Swiftfox Browser, How to install? Does it Crash? Any Good?

[john biles]

Hello Everyone,
I've been having trouble with Seamonkey crashing and have read on this forum that some of you are having better luck with the "Swiftfox" Browser.

How did you install it and is it any good, what about Flash and Java Plugins?

As Swiftfox is based on Firefox I assume that these plugins shouldn't be a problem.

[WhoDo]

I've been having trouble with Seamonkey crashing and have read on this forum that some of you are having better luck with the "Swiftfox" Browser.

How did you install it and is it any good, what about Flash and Java Plugins?

As Swiftfox is based on Firefox I assume that these plugins shouldn't be a problem.

The problem in Seamonkey is related to Flash 9 and affects ALL Mozilla products. Search the forum for my Flashfix.pup which will resolve the issues by replacing the flakey Flash 9 files in the /root/.mozilla directory.

If you want Swiftfox, which is better and faster than either Firefox or Seamonkey, go to their website (search Google) and download the installer for your processor. When you click on that it will be installed for you whereever you tell it you want it to go. Then drag the swiftfox program script to the desktop and you're in business.

Hope that helps.

[debernardis]

Quite likely, you'll have to edit the install script to delete all the "sudo" stuff for issuing shell commands as root.

[WhoDo]

Quite likely, you'll have to edit the install script to delete all the "sudo" stuff for issuing shell commands as root.

Absolutely, yes! I'd forgotten about that little exercise, debernardis. Thanks for chiming in with that one!

[vovchik]

Dear Puppy-handlers,

I went to the author's site and downloaded his P4 binary (2.0.0.1) manually after downloading his install script and checking it out (it's very simple). Just wget the right file and unpack in the desired location - in my case, a separate .SFS with my apps, in a directory called sf. I then ran the swiftfox.sh from within the /sf/swiftfox dir (./swiftfox.sh) and everything was fine (except for the "start page" problem referred to above). My existing firefox extensions were installed properly, as were my bookmarks.

I don't really know yet whether swiftfox is any better or faster that it's older brother but I will try to investigate. One problem I did notice - and it is not trivial - is that the "find on page" function did not work (not on the status bar and not by invoking ctrl-F). It continues to work in my trusty firefox 1.5.0.7.

With kind regards,
Vovchik (Puppy v.2.10 with lots of add-ons)

[john biles]

Thanks WhoDo and debernardis,
I will try it out.

[EdFromHouston]

I think I extracted Swiftfox 2.0.0.1 to /Opt (I made the directory) and it worked fine. Flash 9 crashed though so I went back to Seamonkey to save space. I did see an improvement over Firefox 2.0.0.1 though.

[WhoDo]

I think I extracted Swiftfox 2.0.0.1 to /Opt (I made the directory) and it worked fine. Flash 9 crashed though so I went back to Seamonkey to save space. I did see an improvement over Firefox 2.0.0.1 though.

You could also simply have run the Fixflash dotpup I uploaded in this thread. It reverts the flash content to Flash 7, so resolving the crash.

[EdFromHouston]

So you're saying it allows the flash 9 dotpup to read flash 9 content as flash 7.25 stopping the crash? In other words it doesn't just revert the flash player back to flash 7.25 but enhances the capability of the flash 9 player by allowing it to read flash 9 without crashing?

I downloaded it and will try it if it will allow me to view flash 9.

[basslord1124]

And I don't wanna hijack too much from the real discussion of the thread.

But I was actually wondering about other web browser alternatives. I was wanting something with the functionality of Firefox but something a little lighter for my slow machines. I'm assuming Swiftfox would be a good alternative?

[WhoDo]

So you're saying it allows the flash 9 dotpup to read flash 9 content as flash 7.25 stopping the crash? In other words it doesn't just revert the flash player back to flash 7.25 but enhances the capability of the flash 9 player by allowing it to read flash 9 without crashing?

I downloaded it and will try it if it will allow me to view flash 9.

Nope. It replaces Flash 9 with Flash 7 to restore a crashing system to almost normal use. It still can't read Flash 9 sites, unfortunately. It gives the Firefox/Seamonkey/Mozilla user enough Flash functionality for routine use, though.

