SRWare 'Iron' browser; 64-bit SFS & .pet packages

[Mike Walsh]

Hello, quirkian2new.

Yes, it's an 'odd' one. Iron these days is very closely modelled on Chrome itself.

GoogleEarth, the new version, is now on its own webpage; Google have decided they're not going to release any more desktop clients. I'm currently 'beta-testing' 64-bit Chrome 59.....and I get the same problem you have.

Using Chrome's newest browser to try and view their very own Google Earth, what do I get? 'Your system doesn't support WebGL. Please try another computer...'

I suspect it's more to do with your video card, than any failing of the combination of Puppy/Chrome/Iron...


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi again, quirkian2new.

After some research, I've discovered it is possible to enable WebGL.....but you've got to do some digging around in the guts of the thing to do so.

If you type chrome://flags into the address bar, and press 'Enter', you'll come to the 'Experiments' section.

The very first entry, 'Override Software Rendering List', needs to be set to 'Enable'. Then, scroll about 3/4 of the way down the list. You're looking for 'WebGL 2.0'. This wants to be changed from 'Default' to 'Enabled'. Then, re-start Iron. All things being equal, WebGL should now be active in Iron.

One other thing; go into 'Settings'->'Advanced Settings', and make sure that Iron is set to 'Use hardware acceleration where available'.....and while you're there, disable 'Continue running background apps when Iron is closed'. It's not necessary, and wastes resources.

Hopefully, that'll do what you want. Let me know how you get on with it, please.


Mike.

[quirkian2new]

hello, Mike,

followed your procedures above, yes, it's now working and the video can be viewed properly.

thanks again

[Mike Walsh]

hello, Mike,

followed your procedures above, yes, it's now working and the video can be viewed properly.

thanks again

Excellent. Good to know I wasn't faffing around pointlessly after all!

I say that, because often stuff doesn't work in my Pups the way it's supposed to.....or if it does, it seems to be unreproducible on other folk's hardware.

Go figure. Glad it's worked for you. The tip about the 'Override Software Rendering' I got from a Googlegroups blog session, after a search on DuckDuckGo; seems we weren't the only guys trying to figure this one out! Apparently a lot of folks are having problems getting the new GoogleEarth to behave itself...

Good old Google..! (not)


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

***New Version: Iron 58.0.3050.0***

Evening, all.

I'd nearly given up on this one (it's been almost 3 months), since SRWare have skipped over version 57, and gone straight to 58 (based on the same release of Chromium). Chromium 56 & 57 were 'problematic' (at least for me), giving all kinds of daft errors when trying to access any of Google's multitudinous sites.

Part of the reason I switched to DuckDuckGo a while back, after years of using the big 'G's search engine.....

Just as with Chrome & Chromium 58, you'll find the tooltips have changed appearance; now white on a black background, instead of the reverse. And the first time you access tooltips on any webpage, they show as a blank, black box; upon re-accessing, they'll work as normal. Slightly annoying, but it's something that can be 'lived with'.

The current release of Pepper is included for now.....but I think the new method of obtaining PepperFlash (first seen in Chrome 54) is active in this one; it should update itself. The included Pepper may quite possibly be redundant; I've only included it to make certain.

(See the Chrome thread for details of how to enable this the first time round:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 393#928393 )

If anybody needs to enable WebGL 2.0 for whatever reason, see my reply to quirkian2new above.

EDIT:- Nope, Pepper is still required in the adobe-flashplugin directory as usual; this release is not making use of the auto-download/update capability like Chrome itself does.....so that's obviously another specifically Google thing.

Anyhow; now it's here at long last, enjoy..!


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

***58.0.3050.0 re-uploaded with newest PepperFlash***


Apologies to anyone who's downloaded the new version within the last 24 hours. Since Adobe released the newest version of PepperFlash just this afternoon, I figured it would make sense to re-package and re-upload, so everything's up-to-date at the same time..!

If you re-download, you'll be current with Pepper for the next few weeks at least.....

Sorry for the messing around.


Mike.

