialpup64 on here myself, more or less solely for putting the Chrome packages together. I don't think so many people download 'em any more, 'cos Phil and peebee have now got apps in place that allow the user to download the latest Chrome and run it correctly, without all those permissions problems. But, until I hear otherwise, I'll keep on building them. I don't like to let folks down....

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

Personally, I tend to use one of two browsers for NetFlix these days. Either the Iron browser - which you can get as a 32-bit release.....or Firefox; specifically, the FF68esr long-term support release.

I haven't been able to get NetFlix running in anything newer than v69; from that point onwards, SRWare must have made some coding changes. Despite putting everything in exactly the same place, NetFlix insists it can't 'see' the Widevine modules. Apparently, the Widevine stuff now has to be updated via an internal browser process; and, in Puppy at least, that process simply doesn't show up anywhere, so you can't follow the 'recommended update procedure'. It doesn't function. Period.

Which leaves, I'm afraid, Firefox. :shock: Although I don't mind either using, or recommending it these days. Quantum is finally what FF could have been years ago, if it weren't for all the back-stabbing and in-fighting in the Mozilla camp. They've finally pulled their fingers out, and produced a browser that's easily the equal of Chrome at long last. I've got so I no longer care which of the 'big two' I use for watching NetFlix these days; both are equally as good.

(I'd prefer to be able to watch it in Palemoon, but according to the current compiler, New Tobin Paradigm, on the Palemoon Forums, that isn't even a remote possibility. They switched to using the UXP build-system for Palemoon from v28 onwards, and DRM simply doesn't even figure in the mix with that.)

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

So; for you, I'm going to recommend trying Radky's DPup 'Stretch' 7.5 for the OS, and my 'portable' FF68esr package for NetFlix. It works on ye elderly Dell lappie - well, sort of! :lol: Stretch runs sweetly, but that old Pentium 4 really struggles with DRM-encoded stuff, which, frankly, doesn't surprise me. Despite Intel stating that the P4s were built to be 'multimedia-ready', they've always been crap at it. I can watch YouTube vids with the GTK-YouTube Viewer - just about! - and if I need a fix of NetFlix, I retire to my room & fire up the big Compaq.

You know where to find the 'Stretch' thread, I expect. You can find my FF68esr 'portable' here:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fW0VU2 ... sp=sharing

D/l; unzip it. Put the resulting 'firefox32' directory anywhere you like. Fire it up using the 'ff' script inside; you can drag this to the desktop & tart it up with an icon if you want.

First run creates the 'profile' sub-directory inside the main 'firefox32' one, and writes the profile to it. Second and subsequent runs will always use this profile, so long as you fire it up with the script.

Credit goes to Fred for the inspiration for FF68esr-portable.

For NetFlix, go into 'Preferences', and ensure the check-box is ticked for 'Enable watching DRM content'. As soon as you tick that box, FF fetches and installs the newest Widevine components. Next time you fire the browser up, it's all set to go. Honest!

Sorry to recommend FF for this, but I too have had to swallow my pride! I always used to be a staunch FF user, but around 2008, when Chrome was first released, FF was having all sorts of memory-related and crashing issues. It gave Chrome the break it needed, I guess. I used Chrome happily for years, but they've been pissing around with it so much this last 24 months or so that I'm getting rather cheesed off with it all. And it's not as if there aren't other 'solutions' around for NetFlix now.

Let me know if that works for ya, please.


Mike. :wink:

belham2
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#291 Post by belham2 »

Hi again, Mike.

Thank you for your post. I was thinking Radky all the way, just wasn't sure which browser until your post. Will download it and give it a go, hopefully, sometime this week.

What I did all morning, on this old Compaq 2005 Pentium laptop with Xenialpup64 loaded, was this:

1) Put phil's Bionicpup64 in a frugal folder beside the Xenialpup64 folder.

2) deleted in Bionic folder the vmlinuz and zdrv.sfs, then copied over Xenial's vmlinuz and zdrv.sfs. Bionicpup comes with kernel 4.19.23, and doing this swap backpedals everything to xenial's kernel of 4.9.15 (which thus allows everything on the laptop, from it crappy, finicky brcm wireless to other things). I realize it's not considered prudent or safe, but as mentioned in previous message, I only want to watch Netflix.

3) I then used Phil's excellent "QuickPet" and installed whatever Chrome version it brought back. After it installed, I realized it was Chrome version 70-something. Hmm, not good.

4) Next grabbed four files from Xenial's chrome (chrome-sandbox, default-app-block, google-chrome and google-chrome1), and inside Bionic's /opt/google/chrome folder deleted these same four files.

5) I then took those copied 4 chrome files from Xenial, stuck them in Bionic's /opt/google/chrome folder and voila'. Now I have the latest chrome, 78.0.3904.97 64-bit, running-in-spot mode.....and it is playing Netflix, over wifi, pretty much like what used to occur in Xenial with the old, Netflix-now-deprecated chrome 64. I just watched 15 mins of one of Sir David's animal documentaries, which had a lot of animal and scene changes, and this latest chrome & laptop acquitted themselves well.