As far as Flash 9 goes, I believe the problems stem from the default configurations in the Flash Settings Manager. The only way to change those is to connect to Adobe's Flash website with Flash 9 installed and adjust the global security settings. I'm still testing to see what is necessary. Flashfix is a workaround to prevent you from having to do without Firefox while I do that. That's all.

Hope that helps.

[WhoDo]

And I don't wanna hijack too much from the real discussion of the thread.

But I was actually wondering about other web browser alternatives. I was wanting something with the functionality of Firefox but something a little lighter for my slow machines. I'm assuming Swiftfox would be a good alternative?

Swiftfox, being processor specific, is faster but I wouldn't say "lighter". It has all of the Firefox stuff cpu-optimised, that's all. Seamonkey is "light". That's why it's in the standard Puppy distro.

Opera 9.10 is also quicker than Firefox, and a tad lighter. OTOH, it also has problems with Flash 9, so you're in between a rock and a hard place. HV3 and Dillo are probably far too light.

Hope that helps.

[shrdlu]

WhoDo,

For some strange reason, Seamonkey works ok for me with Flash9 on Puppy 2.12. Playing with E17, I tried Firefox and, no surprise, it crashed. But E17 was kind enough to show me the error:

"Environment Variable G_FILENAME_ENCODING is set and is not UTF-8". It also gave an error code of 139.

Hopefully this will help you in your quest.

Thanks!

[EdFromHouston]

Well I guess if someone wants to watch YouTube or some other Flash 9 site and they have flash 7 plugin, they could always download the .flv video using Video Downloader 2.0 for Firefox
http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
or this downloader
http://www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl/
and then use MPlayer or VLC with ffmpeg to change the .flv file to something viewable in the player.

Thats the only thing I can think of. I don't know if it would work but I can't see why it wouldn't.

I know a lot of people are complaining about this. It seems it started in flash 8. Something about segmentation faults.

I find it strange starting with flash 8 the player asks for your permission to share content with offsite sites by displaying a popup and this is when all this started.

[WhoDo]

Well I guess if someone wants to watch YouTube or some other Flash 9 site and they have flash 7 plugin, they could always download the .flv video using Video Downloader 2.0 for Firefox ...[snip]...

I know a lot of people are complaining about this. It seems it started in flash 8. Something about segmentation faults.

I find it strange starting with flash 8 the player asks for your permission to share content with offsite sites by displaying a popup and this is when all this started.

I can access YouTube videos using Flash 7 and Swiftfox - no problems. I had to tweak xmms to allow the audio component to function, but otherwise it's fine. Can't get Disney.com though.

I'm more and more convinced the problem lies in Adobe's default settings for Flash - see Settings Manager under Support on the Flash website. Global Security settings are set to "always deny" and that may be the source of the crash.

[WhoDo]

WhoDo,

For some strange reason, Seamonkey works ok for me with Flash9 on Puppy 2.12. Playing with E17, I tried Firefox and, no surprise, it crashed. But E17 was kind enough to show me the error:

"Environment Variable G_FILENAME_ENCODING is set and is not UTF-8". It also gave an error code of 139.

Hopefully this will help you in your quest.

Thanks!

Ok, in Firefox go to Content>Fonts&Colors>Advanced and change the character encoding to UTF-8 and see if that solves your crash problem in Firefox.

Cheers

[shrdlu]

Thanks for the suggestion. That seemed to do the trick. I have been using Firefox for a while to see how it went: it only crashes when I close the browser. Every time.

Seamonkey doesn't do this. I wound up reverting to Flash7 with Firefox - just in case. If I need Flash9, I use Seamonkey.

Thanks again!

Shrdlu

[WhoDo]

Thanks for the suggestion. That seemed to do the trick. I have been using Firefox for a while to see how it went: it only crashes when I close the browser. Every time.

Seamonkey doesn't do this. I wound up reverting to Flash7 with Firefox - just in case. If I need Flash9, I use Seamonkey.

Thanks again!

Shrdlu

There is also a fix for Flash 9 /Java with Firefox on the board available here. It involves making a few relatively minor changes to the start script and voila! I haven't had a crash since, even using Flash 9!