64-bit Google-Chrome 'portable' packages
Posted: Sat 04 Jan 2020, 19:36
'Portable' builds of Google Chrome
Evening, all.
Okay. This will be the last one from me.....I promise!
I only started messing about with these Chromium-based 'portables' around a week ago. I've had the idea for doing one at the back of my mind for a long time, but it's only recently that several wee snippets of code have steadily come together all at the same time.....as a result of which there's been an explosion of Chromium portable 'clones' over the last few days.
Purely at random, I started playing around with Opera a week ago. It worked well; so well, in fact, that I began experimenting with my favourite Chromium 'clone', Iron. After some false starts, I finally cobbled together a set-up that worked (thanks to a snippet of code proffered by Fred), and put together a couple of packages the night before last.
I had a play around with getting a portable Chrome to run yesterday.....but it wasn't playing ball. Complaints in the terminal about not being able to get a 'SingletonLock', and errors when it came to creating, and populating, the profile directory, so I put it on the back burner.
---------------------------------------------
I'd been following the thread by RickGT351 about getting the 'Brave' browser running in Xenialpup64. Earlier today, I got a PM from Mikeslr, with the suggestion that since I seemed to be 'on a roll' with these portables, why not take a crack at one for Brave? Not one to turn down a challenge, I set to.....
Brave is like Chrome, in that it insists on running as a 'normal user' ('spot'-related stuff, in other words.) Anyway; initially, I was getting the exact same issues I'd had with trying to make a portable Chrome work - see above. Previously, I'd been trying to create an entire 'spot' environment within the package.....but then I thought, 'Hang about, Mike; you're doing your usual trick.....over-thinking things again. Let's try for simple, instead...'
So; the Brave directory got 'spot' permissions. The wrapper-script got the 'run-as-spot' prefix on the exec line.....and the launch script (separate, rather than sym-linked - as suggested by Fred, to get round the sym-link 'issue' for those running Puppy from FAT32) also got the 'run-as-spot' prefix on the exec-line, too. Fingers crossed, I fired it up from the terminal; held my breath, and.....it bloody well worked! Neat. So, I zipped the package & uploaded earlier today.....
-----------------------------------
Thinking about it, I realised the issues were the same as the Chrome-portable I tried building yesterday. So; I assembled an identical package for the newest version of Chrome, with permissions & exec commands all the same. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion, I suppose, given that all Chromium 'clones' share more or less the same main code-base; TBH, it was almost an anti-climax when I fired it up from the terminal. Still; after a few seconds, there appeared the small, initial Chrome window, asking if you want to make it the default browser, and should it send data to Big Brother's servers, etc. I made my selection, OK'ed it.....and up it came. A HUGE sigh of relief; finally, I'd achieved what I'd been toying with for the last couple of years.....a totally portable, self-contained, Puppy package of the world's most popular browser.
YESSS!!!
-----------------------------------------------------
I have to apologise here for the current lack of WideVine, so.....ATM, this means no NetFlix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, etc.
Previously, libwidevinecdm.so just sat in the main directory, and I guess the browser was coded to look for it there. In recent releases, libwidevine has been moved into its own sub-directory. Now, I presume the browser has been 're-jigged' to look for it in the new location.....but all I can tell you is that in Puppy, at least, WideVine is, for now, totally 'invisible' to the browser. It simply doesn't 'see' it any longer, and it doesn't show up in the components list at chrome://components any more.
Sym-linking it out into the main directory doesn't make a scrap of difference....
I'm still investigating this. It needs fixing, because one of Chrome's main claims to fame, for a lot of people, has always been the fact that it's been able to play NetFlix, etc, OOTB.....
-----------------------------------------
Now then; the download itself. It's available from my Google Drive, as usual.....from here:-
Download location - Google-Chrome 'portable'
It will live here from now on; I will endeavour, at least, to keep a version of each major release here, as & when.
Checksums for this release:-
MD5 - 16bf931f73c058596af3f14315589bbd
SHA256 - 103181a5ac1fba3901912ecb344858ed7ddbd555ab334efc66bd8bff00430480
[Same routine as with the other portable 'clones'. Download; unzip, and move the 'portable' directory anywhere you want. Click to enter.....and launch by clicking on the 'LAUNCH' script. Easy-peasy.]
