Questions about "Chromiumportable.ini"; and some odd behavior

[Gregg DesElms]

TO:  Aluísio Augusto Silva Gonçalves

First, I want to just thank you for your good work with Chromium Portable. I've been on something of a search for a portable Chromium version to replace the IRON portable browser that I've been using for quite a while, now (If ever you and I have private discussions, I'll be happy to tell you why I'm trying to get away from IRON). Anyway, your version of Chromium portable really appeals to me. I went and set-up my own API keys and put them into the  ChromiumPortable.ini  file per what you wrote in your  ..\ChromiumPortable\Help.html  file, and it worked magnificently. However, I'm a little confused about other entries which I may make in the .INI file. More on that in a second; but first let me say that...

...your fine work on Chromium Portable has made me wonder if you'd be interested in helping me, and the not-for-profit organization that I represent, to release a special Chromium-based browser that we would also want to be portable; in fact, it would be nothing but portable... to the point that for people who wanted a fully-installed version, we'd simply create an installer that would put the portable version into a folder in the "Program Files" folder; and then we'd add the start menu and/or desktop and/or quick-launch icons, and an uninstaller. I've just finished writing a basic specification for the browser (though, that said, I just realized that I left-out a huge piece that the organization had mentioned that they wanted, and so I need to add that section). Please let me know if you might possibly be interested.

My email: gregg at greggdeselms dot com (which is public, everywhere, so I have no fear of putting it here)

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So, then, here's my confusion about the  ChromiumPortable.ini  file: I see, in your aforementioned  Help.html  file, all the various command line parameters that you list which may be used in the .INI file; and that's fine. However, when I tried to add to your .INI file other command line parameters from Peter Beverloo's list, in the same way that you allow the ones you list to be added, none of them worked.

Then -- and this may seem ridiculous, but I'm just trying to cover my bases, here -- it occurred to me that when you wrote the words...

AdditionalParameters=<text>

Additional command-line parameters to the browser. A list of available switches is available here.

...on that  Help.html  page, you may have actually meant for us to use the text string  "AdditionalParameters"  as if it were a parameter, itself; and then putting whatever other parameters from Beverloo's list (which aren't among the ones you list on your  Help.html  page) behind the AdditionalParameters's "equals" symbol. 

Is that how you meant for it to work? Or am I taking it too literally?

If it isn't how you meant it to work, then I guess I need some help making any of the other parameters from Beverloo's list work in your .INI file; and if it is how you meant it to work, then I need to understand the precise format of the text that should go behind your  AdditionalParameters  parameter. 

For example, would I still use the "--" before each parameter, and just format each one exactly as they'd be if they were actually on the command line? And, if so, then would I separate multiple ones with a simple space as they would be were they on the actual command line?

Stuff like that.

And then, once we have that all figured out, if you don't mine me making a suggestion: You should expand your  Help.html  file to include precisely how it works.

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Now... regarding the "odd behavior" cited in my subject line...

The very first of your versions that I ever tried was your second-most-recent one: version 36.0.1985.18

I tried it on a 64-bit Win7 SP-1 machine on which I created this folder...

C:\Users\[username]\PORTABLE

...and then I used the "Subst" command to call that "PORTABLE" folder "Drive P:"

I then created the folder... 

P:\ProgramFiles\

...which, to be clear, absent the "Subst" command's "Drive P:" substitution is actually the same as...

C:\Users\[username]\PORTABLE\ProgramFiles

...and then I had the .PAF installer put Chromium Portable beneath it as...

P:\ProgramFiles\ChromiumPortable

...which, again, just to be clear, but for the "Subst" command, is exactly the same as...

C:\Users\[username]\PORTABLE\ProgramFiles\ChromiumPortable 

Then, I created...

P:\ProgramFiles\ChromiumPortable\ChromiumPortable.ini

...and put my API keys on its first line, as your  Help.html  file instructs, and your Chromium Portable launched perfectly and everything seemed fine. So far, so good.

However, when I finally logged the copy of Chromium Portable into my Google account, and it sync'd and downloaded and installed all of my extensions, Chromium Portable only worked fine, with all my extensions, for the rest of that browser session. When I closed it and powered-down the machine; then powered it up again the next day and launched Chromium Portable, all of a sudden it crashed whenever I tried to complete a Google search from Google's main search page; or whenever I tried to go onto the  chrome://plugins  page.

