browser still broken on linux, or just me?

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wsamples
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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by wsamples » Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:47 am

The Plasma box is the one where the browser worked. I am currently running Openbox and this is the one where the browser is not working. I've never installed Arch "The Arch Way™" I got started with Antergos, and redid my installation using an EndeavourOS ISO. My current setup is based on a boutique Arch spin called ArchCraft which offers an easy entry to a really useful Openbox configuration.

Antergos is a dead project. Endeavour and Reborn seem to be fairly similar. They use standard gui installers which work just like you'd expect from any mainstream distro and give you a well configured DE of your choice on top of a basic Arch installation, without a lot of pre-installed heavy apps. They also allow enabling of the AUR (Arch User Repository) during installation and provide a gui package manager, Pamac. Endeavor has a nice and helpful forum and of course the Arch Wiki is a treasure trove of useful and up to date information.

bogs
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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by bogs » Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:42 pm

On understanding that you were using ArchCraft, I downloaded and did a default install, then dl'd Lc 9.6.2 and installed that. Not sure why the browser doesn't work on your box, changing nothing (well, I changed the theme :P ) it worked here ?

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In fact, that was probably the best Lc has worked on any distro I've tried recently, no hangs, widget snapped right in, too bad I'm not a naked openbox fan (I actually tend towards XFCE MOST of the time, or fluxbox with XFCE panels installed...)
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wsamples
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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by wsamples » Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:01 am

*sigh* laughing and crying at the same time...

I've done a lot of theme customizations. I wasn't especially thrilled by any of them as shipped but used 'Spark' as the starting point. Also added some custom Rofis and modified the Polybar and the Openbox menu. It took a while to adjust to launching apps using Rofi or keyboard shorcuts instead of Krunner but I'm liking it over all.

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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by wsamples » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:40 am

I have two machines here that use Intel graphics drivers and the integrated graphics chip. They both behave the same with ArchCraft; placing the browser widget fails and the IDE becomes mostly unresponsive. I just installed ArchCraft in a VirtualBox machine, using the emulated graphics card, and the browser works. What graphics card and drivers are you running?

bogs
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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by bogs » Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:11 am

wsamples wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:40 am
I just installed ArchCraft in a VirtualBox machine, using the emulated graphics card, and the browser works. What graphics card and drivers are you running?
When I am testing things like this, I use exactly the method you just described, Virt. box or (as in this case) VmWare. However, what you described is exactly what I was experiencing with every version of Lc post 8.1.2 on the box I actually work on and every distro I tested it with using both my own box and VMs.

My own box is currently running a minimal install of 'buntu with the XFCE desktop, at the moment, but I frequently have 3 or 4 other 'nixes that I load on side boot. My hardware is amd64 and (currently) an Nvidia graphics card this year, AMD last year.

Just adding libgconf (which I of course would *not* have installed out of preference) through Synaptic fixed those issues on my box. I can't say at this point if the issues I've experienced are as simple as path issues (which is mostly what gconf would have settled) or something else as I said earlier, since the way I set up Synaptic is to treat 'recommended' as 'dependencies' and in that configuration libgconf pulls at least 2 other packages.

It would be **really hard to believe that graphics drivers themselves would affect whether the browser displays, but you could sure test that out by switching to VESA and trying it.

** Actually, considering all the weird things I've seen in the newer versions, I guess that wouldn't surprise me too much :P

Edit - BTW, I don't think that this is an optimal solution, by any stretch either. If you were to start developing for 'nix in the broader sense, your going to what, tell people that they need to install gconf in non-gnome environments? I'm sure that will go over well.
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wsamples
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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by wsamples » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:33 pm

bogs wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:11 am
It would be **really hard to believe that graphics drivers themselves would affect whether the browser displays, but you could sure test that out by switching to VESA and trying it.