So overall, I am content for the monent.

When I first posted today, about that old version of Chrome (64-ish, I think) that was sunk by Netflix the other day, I was afraid I couldn't get any new versions to run. And I did try, dumbly downloading the latest chrome version only to end up cussing at myself why it would not start. Then I remembered, oh yeah, we Puppians have to go through some hoops to get Chrome to start & run.

Still, sometime this week if I get more time, on this old Presario laptop I want to give Radky's latest Dpup-Stretch a go (will probably have to build/make by brcm wl.ko driver, as usual). Specifically I want to give your 32bit-Firefox a whirl and see how Netflix runs in 32-bit (I have frequently,over past year, used Firefox to watch Netflix on other, bigger Linux OS systems I have, but I always thought 32-bit was verboten by Netflix. Glad to know that it isn't.

When I run Radky's OS (using Palemoon mostly) on two other old systems (a hand-me-down laptop and, believe it or not, another Compaq Presario Athlon Regor system from ~2003 that is a mid-tower desktop), the latest Dpup-Stretch just moves nicely. Plus, it is stable as a rock.

Will let you know when I test Radky and your 32-bit firefox-portable.

Again, much thanks for your post.

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#292 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ belham2:-

I dunno so much about 'your old eyes'; I think 'my old brain-cells' could do with a shake-up!

It's just registered that you mentioned Racy and/or Precise....

I'm posting from FF68esr in Precise 571 right this minute! Over a standard Precise install, you need a few mods; specifically

1) The GTK 3.0 stuff
2) A newer libdbus (from Wheezy), that watchdog dug up when I was trying to get TBird 60 running on here last year, and
3) A couple of deps, with sym-links, setting-up in /lib.

But I can supply all those for you. The 'apulse' stuff is built-in to the browser package, so sound works 'OOTB'.

Racy, umm.....it's a bit more 'problematic', TBH. I have both Iron69 and FF68esr running there, but NOT 'natively'. They're running as chrooted items in a Tahrpup 'jail', inspiration for which, again, came from watchdog. I got the idea when he came up with a chrooted Palemoon using a Precise 'jail' for Darry's recent re-work of 431 (4.3.11 - the 'Phoenix' :lol:)

I've thus even got Iron69 running in 4.3.11, too..... :D

BUT (and it's a big but) neither will recognise the Widevine components, even though they're exactly where they should be, and everything is set-up correctly. Flash items play fine, but DRM appears to be a no-no, for some strange reason. I haven't figured it out, yet, although I keep plugging away at it.....

But, er, yeah; Precise 571 is certainly viable, as far as FF68esr & NetFlix are concerned. Just thought I'd better mention it.


Mike. :wink:

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#293 Post by Mike Walsh »

Evening, everybody.

Some information for you all:-

I'm sorry to have to say, boys & girls, that we've reached the "end of an era". I will no longer be producing builds of Google-Chrome. :o

Chrome has been getting more & more problematical to make it run 'cleanly' in Puppy.....and Big Brother has been going out of his way to make it so you can only run it as a 'normal user' (in the interests of 'security').

As you probably know, I've recently managed, with the help of a few others (most recently, seaside - just this last 24 hours, in fact), to finally put together a totally 'portable' build of the current, Blink-based Opera browser. I first looked at this around a year ago; I always liked the way it looked & run, but there were a few niggling items that put me off it.

WideVine wouldn't function.

NetFlix is kind of a prerequisite for me; any browser that can't play NetFlix won't, I'm sorry to say, 'cut it' with me any longer. Palemoon is the one exception; although the Moonchild Productions team have no intentions of ever adding WideVine support, I still like it as a fast, lightweight browser for older hardware.

The WideVine 'issue' has finally been laid to rest, as far as Opera is concerned. It's now my main, 'go-to-browser' in the 64-bit Pups, and has replaced Chrome for me. Plus, it will run as root.....for now.....and has tons of really neat little features built-in (like the 'Turbo' thing, and the built-in VPN, to name just a couple.)

With Chrome having moved WideVine into a sub-directory, and apparently having re-coded the browser (with proprietary coding, natch) to look for it there, I, at least, can no longer make Puppy even 'see' it. So, no NetFlix.....which was always one of Chrome's main claims to fame.

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

There's a limit to the number of 'projects' any individual can maintain.....and Chrome no longer has any attraction for me. If anyone else wants to take up the mantle, by all means feel free; I have no problem with that.

I just wanted to let y'all know what was happening. I didn't want to leave the thread just dangling in tatters, blowing in the wind.....like so many do, when interest has waned.

Sorry for any inconvenience, guys.