[orrin]

Part of the reason I switched to DuckDuckGo a while back, after years of using the big 'G's search engine.....

Hi Mike,
You might try Startpage! It's a search based on google with lots
of privacy built in.

https://startpage.com/

[Mike Walsh]

Part of the reason I switched to DuckDuckGo a while back, after years of using the big 'G's search engine.....

Hi Mike,
You might try Startpage! It's a search based on google with lots
of privacy built in.

https://startpage.com/

Hi, orrin.

Mm. I have heard of it. I'll give it a look at some point in the next couple of days; I'm heading up the 'wooden hill', mate....the SandMan is beckoning!

Thanks for the tip. Cheers.


Mike.

[sheldonisaac]

So; here are some SFS packages for the 64-bit Pups. The link is to the Iron folder in my MediaFire a/c; just help yourself to the one you need.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/dq22re ... S_packages

Mike, I need help.

I put the sfs in the /mnt/home/ , and it does get loaded when I boot Slacko.
But there's no .config/iron directory?? Is it that, or something else, which prevents iron from running?

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/iron/chrome --user-data-dir=/$HOME/.config/iron "$@"

Code: Select all

# iron
/usr/bin/iron: line 3: /usr/lib/iron/chrome: No such file or directory
# ls -l /usr/lib/iron/chrome
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 126681328 May  8 19:30 /usr/lib/iron/chrome

This is in the Slacko64 Puppy 6.9.9.9

Code: Select all

 ls -lt| more
total 248648
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 171757568 Jun 13 03:12 puppy_slacko64_6.9.9.9.sfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2359870 Jun 13 03:05 initrd.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  75071488 May 27 19:32 zdrv_slacko64_6.9.9.9.sfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5155648 May 27 19:28 vmlinuz
# 

Would it help to add the adrv and the fdrv?
EDIT: I did, still iron doesn't start.

Oh, it's

Code: Select all

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  76947456 Jun 20 15:54 Iron-58.0.3050.0-amd64-s14.1.sfs

[roadkill13]

I put the sfs in the /mnt/home/ , and it does get loaded when I boot Slacko.
But there's no .config/iron directory?? Is it that, or something else, which prevents iron from running?

The /root/.config/ folder should be created when the browser loads for the first time.

[sheldonisaac]

I put the sfs in the /mnt/home/ , and it does get loaded when I boot Slacko.
But there's no .config/iron directory?? Is it that, or something else, which prevents iron from running?

The /root/.config/ folder should be created when the browser loads for the first time.

Thanks. To reiterate, the browser does not run; all that happens is the error message.

[roadkill13]

Code:

# iron
/usr/bin/iron: line 3: /usr/lib/iron/chrome: No such file or directory
# ls -l /usr/lib/iron/chrome
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 126681328 May 8 19:30 /usr/lib/iron/chrome

The error message is correct. /usr/lib/iron/chrome does not exist. The symlink at /usr/bin/iron should point to /opt/iron/chrome as that is where the iron folder is actually located in this case.

[sheldonisaac]

The error message is correct. /usr/lib/iron/chrome does not exist. The symlink at /usr/bin/iron should point to /opt/iron/chrome as that is where the iron folder is actually located in this case.

Oh, thanks, roadkill13.
I booted Slacko again, with pfix=ram, and did the sfs_load.
Iron is working!
Maybe it will still work after I boot with a new savefolder.

Sheldon

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Sheldon.

Sorry for the late reply. I've been playing around with the Debian-based AntiX 16.1 for the last few days, and haven't really been keeping up with things, I'm afraid....!

Roadkill's advice is quite right. I know you've been using Oscar's 32-bit packages till recently, and Oscar builds his packages to sit in /usr/lib. I always build mine to sit in /opt, however, as it's a nice 'catch-all' directory, and in the 64-bit Pups, avoids the headaches associated with the fact that the various 64-bit Pups use different combinations of /usr/lib and /usr/lib64; some are sym-linked, others aren't. Saves me needing to build no end of different versions, y'see.

