Portable Opera

What is this?

Portable Opera places the Opera with its configuration files in a folder to utilize it without installation in the Puppy space(pupsave).

Some Puppy has the Opera built-in. It can run as the email client, and the mail is stored under /root/.opera/mail, where is in the 'Puppy space'. Your pupsave will be easily filled up if you use the built-in opera as the everyday's email client.

In another story, you may want up-to-date or want to install its localized version. Your pupsave is used for the new installation. Anyway, the cash and the downloading internet files may consume your pupsave.

The Portable Opera holds the Opera code, its settings, mail, cache and downloads in the same 'opera-portable' folder, so that they are free from the 'Puppy space' and not limited by the pupsave size.

Tested on Precise-571JP. Works with most of Puppy 5.x. May not work with Puppy 4.x.

The flashplayer is not included. Install the most recent flashplayer or the previous version, flashplayer10.

How to use?

I. Installation

  1. Extract opera-portable-*.tar.gz at somewhere under /mnt/home, or under some mounted point like /mnt/sdb1. No mater the file system of the partion, ext2/3/4, f2fs(if the kernel can handle), ntfs or vfat. You can remove the archive *.tar.gz after extracting. A folder 'opera-portable-*' is made. You can move this folder anywhere under /mnt, '/mnt/home/apps/opera-portable' for example. Do not change the root name of the folder other than 'opera-portable'. For example,'opera-portable', 'opera-portable-new' are bothe valid.

    The opera-portable-* folder works as a ROX application. It is seen as an app icon icon with a gear. Unfortunately it does not work as a ROX applicition on NTFS file system. The icon shows normal folder folder icon in this case.

  2. Click opera-portable-* folder if the icon shows a gear app icon. Or, open the folder and click the executable shell script icon opera-portable. A GUI opens.

  3. Click 'OK' to install opera. The installer automatically downloads the most recent opera for your language.
    If you want to use older version of opera, Get the tarball from the web, and drug the tarball on the GUI entry.

  4. Importing old bookmarks
    You can import previous bookmarks and mail if you were using Opera on the Puppy before. The way importing from the Windows is not provided yet.

II. Launching Opera

After the installation finishes, the opera-portable works as a launcher.

If you register on the Puppy menu, the Opera(portable) appears on the Puppy menu. The built-in Opera, if exists, shows in the menu in parallel. You can register the opera-portable as the default browser.

You can click the opera-portable folder or the executable to launch the Opera, no matter registererd or not. If the opera-portable folder is under /mnt/home, you can make a desktop icon dragging the opera-portable folder on the desktop.

The opera-portable is registered on the Puppy Package Manager. You can uninstall it from the PPM and then the Opera(portable) is removed from the Puppy menu, but the Opera in the opera-portable folder is still there.

You can remove the opera-portable folder with the installed Opera. But the menu entry is stil in the Puppy menu. You need to uninstall the opera-portable using PPM to remove it from the Puppy menu.

III. Updating Opera

Automatic update may now work. Go to the Opera menu > Help > Check for Updates. If the Opera says need to update, quit the Opera and follow the next step.

Right-click the opera-portable folder and select 'Build'. Or, open the folder and click the executable shell script icon 'Build'.

IV. Using on another Puppy

The installed opera can be run on another Puppy with the same settings and bookmarks. To registor on the new Puppy, right click the opera-portable folder and select 'Register on the Puppy' if you want to. Or click the executable 'Register' in the folder.

Recent opera may not work with Puppy 4.x.

V. The configuration files

The configuration files of the Opera is in the folder profile in the opera-portable folder. The mail in profile/mail. Move the whole opera-portable folder if you want to move or backup. All the bookmarks, mail and cookies are lost if you remove the opera-portable folder.

Normal pluguns folder is /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, in which most of browsers, opera, firefox, opera and etc., look up. You can place the plugins in opera/lib/opera/plugins folder under the opera-portable folder instead of /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, so that your pupsave keeps slim. Note that the plugins in this folder are effective only for this opera.

VI. Download location

The Opera downloads internet files to '/root/Downloads' as the default. Because this is in the Puppy space(pupsave), downloading large files may crashes Puppy.

The opera-portable changes the setup, so that the download files to the 'Downloads' folder in the opera-portable folder.

You can change the download location in the Opera settings.

Feed back

Visit the Puppy Discussion Forum:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php?f=53

2014-04-05 opera-portable 0.1
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