Podcast clients for Puppy?

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, kiddiwinks.

Now then; Uncle Mike's got a query for y'all.

I'm looking around for a standalone podcast client for Puppy. I understand many of the media players will permit you to listen to 'em, but does anyone have any experience of one that does function in Puppy?

I've done a fair bit of research this morning. I've tried a couple of Electron-based AppImages - CPod, and Vocal - neither of which will behave themselves. (CPod, in particular, says it's looking for something called a .yml URL file descriptor.....in the "headers", of all places..!)

Surely to Christ I haven't got to have the kernel_sources SFS loaded just to run a podcast client??

Tried gPodder, installed from the PPM - I'm in Bionicpup64 today - and all it does is segfault. Doesn't want to know.

Anybody have any other suggestions? (*Pretty please.....with sprinkles on?*) What about some of the RSS feedreaders.....I understand some of those will handle podcasts, too, though I want one where I can "open" a downloaded podcast, and just play it. That's all I'm really after...


Mike.

[Semme]

You must've come across [blank], right? Ah, prolly don't want that anyway.

[memo]

@Mike Walsh

I tried the following three and they are all working on xenial 32 bit

1) gpodder --> work but was slow and not intutive for me
2)thunderbird has also feed reader but then you can open the attachemtns( the podcast set itself as an attachment) on the local player
3) quite rss --> it is just a feed reader, clean and intutive

cheers!

[Mike Walsh]

Well, I've come up with one of my usual, slightly "oddball" solutions. (Some lateral thinking, here, y'know?)

Couldn't find a podcast app that would behave itself at all.....but there's plenty of websites online that'll do what I want....and more. So I've once again used the tools available in the Chromium 'clones' - in this case, my favourite clone, Iron.......and created my own "desktop app".

In this case, creating an a/c at Player.FM. Followed the set-up steps, and ended up with my own 'Subscriptions' a/c page.

---------------------------------

To turn this into a desktop "app", you go into the Menu (three vertical dots), top-right corner → More Tools... → Create shortcut.

You get this wee window:-





Make sure to tick the checkbox for 'Create window', and edit the name to what you want it to appear as. Then OK it. To see your "app" in action, go to Apps; this is the little square of coloured dots at the far left end of the Bookmarks bar. You'll see this:-





....and your chosen "app" will be showing in the Apps window. Clicking on it will launch your selected page in its own window.

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That's created your app. Now; we want to make it so we can launch it from the Menu, all by itself. So, what ya do is this.....

Right-click on the "App" itself. You'll see this sub-menu:-





Click on 'Create shortcuts'. You'll get another wee window appear:-





Just make sure 'Desktop' is checked; don't bother with 'Applications menu', 'cos this doesn't work in Puppy in quite the same way as it does in the mainstream distros.

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Open a ROX-filer window on /root. Open the 'Desktop' directory, and you should find something like this:-





This is the 'Iron'-generated .desktop entry.....but Puppy can't use this. Not directly... So:-

We create a script in /root/my-applications/bin.....which reads as follows:-

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#
# Fire up Player.FM by itself
#
/mnt/sda3/SYSTEM/BROWSERS/64-bit/Iron-portable/iron64/chrome --user-data-dir=/mnt/sda3/SYSTEM/BROWSERS/PROFILES/Iron/PROFILE --profile-directory=Default --app-id=gcapdoephmdldmkocfboagofcfenjokc --no-sandbox

We specify:-

- The /path to the browser's main executable (Iron uses 'chrome')
- The /path to the --user-data-directory (the main profile)
- The profile to use (for this, it's always Default)
- The --app-id. To get this, right-click on that desktop entry in /root/Desktop, and hit 'Properties'. You'll see like the following, and you copy the bit I've demonstrated below:-





You're after that long, random string of letters; that is the "--app-id". This is what tells the browser to fire up on that specific page. The string will vary from one "app" to another, but: it will always be the same string for a specific app, regardless of which Puppy you're in.....

- Finally, we add the "--no-sandbox" switch.