Enjoy! Feedback is, as usual, invited.....and always welcome.
Mike.
Evening, all.
Okay. This will be the last one from me.....I promise!
I only started messing about with these Chromium-based 'portables' around a week ago. I've had the idea for doing one at the back of my mind for a long time, but it's only recently that several wee snippets of code have steadily come together all at the same time.....as a result of which there's been an explosion of Chromium portable 'clones' over the last few days.
Purely at random, I started playing around with Opera a week ago. It worked well; so well, in fact, that I began experimenting with my favourite Chromium 'clone', Iron. After some false starts, I finally cobbled together a set-up that worked (thanks to a snippet of code proffered by Fred), and put together a couple of packages the night before last.
I had a play around with getting a portable Chrome to run yesterday.....but it wasn't playing ball. Complaints in the terminal about not being able to get a 'SingletonLock', and errors when it came to creating, and populating, the profile directory, so I put it on the back burner.
---------------------------------------------
I'd been following the thread by RickGT351 about getting the 'Brave' browser running in Xenialpup64. Earlier today, I got a PM from Mikeslr, with the suggestion that since I seemed to be 'on a roll' with these portables, why not take a crack at one for Brave? Not one to turn down a challenge, I set to.....
Brave is like Chrome, in that it insists on running as a 'normal user' ('spot'-related stuff, in other words.) Anyway; initially, I was getting the exact same issues I'd had with trying to make a portable Chrome work - see above. Previously, I'd been trying to create an entire 'spot' environment within the package.....but then I thought, 'Hang about, Mike; you're doing your usual trick.....over-thinking things again. Let's try for simple, instead...'
So; the Brave directory got 'spot' permissions. The wrapper-script got the 'run-as-spot' prefix on the exec line.....and the launch script (separate, rather than sym-linked - as suggested by Fred, to get round the sym-link 'issue' for those running Puppy from FAT32) also got the 'run-as-spot' prefix on the exec-line, too. Fingers crossed, I fired it up from the terminal; held my breath, and.....it bloody well worked! Neat. So, I zipped the package & uploaded earlier today.....
-----------------------------------
Thinking about it, I realised the issues were the same as the Chrome-portable I tried building yesterday. So; I assembled an identical package for the newest version of Chrome, with permissions & exec commands all the same. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion, I suppose, given that all Chromium 'clones' share more or less the same main code-base; TBH, it was almost an anti-climax when I fired it up from the terminal. Still; after a few seconds, there appeared the small, initial Chrome window, asking if you want to make it the default browser, and should it send data to Big Brother's servers, etc. I made my selection, OK'ed it.....and up it came. A HUGE sigh of relief; finally, I'd achieved what I'd been toying with for the last couple of years.....a totally portable, self-contained, Puppy package of the world's most popular browser.
YESSS!!!
-----------------------------------------------------
I have to apologise here for the current lack of WideVine, so.....ATM, this means no NetFlix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, etc.
Previously, libwidevinecdm.so just sat in the main directory, and I guess the browser was coded to look for it there. In recent releases, libwidevine has been moved into its own sub-directory. Now, I presume the browser has been 're-jigged' to look for it in the new location.....but all I can tell you is that in Puppy, at least, WideVine is, for now, totally 'invisible' to the browser. It simply doesn't 'see' it any longer, and it doesn't show up in the components list at chrome://components any more.
Sym-linking it out into the main directory doesn't make a scrap of difference....
I'm still investigating this. It needs fixing, because one of Chrome's main claims to fame, for a lot of people, has always been the fact that it's been able to play NetFlix, etc, OOTB.....
-----------------------------------------
Now then; the download itself. It's available from my Google Drive, as usual.....from here:-
Download location - Google-Chrome 'portable'
It will live here from now on; I will endeavour, at least, to keep a version of each major release here, as & when.
Checksums for this release:-
MD5 - 16bf931f73c058596af3f14315589bbd
SHA256 - 103181a5ac1fba3901912ecb344858ed7ddbd555ab334efc66bd8bff00430480
[Same routine as with the other portable 'clones'. Download; unzip, and move the 'portable' directory anywhere you want. Click to enter.....and launch by clicking on the 'LAUNCH' script. Easy-peasy.]
Enjoy! Feedback is, as usual, invited.....and always welcome.
Mike.