** Actually, considering all the weird things I've seen in the newer versions, I guess that wouldn't surprise me too much :P

Edit - BTW, I don't think that this is an optimal solution, by any stretch either. If you were to start developing for 'nix in the broader sense, your going to what, tell people that they need to install gconf in non-gnome environments? I'm sure that will go over well.
It shouldn't surprise. Problems caused by poor integration at some level of the graphics system or another have been a constant issue in Linux. Workarounds for specific applications and card/driver combinations have been a topic of a lot of forum posts. Livecode's player control used to have such an issue involving compositing where in most, but not all, systems it would act as a transparency mask when playing video. You would hear the audio but see straight through your interface to whatever was beneath it. I had several tweaks to my graphics settings as a result of trying to mitigate the well known crashing problems Plasma has had running on Intel graphics. The ArchCraft compositor config has several applications exempted frome shadows which I find unnecessary on my machine. On and on...

To be clear, I installed and ran the most recent ISO of ArchCraft without any modification in both VirtualBox and on hardware and get different results. The graphics layer seems the most likely candidate and it's most difficult to believe that gconf is a part of the problem. I'll check into tweaks to my graphics settings to see if I can find a solution.

Suggesting a dependency for your application is par for the course in Linux so there shouldn't be a problem instructing users to check for gconf. It's not an especially heavy thing to iinstall. However, while it may resolve the issue in some or even many cases, my experience demonstrates that it's not quite a complete solution.

Does or did your Xfce box have the issue with focus that cripples Livecode running Xfce (and some other DEs) in many distros when using the message box with the tools palette open? If it so, did installing gconf resolve it?

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Re: browser still broken on linux, or just me?

Post by bogs » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:37 pm

wsamples wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:33 pm
To be clear, I installed and ran the most recent ISO of ArchCraft without any modification in both VirtualBox and on hardware and get different results. The graphics layer seems the most likely candidate and it's most difficult to believe that gconf is a part of the problem. I'll check into tweaks to my graphics settings to see if I can find a solution.
Sorry, probably poor phrasing on my part, I absolutely believe what you said, I find it hard to believe that was the problem in this case (but I still believe it *is* the problem in your case).
wsamples wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:33 pm
Problems caused by poor integration at some level of the graphics system or another have been a constant issue in Linux. Workarounds for specific applications and card/driver combinations have been a topic of a lot of forum posts.
I've never come across an issue like your describing outside of gaming or 3d modeling, but will take your word for it.
wsamples wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:33 pm
Suggesting a dependency for your application is par for the course in Linux so there shouldn't be a problem instructing users to check for gconf. It's not an especially heavy thing to iinstall.
It is par for the course as you put it if, and I'll really emphasize that one, IF there is a sensible reason for the dependency. Since I'm on an 'if' kick, IF Lc targeted 'nix the Os INSTEAD Of 'nix + a particular subset DE and possibly WM, this wouldn't be a sensible requirement unlike say, libgtk[version], libstdC++[version], etc.

I am surprised you think it normal to have to install part of Gnomes rigamarole in a completely non-Gnome related DE to run a program, I find it less than reasonable myself, so I guess we will not agree on this one heh. Oh well.
wsamples wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:33 pm
Does or did your Xfce box have the issue with focus that cripples Livecode running Xfce (and some other DEs) in many distros when using the message box with the tools palette open? If it so, did installing gconf resolve it?
Of course I say this with qualifications, those being that -
  1. I am almost never past Lc v7.x other than to test things out, such as this problem, because 7.x is the last version I ever had no problem running.
  2. Even having said that, I am rarely as high as even the 6.x series, so my knowledge of Lc itself is rather limited because
  3. I spend most of my time in Mc 2.5 starter kit.
Having stated that, of course adding the library didn't fix the messagebox / tools palette / proj. browser issues heh, those aren't path related issues which is what I believe the bulk of browser related problems *are*, but I could be wrong.

All I can say is good luck with it, time for me to go back to work for the rest of the week :D
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