After mulling over some Google privacy issues Vs how good Chrome browser is, I decided to give Iron a go.
Iron Browser
Iron is a Chrome-based browser created by SRWare which claims to eliminate the privacy issues which come part and parcel with Google's Chrome browser.
Iron vs Chrome: http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_chrome_vs_iron.php
Linux Download: http://www.srware.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3755
Installing Iron on Debian 64bit
I chose to install the Iron Debian 64bit .deb instead of compiling. It was easy.
1. Go to your downloads directory
cd downloads2. Download the iron .deb file
wget http://www.srware.net/downloads/iron64.deb3. Use dpkg to install it
sudo dpkg -i iron64.debDependencies
I've got Google Chrome and a whole load of dev files installed and had no dependency problems, but just in case you get any problems just install any dependencies by running:
sudo apt-get -f installRunning Iron
I use Openbox, so I always manually add applications to my menu, but if you have Gnome or some other auto-menu-add desktop, you won't have to worry about this.
I updated my system database and used locate to find Iron.
sudo updatedbThe launcher resides in "/usr/share/iron", so I cd'd there and ran it.
sudo locate iron
cd /usr/share/ironNACL Error Message
./iron
I got an error message in the terminal and Googled (parts of it), only to find that the problem had already been posted on the SRWare.net Iron download page:
LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
/usr/share/iron/nacl_helper_bootstrap
[5793:5793:846689293:ERROR:nacl_fork_delegate_linux.cc(106)] Bad NaCl helper startup ack (0 bytes)
[5791:5801:846742102:ERROR:nacl_process_host.cc(607)] Failed to open NaCl IRT file "/usr/share/iron/nacl_irt_x86_64.nexe": -4
Workaround / Temporary Fix
This is just a workaround while I investigate further or if the SRWare guys actually reply to the bug reports on their forum, whichever comes first.
Chrome nacl files not in present with Iron
After searching my system from Nacl related files, I found three in the Google Chrome directory "/opt/google/chrome", and just copied them over to the Iron directory one by one, launching Iron after each move to see if the error message disappeared. It did.
sudo cp /opt/google/chrome/nacl_irt_x86_64.nexe /usr/share/iron
sudo cp /opt/google/chrome/nacl_helper_bootstrap /usr/share/iron
sudo cp /opt/google/chrome/nacl_helper /usr/share/iron
At the moment Iron launches and runs perfectly, but I will be investigating any issues that may be caused by using the Google Nacl files with iron. I'd also welcome any feedback other iron users may have.
I think I'll give this browser a try, as well. I'm going to install it on Debian Wheezy 64 bit and will let you know how it works out.
ReplyDeleteHi Chad, let me know how it goes. I installed this way on Squeeze 64bit, so it would be interesting to know if there are any dependency problems with Wheezy.
ReplyDeleteSo far, everything seems fine. I already had Chrome and Chromium installed so there weren't any dependency issues....Yet. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's great news, now I know the guide is also helpful to Wheezy users as well. Testing often throws up dependency issues from Stable-based .debs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. :-)
I've been using it pretty regularly for the past couple of days. I'll let you know if anything funky arises.
ReplyDelete