Opera 11 at mnt/home .pet Here

[mikeslr]

Hi again DaveS:
The following was written before I reopened this thread:
Sleep brought no new insights. Can't find any flaw in the logic of your constructions. They should work. Opera_mnt_home continues to work flawlessly in Lucid 511. So I decided to attack from the side.
Installed Opera_extra_distro on a newly created sPup053. Again without success. PPM showed that it installed. Pfind finds various applicable files. However, examining the symlink in root (~) revealed that it is broken. See attached. It appears to be looking for the file (or in) /mnt/home/opera/.opera. Opening /mnt/home/opera and clicking to show hidden files reveals no such file (or directory). See attached.
Examination of the other directories and files id'd by pfind revealed no other problem.
The broken symlink suggests four possibilities:
1) It shouldn't be there at all, and so is irrelevant -- unlikely;
2) It's pointing to the wrong place;
3) Something (folder &/or folder & file(s)) are missing from /mnt/home/opera &/or the symlink is incomplete
4) Something else I haven't thought of.

The following after opening this thread:

So I'm not sure your fix is entirely correct. May solve my problem, but not the pet. My guess is "3" above and some modification of Opera_extra_distros may be necessary to produce a pet which works out of the box.

Opera remains my favorite browser. Mostly because I use Speed-Dial as my opening page, there being about 4 webpages I use daily --Google.com, Puppy Google (Well-Minded), Puppy Forum Index, Fios TV Listings-- and a couple of others almost daily. I know Speed-dials can be used in Firefox and Chrome. But the last time I checked the Firefox version appeared awkward. And I've never understood why Chrome doesn't enable a Google Search Box. Using the address bar is just annoying. Opera used to have a Google Search Widget which expedited searches. I haven't tried it recently. I stopped using it when it became a desktop widget: nice if you want it there, but I didn't. It also had a torrent search widget I found helpful. I still frequently use Opera's built in torrent client, actually obviating the need to have another dedicated app for that purpose. I haven't recently had the chance to explore Opera's widgets, nor its new Addon facility.
Firefox remains my backup browser: for those few sites not available in Opera; because of its Save-as-pdf Addon; and, until 4beta, an Addon which highlighted the google search terms in the webpages found.

I'm not certain but installing one of Opera's Addons may have broken the SFS I had been using. I wouldn't run after a restart and I replaced it without exploring the cause of the problem. So I'd proceed with caution when using them for awhile.

I'll try your fix and report back.

mikesLr

[DaveS]

Mike... read tis post again http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 578#481578
The fix I posted will mend the broken link (dont delete that link), and I updated the .pet to prevent it happening to others.

[mikeslr]

Hi again DaveS;

Your fix worked. I'm posting from Opera_extra_distro pet in sPup053. I'll review my reply headings and note "Solved" where appropriate.

But you respond too fast. ('') Give a guy a chance to do it, stretch his legs and get something to drink.

And now for something not so completely different.

I had the impression you were also going to make a mnt_home pet of Firefox. I can't find the thread. If you weren't thinking of it, do. Your on a roll.

Thanks again for one of the most useful developments since jrb's linker.

mikesLr

[Bert]

I guess you're looking for this?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 121#481121

[DaveS]

Give a guy a chance to do it, stretch his legs and get something to drink.

Now that sounds cool

I have a working .pet for Firefox which I put together for Bert as he wanted to see how it was constructed, but never got around to making it official, or fully testing it. Think I should?
Again it needs the base .pet which would be installed once, then extra distro pet for each Puppy thereafter, and is a bit more complex as Firefox needs dbus, which is not included in the Wary series.
I guess the concept still holds true though. Its nice to install a new Puppy to experiment with and get you personalised browser up and running with a single click, and no loss of disk space, no?

[DaveS]

I guess you're looking for this?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 121#481121

That probably needs some debug work and an extra_distro_pet before it should go out Bert.

[Bert]

I guess you're looking for this?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 121#481121

That probably needs some debug work and an extra_distro_pet before it should go out Bert.

Hi Dave,

In my enthousiasm about the great work you're doing in the browser field, I posted that link. Didn't realize it is a work in progress. Apologies.

(Also, I finally found out how to link to a specific post on the forum, in stead of to a page and wanted to show off a little )

I've been thinking about browsers-on-mnt/home...
What you propose could be called the Ferrari approach. Meaning that in a new Puppy, the browser gets installed with all the customisation ( bookmarks, extensions, themes, ect) from the original Puppy.
That is really luxurious and very nice for 'Puppy-hoppers' .But it also adds a lot of complexity.

I'm somewhat of a 'browser-hopper', always wanting to try out new versions. Also, new versions are often released for security reasons.
That's a different scenario, where ease of changing to a new browser or browser version is the most important factor.

