Slimjet-portable : Now includes manual updater from Fred...

[mikewalsh]

@keniv :-

Yah, Xenial's right. The only thing that clicking on the Update button does is to send you straight to Flashpeak's website so you can download the new one.....which OOTB, doesn't work for us anyway. Not without modifications.

Mike.

[mikeslr]

Yes, slimjet is a nice browser and works well. But be careful of your choice of search engine, https://borncity.com/win/2018/03/27/sli ... ch-engine/, and settings https://www.slimjet.com/en/privacy-policy.htm.

[amethyst]

How slim is Slimjet?

[keniv]

@mikewalsh
Thanks for that information Mike. I thought that was the case.
@mikeslr
Your links are informative. I usually set up my startup page as DuckDuckGo lite. I've set Settings>Omnibox>Manage search engines to DuckDuckGo lite which I had to add. I also clicked on "Show search engine drop down button" (see attached image). I know there's criticism of DuckDuckGo but I've got to use something.

Regards,

Ken.

[mikewalsh]

How slim is Slimjet?

@amethyst :-

Bearing in mind these 'portables' are essentially in the unpacked condition, i.e., just as they would be once installed in the normal way from a .deb or .pet package, if you're asking about the 32-bit build it's around 220 MB. The 64-bit version, due to the internal 'lib' directory (currently needed for it to run on Tahrpup64 only), is somewhat larger, at around 250 MB.

Which for you, I suspect, is WAY too big. Don't be fooled by the name; Slimjet does not mean a 'slimmed-down' browser by any means. It's on a par with any of the other 'clones', since they all share pretty much the same common code-base.

The name is a bit of a mis-nomer.

Mike.

[xenial]

Yes, slimjet is a nice browser and works well. But be careful of your choice of search engine, https://borncity.com/win/2018/03/27/sli ... ch-engine/, and settings https://www.slimjet.com/en/privacy-policy.htm.

read those blogs before and it did raise some concerns about the browser as a whole.

[mikeslr]

It's difficult to find a Search Engine that will respect your privacy, especially running slimjet.
Qwant is on par with DuckDuckgo, with perhaps this plus. Qwant is based in France subject to EU privacy laws but also security concerns. So, pick your poison. Would you rather have NSA knowing what you're interested in or the EU?
It's easy to add to Slimjet via the Webstore, and can be set as default web-browser.

metager3 and swisscows can also be added via the webstore or manually. Based in Germany, metager3 is also subject to EU laws and concerns. But IIRC its privacy provisions are better than Qwant's. Swisscows, on the other hand, is based in --wait for it-- Switzerland, subject to neither the US or EU's jurisdiction and famed for its protection of privacy. But don't use it to search for porn. Results are censored and, IIRC, you're on notice that your interests will be reported.
My attempts to set either as the default search engine under slimjet were just ignored. And even if you could, IIRC, it was difficult to get them to open with a response to your search query: they opened to the search page on which I had to again enter the terms to be searched. But as slimjet's opening GUI is a customizable 'Speed Dial', you can just add any of Search Engine to the dial, click it and be 'off and running'.

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr :-

Rather than trying to add these as apps, or indeed set 'em as 'default, I've simply set-up a bookmark toward the left-side of the main Bookmarks Toolbar, titled "Sch-Eng". When clicked upon, this gives me access to a short list of around half-a-dozen different search engines.....including Google, DuckDuckGo & Qwant.

I use the exact same HTML bookmarks file in all the Chromium-based 'clones', so I always know exactly where to find things.

(Big Brother may be considered by some to be the personification of 'evil incarnate', but every one of these search engines has their good AND bad points. Even Google, believe it or not, has its uses....)

(*shrug...*)

Mike.

[ahoppin]

Has anyone in this thread actually gotten *any* version of Slimjet-32 to work with Tahr-32?

Have tried all 32-bit portable versions from slimjetbrowser.com, from 20 to 32. Zilch.

They need GTK3, no problem; easy to install from PPM. Some also need --single-process command line flag in addition to --no-sandbox. Apparently this is a known bug in some versions.

ALL VERSIONS crash with a segmentation fault error.

All that I've tested run fine under Xenial-32, NONE under Tahr-32.

