google chrome linux...

[brokndodge]

i've aquired a very old pII 300 laptop with a minimal 160mb of ram.  i know it's an antique, but at the moment it's all i have.  the netgear pc card is working flawlessly under VL 6, but firefox is slow.  i am running the linux dev version of google chrome at work on a low resource system on top of ubuntu.  not my choice but IT won't let me switch to VL.  firefox takes more than two minutes to load the company e-mail site, google chrome takes less than 2 sexonds.  the entire browser is just blazing fast, plugins and printing are not yet supported, but for the very rare times when i need either, firefox is there.

i would like to try google chrome on this antique computer.  just to see if browsing the web can be sped up.  i tried alien, but it fusses about not being a tar archive. 

Code:

Vector://home/user1/Desktop
root:# alien google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb -t
no entry data.tar.gz in archive

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
Error executing "ar -p google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb data.tar.gz | gzip -dc | tar tf -":  at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0/Alien/Package.pm line 474.

i was wondering if someone with a better system than mine could build a package i could install from the repo.  my old system would just be painful to try to build anything on.  just typing in the post the display is two words behind what i am typing.

Binary release only available as a Debian  package

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb

Instructions for getting Linux source and building Chrome

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxBuildInstructions

thank you kind souls who take pitty on this poor man.  i am getting a raise at work and may actually be able to purchase a decent low end laptop in the next few months.  of course, VL will be immidiately installed.  but in the meantime, i think chrome might just help me out.

[kc1di]

i would like to try google chrome on this antique computer.  just to see if browsing the web can be sped up.  i tried alien, but it fusses about not being a tar archive. 


[/quote]

Unfortunately Google as far as I know has not released their source code yet. The link you mentioned is for a .Debian file. which will work in Ubuntu. But not in VL without being changed around it can be done but not that easy.  In any event give Opera a try if you have VL6.0 Standard installed it's already there.  If it works for you you can upgrade 9.63 to 9.64 by enabling the Testing Repository in Gslapt.

I'll take a longer look at Chrome when time permits me. 

Good Luck,
Dave

Also if you need a minimalist Browser Dillo works well.
it there also or in the repository.

[hata_ph]

I come across this blog saying they can install chrome in slackware....maybe you can have a try..

http://ipapers.blogspot.com/2009/06/installing-google-chrome-in-slackware.html

PS: chrome for linux is still under development, so I am not sure about bug and security issue....

[brokndodge]

I'm sorry, I thought I ad been more clear in my original post.  I am aware that Chrome is early development.  But the webkit and custom java engine are highly tweaked and state of the art.  Chrome is blazing fast even on low resource machines. 

The two links I provided are the available methods for installing chrome.  The first is the binary only available in deb at the moment.  I believe I did post my results of attempting to convert it using alien. The second link is how to get the linux source directly from google.

i am terribly sorry for the confusion.

[brokndodge]

Ok, so I did a lil command line work and got chrome installed from the .deb pachage.  Chrome is crashing on the VL home page, but at least it starts.  I think the problem may be with the required dependencies being to old.

I am aware of the following deps and will try to track down any others:

pango - version 1.20.0 is installed, version 1.22.4 is supposed to work
caira - version 1.6.4 is installed, version 1.8.6 is supposed to work
pixman - version .10.0 is installed, version 0.15.10 is supposed to work

here's how i did it:

download chrome from http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb and save it to your home folder.  (sorry, haven't figured out how to wget it)

then do this:

Code:

cd $home

mkdir chrome
cd chrome
ar x ../google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
cd /
su
tar xf $home/chrome/data.tar

cd /usr/lib

ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libnspr4.so libnspr4.so.0d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libnss3.so libnss3.so.1d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libnssutil3.so libnssutil3.so.1d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libplc4.so libplc4.so.0d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libplds4.so libplds4.so.0d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libsmime3.so libsmime3.so.1d
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/libssl3.so libssl3.so.1d

just type google-chrome on any command line to run it.
Chrome runs, but crash's on the only page i've tried it on.  I'll work on the deps later today.  Once I get it working I think I can set up a script for cron to keep it updated.  Just a quick thought, VL6standard comes with firefox 3.0.6, chrome may need 3.0.8 or later to run, i will investigate this later.

pulled some info from this page:  http://ipapers.blogspot.com/2009/06/installing-google-chrome-in-slackware.html

just hacked the rest on the command line.

