Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

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andyprough
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Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-03-31, 04:17

I installed AnLinux, Termux and multiVNC from fdroid tonight. Managed to get Debian installed with a Mate desktop. Opened a terminal and typed in a very long wget command pointed at stevenpusser's Raspbian armhf .deb package of Pale Moon 29.4.5.1. Then apt install'ed it and Pale Moon started right up from the Mate Menu.

I need to do some tweaking to get it to run with a better screen resolution and some window decorations, but it does browse the webernet. Running everything as root isn't ideal, I'll have to see if I can add a regular user and still access it via vnc. This is my first time to try AnLinux, so this is all new to me. Browsing is nice and responsive. I tried to play a couple of videos, but looks like I'm missing codecs or something right now. It'll be a fun little hobby thing to play around with.
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Last edited by andyprough on 2022-03-31, 15:26, edited 1 time in total.

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athenian200
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Re: Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by athenian200 » 2022-03-31, 04:57

This is actually the only way that is possible, pretty much. I think I pointed that fact out as a technicality once in some other thread, but no one really thought anyone would do it. Well, I'm glad to see at least one person did. :) Looks like I did overlook the possibility of VNC server and a couple of ways of getting Linux onto Android without full root, though.

I don't think we'll ever support Android natively, but it would be cool if there were some kind of optional theme that creates oversized buttons/input fields, which would make it easier to use this way.
"The Athenians, however, represent the unity of these opposites; in them, mind or spirit has emerged from the Theban subjectivity without losing itself in the Spartan objectivity of ethical life. With the Athenians, the rights of the State and of the individual found as perfect a union as was possible at all at the level of the Greek spirit." -- Hegel's philosophy of Mind

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Re: Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-03-31, 14:58

Here's Pale Moon in full screen mode on the XFCE desktop. This is quite workable. I don't have touchscreen scrolling working yet, but can use the scrollbar and the volume rocker button to scroll up and down. Looks like the XFCE desktop is definitely the most useful one available in AnLinux. Still on Debian. Since I'm reliant on stevepusser's armhf build for Raspbian I don't want to stray outside the bounds of Debian or Ubuntu, and Ubuntu was not installing for me.
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Re: Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-03-31, 15:12

athenian200 wrote:
2022-03-31, 04:57
This is actually the only way that is possible, pretty much. I think I pointed that fact out as a technicality once in some other thread, but no one really thought anyone would do it. Well, I'm glad to see at least one person did. :) Looks like I did overlook the possibility of VNC server and a couple of ways of getting Linux onto Android without full root, though.

I don't think we'll ever support Android natively, but it would be cool if there were some kind of optional theme that creates oversized buttons/input fields, which would make it easier to use this way.
stevepusser making the armhf build available is the biggest thing. There have been a few non-root linux-on-android options available, but not a good way to install Pale Moon on them.

The browsing is pretty much as good as a native Android browser as long as it's on a tablet. XFCE can adjust the system font sizes and the dpi to make the various menu items and icons viewable.

I don't think it would work very well on a phone, as some of the Pale Moon menus are probably too long for the phone display. Although I'll have to give it a shot just for the challenge of it.

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Re: Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-04-01, 18:15

The transformation into a mini-Linux laptop continues. I purchased a little USB-C adaptor this morning for $10 so I could plug in my wireless mouse receiver, and pulled out an old bluetooth keyboard and connected it.

Next I need to get the icons working. For some reason XFCE is having a hard time with the icons on this AnLinux. Mate desktop didn't have icon problems, but moving and resizing windows was nearly impossible in Mate, so I'm sticking with XFCE for now.
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Re: Installing Pale Moon on Android tablet

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-04-23, 03:52

I'm going to drop some of my commonly used commands and procedures here so I don't forget them.

It's easy to start Termux properly by launching it from within AnLlinux - tell AnLinux you want to install a new Debian version, but don't actually copy the Debian install script, just use the "Launch" button to properly launch Termux. To start Debian in Termux after installing it with AnLinux and Termux or after launching Termux from within AnLinux:

Code: Select all

./start-debian.sh
To start the vnc server:

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vncserver-start
Start the Debian vnc connection in MultiVNC app without a username or password - the super-strong and complicated password is entered once the VNC connection is made.

Once Debian is running, make sure you have nano and wget installed, and I like having fdfind installed:

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apt install nano wget fdfind
Download and install Pale Moon (updating is the same procedure as this):
Navigate to stevepusser's download site and copy the link for the Raspbian download of Pale Moon: https://software.opensuse.org/download. ... e=palemoon

Code: Select all

cd ~/Downloads/
wget https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser/Raspbian_10/armhf/palemoon_29.4.6-1.gtk2_armhf.deb
apt install ./palemoon_29.4.6-1.gtk2+armhf.deb
Works with the touchscreen, but the experience is vastly better with a wireless/bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

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