Again, has anyone had success with any Slimjet-32 under Tahr-32? If so, can you please explain how you did it?

Maybe thinkpadfread has, because on page 2 of the thread I see "Slimjet 31.0.x cannot be run on Tahrpup 32bit and Xenialpup 32bit without --no-sandbox option."

EDIT: This is Tahr32 6.0.5. Maybe successes were with 6.0.6.

EDIT 2: Interesting, there are no files in https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/p ... p64-6.0.6/

PS - Odd situation here, helping out a friend who's not able to upgrade from Tahr-32 to something later. She needs access to a couple of badly coded websites that trip over Mozilla browsers, but work OK (for me at least) with Chromium & Company browsers.

[amethyst]

hi,
the target computer is a
dual core imac, about ten
years old. i am not at home
so i can't give numbers. not
low-spec.

the installed mac system
worked fine but it wasn't puppy.
dual booting required coaxing
each boot so i ditched the mac
for a puppy that booted out of
the box ...off the cd/dvd and
ran the way i was used to.

that was precise571

please tell me more about how
you set to watch streaming video.
i looked earlier today in the package
manager under multimedia .

cheers, mm

edit: specifically, what embedded player
and how do you attach it to duckduckgo?

thanks

No, you don't need to install anything else. Just use another search engine like Duckduckgo or Bing. Search for your video eg: youtube rod stewart. You will get a list of all the results, then click the videos tab and click the video you want to play. This works for youtube don't know if videos from other sites will work. BTW - you don't seem to have such an old machine. You should try a new Puppy which should be able to run all browsers without any upgrades and/or other potential problems.

Update here: It seems the embedded method for Youtube does not work with DuckDuckGo anymore but still does with Bing and Yahoo. Does not matter which browser you are using (I think).

Checked this again. DuckDuckGo operational again with the embedded method. I can also report that youtube still works well with the Light Browser (the old 32-bit cut-down version of Firefox). Runs smoothly in Bionic 32.

[xenial]

@mikewalsh
Hello mike,
Found myself using slimjet quite often now as it is a useful browser to have around with some of the features.

Just a small oddity..upon startup i am getting what is displayed in pic.
How do i correct please.?

thanks.

stuff.jpg (14.18 KiB) Viewed 10349 times

[thinkpadfreak]

Has anyone in this thread actually gotten *any* version of Slimjet-32 to work with Tahr-32?

Yes, I am running Slimjet 32.0.4 on Tahrpup 6.0.5 32bit.
I have installed libnss3-3.28.4 and libnspr4-4.13.1 through PPM in addition to gtk-3. (The libnss and libnspr packages are newer versions than those included in Tahrpup 6.0.5 iso.)
I downloaded Slimjet .deb package from the official site, and made it into an sfs package. Nothing is added to the original.

I publish the Slimjet sfs in the Japanese forum.
https://sakurapup.com/forum1/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3363

Slimjet 32bit version for linux seems to have come to an end. Now only 64bit packages are offered, probably because 32bit version cannot be run without --no-sandbox option.
https://www.slimjet.com/en/dlpage.php

[mikewalsh]

Right, gang.

It's upgrade time.....and - as thinkpadfreak pointed out above - 32-bit Slimjet has now come to an end. Don't blame the Slimjet devs, blame Google (via the Chromium Project). From Chromium 92 onwards, the browser was hard-coded to HAVE to be run in a true multi-user environment. Hence the "--no-sandbox" workaround no longer functioned... And it's not just Slimmie; Iron & Vivaldi have also quit producing 32-bit versions for exactly the same reason.

So; it's 64-bit only. I could add at this point that those of you lagging behind on 32-bit hardware really ought to bin them, and "get with the program" on 64-bit. But because I know the situation for a lot of you guys, I won't.....and can only sympathise, because despite having relatively new, up-to-date 64-bit hardware, I, too, still have 32-bit Puppies that I really like using.....Xenialpup 7.5, for a start; one of the sweetest, most easy-going 32-bitzers Phil B ever produced (and with Canonical extending support till 2026, it's still highly-usable as a daily driver should I so choose). 32.0.4.0 will remain usable for a long time yet; if I really have to use an up-to-date browser, I CAN still use Firefox, of course.

