Portable SeaMonkey

What is this?

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

Most of the Puppy has the SeaMonkey built-in. But 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 SeaMonkey holds the SeaMonkey code, its settings, cache and downloads in the same 'seamonkey-portable' folder, so that they are free from the 'Puppy space' and not limited by the pupsave size.

Tested on Precise-571JP. May works with most of Puppy 5.x. Wary, Racy and some Puppy 4.x may need dbus to run seamonkey official build.

The flashplayer is not included. The SeaMonkey tries to play the YouTube with its HTML5 imprementation, But it seems unsatable. I recommned to install the most recent flashplayer or the previous version, flashplayer10.

How to use?

I. Installation

  1. Extract seamonkey-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 'seamonkey-portable-*' is made. You can move this folder anywhere under /mnt, '/mnt/home/apps/seamonkey-portable' for example. Do not change the root name of the folder other than 'seamonky-portable'. For example,'seamonky-portable', 'seamonky-portable-new' are bothe valid.

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

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

  4. Importing old bookmarks
    You can import previous bookmarks and mailbox if you were using SeaMonkey on the Puppy before. Also can import from Firefox both in Puppy or the Windows version.

II. Launching SeaMonkey

After the installation finished, the seamonkey-portable works as a launcher.

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

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

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

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

III. The configuration files

The configuration files of the SeaMonkey and the mailbox are in the hidden folder .mozilla/seamonkey in the seamonkey-portable folder. But the mailbox can move to somwhere outside of seamonkey-portable folder using the SeaMonkey settings. Move the whole seamonkey-portable folder if you want to move or backup. All the bookmarks and cookies are within it. All the bookmarks, cookies and the mailbox are lost if you remove the seamonkey-portable folder.

Normal pluguns folder is /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, in which most of browsers, seamonkey, firefox, opera and etc., look up. You can place the plugins in .mozilla/plugins folder under the seamonkey-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 seamonkey.

IV. Updating SeaMonkey

V. Using on another Puppy

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

Some Wary, Racy or Puppy 4.x may need dbus to run seamonkey official build.

VI. Downloads location

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

The seamonkey-portable changes the dowloads location to the 'Downloads' folder in the seamonkey-portable folder.

You can change the downloads location with the SeaMonkey settings.

VII. Cache location

The Seamonkey makes cache under /root/.chache/mozilla/seamonkey as the default. The seamonkey-portable changes the location to the 'Cache' in the seamonkey-portable folder. Ensure the setting from the SeaMonkey menubar > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Cache. You can change the setting if you want to.

TIPS: Limiting cache

You can limit the cache size with the SeaMonkey settings. Setting to zero(0) may be faster if your storage is vary slow. It is recommended when your seamonkey-portable is on a USB flash.

Another setting is limiting the cache size, say to 4MB, and move the cache directory to '/tmp/Cache'. It will inclease speed if you have enough RAM. Note that the /tmp folder does not remaine at the next boot.

Feed back

Visit the Puppy Discussion Forum:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=92015

2014-07-26 seamonkey-portable 0.5
2014-02-17 seamonkey-portable 0.2
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