There is a /usr/lib entry in 64-bit Iron, but it's solely for the PepperFlash plugin. Instead of the PepperFlash directory residing within the Iron directory (like Chrome itself until recently, and SlimJet), SRWare have coded Iron to look in /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin for Pepper. Since that's always sym-linked to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins in Puppy, I put Pepper there in the Iron package, and Iron finds it because of the sym-link. Yes, Pepper shares a common location with Adobe Flash when you run Iron!

The /usr/bin entry is a sym-link to the 'chrome-wrapper' script that starts Iron, but is renamed simply to 'iron' for /usr/bin.

We don't all of us build our packages to function in exactly the same way. You obviously entered

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/iron/chrome

because you're used to browsers always being located in /usr/lib.....

Glad to hear it's working, anyway.


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

***New Version: Iron 59.0.3100.0***

Evening, all.

The new release of Iron, 59.0.3100.0, is now available for download from the link in post #1. I've included the current version of PepperFlash, 26.0.0.131, which installs to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, as usual.

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

The Chrome 'upgrades' have once again carried over to Iron, since it's based very closely on it.....including the 'white on black' tooltips, which I'm still not too sure about! And the lack of highlighting in the bookmarks listings...

NetFlix is working, thanks once again to following SRWare's advice to 'poach' the libwidevinecdm.so module from the current version of Chrome itself.

All in all, it's still a very good substitute for Chrome, if you're fed-up (as I am) with the Big G's all-encompassing 'nosiness'.....

Enjoy.


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

***New Version: Iron 60.0.3150.1***

Evening, all.

The new release of Iron, 60.0.3150.1, is now available for download from the link in post #1. I've included the current version of PepperFlash, 26.0.0.151, which installs to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, as usual.

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

The Chrome 'upgrades' have once again carried over to Iron, since it's based very closely on it.....including the 'white on black' tooltips, which I'm still not too sure about! And the lack of highlighting in the bookmarks listings...

NetFlix is working, thanks once again to following SRWare's advice to 'poach' the libwidevinecdm.so module from the current version of Chrome itself.

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

NOTICE

I'm going to be concentrating on the 64-bit packages of SlimJet and Iron from now on; my 'run' with the Chrome64 packages is coming to an end. The newest release of Chrome, 61, now requires the very newest version of Network Security Services (libnss.so.3), which Tahr 64 doesn't support, since the new libnss has to have a newer version of the glibc.

I've tried XenialPup64 on the big Compaq, and it just will not run correctly. Unless I can find another suitable 64-bit Pup, which isn't based on Tahr, that's it. Slacko64 is out, since Chrome hasn't run properly on there for a while now. And to the best of my knowledge, all 64-bit Pups are based on one or the other. My deepest apologies to any Chrome fans.

So; enjoy Iron, instead!


Mike.

[orrin]

Hi Mike,

Iron 60.0.3150.1 does not start in Slacko 64-6.3.2.

Maybe a missing library?

It seems that anything based on Chrome 60 or above, loads but will not start!

[Mike Walsh]

Hi Mike,

Iron 60.0.3150.1 does not start in Slacko 64-6.3.2.

Maybe a missing library?

It seems that anything based on Chrome 60 or above, loads but will not start!

Hi, orrin.

Mm. Tell me about it. I don't know what they're doing over at the Chromium Project, but these last few releases have just been throwing up one problem after another. Partly, I believe it's to do with the fact that Puppy's essentially a lightweight distro, so doesn't tend to have all the stuff automatically downloaded & installed from the repos, the way it is for the big, mainstream distros...

What's the output from starting it via the terminal?

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/iron

It's a good way to check for problems; usually gives you an indication of why it won't run. NSS, by any chance?


Mike.

[orrin]

What's the output from starting it via the terminal?

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/iron

It's a good way to check for problems; usually gives you an indication of why it won't run. NSS, by any chance?

Yes, Gtk 3 is loaded and appears in /usr/lib64
Maybe the attached screen image will give you a clue as to the problem.

[battleshooter]

That looks like a clash in GTK3 versions in my unexpert opinion