Installing Otter-Browser on antiX

[Member seaken64]

Installing Otter-Browser on antiX

I am always looking for options for browsers that will work well in antiX on my old 32-bit computer systems. A while back I found the Otter-Browser, which is patterned after an old popular version of Opera. It is a small project but I have found it to be a good browser for what I usually do in a 32-bit browser, which is, admittedly, not very complicated. I mostly use a 32-bit browser for search engines and forum participation. I don’t use browsers on 32-bit for Youtube or shopping or online Office applications.

I have been disappointed to not find the Otter-Browser on the antiX Package Installer. It is also not in Synaptic in the default antiX repositories. However, it is in the MX repositories. I have been able to use the MX package for otter-browser to install this browser on antiX. This writeup is a quick tutorial on how to install the Otter-Browser on antiX using the .deb package from MX.

I have used this technique to install Otter-Browser on antiX-16, antiX-17, antiX-19, and antiX-21. I used the 32-bit package.

To make it easier for me to find the appropriate package file I use Repology to choose my download location for the MX package. First, open the Repology site to the Otter-Browser pages. I usually type in a google search like this:

repology otter-browser

and choose the “otter-browser package versions” page

Then, scroll down to MX Linux and select the version that corresponds to your version of antiX. For instance, MX-21 corresponds to antiX-21.

Next, click on the Package name of “otter-browser” and this will open up the web page of the MX repository that holds the otter-browser packages for MX.

Since I want to use the 32-bit version I now click on the package named

“otter-browser_1.0.02-0.1~mx21+1_i386.deb”

This launches the download manager for my browser and I save the file to my downloads folder. Now I can close the browser and proceed to install the .deb file.

On antiX-16/17/19 I used Gdebi to install the .deb file. I also got some guidance on the forum about using the MX .deb file on antiX to make sure I was not going to damage my antiX system. In this case the MX .deb file is fully compatible with antiX. When I used Gdebi I got an error message stating that a couple of dependencies were missing and that Otter-Browser could not be installed. I solved this issue by using apt from the command line to first install the dependencies and then installed the .deb file using dpkg.

In antiX-21 I do not have Gdebi installed. I used the command line directly. I suggest using the command line for this since it is direct and it is easy to see what is happening. You do not need a GUI to make this happen. Here are the commands to enter at the terminal to install the otter-browser.

Open a Terminal and type the following:

sudo dpkg -i /home/sean/Downloads/otter-browser_1.0.02-0.1~mx21+1_i386.deb

[Note – the above shows my filesystem path. Use the correct path and filename for your own system]

This will result in an error report if you do not yet have all the dependencies already on your system. I recommend you start with this dpkg command so that you will get a clear report of the dependencies you are missing. In my case I was missing the package named “libqt5xmlpatterns5”.

To solve this error I used another command to install the missing package first, like this:

sudo apt install libqt5xmlpatterns5

After this command finished I again used the dpkg command to again attempt to install otter-browser:

sudo dpkg -i /home/sean/Downloads/otter-browser_1.0.02-0.1~mx21+1_i386.deb

This time the dpkg command finished without any errors and I now have the otter-browser installed.

To run the newly installed program I type, at the terminal command line:

otter-browser

and Viola! – the Otter-Browser starts up and shows me the Start Page.

Now, since we did not use the Package Installer or apt to install otter-browser we do not get this new program on our antiX menu. Normally we would go to the menu under Applications|Internet and see our new program on the menu. But in this case Otter-Browser is missing. How do we get it on the menu?

antiX has a nice tool called Menu Editor. You will find it on the Maintenance tab of the antiX Control Centre in antiX-21. Click on the icon next to “Menu Editor”.

Choose “1. Change the Applications Menu” by clicking on the “Applications” button

Choose “2. Show items in the Applications menu” by clicking the “Show” button

There will be a short delay while the program gathers all the programs that can be shown. Scroll down the list until you find Otter-Browser and click on it. Then click on “OK”.

Choose “1. Refresh menu” by clicking on the “Refresh” button

The program will now make the changes requested and report back that it is finished.

You can now close the antiX Control Centre.

Now you can go to the menu at Applications|Internet and see the Otter Browser on the menu.

[Note: I recommend that you start the Otter Browser from the terminal while you are getting used to the program and setting it up with your preferences and responding to web pages you visit. I have had the browser crash while responding to pop-ups from web pages and it is easier to close the browser by closing the terminal window and then restarting. I have learned to avoid these crashes by not clicking on the wrong buttons so I now launch from the menu most of the time.]

Maybe someday we will get the Otter-Browser on the antiX Package Installer (along with SeaMonkey and Palemoon), but for now this is one way you can install Otter-Browser in antiX. I hope you will find the Otter-Browser useful on your antiX system (64-bit is also supported).

Seaken64

• This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by seaken64.