Here is the 64-bit Puppy 'portable' version of Slimjet v33.0.0.0.....a few weeks late, I'm afraid!

(I will, of course, keep the most recent 32-bit version available for you guys, for as long as it may be wanted.)

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

Nothing new to report, really; nothing we haven't already seen in most of the other clones. Still as smooth as ever; YT & NetFlix both behaving themselves, as well as all the other usual DRM-protected stuff. And always a thoroughly pleasant browser to use.

You can find the new release at the usual link in post #1. As always; d/l; unzip; move the portable directory anywhere you like, preferably outside the 'save'. Click to enter, click on the 'LAUNCH' script to fire-it up.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[darry19662018]

Interesting Mike that this Browser works with Debiandog Jessie other "chromes" don't thanks a nice Browser.

[mikewalsh]

Right, gang. New release time again.

Sorry for the delay; been otherwise engaged. We're now up to v34.0.2.0; this is based on Chromium 98.

The Puppy-portable build of this is available at the usual link in post#1. Do be aware that these are now 64-bit only; 32-bit versions are fixed on a 'legacy' release, and will not be updated any further......as with many of the other 'clones'.

I must apologise to anyone who found the last release wouldn't play back DRM-protected stuff. My fault entirely; I completely forgot to include the Widevine modules!

Sorry, guys....

Everything that should be there is there again with this build. Nowt to report; just as silky-smooth and full of Slimjet 'goodness' as ever.

As always; d/l - unzip - move the portable directory anywhere you like, but preferably outside the 'save'. Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' to run it as a 'portable'. Scripts will let you add or remove a Menu entry if you want to integrate it into your system a bit more.

The only thing that remains to be said is...

.....enjoy!

Mike.

[davidresponde]

I felt better using SlimJet... better than Palemoon and Firefox... lighter and faster...thanks!

[mikewalsh]

Morning, gang.

New version time again. We're now up to v35.0.1.0.....so here's the new 64-bit Puppy-portable build. This is based on Chromium v101.

(32-bit, "legacy" Slimjet has been "locked" at v32 for quite a while now, and that build is still available at my MEGA.nz a/c, as detailed in post #1).

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

Nothing to say, really. The 'clones' are getting more & more similar as time goes by.....it won't be too long before it's impossible to tell them apart, with the possible exception of Opera & Vivaldi. Those do at least have the merit of a somewhat different interface.

(I wouldn't recommend Yandex, unless you're a masochist. You have to spend at least half-an-hour to an hour going through the settings with a fine tooth-comb, disabling everything that reports back to some shadowy Russian security ministry "in the cloud"..... Shame, because fundamentally it's quite an attractive browser.)

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

Enough of my maunderings. The download link is, as always, to be found in post #1.

• Download

• Unzip

• Move the portable directory anywhere you like, though preferably outside the 'save'

• Click to enter

• Click on the 'LAUNCH' script to keep things completely portable. For those who want a bit more system integration, scripts can add/remove a Menu entry, if so desired

Posting from it now. Enjoy!

Mike.

[Marv]

Thanks again Mike, Running both OOTB and with minor changes run-as-spot in the current Voidpup64. I put the few additional libs for the slackware derivs in the lib directory and a test for it in my launch script but haven't run it in LxPupSc64 as yet.

Finally slithering from SFS based Slimjet to a 'portable' setup alongside the other portables in my data partition. Tidier IMO.

Posting from it now.

Cheers,

[AntonioPt]

@pp4mnklinux i have download https://www.slimjetbrowser.com/release/ ... d64.tar.xz and unpack it then change the script flashpeak-slimject

add comment in line 9 till 12 and since it dosen't wont you to run as root
# Kent@FlashPeak:
# Check current user
#if [ "`whoami`" = "root" ]; then
# echo "Don't run this as root."
# exit;
#fi

Then via terminal just type ./flashpeak-slimject --no-sandbox or make a Desktop and save it in the unpack folder

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=FlashPeak Slimjet
Exec=./flashpeak-slimjet --no-sandbox %U
Terminal=false
Icon=./product_logo_128.png
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml_xml;

i made a SFS and test it but you tell me some
http://www.slalom.esy.es/puppy/slim/sli ... .0_x64.sfs

put it in my server http://www.slalom.esy.es/puppy/slim/

About making a Pet, can try but ... hope this help you
P.S.Tested in FossaPup

[pp4mnklinux]

Hi Antonio:

As I told u at HexChat, YOU MAKE MY DAY, thanks a lot.- Now I can use fossapup with all slimjet advantages.

