Linux snapshot alternative install script
-
Thanks for the new Snapshot. I'm wondering that we moved to 2.0. Was there an announcement?
Found and old regression: Start Page shows wrong favicon after start.
Left the favicon if Start Page is untouched, right the favicon if the Start Page is or was active.mf
Environment: Windows 10 (x64), Vivaldi x64, 2.0.1296.4
-
The script will probably install past the package management, which is not good.
Not good and not optimal are two different things. The script does what it says and provides an uninstaller. Furthermore it does not default to installing in any of the same locations as pacman. It installs to either "$HOME/.local/share" or "/usr/local/share". Arch packaging standards state that they should never include "/home" or "/usr/local". Read up on XDG and FHS and the Arch packaging standards, if you want to know more.
So in summary the script has been carefully thought out and in that sense it is good but yes I agree a native package is generally better, when available.
P.S. The Herecura repo is intended for Arch not Manjaro. This distinction matters because Manjaro is not always close enough to Arch that using it is free from issues. For a repackage of a binary like Vivaldi it should be fine but installing the codecs package and others that are built on Arch could cause problems if the library versions on Arch and Manjaro are out of sync, as they have been in the past, "which is not good". That is why there is a big warning on the page when you load it in a browser. Be a little more cautious with what you recommend and if you are already aware of these kinds of issues, remember to mention it to new users.
-
I think Flatpak and snap are good alternatives for browsers but actually i would really like to see an AppImage for Vivaldi Snapshots.
The last Snapshot has been barely usable for me and with an AppImage i could easily check if the snapshot is any good and decide if i want to install it or not. Also if there is only a problem with my installed version, it would give me a hint where the problem might be. -
@sophos02: I'm not sure I see AppImage gives you any advantage in your example use case, over what is already offered. In fact it is more steps:
An AppImage:
- Download the Vivaldi.AppImage
- Make it executable
- Run it
- (Optionally) delete it if not required
This script:
- Run the sample code
- Run Vivaldi
- (Optionally) run the the uninstall script it if not required
The AppImage also complicates some aspects. You need to do an additional action to integrate with the desktop environment and give the user provide a way to undo that (given there is no uninstall routine). For us to offer another full set of packages and yet more download options, the advantages need to be much clearer.
P.S. I am a fan of AppImages FWIW. The whole concept is a very clever and simple (which I mean in the most positive way), but I am not convinced that they would be better for you, given what you describe you would like them for.
-
The last Snapshot has been barely usable for me
Would you like to expand on that?
EDIT: never mind, you did. Old libffmpeg
-
@ruario
You are probably right about that usecase. I just think AppImages are great to check new features be it beta versions or snapshots or alternative software. Aren' t browsers a paragon for that?Would you like to expand on that?
Every tab with an embedded video crashes instantly.
Might be due to an outdated extras-ffmpeg. I did not test that yet,but i guess even if thats true the tab did not crash completely in the past :D,so maybe it is some other package not directly related to vivaldi?
Fresh profile did not help (but i got rid of some 'Unable to move cache folder' error that probably slipped through for quite some time.. :D).As expected, it was due to an outdated libffmpeg
-
@sophos02: It is almost certainly an old libffmeg.so. With the Chromium update you need a newer one.
-
I just think AppImages are great to check new features be it beta versions or snapshots or alternative software.
Sure, but they aren't the only or (always) the best way. For example, I just added
twoa command line switchesto the development version of this script.The second one in particular,This should handle your suggested use case:--launch
: This immediately launches Vivaldi after install is complete--test
: This starts Vivaldi after it is unpacked (but before installation) and runs it with a clean (test) profile, so you can try it out before you proceed to install. When you have finished testing, you are prompted, if you want to continue on to install or not. It also cleans up after itself.
In a script like this, it is pretty easy to add such features.
-
Ok, I changed it again slightly. I removed the
--launch
and made launching the default (when possible) on first install and added a--no-launch
switch, in case anyone wants/needs to disable this. -
@cqoicebordel: I run it with a systemd timer and it works great.
-
I have updated the blog post to mention the test option
-
@ruario
I really like the script and the new flags. Thank you.@ruario said in Linux snapshot alternative install script:
@sophos02: It is almost certainly an old libffmeg.so. With the Chromium update you need a newer one.
Yes, i suspected it as soon as i found out, that every page with an embedded video caused the tab to crash immediately after loading (video did not even have to run).
However, the libffmpeg file i had installed was outdated for a longer time (i only had the one from the package manager installed)
I did not bother doing anything about it because only some videos would not play and it did not affect anything else before.
Looking at my other system, there was perhaps something else wrong (in my /opt/vivaldi-snapshot folder?)...Edit: i found the culprit:
chromium-ffmpeg-extra-64.0.3282.134-7.8.x86_64 causes the tab to crash whereas
chromium-ffmpeg-extra-64.0.3282.134-7.5.x86_64 was still fine, so probably not related to vivaldi but i won't test chromium.. -
@sophos02: 64.0.3282.134 is a very old chromium-ffmpeg-extra in terms of using a snapshot. Can't you upgrade to a 69 version?
-
@ruario
@ruario said in Linux snapshot alternative install script:
@sophos02: 64.0.3282.134 is a very old chromium-ffmpeg-extra in terms of using a snapshot. Can't you upgrade to a 69 version?
Yes, i already did. I just wanted to find out what was wrong because my laptop with an even older version of libffmpeg.so had no problems.
version 64 is just the newest stable one that is available in the (semi-)official repos. I used it before because it did not cause any major troubles until that one point release -
@sophos02: Ok, well ideally you would use something newer than that I suspect you might still run into issues. If you want help getting something newer, I'd be happy to assist.
-
I really like the script and the new flags. Thank you.
No, thank you!
They are there because your feedback made me think about the issue more and how we could handle it better.
-
@gwen-dragon: I have since decided not to recommend piping the shell script directly to
sh
. Better to download the script and run it directly. The script will notify the user of updates to itself, in any case. -
Just made a few small updates
- Rely less on GNU specific switches and make the script work on busybox distros
- Fall back to using local files when neither Wget nor cURL is installed locally
- Handle updates to the script more cleverly (i.e. don't overwrite files)
Those first two points allow the script to work on even more distros. Indeed it will now run on distros, where Vivaldi won't even work!
-
Great work, thanks !
-
@ruario said in Linux snapshot alternative install script:
vvld.in is our own domain/shortner service and the short version is easier to remember.
I disagree:
install-vivaldi.sh
<- says what it is
inst-lnx
<- do I install linux or lynx if I click on that? </ducks-into-cover>