[rbistolfi]

The crash seems to be related to ssl features. The error message suggests to relink the library, looks like a native build would solve it.

[brokndodge]

ok, upgraded firefox to 3.5, i can now get yahoo front page to load, but chrome crashes when i click on mail.  vectorlinux.com still crashes.  

google chrome deps from the .deb package and our equal packages:

libasound2 (no version listed) - provided by alsa-lib
libatk1.0-0 (>=1.13.2) - atk-1.22.0-i486-1
libc6 (>=2.6-1) - debians name for glibc, we have glibc-2.7-i486-10
libcairo2 (>=1.4.0) - debians name for cairo, we have cairo-1.6.4-i586-1vl60
libfontconfig1 (>=2.4.0) - fontconfig-2.4.2-i486-2
libfreetype6 (>=2.3.5) - freetype-2.3.8-i586-1vl60
libgcc1 (>=1:4.2.1) - gcc-4.2.3-i486-1?
libglib2.0-0 (>=2.14.0) - glib2-2.16.3-i586-1gsb
libgtk2.0-0 (>=2.12.0) - gtk+2-2.12.9-i486-1
nspr (>=4.7.4) - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_12_3_RTM/src/
nss (>=3.12) - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/nspr/releases/v4.7.4/src/
libpango1.0-0 (>=1.18.3) - pango-1.20.0-i486-1
libstdc++6 (>=4.2.1) - provided by gcc?
lsb-base (>=3.2) - ?
xdg-utils (>=1.0.1) - xdg-utils-1.0.2-i586-1vl60
zlib1g (>=1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-1) - zlib-1.2.3-i486-2?  is this new enough?

thats the best i can figure anyway.  there are a few deps i'm concerned about, beginning to think the only way to do this will be from source.

to rbistofi - i thought that too, but firefox has the same issue with the same library.  i dunno.
-edit- according to: http://codereview.chromium.org/118367 the ssl issue is like you said.  chrome needs to be built on system identicle to target.  they have a hack that is supposed to be committed already that should fix that.  but even still, the problem is not serious enough to cause a crash. 

[brokndodge]

found a missing dep on this page:  http://thinkmoult.com/2009/05/19/how-to-install-chromium-google-chome-on-gentoo-linux/
edit: this IS provided by firefox, and the version with firefox is more recent than the one in the repo. /end edit
nss (>= 3.12) - nss-3.11.9-i586-2gsb, wasn't installed on my system, installed it and chrome got further than it has yet.  but it still crashed! does nss need to be updated?

Code:

Vector:/~
user1:$ google-chrome
/opt/google/chrome/chrome: Symbol `SSL_ImplementedCiphers' has different size in shared object, consider re-linking
/opt/google/chrome/chrome: Symbol `SSL_ImplementedCiphers' has different size in shared object, consider re-linking
[23595:23595:35729665387:ERROR:/b/slave/chrome-official-linux/build/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc(421)] pipe error (7): Connection reset by peer
Segmentation fault

[brokndodge]

so i ran chrome inside of gdb to get a better picture of whats causing the crash.  This is what i got:

Code:

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 0xb60d8b90 (LWP 10432)]
0xb782aa2a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libnss3.so.1d

so the nss that i am using is provided by firefox.   the package in the repo is to old, 3.11.9. chrome fusses about the version and exits.  at least it will run with the nss provided with firefox.  i think my next step is to look for the right version of nss.  according to some of the references i've dug up it should be >=3.12. chrome's error message also ask's for 3.12.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/nss-3.12.3/nss-3.12.3-release-notes.html

edit: i updated the above list of deps.  specifically nss and nspr, still looking into others.  they seem to be maintained by mozilla foundation and distributed in source only.  far as i can tell anyway.  is there a packager available that i could talk into building these and putting in the testing repo?  all of this is guesswork, but as far as i can tell, these two are the problem packages right now.

thank you.