Have a nice day, my friend.-

CU

[Marv]

@mikewalsh Slimjet finally spit out a version with chromium 105 or newer. I needed that for one site. It is at Version 37.0.0.0 (based on Chromium 107.0.5304.62) and a beta but seems fine. I just downloaded their tarball and slid the slimjet directory into the portable framework I'd been using for 35.0.1.0 -basically yours with a couple of my personalizations and- Seems fine so far, I'm currently in a ydrv driven non-savefile install of fossapup64 9.5. I'll check it in VoidPup64 10c and LxPupSc64 later.

Cheers,

Update: OK in my fossapup64 with savefile, in VoidPup64 10c AND in LxPupSc64 22.02 +2 (the latest I run). The first two were no surprise but the LxPupSc64 was a total

A day later: Found the 'beta'. Slimjet uses libffmpeg.so for proprietary decoders and the latest version seems not to be in sync with chromium 107 so mp4s etc won't play. I've seen this before in earlier slimjets and eventually it catches up to the chromium version and they play again. All else seems fine and mp4s do play ok in my version 35.0.1.0.

Update on Nov 18 2022: Updated Slimjet64 to 37.0.1.0 in the portable above. Runs fine in all the pups mentioned but still no youtubes etc.

[Marv]

Finally!!! After quite a long drought, Flashpeak spit out a version that, with the newest libffmpeg from: https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg- ... t/releases, will play youtubes. It is version 38.0.0.0, based on chromium 109.

I have it set up in the usual portable format and will use it alongside Brave and unGoogled and see how it does.

Cheers,

[mikewalsh]

@Marv :-

Hey, nice one. Cheers for the heads-up..!

Well, since it seems Marv is right about the Slimjet 38.0.0.0 "beta" once again being fully "multimedia-ready", here's the new Puppy-portable package for those of you who are fans of this particular Chromium-based 'clone'.

Seems this IS the one downside of the licensing restrictions Google have in place around the Project. They themselves simply statically link libffmpeg into the main Chrome 'binary' at compile-time when they re-build their own release versions.....this is why you never see libffmpeg anywhere in Chrome itself. Everybody else, when customizing the source code for their own browser variants, have to make 'alternative arrangements' for the availability of media codecs.

Never mind. We're sailing again....

Posting from it now.....and watching "Star Trek - TNG" on NetFlix. Yay!

Download link, as always, available in post #1. Enjoy!

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

First of all, THANKS A LOT for your effort, We all valorate this a lot.- but for me slimjet 38 portable doesn't work.- I followed your instructions to install it, but It can't start.-

It's x64 version, and as I told u it doesn't work in my puppy.

(xenial pup xl 64 7.5)

Have a nice day.

[Marv]

First of all, THANKS A LOT for your effort, We all valorate this a lot.- but for me slimjet 38 portable doesn't work.- I followed your instructions to install it, but It can't start.-

It's x64 version, and as I told u it doesn't work in my puppy.

(xenial pup xl 64 7.5)

Have a nice day.

I've only test run this in FP64_CE_radky6, VoidPup64 22.02 +14, S15Pup64 22.12 +2, and LxPupSc64 23.01. The 'oldest' pup I got versions 35 through 37 running in was LxPupSc64 22.02 +2, and that required some careful library patching/additions. I'd be more surprised than not if one of these new browsers did run in Xenial64.

If it weren't for the relentless march of browsers and the demands of institutions for the latest I probably would be a Tahr guy but both the institutions and the users I support say nay to that.

In general, when trying out a portable for the first time, I unpack it, then open a terminal in the window containing LAUNCH and run ./LAUNCH in the terminal. That shows what is missing and gives me a general idea whether it is going to be worth it in any particular pup to chase libraries etc..