Mike. :wink:

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#294 Post by s243a »

Mike Walsh wrote: WideVine wouldn't function.

NetFlix is kind of a prerequisite for me; any browser that can't play NetFlix won't, I'm sorry to say, 'cut it' with me any longer. Palemoon is the one exception; although the Moonchild Productions team have no intentions of ever adding WideVine support, I still like it as a fast, lightweight browser for older hardware.

The WideVine 'issue' has finally been laid to rest, as far as Opera is concerned. It's now my main, 'go-to-browser' in the 64-bit Pups, and has replaced Chrome for me. Plus, it will run as root.....for now.....and has tons of really neat little features built-in (like the 'Turbo' thing, and the built-in VPN, to name just a couple.)

With Chrome having moved WideVine into a sub-directory, and apparently having re-coded the browser (with proprietary coding, natch) to look for it there, I, at least, can no longer make Puppy even 'see' it. So, no NetFlix.....which was always one of Chrome's main claims to fame.
Chrome is still useful without WideVine but maybe we could do some kind of chroot script to make chrome think that WideVine is in the correct folder.
Find me on [url=https://www.minds.com/ns_tidder]minds[/url] and on [url=https://www.pearltrees.com/s243a/puppy-linux/id12399810]pearltrees[/url].

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#295 Post by 01101001b »

Very good reasons, I must say.

Thank you for your generous efforts, this explanation and Opera-portable! :-)

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Closed > Not Forgotten > Updated ?

#296 Post by mikeslr »

Mike Walsh's last build was @ 78. He has since moved on to building and publishing Portables of Google-Chrome and other Chromium Clones. These are really great. But I missed the non-portable format because as far as I can tell none of the "Chromium" portables actually honor the 'spot' restriction. Running as spot the user is not able to access folders other than those having Spot's permissions. If a user can access other folders, theoretically so can a hacker. Mike's Google-Chrome 78 did preserve that limitation: Mike included a permission changer with a launcher on the task-bar so that you, the user, could move files into and out of Spot's folder.

Most of my time on the web is spent here or on other trusted cites. But occasionally I'll run and follow-up a search to sites I don't recognize. On those occasions I prefer not to take chances.

Perhaps inspired by ndujoe1, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 62#1056162, which I recalled reading after I did the following, I think I've managed to update 78 to 81 more or less in the same manner as I've updated wine-portable: basically replacing files/folders which doesn't actually require that I internalize all the knowledge Mike Walsh had to in order to publish 78 and its predecessors.

Recipe:
(1) Right-Click an empty space and select New>Folder to create a Google_Chrome_81-amd64 folder.
(2) Left-Click the Google-Chrome_78.0.3904.70-amd64.sfs and select "view contents". Copy all the contents from the window which opened into the above folder. File-browse into /.../home/spot/google/chrome. LEAVE THAT WINDOW OPEN.
(3) Download Google-Chrome 81 stable deb from https://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/g ... ome-stable.
(4) Right-Click and select UExtract the deb. File-browse into the Extracted folder .../opt/google/chrome. Maneuver the two windows so that you can compare their content.
(5) Delete from the .../spot/google/chrome folder any file or folder having a name matching the contents of the ...Extracted... /opt/google/chrome folder.
(6) Copy the contents of the Extracted.../opt/google/chrome folder into the .../spot/.../chrome folder.
(7) File browse into the ...Google_Chrome_81-amd64.../usr/share/applications/ folder and Right-Click the google-chrome.desktop file. Select open with geany or text-editor.
(8) Edit "Exec=/home/spot/chrome.sh" to read "Exec=run-as-spot /home/spot/chrome.sh". Save the change.
(9) File browse up so that you can see the Google_Chrome_81-amd64 folder as a folder. Right-Click an empty space and select Window>Terminal Here.
(10) Type in the terminal "dir2sfs Google_Chrome_81-amd64" without the quotes.

In time you should have a Google_Chrome_81-amd64.sfs. As far as I can tell, it is fully functional except to the extent that you didn't want it to be.

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#297 Post by Mike Walsh »

Ah, nice one, Mike. Full marks, mate..!

I have no issues with anyone who would like to 'take up the mantle' and maintain the 'full' packages of Chrome. Feel free..!

I just happen to think that portable-browsers suit Puppy's operating model so much better, that's all. And they make sharing a common browser install between multiple Puppies a whole lot easier, too. No offence to anyone that thinks otherwise.....merely my humble opinion, FWIW.


Mike. :wink:

fernan
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#298 Post by fernan »

Hello. Downloaded the last AMD64 sfs today, and I'm getting this error in bionicpup 64
root# /home/spot/chrome.sh
/home/spot/google/chrome/google-chrome: line 44: syntax error near unexpected token `>'
/home/spot/google/chrome/google-chrome: line 44: `exec > >(exec cat)'
This same SFS works fine in another hardware.

Any ideas?? Thanks !

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