[brokndodge]

I posted a question to Google Chrome support forum in the Crashes catagory with a link back to here.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0d47bf60f0e1acdb&hl=en

[brokndodge]

SUCCESS!!!  I'm posting this from Chrome on Vector Linux.  Man is it fast.  The keyboard is even keeping up with me. 

The key to the whole thing is having latest nss and nspr.  I got nspr 4.7.4 form mozilla and managed to use sbbuilder with a little editing to get a package built well enough to install it.  I couldn't make sbbuilder configure nss.  But I found a slackbuild slackware package for 3.12.3 and installed it.  Success.  For those that want it I am going to post an small installation script and my sbbuilder nspr.SlackBuild as well as a link to the nss package I used.  Might be a long post, but maybe one of the nice packagers can take from my efforts and build a Vector Linux Package for Google Chrome.

nspr.SlackBuild (i never could get the script to wget the src package, have to manually download it and place it in the src directory.  nspr src tarball:  https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/nspr/releases/v4.7.4/src/

Code:

#!/usr/bin/bash
# This script assumes it will be launched within "/NAME/VERSION/src" dir.
# With all sources in "src" Your Vector Linux .tlz package, slack-desc,
# and slack-required will be found in "VERSION" dir. The extraction and
# build will be in a temp dir created in "NAME" dir, and then removed on exit.
# Comment out second to last line to keep this dir intact.
#
# This Template was compiled from the contributions of many users of the Vector
# Linux forum at http://forum.vectorlinux.com and from tidbits collected
# from all over the internet.
#
# Generated by sbbuilder-0.4.12.2, written by Rodrigo Bistolfi
# (rbistolfi) and Raimon Grau Cuscó (Kidd) for VectorLinux.
#
# Please put your name below if you add some original scripting lines.
# AUTHORS =

NAME="nspr"            #Enter package Name!
VERSION=${VERSION:-"4.7.4"}      #Enter package Version!
VER=$(echo $VERSION|sed 's/-/_/') #this fixes - in version
VL_PACKAGER=${VL_PACKAGER:-"BroknDodge"}   #Enter your Name!
LINK=${LINK:-"https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/nspr/releases/v4.7.4/src/nspr-4.7.4.tar.gz --no-check-certificate"}  #Enter URL for package here!


#SYSTEM VARIABLES
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUILDNUM=${BUILDNUM:-"1vl60"}
VL_VERSION=${VL_VERSION:-"$(ls /var/log/packages/|grep vlconfig2|cut -d "-" -f4|cut -c 2-5)"}
BUILD=${BUILD:-"$BUILDNUM""$VL_VERSION"}
ARCH=${ARCH:-"$(uname -m)"}
CONFIG_OPTIONS=${CONFIG_OPTIONS:-""}
LDFLAG_OPTIONS=${LDFLAG_OPTIONS:-""}
ADDRB=${ADDRB:-""} #Add deps that need to be added to the slack-required file here
EXRB=${EXRB:-""} #Add deps that need to be excluded from the slack-required file here
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------


#SETUP PACKAGING ENVIRONMENT
#--------------------------------------------
CWD=$(pwd)
cd ../
RELEASEDIR=$(pwd)
cd $CWD
mkdir -p $RELEASEDIR/tmp
TMP=$RELEASEDIR/tmp
PKG=$TMP/package-$NAME
#--------------------------------------------



if [ $UID != 0 ]; then
   echo "You are not authorized to run this script. Please login as root"
   exit 1
fi

if [ ! -x /usr/bin/requiredbuilder ]; then
   echo "Requiredbuilder not installed, or not executable."
   exit 1
fi

if [ $VL_PACKAGER = "YOURNAME" ]; then
   echo 'Who are you?
   Please edit VL_PACKAGER=${VL_PACKAGER:-YOURNAME} in this script.
   Change the word "YOURNAME" to your VectorLinux packager name.
   You may also export VL_PACKAGER, or call this script with
   VL_PACKAGER="YOUR NAME HERE"'
   exit 1
fi