I usually set up .desktops for my portables in /usr/share/applications. It makes setting up panels and menus simpler and once done is good for the life of the pup as I just slide any newer version of portables in at the locations the .desktops point to. In my experience, sometimes a portable that will start as per the above or by left-clicking LAUNCH or from a symlink will not start from the .desktop unless terminal=true is set. Chromium in particular with its 'dirty terminal' seems to cause this. To avoid it, once a portable is up and running, I judiciously apply

Code: Select all

>/dev/null 2>&1

to the end of the line/lines which actually call the application in LAUNCH.

Update: Now tested in fossapup64_9.5 and it's fine there also.

Cheers,

[mikewalsh]

First of all, THANKS A LOT for your effort, We all valorate this a lot.- but for me slimjet 38 portable doesn't work.- I followed your instructions to install it, but It can't start.-

It's x64 version, and as I told u it doesn't work in my puppy.

(xenial pup xl 64 7.5)

Have a nice day.

@pp4mnklinux :-

Yes, it will. I discovered the same as you when I tested it in my own Xenialpup64. I ought to have expected it; the 'LAUNCH' wrapper script needed tweaking.....the same tweak I've had to do with at least two other Chromium-based clones.

So; accordingly, I've 'tweaked' the wrapper script, re-packed and re-uploaded. If you're running the standard k4.9.58 kernel, and you haven't modified the glibc, or anything like that, this WILL now work. I'll eat my hat if it doesn't..!

Download it again, and try it a second time. Should be A-OK now.

(Watchdog's glibc 'tweak' that works so effectively for the 'zilla-based browsers simply won't work for the clones. Both browsers use a huge shared library for the bulk of the browser itself, but where the 'zilla browsers fire the shared library up via a teeny binary, the 'clones' call it via a wrapper script. And that's what throws the spanner in the works; LD_LIBRARY_PATH works fine with a binary or a shared dependency.....but it doesn't recognise a wrapper script as being a valid system 'function'.

Sod's law....)

@Marv :-

In my experience, sometimes a portable that will start as per the above or by left-clicking LAUNCH or from a symlink will not start from the .desktop unless terminal=true is set. Chromium in particular with its 'dirty terminal' seems to cause this.

That 'dirty terminal' is the result of Google's decision, from the day they set up the Chromium Project, to make the lives of their present & future developers as easy as possible.....by generating a 'blow' by 'blow', ongoing 'live' debug report that runs in the terminal concurrently with the main browser process. So devs run it from the terminal, do whatever they want to do in the browser itself, and the instant something misbehaves or throws unexpected behaviour, they just drag up the terminal and see, immediately, what's just happened.

To the uninitiated, it constantly looks like all hell's broken loose.....when in fact, all you're seeing is a verbose report of what the browser is doing at any given moment.

They are complex beasts, though. There's no getting away from that.

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

Thanks a lot for this portable program.
As you know, slimjet is my default browser and it's amazing the work u made.

I don't know if this portable includes the autoupdate, but if yes, it is the top, .

There is only a small, really small "problem", when you start the browser it says that there is an start opción not accepted ("you are using an unsupported command Line flag: --no-sandbox. Stability and security will suffer) but I consider this NO important.

THANKS AGAIN, Mike.

First of all, THANKS A LOT for your effort, We all valorate this a lot.- but for me slimjet 38 portable doesn't work.- I followed your instructions to install it, but It can't start.-

It's x64 version, and as I told u it doesn't work in my puppy.

(xenial pup xl 64 7.5)

Have a nice day.

@pp4mnklinux :-

Yes, it will. I discovered the same as you when I tested it in my own Xenialpup64. I ought to have expected it; the 'LAUNCH' wrapper script needed tweaking.....the same tweak I've had to do with at least two other Chromium-based clones.

So; accordingly, I've 'tweaked' the wrapper script, re-packed and re-uploaded. If you're running the standard k4.9.58 kernel, and you haven't modified the glibc, or anything like that, this WILL now work. I'll eat my hat if it doesn't..!

Download it again, and try it a second time. Should be A-OK now.

