Internet issues with YDL5

[andyst32]

I've been running YDL v5 for the past 3 years or so now and primarily use Linux O/S for internet banking, shopping, job applications and some music downloading.

I have downloaded and burned a YDL 6.2 DVD which I installed but struggled getting Frostwire to work (may have been a newer Frostwire) and gave up the ghost and re-installed YDL5.

I'm now having problems with some websites saying javascript error or when I click on the "apply" button nothing happens.

I'm using Firefox 2 as my browser.

Can anyone suggest some help i.e. software installations etc (rather than YDL 6.2 unless I really have to!)

I was having trouble with updates and mirrors but seemed okay albeit vastly reduced.

Is there much more software for YDL 6.2 and can I still run Frostwire?

Many thanks.

[ppietro]

I'm now having problems with some websites saying javascript error or when I click on the "apply" button nothing happens.

I'm using Firefox 2 as my browser.

That's most likely why. Javascript has undergone many updates since Firefox 2.0 - we're up to 3.6 now.

You can try to see if my build of Firefox 3.6.8 will work on your 5.0 system:
http://www.weasel-bot.com/~paulp/ydl/fi ... pc.tar.bz2

My guess is that it won't - there's probably too many things in this build dependent on YDL 6.x libraries. Still - it's worth a shot.

NOTE: This isn't an RPM - it's a simple binary build. There's kind of a quick install guide here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7285&p=39551#p37998

Is there much more software for YDL 6.2 and can I still run Frostwire?

Yes and yes.

Cheers,
Paul

[andyst32]

Thanks for your response Paul as always much appreciated.

I've installed Opera following the instructions on another post and this seems to have sorted my Javascript issues and sped up my browsing experience.

What I am struggling to understand is how I can download and install software from the internet as I can't always find a PowerPc build like with Opera we use the CentOS version?

I'm thinking there must be some more recent version of VLC and Open Office that I would like to use but never quite understood the RPM, RAR and other connotations of programs!

If I can't do it using the installing software the easy way then I'm pretty much stuck!

All I want now to be a happy bunny is PS3 Store/Network access on my 3.15 firmware and am waiting to see if the pending lawsuits have any impact.

Is javascript purely the web browser as I thought it was part of the O/S?

Using Opera to browse is like having turbo charged my machine!

[ppietro]

What I am struggling to understand is how I can download and install software from the internet as I can't always find a PowerPc build like with Opera we use the CentOS version?

Well - that's the eternal question, isn't it?

If it's an open source Linux program, you might be able to build it from source code. But - depending on the program - this can be a big hassle - especially if you have to build newer system libraries.

So - normally - repositories are the way to go. However - they tend to be kind of static. The repository stalls when the next version of the OS comes out.

I'm thinking there must be some more recent version of VLC and Open Office that I would like to use but never quite understood the RPM, RAR and other connotations of programs!

For YDL 5? No - there's no newer version, unless you build from source. The newer versions are for YDL 6.x, using the repositories.

As for the three letter extensions, they're easy.

In the early days of Linux, you built everything from scratch. Two early distributions - Debian & Red Hat - created binary installers - just like the MSI program for Windows.

For Red Hat based Linuxes - like Yellow Dog & Fedora - these binary installer files end in RPM. (The original usage of RPM = RedHat Package Manager. It now means RPM Package Manager - a recursive joke.)

An RPM is an archive of binary files, and additional information that tells Linux where to put the files, what they're dependent on, and checksum information to verify the RPM isn't corrupt. Linux also keeps a database of the RPMs you've installed so that new RPMs can know what's there.

One tricky thing about RPMs is that they're processor dependent. You can't run an x86 RPM on a PowerPC and vice versa - unless the RPM is strictly scripts or Java, etc. The processor dependent ones generally have their target processor architecture listed in the RPM file name. Only the "noarch" type of RPM can be installed in any machine, regardless of processor.

The repositories we mention are just archives of RPMs. A program called YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified), can look at repositories, pull the necessary RPMs from the on-line archives, and automatically install them.

Finally, TAR files are a Linux archive. They're not really a ZIP file - they're more like a directory backup- tar originally stood for tape archive. This is extremely useful for source code backups.

We generally use some sort of file compression with a TAR archive - like gzip or bzip2.

So - it's not uncommon to see program source code ending in .tar.gz or .tar.bz2. What this means is the file is a TAR directory archive (.tar) that has been compressed with either gzip (.gz) or bzip2 (.bz2).

Hope that helps a little.

If I can't do it using the installing software the easy way then I'm pretty much stuck!

Well - unless you build from source, or update your OS.

Is javascript purely the web browser as I thought it was part of the O/S?

Using Opera to browse is like having turbo charged my machine!

Javascript is purely the web browser. Currently, the latest binaries of Opera have the fastest Javascript engine, according to the Sunspider benchmark:

http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0 ... pider.html

Chrome is just a little bit behind.

Firefox has made great strides in Javascript performance since 2.0. 3.6 is not as fast as Safari/Chrome and Opera, but it's much faster than 2.0 and significantly faster than IE.

Cheers,
Paul

[andyst32]

Cheers Paul that helps my understanding massively.

I'm thinking I'll have to bite the bullett and reinstall YDL 6.2 so I can keep my machine relatively up-to-date.