#CFLAGS SETUP
#--------------------------------------------
if [[ "$ARCH" = i?86 ]]; then
  ARCH=i586
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i586 -mtune=i686"
  CONFIGURE_TRIPLET="i486-slackware-linux"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -fpic"
  CONFIGURE_TRIPLET="x86_64-vlocity-linux"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "powerpc" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2"
  CONFIGURE_TRIPLET="powerpc-vlocity-linux"
fi

export CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS $CFLAG_OPTIONS"
export CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS
export LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS $LDFLAG_OPTIONS"
#--------------------------------------------


#GET THE SOURCE
#--------------------------------------------
for SRC in $(echo $LINK);do
if [ ! -f $CWD/$(basename $SRC) ]
then
        wget -c $SRC
fi
done
#--------------------------------------------


rm -rf $PKG
mkdir -p $PKG
cd $TMP
rm -rf $NAME-$VERSION


#EXTRACT SOURCES
#-----------------------------------------------------
echo "Extracting source..."
tar xvf $CWD/$NAME-$VERSION.tar.* || exit 1
#-----------------------------------------------------


cd $TMP/$NAME-$VERSION

# Put any Patches here
#-----------------------------------------------------
#patch -p1 <
#-----------------------------------------------------
cd mozilla/nsprpub


#SET PERMISSIONS
#-----------------------------------------
echo "Setting permissions..."
chown -R root:root .
find . -perm 664 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 777 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 2777 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 775 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 2755 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 774 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 666 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 600 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 444 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 400 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 440 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -perm 511 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 711 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -perm 555 -exec chmod 755 {} \;
#-----------------------------------------



#CONFIGURE & MAKE
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# If you are building a KDE-related app, then change the following
# arguments in the script below:
# --prefix=$(kde-config -prefix) \
# --sysconfdir=/etc/kde \
#
# Making these changes will ensure that your package will build in the
# correct path and that it will work seamlessly within the KDE environment.
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------

echo "Configuring source..."
./configure --prefix=/usr \
  --sysconfdir=/etc \
  --localstatedir=/var \
  --mandir=/usr/man \
  --with-included-gettext \
  --disable-debug \
  --program-prefix="" \
  --program-suffix="" \
  --build=$CONFIGURE_TRIPLET \
  $CONFIG_OPTIONS || exit 1

make || exit 1

make install DESTDIR=$PKG || exit


#######################################################################
#Miscellenious tweaks and things outside a normal ./configure go here #
#######################################################################



mkdir -p $PKG/usr/doc/$NAME-$VERSION
cp -a AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog Credits MANIFEST README TODO \
$PKG/usr/doc/$NAME-$VERSION
cat $CWD/$NAME.SlackBuild > $PKG/usr/doc/$NAME-$VERSION/$NAME.SlackBuild

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

if [ -d $PKG/usr/share/man ] ; then
mkdir -p $PKG/usr/man
mv $PKG/usr/share/man/* $PKG/usr/man
rm -rf $PKG/usr/share/man
fi
find $PKG/usr/man -type f -exec gzip -9 {} \;

if [ -d $PKG/usr/share/info ] ; then
mkdir -p $PKG/usr/info
mv $PKG/usr/share/info/* $PKG/usr/info
rm -rf $PKG/usr/share/info
fi

find $PKG/usr/info -type f -exec gzip -9 {} \;
mkdir -p $PKG/install
if [ -d $PKG/usr/info ] ; then
cat >> $PKG/install/doinst.sh << EOF
cd usr/info
if [ -f dir ]; then
    rm dir
fi
if [ -f dir.gz ]; then
    rm dir.gz
fi
for i in *.info.gz
        do
        install-info $i dir
    done
EOF
fi

mkdir -p $PKG/install


#if there is a slack-desc in src dir use it
if test -f $CWD/slack-desc; then
cp $CWD/slack-desc $RELEASEDIR/slack-desc
else
# This creates the white space in front of "handy-ruler" in slack-desc below.

