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  • From: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Damnsmalllinux packages for BL?
  • Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:11:06 +0000 (UTC)


I found at the MYSDL repository (ibiblio) which has lots of programs

firefox-2.0-gtk1.uci from 2005 Bon Echo 2 9.8MB

Compiled to use less resources than the official version (GTK2?).

Can we get files out of a .uci 'mountable extension' to use with BL?

Don't know yet. firefox is included in DSL 4.3 and later.

I will try copying them to a mounted hard drive while running the live CD.

I was able to copy files from the running live CD to my BL partition.

Firefox 2.0 (bon echo, 2006) is 'installed' to /usr/local/share/firefox with a wrapper script in /usr/local/bin, but can be started from the former with ./firefox (another wrapper script). You might even be able to copy all the .so libraries to /usr/lib and start with firefox-bin.

cd /usr/local/share/firefox
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt (assuming BL2 is hda1)
sudo mkdir /mnt/firefox-2.0-dsl (or just firefox if you don't have 1.5)
sudo cp -a * /mnt/firefox-2.0-dsl/

sudo reboot (or exit) and boot into BL
startx (Xvesa worked)
cd /firefox-2.0-dsl
./firefox

Loads and appears to work fine. Same dependencies as Firefox 1.5 - gtk, gdk, libglib, libgmodule, libgcc but libstdc++ 5 (same as Seamonkey) rather than version 6. My firelibs.tgz package has both.

You can also, as a test, copy to a USB flash drive, ignore comments about permissions not being preserved, and run it from there.

Firefox 1.5 has a mozilla start page (big) and 2.0 a dsl start page (small) so it is hard to compare memory usage. While the page was loading 1.5 used 3.4% and 2.0 used 2.5% of RAM, I think.

I set them both to start with a blank page but Bon Echo still starts with the DSL page. Cleared cache in Bon Echo and Deerpark after going to about:blank. 3.5% memory for Bon Echo (Firefox 2.0) and 2.9% for Deerpark. When I load mozilla.com they both go up by the same amount.

DSL tried to compile to minimize resource usage.

I ran across discussions of how Firefox (1.5, 2?) keeps using more and more memory. Suggestions are to clear history list frequently.
And change various settings. Set memory cache to a fixed (small) amount using about:config (you can adjust only disk cache size with preferences). 4MB if you have 256MB memory, and if you have less get more memory, it suggests. Plugins take up memory (don't use them on an old laptop, or disable when not in use). Don't use themes.

Set it to release memory when firefox is minimized (see various websites for how).

When Bon Echo (DSL) loads it 'checks for compatibility updates to your extensions'. It uses the plugins in /root/.mozilla which Firefox 1.5 also uses. So if you copy Firefox 2 to a computer with 1.5 you will retain any plugins installed to 1.5. (For seamonkey 1.1.x I had to copy the contents of three directories). More plugins work with 2.0 than 1.5. And later versions (such as adblock - Firefox 1.5 uses 0.7.5.5 and Seamonkey 1.1 a later version 1.02 that will also work with Firefox 2.0 (I just checked).

Click on Tools, Extension/Add-ons, Updates (or Get Extensions).
Plugins like mplayer are apparently a special category of add-ons.

Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 Updates both found the same Adblock Plus 1.02 update
but 1.02 does not work with Firefox 1.5 so this feature is not helpful.
When I updated Adblock Plus with 2.0, it got disabled in 1.5 (message at startup about this). It makes a HUGE difference if you browse with images turned on.

Seamonkey 1.1 is based on the same code as Firefox 2 but works with fewer extensions. Such as transliterator.

So far Firefox 2 has not crashed.

Page Down is not working for either version (down arrow is) and you need to click three times to expand lists.

I also want to try in BL their version of DILLO, to which they somehow
added frames and SSL, not found in the official version. (Which needs the
X11 headers to compile, along with precompiled FLTK toolkit).

DSL 4.3 uses dillo 0.8.5 gtk1.
DSL dillo 'could not find any fonts' when used with Xvesa.
The dillo 0.8.6 that I compiled and posted finds its fonts.
0.8.5 uses version 1.2 of libgtk/gdk/glib/gmodule also png jpeg

The latest dsl dillo I think is fltk version. I don't have it yet.
When downloading large files with lynx you need TWICE as much free space as the file requires because it gets saved in /tmp and then copied to where you request. I ran out of hard drive space on the laptop.
/tmp is emptied when you exit lynx. Do the largest download first.

Sindi Keesan




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