Maybe this needs a 'Volkswagen' approach, where a new browser is simply installed ( to /mnt/home of course) as it comes from the makers. I don't mind adding my little bit of customisation. Done it so many times I could do it blindfolded by now

Wouldn't that Volkswagen approach simplify the whole undertaking? And avoid the difficulties you 've faced with your approach?

Just some thoughts from a happy end user...

[mikeslr]

Thanks Bert for the link. Have downloaded DaveS's tar.gz and will examine.
Bert's Volkswagen -- Ferrari analogy. Volkswagen -- my first car was a 1958 Beatle import with a speedometer using kilometers. I had to do conversion to miles in my head to keep within the posted speed. Caution probably kept me out of trouble.
So applying caution, may I suggest that the latest and greatest incarnation of a browser may have problems or annoyances the general public may want to avoid. Love Firefox 4beta. But there's a minor annoyance that when started it reports some error of no consequence. And another that it doesn't remember my response to its question regarding being default. And another that, as yet, some of my favorite Addons aren't supported.
So I'd suggest that the latest stable version be used as the guinea pig, and delta pets be used to "upgrade" to Ferrari or otherwise.

If and when an official version change makes deltas impractical, then a pet to preserve bookmarks (and anything else preservable) while the old pet is un-installed (thru PPM would be OK) with the new pet picking up preserved data (if found).

I followed gposils development of dpup, and ttuuxx's re-development of the 2 series, and probably most of the latest derivatives. There appears to be a large number of seasoned "users" who run multiple versions of Puppy. Not having to reconfigure browsers or manually move them out of the SAVEFile would be a great benefit to them, as well as to real newbies.

So, DaveS, this is definitely a project worth pursuing. Though for Firefox, (and Chrome if you want to) there probably should be separate thread.

mikesLr

[mikeslr]

Just thought you should know that your Opera_extra_distros pet worked in Puppy 443.
Although I haven't tried it in 420, 412 or priors, when I was working on InfoCentral I discovered that symlinks and desktop files written in 443 weren't effective in prior series. I think it had something to do with their using different Bash versions. They had to be re-written in those series even though the wordings remained the same.

mikesLr

[mikeslr]

Hi DaveS, and anyone finding this thread,

Actually, I was interested in trying out your foxyfun firefox pet after Bert provided the link. As I wanted to test on a Puplet I didn't currently have installed, I hunted thru my hard drive and found Iguleder's Squeeze 009. Installed it, and foxyfun into it. Firefox 3.6 ran but with a problem I'll get to. So I decided to install Opera_extra_distros. It didn't run at all. Examination revealed that the link to its folder on sda7 (the home partition for all my puppies and puppy related files) was broken.
The problem with foxyfun firefox was that, while it saw its own folder on sda7, I couldn't import bookmarks from a different folder there, or see any other folders on sda7.
So I rebooted, creating a Savefile. On reboot, with the Savefile loaded, both worked fine.
The above problem may only apply to Squeeze, but I figured I'd forewarn others.

mikesLr

[DaveS]

So I rebooted, creating a Savefile. On reboot, with the Savefile loaded, both worked fine.
The above problem may only apply to Squeeze, but I figured I'd forewarn others.

mikesLr

No Mike, I think you are quite correct. The system needs a save file. Do you like the minimal Firefox interface, or did you turn all the toolbars back on?

[mikeslr]

Hi DaveS:

Definitely like your Firefox minimal interface. (':)') It saved me the trouble of having to turn tool-bars off. (a) I like an uncluttered view, and (b) I only have an old 15" monitor plugged into my test-Linuxes computer. I'm not sure which is the chicken and which the egg.

By the way, as your efforts have inspired me to explore 'external' apps, What follows would be an incredibly tedious tale, if it didn't lead to (for me) a mystery.
I downloaded the iron.tar.gz --link somewhere on the forum-- and decompressed it to mnt/home which created an Iron-Linux folder. The executable was easily found and clicking it started Iron right away. It enabled me to import ONLY Firefox bookmarks. At the time I was in dPup. Switched into Lucid 511, started Iron: No bookmarks. Downloaded latest tar.gz from Iron website, deleted old Iron-Linux folder. Unpacked new tar.gz, creating new Iron-Linux folder. Booted back into dPup. Opened Iron and observed the Firefox bookmarks I had imported while using the now deleted version.
Obviously Iron, in its default set up, must be storing information somewhere on each Puplet on which its been used. Pfind "iron" disclosed nothing relevant. Pfind "chrome", the same. Only pfind "chromium" revealed what may be significant folders: /root/.cache/chromium and /root/.config/chromium. So either creating an Iron_extra_distros pet should be fairly straight-forward, or I've missed something important.

mikesLr

[mikeslr]