LENGTH=$(expr length "$NAME")
SPACES=0
SHIM=""
until [ "$SPACES" = "$LENGTH" ]; do
SHIM="$SHIM "
let SPACES=$SPACES+1
done

# Fill in the package summary between the () below.
# Then package the description, License, Author and Website.
# There may be no more then 11 $NAME: lines in a valid slack-desc.

cat > $RELEASEDIR/slack-desc << EOF
# HOW TO EDIT THIS FILE:
# The "handy ruler" below makes it easier to edit a package description.  Line
# up the first '|' above the ':' following the base package name, and the '|'
# on the right side marks the last column you can put a character in.  You must
# make exactly 11 lines for the formatting to be correct.  It's also
# customary to leave one space after the ':'.

$SHIM|-----handy-ruler------------------------------------------------------|
$NAME: $NAME ()
$NAME:
$NAME:
$NAME:
$NAME:
$NAME:
$NAME:
$NAME: License: GPL
$NAME: Authors:
$NAME: Website:

EOF
fi
cat >> $RELEASEDIR/slack-desc << EOF



#----------------------------------------
BUILDDATE: $(date)
PACKAGER:  $VL_PACKAGER
HOST:      $(uname -srm)
DISTRO:    $(cat /etc/vector-version)
CFLAGS:    $CFLAGS
LDFLAGS:   $LDFLAGS
CONFIGURE: $(awk "/\.\/configure\ /" $TMP/$NAME-$VERSION/config.log)

EOF

cat $RELEASEDIR/slack-desc > $PKG/install/slack-desc

#STRIPPING
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cd $PKG
echo " "
echo "Stripping...."
echo " "
find . | xargs file | grep "executable" | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null
find . | xargs file | grep "shared object" | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


#FINISH PACKAGE
#--------------------------------------------------------------
echo "Finding dependencies..."
ADD="$ADDRB" EXCLUDE="$EXRB" requiredbuilder -v -y -s $RELEASEDIR $PKG
echo "Creating package $NAME-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.tlz"
makepkg -l y -c n $RELEASEDIR/$NAME-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.tlz

cd $CWD
echo "Cleaning up temp files..." && rm -rf $TMP
echo "Package Complete"
#--------------------------------------------------------------

# vim: set tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 foldmethod=marker : ##

i found a SlackBuild script for nss:  http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/mozilla-nss/build/mozilla-nss.SlackBuild

or you can just get connie's SlackWare nss package:  http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/mozilla-nss/pkg/12.2/


My install-chrome.sh script, it assumes google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb is in the users home directory, written to abuse sudo. Can also be used to get the latest buildbot snapshot.  Use the links in my earlier posts to get the .deb

Code:

chmod 755 install-chrome.sh
./install-chrome.sh

install-chrome.sh

Code:

#!/bin/bash
function dowhat {
###########################
#
# First run or update?
#
###########################

echo
echo
echo "Do we need to create the simlinks? (y/n)"
read YN
if [ "$YN" = "y" ]; then
simlinks
fi
}

function simlinks {
cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s libnspr4.so libnspr4.so.0d
sudo ln -s libnss3.so libnss3.so.1d
sudo ln -s libnssutil3.so libnssutil3.so.1d
sudo ln -s libplc4.so libplc4.so.0d
sudo ln -s libplds4.so libplds4.so.0d
sudo ln -s libsmime3.so libsmime3.so.1d
sudo ln -s libssl3.so libssl3.so.1d

quit
}

function quit {
echo
echo
echo "Are you sure your done? (y/n)"
read YN
if [ "$YN" = "n" ]; then
main
else
exit 0
fi

}

function clean-up {
rm -R $HOME/chrome
}

function deb {
echo
echo
echo "Are you sure you want to install"
echo "Chrome from Deb? (y/n)"
read YN
if [ "$YN" = "n" ]; then
main
else

mkdir $HOME/chrome
cd $HOME/chrome
echo Unpacking the deb file...
ar -x $HOME/google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb
echo Extracting Google Chrome...
lzma -d data.tar.lzma
cd /
echo Installing Google Chrome...
echo Password may be required
sudo tar xf $HOME/chrome/data.tar
fi
dowhat
echo
echo
echo "Do you want me to clean up? (y/n)"
echo
read YN
if [ "$YN" = "y" ]; then
echo Cleaning up my mess...
clean-up
else
echo You will have to manually
echo remove $HOME/chrome before
echo Next Install!!!
fi

echo Installation complete!
echo Just type google-chrome
quit

}

function buildbot {
echo
echo
echo "Are you sure you want to install"
echo "Chrome from the Buildbot? (y/n)"
read YN
if [ "$YN" = "n" ]; then
main
else

rm -R $HOME/chrome-linux
mkdir $HOME/chromium-buildbot
cd $HOME/chromium-buildbot
wget -r -nH -nd http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-linux/LATEST

