Alternative Vivaldi Browser Installation Options on Linux / Vivaldi Technologies AS Blog

Shpankov January 14, 2016 at 17:36

Alternative Vivaldi Browser Installation Options on Linux

Hello!

Earlier, we talked about how to run multiple copies of Vivaldi on Mac OSX . Today we look at similar actions for Linux systems.

From time to time, users ask us to upload “tar archives” with Vivaldi binaries in addition to the RPM and DEB installation packages. Typically, these queries have three reasons:

Have the ability to install Vivaldi on distributions that do not use the .rpm or .deb package installation methods
Have the ability to install Vivaldi in a non-standard directory (for example, for only one user)
Have the ability to run Vivaldi in standalone (portable) mode

Today we will try to explain why we offer only RPM and DEB packages, as well as how to solve each of the above problems using only these packages.

Ideally, if you follow the traditions of Linux development, we really should not be releasing any packages for Linux distributions. We would develop the browser itself, and all the steps for building the packages, distributing them and updating them would be done by the Linux distributors. If you look at the distribution installed in your home, you will see that the vast majority of applications are packaged, distributed and updated by the authors of the distribution. This is a traditional method developed by the Linux community over the years, and it is quite effective - all distribution software is assembled and processed by the same group of professionals, thereby providing an excellent level of compatibility.

However, there are some difficulties. For example, many distributions try to include only stable versions of applications, so at the moment, without creating our own Vivaldi packages, we have no other way to convey test builds or beta versions to users. also, due to the youth of our project, some distributions may not be aware of our existence at all.

Therefore, we offer two of the most common installation package formats in the world of Linux (.rpm and .deb), but we will, of course, be glad if Vivaldi's browser is included in the standard set of applications in any distribution kit. Additionally, without even offering packages for some distributions using other formats of installation packages, we always accept bug reports from users of such distributions and try to solve problems associated with installing and using Vivaldi.

If there are no Vivaldi installation packages for your distribution yet, there are several ways that will allow you to install Vivaldi (see below). But first of all, you should check whether the authors of your distribution offer ready-made Vivaldi packages. Some distributions have already done this work (for example, Arch, Gentoo, Slackware), while others may do so after the release of the first stable version of Vivaldi. If after the appearance of the final version of Vivaldi it does not appear in the list of packages of your distribution, you can politely invite the authors of the distribution to do this. They can contact us directly if you have any questions.

Sandbox Difficulties

First of all, we want to warn you that starting Vivaldi from a non-standard directory (including the standalone stand-alone installation) may not work for all users. It depends on the installation location, the rights of the user who installs, and the version of the Linux kernel used in your operating system. The main problem is related to the features of the Chromium sandbox, a key element of browser security. Basically, if your system uses the Linux kernel version 3.17 and higher, the number of possible problems will tend to a minimum. However, in some distributions that use the older kernel, some important functions may not be available, and in other distributions, even with a newer version of the kernel, these functions may be disabled for various reasons. in more detail on this subject we alreadytold in a previous article .

Installing in a non-standard directory

Installing the Vivaldi browser in a non-standard directory is to unpack one of our packages and transfer the files to a new directory. Many people ask for a TAR archive with files to solve this problem, but in fact the same .deb package includes TAR archives from which it is not difficult to remove the required files using the utilities included in the distribution kit. The same goes for .rpm packages. Using the 64-bit .deb package of a recent test build as an example, we will now show how to unpack files in the console:

ar p vivaldi-snapshot_1.0.365.3-1_amd64.deb data.tar.xz | tar -xJf- --strip 2 ./opt

As a result, the vivaldi-snapshot directory will be created. You can move it with all its contents to any suitable directory. To start Vivaldi, run the launching script (called “vivaldi-snapshot”) from this directory.

Standalone installation

The Vivaldi browser supports a command line parameter that allows the browser to tell where to save all settings and user data: " --user-data-dir = ". If you specify to save the profile and data in a subdirectory inside the directory with browser files, you will actually get a stand-alone browser.

To use the unpacked copy of Vivaldi in the previous example as a stand-alone application, do the following:

cd vivaldi-snapshot ./vivaldi-snapshot --user-data-dir=profile &

Automation Examples

We test Vivaldi in different situations on many Linux distributions. To speed up the process, we prepared several scripts for automatically unpacking the Vivaldi package for installation in a non-standard directory. These are unofficial solutions (i.e. no guarantees or support), but you can use them if they suit you.