Save, and exit. To test this is working, click on the newly-created script; with any luck, you'll see your "app" window appear, all by itself, without opening the browser proper. Like this:-

[Click to enlarge:-]





-----------------------------------

Now we just create a .desktop entry in /usr/share/applications. Right-click in an empty bit of the window, and select 'Blank file'. In this case, it's named 'PlayerFM.desktop'. Open the newly-created file, and add as follows:-

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Player.FM
Comment=Run PlayerFM as a standalone app....
Exec=/root/my-applications/bin/PlayerFM
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/playerfm.png
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=X-Internet-browser;

Point the 'Exec' line to the script you created in /root/my-application/bin, and organise yourself a suitable PNG icon via a web search....this can go in /usr/share/pixmaps.

Run 'fixmenus' in the terminal, and re-start 'X'. I believe the 'Rebuild Menus' item in the Logout GUI does the same thing, though I always do this the old-fashioned way.....'cos I'm used to it.

---------------------------------------------------------

Now, you can start your "App" direct from the Menu, without firing up the browser itself:-

[Click to enlarge:-]





Et voilá, mesdames et messieurs! How to turn any web-page into a desktop "app" with the Chromium-based browsers... I detailed all this once before, but that was before I had access to Fred's GIF-creation tools.....so I figured it was time for an update!


Mike.

[gabtech]

@Mike Walsh

Thanks for the tutorial on how to turn a webpage into desktop app.

[Mike Walsh]

@Mike Walsh

Thanks for the tutorial on how to turn a webpage into desktop app.

You're welcome. I hope it proves useful for you, though please remember; this won't work for Firefox.....this is specific to any of the 'clones'.

There IS a way to achieve the same effect for Firefox, but it's a bit more clunky, and doesn't look quite so good.


Mike.

[mikeslr]

this won't work for Firefox.....this is specific to any of the 'clones'.
There IS a way to achieve the same effect for Firefox, but it's a bit more clunky, and doesn't look quite so good. Mike.

Emphasis mine.

Actually, I'd say less. But that's because:
(a) Yesterday (I think it was) semme who gave an example of a /usr/share/desktop file with the Exec= argument having a "%U" and I had to look up what that did; and
(b) Truth be told I haven't yet figured out how to get a URL for Player.FM. Maybe it only works with Chromium-clones.

But, if you have to resort to a "dedicated" web URL, this will work with any web-browser. You need three things besides an actually working web-brower.

(1) The url of a pod-cast 'collector' such as http://www.cloud-caster.com/
(2) An icon of your choice in a location you can remember, such as /usr/share/pixmaps
(3) A /usr/share/desktop file such as the following named 'cloud-caster.desktop' with these arguments:

Name=cloud-caster
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/MY-ICON.png
Comment=Opens to http://www.cloud-caster.com/ #(OPTIONAL -- THIS LINE ISN'T REQUIRED)*
Exec=defaultbrowser http://www.cloud-caster.com/
Terminal=false
Type=Application #(ALSO OPTIONAL)*
Categories=X-Internet-browser

Opens to cloud-caster.com in your default web-browser. Change the Exec= from "defaultbrowser" to the Exec= argument used in any web-browser's desktop files to use other than your default webbrowser; e.g.

Exec=/root/my-applications/bin/vivaldi http://www.cloud-caster.com/

-=-=-=-=-=-
* I'm not sure how to include a comment on a line in a desktop file: that is something a Human can read but an operating system will ignore. Given that state of ignorance, in practice I would either leave the line out, entirely, or not include the comment.

[memo]

@ Mike Walsh

peppermint linux do that as well with something called Ice, donot know if it works on puppy. The second thing I would like to understand whether this method provides any benefits in reagd to cpu power and resources or you maybe just like it this way ( it looks nice and thanks for the tutorial).

why this is different than just making a short cut of the browsr luncher on the desktop then just click that specific bookmark. in other words, the end results are click start menu -->then the menu entery, hence two clicks. there is also click the desktop shortcut-->then the bookmark entery, thus also two clicks. can you maybe explain why you would choose the method you explained earlier over the normal shortcut method.

regrads,

[Mike Walsh]

@ memo:-

I seriously doubt it has any benefits with regards to CPU usage/power consumption.....with either method, Chrome "app" or Mike's FF method, the browser is still running in the background anyway.