#Open file for reading to array
exec 10< LATEST
read BUILD <&10
echo Getting build number:  $BUILD
exec 10>&-
rm LATEST
wget http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-linux/$BUILD/chrome-linux.zip
unzip -d $HOME/ chrome-linux.zip
cd $HOME
rm -R $HOME/chromium-buildbot
fi
echo Installation complete!
cd $home/chrome-linux
echo just type ./chrome
quit
}

function main {
echo
echo
echo Which Version of Chrome Do you want to install?
echo
select i in deb buildbot simlinks quit
do
[ "$i" = "deb" ] && deb
[ "$i" = "buildbot" ] && buildbot
[ "$i" = "simlinks" ] && dowhat
[ "$i" = "quit" ] && quit
done
}

main
quit

Please forgive my sloppy code, I'm fairly new to shell scripting.  I appriciate all the help from the folks that offered suggestions in all three of my forum posts on this topic.  We've been thru a long journey in the last few days.  I hope one day soon to see a Google Chrome package in the repo.  Sorry, I didn't build it form source, my system is just not big enough.

I won't mark this thread solved, it's not a package... yet.

/*edit once i got done enjoying my browsing experience on this ancient machine running google chrome, i remembered to test the build bot version.  still no go, i may post a bug report to chromium about it.  seems like if the .deb installs fine, then so should the buildbot.  anyway, i hope someone benifits from all this work. endit*/

[stretchedthin]

Awesome job!!!  More impressive considering the specks of the machine you were working with.  I'm also impressed by the superior speed of chrome after reading your previous description of firefox.  How about the plug-ins? Is flash to much to ask?

[Daniel]

brokndodge: Does your install script let you install directly from the .deb file so you don't have to make the package? Or do you still have to make the package and dependencies?

Also, a suggestion for the install script... Instead of using sudo a lot, you could check and make sure that the user runs the script as root. Then when it is run as root, all root only actions would work.

[brokndodge]

stretchedthin:  plug-in support has been added to chrome, but it's still buggy.  i understand that flash should work, tho i haven't tested it.  plug-ins are disabled by default.  --enable-plugins is how you enable them, iirc. -- edit: flash does work, tried hulu.com.  everything loaded fine, but on my ancient pII it was dreadfully slow.  better than firefox tho, even simple flash apps won't run in firefox on this machine.  simple flash apps run fine in chrome, but something like streaming video is just beyond the capability of this old machine. :endit---

Daniel:  my script installs directly from the .deb, no tgz or tlz package is created.  i just crack the .deb and pull the parts i need.  as far as running from root, should be easy to do for someone thats used to working as root.  i came from the ubuntu world where sudo is king.  $HOME would have to be switched to a local variable and some other major changes.  but i'm going to look into it.  i can probably look at one of the SlackBuild scripts to see how to test for root.

i also have to figure out the update mechanism for google-chrome.  the latest update is even faster than the one i have installed.  i keep thinking that i can wget the .deb somehow and maybe wget from the google repository.

if we can get nspr >= 4.7.4 and nss >= 3.12.3 into the repo, installation of google-chrome should be a breeze.  i will clean up my install script and set it up to be run at root.  i'll also remove all the prompts, i was working with a single script to do a lot of different things during my testing.   

thx for the kind comments.

[Daniel]

Great! I've been wanting to try Chrome so I'll probably use your script to install it. Do I still need to make the dependencies though?

When I make scripts that need to be run as root, I use something like this at the beginning of the script:

if [ $UID != 0 ];then
  echo "You must run this script as root."
  exit 0
fi