(Watchdog's glibc 'tweak' that works so effectively for the 'zilla-based browsers simply won't work for the clones. Both browsers use a huge shared library for the bulk of the browser itself, but where the 'zilla browsers fire the shared library up via a teeny binary, the 'clones' call it via a wrapper script. And that's what throws the spanner in the works; LD_LIBRARY_PATH works fine with a binary or a shared dependency.....but it doesn't recognise a wrapper script as being a valid system 'function'.

Sod's law....)

@Marv :-

In my experience, sometimes a portable that will start as per the above or by left-clicking LAUNCH or from a symlink will not start from the .desktop unless terminal=true is set. Chromium in particular with its 'dirty terminal' seems to cause this.

That 'dirty terminal' is the result of Google's decision, from the day they set up the Chromium Project, to make the lives of their present & future developers as easy as possible.....by generating a 'blow' by 'blow', ongoing 'live' debug report that runs in the terminal concurrently with the main browser process. So devs run it from the terminal, do whatever they want to do in the browser itself, and the instant something misbehaves or throws unexpected behaviour, they just drag up the terminal and see, immediately, what's just happened.

To the uninitiated, it constantly looks like all hell's broken loose.....

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

@pp4mnklinux :-

I've scripted updaters for other Chromium-based 'clones', but Slimjet is a no-go, I'm afraid.

Others include the update mechanism as a separate script, so it's easy enough to obtain the actual download URL. Flashpeak, however, must have hard-coded this information into the main shared library; and on top of that, the URL has been obscured behind a re-direct. Even looking at the page source, all you see is the re-direct URL. They've gone out of their way to ensure it's thoroughly hidden......obviously, they don't want the public to access their servers directly. They want you to go through the re-direct, because it keeps you on their domain, and keeps their SEO ratings as high as possible.

If you try running the download link in the terminal with curl or wget, all you obtain is the HTML source code of the web page itself...

If you DO run the updater, it will download & install the standard .deb package. And then it's no longer 'portable', and you end up with TWO copies of the browser on your system.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Evening, gang.

'Kay; it's update time again. We're now at v39.0.1.0, based around Chromium v111. Download link is, as always, to be found in post #1.

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

I think I've managed to fix the non-playing of videos from a bit earlier on. Chromium-based clones always require that ffmpeg be re-compiled for each MAJOR browser release number.....v109, v110, v111, etc. Well, for some reason, Flashpeak's recommended Github source for this no longer seems to be functioning as it should; on top of which, the guy who builds them hasn't created any new versions for around 5 months. Thus, you no longer have a version of ffmpeg that matches the release version of the browser.

Chromium couldn't care less where its ffmpeg build comes from, only that it matches the release version. So; I decided to try the Github build of ffmpeg that Opera recommends be used (they, too, put their users through this same sorry rigmarole with every new release!) Bingo! The Opera-recommended ffmpeg build for the Chromium base this is built around works a treat - it's not the same dev; different guy here - so, we once again have YouTube/NetFlix, etc, working as they should.

Sorted..!

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

As always:-

• Download

• Unzip

• Move anywhere you like - preferably outside the save-file - and it helps, if running from a flash drive, that said drive NOT be formatted as FAT32. Slimjet is the only clone where it MUST be started from a specifically-named file; Flashpeak have hard-coded this requirement into it for some daft reason. The only way I've been able to make the portable function is by sym-linking the profile from one level to another.....and FAT32 does NOT support sym-links

• Click to enter

• Click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up

Included scripts will add a Menu entry if one is required, regardless of location.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

Hi @mikewalsh :

Fantastic work, as ever. I continue using slimjet as my favourite browser but... as like last versions of it... I continue with the problem (is not of your portable, but slimjet origin) that I can reproduce audio with it / from it....

That is, when I reproduce a youtube video or when I go to an audio page, any of these http://www.protopage.com/pp4mnkt3am#Public_Category/MP3 , I can't hear any sound.

I tried a lot of things, flash, ffmpeg, pulseaudio.... follow dozens of instructions, suggestions.... but it is impossible for me reproduce audio.

Just in case u have free time... and u wanna help slimjet users .- Can you try to do anything with this problem? With old versions, I had not got this problem, I can reproduce videos and audios without problem, my problems started with version 36 (with 38 and 39 portables, audio never worked).

Thanks a lot in advance and congrats for your good work..- CHEERS.