The nice thing about creating a back-up SaveFile is that you can experiment without fear of having to rebuild your system from scratch.(':D')
Not one to leave an itch uscratched, I created a folder in /mnt/home with the name "Iron-Config" and within it two folders: cache & config. (See Note below), Still in dPup, I moved its /root/.cache/chromium folder to the aforementioned cache folder, symlinked it back to /root/.cache/; and moved the /root/.config/chromium folder to the aforementioned "config" folder and symlinked it back. The operation was successful and the patient survived.
Rebooting into Lucid 511, I deleted its /root/.config/chromium folder, symlinking mnt/home/Iron-Config/config/chromium to its former place; and did similar regarding the /root/.cache/chromium folder. Iron opened and ran in Lucid 511, now disclosing the Firefox bookmarks I had only imported into dPup's Iron.
Note on the separate Iron-config folder: Creating a separate folder will make it easy to up-grade Iron. Upgrading Iron consists of (1) downloading the new tar.gz file; (2) deleting the old "Iron-Linux" folder from mnt/home; and (3) unpacking the new tar.gz to mnt/home which automatically creates a new "Iron-Linux" folder. All symlinks, desktop and related files previously created will still point to Iron's executable file, and cache and config folders.
So it should be fairly easy to create Iron_mnt_home and Iron_extra_distros pets. The real question is whether it's worth the effort. Firstly, I doubt there is any need for such pets as it takes less than five minutes to create co-ordinated Iron apps by following the above steps. Less than a minute more to drag its executable to the desktop and use its icon,
Secondly, I mentioned previously why I'm not a fan of Chrome. But, I must say this for Iron. It seems to run appreciably faster than Opera. That, however, may be the flip side of other reason I question its value. Opera comes with a pop-up blocker and the ability to install AddBlock and a fair amount of other extensions/Addons. [True, nowhere to the extent of Firefox]. Chrome, itself, has very few. And those few don't work in Iron. There were only about a dozen, of which only 3 seemed useful and of those three, one, Youtube-downloader, either didn't work, or required that I do something not obvious.
As I have a fast connection, whatever speed advantage Iron may have is insufficient to make up for its lack of added functionality.

mikesLr

DaveS, I've noticed the lack of your response to my previous post before I posted this one. Hope my mention of stretching legs and getting a drink hasn't given you the idea that your not expected to be here 24/7.(':lol:').

Well, if we don't touch base before then, Happy New Year.

Mike

[DaveS]

Happy New Year Mike and all. We have guests this weekend, thus my lack of activity on the forum. Will be active again from Monday on...

[DaveS]

Small but crucial point... if you need to print from you browser, stuff like Boarding Passes, receipts etc., dont bother with Opera. Its hopeless.......

[TheAsterisk!]

Small but crucial point... if you need to print from you browser, stuff like Boarding Passes, receipts etc., dont bother with Opera. Its hopeless.......

Why do you say that? I'm using a different dot-pet, but printing works just fine for me from Opera. (EDIT: I should specify- Opera 11.00, Lucid 511.)

[DaveS]

Small but crucial point... if you need to print from you browser, stuff like Boarding Passes, receipts etc., dont bother with Opera. Its hopeless.......

Why do you say that? I'm using a different dot-pet, but printing works just fine for me from Opera.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=63578

[DaveS]

Small but crucial point... if you need to print from you browser, stuff like Boarding Passes, receipts etc., dont bother with Opera. Its hopeless.......

Why do you say that? I'm using a different dot-pet, but printing works just fine for me from Opera.

Here is a typical sample:



So what is that about then!

[TheAsterisk!]

So what is that about then!

I think I may have discovered what I'm doing differently (without even thinking about it) that gives me better results.
I save webpages as MHTML files, then later open those and then print everything I need at once. It seems to make a difference.

I've attached a wonky PDF that's printed/exported directly from a view of the forum, and then I've attached a PDF printed from a saved *.mht of the same thread page. (They're both in an archive, since the forum doesn't allow PDF attachments.) The "bad" direct-print copy isn't as dramatic as your example, but there is a noticeable difference.

I'm going to go try it out on a few other sites and see if saving to *.mht files before printing might not be a decent work-around.

EDIT: I tried it out on Techrights.org, and it seemed to help preserve the site layout there, too. Images were a little low-res, but not distorted or marred like your screenshot.
Opera's printing still won't win any awards for image fidelity, but it's better than nothing.

Might want to give this method a try. Nothing to lose, after all.

[Henry]

Hello,

I just posted the following here, which appeared but seems to have been removed. I recovered it from "view my posts." Mystified, what happened?

Henry

I went to the Opera support site and picked one of the many strings on printing problems:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/to ... ?id=783492

Take a moment to read this and you won't be looking in Puppy for the problem.