Guide | Vivaldi on 🐌 Old / Low End Computers

Zalex108

@Catweazle

I've used ReadyBoost but you need a fast Pen to notice it.

Zalex108

As some more aditions:

On W7 / W10:

Index the Common Places with mostly no changes
- Disable Index but keep the DB to search from Start
Use IndexYourFiles or EveryThing
Use a HostsFile
Try to learn about how to browse and leave the AV away - except if external / unknown devices are plugged - Try ClamWin or Linux
Keep Run slim
Disable unnecessary Services - ️ Get the needed info before, annotate original state -
Clean the System regularly - Defrag, cCleaner, %AppData%, Drivers...
Clean the Computer regularly - Fan, repaste CPU, Keyboard...
Keep Fan entries free - Elevate Laptops
BackUp regularly - Apps and System

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If everything fails...

--

:smiling_face_with_open_mouth_cold_sweat:

Catweazle

@Zalex108 , yes, you need a fast pendrive, but even with this, it only make sens in old PC with very low resources, but a fast pendrive is a less problem as to buy a new PC, and cheaper.
And if this fails too, try a small Linux distro before this

alt text

Zalex108

27.09.2021 Guide update:

Lazy Load deprecated since Chr93

FrankMCG

I borrow an old notebook from my grandma. A stupid situation for sure, but your manuals are perfect, it works!
Thanks in advance

Zalex108

@frankmcg

Hi,

Good!

Despite some Tricks has been deprecated, some still allow to browse acceptably on old computers.

Check again for new update.

Zalex108

01.11.2021 Guide update:

Lazy Load / Turn Off Media Cache has been deprecated since Chr94 / V4.3
Added CRX to Tab Suspender (memory saver) 2.4.0

edwardp

On Linux, it also helps to use a desktop environment for an older system, that is light on resources, such as LXDE or LXQt.

edwardp

And not only should one use a desktop environment light on resources, also check the motherboard battery, if you use an older system.

My 13-year old desktop powered on this morning, but, the manufacturer screen where it indicates to press F10 to enter the BIOS, would not appear. The last time this occurred (a couple of years ago), I removed the battery to reset the CMOS and reinserted it. Then, everything was fine until this morning. Repeated the battery remove/reinsert, but this time it had no effect. This was with the original battery.

Purchased a two-pack of the batteries (this motherboard takes the CR2032) and installed a new battery. Screen to enter BIOS then came up. Fixed the date and time and made the necessary other changes in the BIOS. Rebooted and it's working again.

edwardp

@Zalex108 said in Guide | Vivaldi on Old / Low end Computers:

--enable-low-end-device-mode --single-process --process-per-site  --process-per-tab

I created a new desktop launcher in Linux on the newer of the two desktops (12 years old) and with these same flags, Vivaldi would not even launch. These flags might not apply to Linux.

I am otherwise trying Vivaldi now with Hardware Acceleration turned off, just to see if it makes any difference, speed-wise. As for YouTube, videos remain fine. I'm not noticing any degradation in the quality. The GPU is integrated.

VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS780L [Radeon 3000] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

Zalex108

@edwardp

Cannot assure right now, but IIR I've used them in Mint 17/19 months ago.

What distro are you using?

edwardp

@Zalex108

Zalex108

@edwardp

Oh!

Then IDK,
Maybe something changed in recent version, Distros or I'm mistaken.

In next weeks I would try again in Mint and see.

Haw did You notice they aren't working?

edwardp

@Zalex108 The UI didn't appear. I ran ps -e to see if there was a running job for Vivaldi, nothing. No hard drive activity either.

EDIT: I'm trying both Stable and Snapshot with hardware acceleration turned off, to see if it makes any difference, or perhaps speeds something up. Found one text-related issue with Stable that does not occur with Snapshot.

Zalex108

@edwardp

Try with

--enable-low-end-device-mode --process-per-site

edwardp

@Zalex108 Leaving the %U in place, it launched with those two switches.

I created separate desktop launchers. No issues so far with videos, but in checking to see if the text display issue I had with the Ars Technica comments still occurs (it does not), I noticed the quality of the images and the background on their site, is now degraded, whether or not Hardware Acceleration is enabled.

There is a flag #ignore-gpu-blocklist that overrides the software rendering list and enables GPU-acceleration on unsupported system configurations. I'm going to remove the two switches, enable this flag and relaunch it to see if there's a difference.

Hadden89

@Zalex108 You could hide the deprecated parts (which I presume to be broken) under a spoiler, so the guide is

cleaner to read

Zalex108

@Hadden89

It seens the %u is needed for Linux which knew later.
Don't know whether there's a deprecated one or depends on the OS and V Version.

For the moment the tested works on 7 and 11 here

Zalex108

@edwardp

The %U is mentioned here
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/57752/guide-v-dark-menus-background

It seems we have to test between the Flags and Switches till find the best set up.

edwardp

@Zalex108

@edwardp said in Guide | Vivaldi on Old / Low end Computers:

There is a flag #ignore-gpu-blocklist that overrides the software rendering list and enables GPU-acceleration on unsupported system configurations. I'm going to remove the two switches, enable this flag and relaunch it to see if there's a difference.

Looking at vivaldi://gpu afterwards, with the exception of the command line, initialization time and the log messages, the information was the same, with hardware acceleration enabled and with the flag either enabled or disabled.

This is the GPU:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-3000-igp.c482

The only item it doesn't support is DirectX 11 and above. Seems to be a pretty basic GPU.