It was really weird. I could key the search terms into the Google search box on the main Google search page (into which I was logged); but then when I hit the keyboard's  [Enter]  key to begin the search, the browser crashed. And as soon as I keyed  chrome://plugins  into the omnibox, and hit the keyboard's  [Enter]  key, the browser crashed.

Now, those two things may actually be related because I have Chromium Portable set to let me search from the omnibox; and so the browser may initially be passing the text string  "chrome:plugins"  to the Google search engine before trying to use it to go to the  chrome://plugins  internal browser page; and so maybe it's all a Google searching problem or something... I've not had time to flush that out yet.

And, yes, of course I disabled all extensions and then added them back in, one by one, testing both the Google search, and then trying to hit the  chrome://plugins  page: and everything worked perfectly after adding every single one back in, one at a time. However, once they were all added, and then I closed the browser and then re-launced it again, all of a sudden it crashed again whenever I either searched from the main Google search page, or typed  "chrome:plugins"  into the omnibox.

So, then, yes, I realize it all means that I need to disable all extensions yet again, and then add back in the first one, then test both the search and trying to hit the plugins page; and then close and re-open the browser, and then try both the search and hitting the plugins page yet again...

...for every single extension. And I've not yet found time to do that... but I will. It's a huge pain in the rear, though, because I've got a lot of extensions going... though not all of them turned-on at the same time: some extensions I only turn on when I use them, otherwise they're disabled.

The thing is, though that everything works just fine whenever I'm using either Google Chrome, or the IRON portable browser. I've not yet tried any other Chromium-based browser (other than yours, of course).

I've also not yet tried it on my wife's 32-bit Windows Vista SP-2 machine (which I mention simply because a part of me wonders if the problem is somehow related to running your browser on 64-bit machines, or Win7 machines, or both, combined), but I'm about to: I'll hopefully find time to do it sometime this week.

Another thing I'm wondering about is whether my API key is somehow causing a problem. When I set mine up, I basically authorized everything except those items which either required setting-up billing, or which took me to a screen where I had to specify how I was going to use the key; and so I've authorized all but just a tiny handful of all available things in my key. Is it possible, I wonder, if something I've authorized in my key is somehow conflicting with either your browser, or one of my extensions, or both, combined? Just brainstorming, here, mind you.

So, anyway, that's what's going on with my experience of your Chromium Portable version so far. I just -- literally minutes before I began this posting -- downloaded and "installed" (actually copied) to...

P:\ProgramFiles\ChromiumPortable

...your version 37.0.2017.2; and just to make sure I'm starting from a really clean copy, I completely removed any user data, and first run stuff: it's a new, pristine "installation"; and so when I launch it and finally log it into my Google account, it will, again, sync all my bookmarks and extensions and everything from my Google dashboard. And, at that point, I'll first try to do the search and go to the plugins page; and if it succeeds, then I'll close it, then re-lauch it, and try the search and going to the plugins page again... this time hoping that nothing will crash. And I'll be doing it on my wife's 32-bit Vista SP-2 machine.

I'll let you know what happens...

...but I sure would be interested to know your thoughts on any of this.

Thanks!

Keep-up the good work.

Looking forward to your response, here (and to hearing from you privately, if you'd like to talk about that custom browser opportunity).

_______________________________

Gregg L. DesElms

Napa, California USA

gregg at greggdeselms dot com

[Aluísio Augusto Silva Gonçalves]

This is an example ChromiumPortable.ini file:

DisableSplashScreen=false
AdditionalParameters=--homepage=http://crportable.sourceforge.net/ --user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 --bwsi
GoogleAPIKey=hiudgagqehuGG7DWDFHUG7T8Bugf8y :: 50347710.apps.googleusercontent.com :: hds89YQDYUYgfewuf

(that API key is made up)

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When you say that the browser has crashed, do you mean the whole browser or just the page?

I wonder if either the application files or the data got corrupted in some way.  To test and fix the first, you can just re-run the installer and point it to the same directory; it will preserve your data.  For the latter possibility, you can just rename the Data directory to something else and try again.