[Member schproodle]

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A nice Christmas present. Takes rather a bit of unwrapping eh. 😉

Can you display its memory foot print?

EeePC, ASUSTek 1000HE - Atom N280, 1667 MHz, 32 bit - RAM 992.2 MiB
Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: IceWM 2.9.3 & zzzfm
Distro: antiX-21_386-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021

[Member seaken64]

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Amendment – I was reading some past forum messages and I noticed someone (I think it was caprea) used a slightly different command line to install a deb package. I just tried it and it worked to install otter-browser and set up the menu at the same time. The command is:

sudo apt install /home/sean/Downloads/otter-browser_1.0.02-0.1~mx21+1_i386.deb

In my case apt proceeded to hunt down otter-browser in the repositories and installed it. It may be because I did this in my antiX Testing installation. Maybe this browser is in the testing repos but not the regular stable repos. I’m not sure. (Edit – yes it is in the Debian testing repos) At any rate, you can try this alternate command line and if you have otter-browser in your repositories it should work for you. If it doesn’t work you can always fall back on the dpkg command above in this thread.

Seaken64

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by seaken64.

[Member seaken64]

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schproodle wrote:

A nice Christmas present. Takes rather a bit of unwrapping eh.

Can you display its memory foot print?

@schproodle, I’m not sure how to display it. But I can type in what I see reported in HTOP.

On my Pentium 4 with 1GB I am running antiX Testing. The RAM at idle, before launching otter-browser is 104M. After launching otter- browser it goes up to 129M with just the Start Page tab open. After launching the antiX forum it is at 147M. If I open another tab and go to http://www.google.com it goes to 167M.

So, it seems that otter-browser is quite light weight. Hope this helps.

Seaken64

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by seaken64.

[Member schproodle]

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Following your scheme:
idle 60
chromium start 240
+antixforum 240
+google.com 278

weird – will try steps 2 and 3 again. 😐

Attachments:

1. Full_info-1.txt

EeePC, ASUSTek 1000HE - Atom N280, 1667 MHz, 32 bit - RAM 992.2 MiB
Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: IceWM 2.9.3 & zzzfm
Distro: antiX-21_386-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021

[Member seaken64]

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Here’s what I get using antix-21 32-bit on my Athlon 64-bit w/ 2GB

Idle 82
Chromium open one tab on google 244
Chromiuum one tab on antiX forum 250
Chromium second tab at google 284

Here’s same computer with otter-browser

Idle 82
otter open to start page 103
+antiX forum on single tab 123
+google on second tab 140

Otter is very light. But it is not as capable as Chromium. I use it mostly on my machines with less than 1GB.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by seaken64.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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otter-browser will appear in the repos asap.

@seaken64 thanks for the ‘reminder’

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member seaken64]

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anticapitalista wrote:

otter-browser will appear in the repos asap.

@seaken64 thanks for the ‘reminder’

Thank you! That will make it easier. And render this tip unnecessary!

Will it also be on the Package Installer?

Seaken64

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Will it also be on the Package Installer?

Seaken64

Eventually …

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member seaken64]

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The otter-browser is now installable from the antiX repos in antiX-21, in both 64 and 32 bit. I did not yet check antiX-19 or antiX-17. But it is in 21.

You can now use Synaptic to search for “otter-browser” and install.

If you use the Base edition and like to use a GUI for packages you will need to first use Package Manager to install Synaptic. (Although apt and cli_aptiX will also work from the text interface in a terminal)

Thank you @anticapitalista!

Seaken64

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by seaken64.

[Member schproodle]

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Coming in here with the otter eh.

otter: 250M with 4 tabs
chromium: 350M same tabs

otter seems much slower to load pages and to switch from tab to tab.

EeePC, ASUSTek 1000HE - Atom N280, 1667 MHz, 32 bit - RAM 992.2 MiB
Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: IceWM 2.9.3 & zzzfm
Distro: antiX-21_386-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021

[Member schproodle]

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Turned off preference: “Do not load the tab contents until selected” – perhaps a bit quicker loading tabs but with 25M more RAM.

EeePC, ASUSTek 1000HE - Atom N280, 1667 MHz, 32 bit - RAM 992.2 MiB
Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: IceWM 2.9.3 & zzzfm
Distro: antiX-21_386-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021

[Member seaken64]

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I usually use otter-browser on my really old computers (P-III, P4). I usually have the JavaScript turned OFF. That tends to speed things up a bit.

On my modern equipment I do not notice it to be slower than Chrome but I have not measured it.

Seaken64

[Moderator christophe]

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Thank you for bringing this up.

I’ve got an old 32-bit atom netbook that’s really been good for.. well, not much.

Pretty much all the graphical “modern” browsers ran poorly on it.
But otter-browser is actually working well!

Thanks again!

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member blur13]

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Yes thank you! Great tip!

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