I experimented with this a few years back, and my current hardware makes my old tower look like a snail struggling through thick molasses; this new tower is so much more powerful & capable there really isn't any comparison. Fact of the matter is, it's largely irrelevant which of the 2 methods you use anyway, since ALL modern browsers are so much "heavier" than they were a decade ago.....due, mainly, to websites being so much more demanding now.

The other thing I like about this is the ability to resize the window, and move it around the screen; it remembers this, and will always re-open in the same location.....great if you're sharing a 'portable' between Puppies; all you need to do is install a separate MenuEntry in each Puppy, pointing to the portable.....and there's your "app", all ready to go.

(This pre-supposes that the Puppy in question is capable of running the browser in the first place..!)

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@ mikeslr:-

Mike, the only thing I would add here is that you need to use a new profile for each of these FF "instances". Because with the way Firefox works, if you have FF open already, then try to open a second instance of the browser on a specific web-site your way, all it does is to 'flip' the first instance of the browser across and add the new URL to an extra tab. You might just as well run the browser as normal if you want to do it like that.

I do things this way because I can have a "standalone" instance of a browser dedicated to one particular thing. I like the way it looks, and because I simply CAN.....but it's not a method I'd recommend for lower resource hardware. Even the old Compaq struggled with it, if I'm perfectly honest.

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I just felt it was worth re-explaining the concept again. As with everything I produce/post about, there's no "arm-twisting" involved here.....all I'm doing is offering yet another optional way of doing something. Nobody's forcing anyone to do summat they don't want to..!

I appreciate that for many of you, this whole exercise probably seems like a complete and utter waste of time; if the browser is running in the background anyway, why not just open the browser and be done with it? Well, I don't know about anybody else, but when I'm getting my "fix" of NetFlix, for example, I'm incapable of giving my full attention to something else on another tab anyway.....so for me me, this "solution" works well. In the "app" window, you don't have an address bar, nor do you have access to your bookmarks; you can step back & forth, or re-load within that domain, but not much else. So it truly is "standalone" in that respect.

And it's simply a demonstration of one of the tricks you can perform with Chromium-based browsers if you've got the inclination (and the patience) to implement it.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.....

(*shrug*)


Mike.

[mikeslr]

Hi Mike,

"Mike, the only thing I would add here is that you need to use a new profile for each of these FF "instances". Because with the way Firefox works, if you have FF open already, then try to open a second instance of the browser on a specific web-site your way, all it does is to 'flip' the first instance of the browser across and add the new URL to an extra tab. You might just as well run the browser as normal if you want to do it like that."

I hadn't thought of that. Probably would never have realized it because I do most of my surfing using palemoon; and I would have set it up to use your vivaldi-portable which didn't have the problems my post noted about palemoon.

Of course, if I'm going to use vivaldi for podcasts, I might as well employ your technique to create a Player.FM 'standalone'.

It's great that there are Puppies which are able to manage what is necessary even on resource limited computers. But it's also great that running from more capable computers you can pretty much do whatever you can think up.

[Keef]

pMusic?
It does podcasts.

[mikeslr]

Logged in about 2 hours after my post above to add that setting up vivaldi to use Play.FM as a standalone had just surfaced as a good idea for my system.

@ Keef "pMusic? It does podcasts." Bionicpup64 doesn't have pMusic builtin. But it did have Simple Gtk Radio, and I had added DogRadio. AFAIK, any application capable of playing streaming radio can play podcasts. But after figuring out how Simple Gtk Radio gets its list, and reading the instructions for adding stations to DogRadio, I suspect what gets complex is having the application list the RS feed or RS feed-choices. That's where Play.FM and Cloudcaster.com simplify matters.

I've opened a thread which will, hopefully, provide links to other "displayers" of RS Feeds. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 43#1062343