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SilverBack

SilverBack

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Greetings All,

Made a valiant attempt to install the Zen browser in my Ubuntu VM tonight. The app "appears" to be installed but doesn't do anything when I double-click its icon. I did see a message saying that this app "isn't sandboxed" - so what did I do wrong? I am VERY new to Linux / Ubuntu, so I'm flailing a bit. The good news is that FireFox still works great so I'm not completely out of luck. FWIW, I'm doing all of this on a MacBook Pro running an Ubuntu VM via the Parallels app. Distro: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS. Any hints or directions where I can find some info on getting Zen to work? Thanks for your time in advance. Cheers!
 


SilverBack said:
Greetings All,

Made a valiant attempt to install the Zen browser in my Ubuntu VM tonight. The app "appears" to be installed but doesn't do anything when I double-click its icon. I did see a message saying that this app "isn't sandboxed" - so what did I do wrong? I am VERY new to Linux / Ubuntu, so I'm flailing a bit. The good news is that FireFox still works great so I'm not completely out of luck. FWIW, I'm doing all of this on a MacBook Pro running an Ubuntu VM via the Parallels app. Distro: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS. Any hints or directions where I can find some info on getting Zen to work? Thanks for your time in advance. Cheers!
Click to expand...
Sorry can't be of much help. But how did you install zen? I downloaded the file from there web site and it runs fine on fedora.
 
I have not used zen yet, but I do know a bit about Mac's. I'd like to ask if you are doing this on a M-series MacBook, as that probably could affect it. If it's an intel, if I may ask what year? (Should be in the apple menu on the Mac-side)
 
Rocketing-warp9 said:
I have not used zen yet, but I do know a bit about Mac's. I'd like to ask if you are doing this on a M-series MacBook, as that probably could affect it. If it's an intel, if I may ask what year? (Should be in the apple menu on the Mac-side)
Click to expand...

Rocketing-warp9,​


Oops! I should have been more specific! My laptop is a 2021 M1 Pro, MacBook Pro, 32GB RAM, 2TB SDD. Zen runs fine on MacOS with the M1 chip, etc. The challenge happened when I tried to install it on my Parallels / Ubuntu VM. FWIW, I can see the App Icon and even found Zen files in the Library, etc. When I click the Zen icon, it looks like it's doing something, but then the Browser just does nothing. Thanks again for your post. Cheers!

BEB
 
kc1di said:
Sorry can't be of much help. But how did you install zen? I downloaded the file from there web site and it runs fine on fedora.
Click to expand...

kc1di,​

Here's what I am doing to get & install Zen on an Ubuntu VM running on my laptop using Parallels:

  1. Navigated to "https://zen-browser.app/"
  2. Clicked the "Download" button at the top of the webpage
  3. Clicked the "Download for Linux" button that appeared
  4. A file named "zen.linux-x86.tar.xz" downloaded to my laptop.
  5. Let's stop here for now. I should have done my homework to see if I could figure out how to work with a "tar.xz" file. I'll do that and report back on how it goes.
I apologize for being technically lazy! Cheers!

BREAK | BREAK

Pretty sure this IS a Apple M1 Silicon issue. If the file above had been written for the M1 chip, it would likely of had "ARM" somewhere in the download section or maybe even the file name. Anyway, let's call this done and move on. Apologies for wasting the collective's time. (I did get to practice some CLI commands to clean-up my mess!)

V/r,
BEB
 
Last edited:
what happens if you try to run it from the terminal? Any error messages?
 
That is a compressed file and must be extracted. Once extracted look for the file zen or zen-bin clicking on that file will open the browser. You will have to add it to the menu manually. Good luck.
 
I tried it on my M-Series Mini, and Yielded similar results to you but with an Audio glitch from a file that then said "Invalid Encoding" afterwards. Shockingly, I found a Win .ini file within the download for linux... I'll look into it further.
 
Rocketing-warp9 said:
I tried it on my M-Series Mini, and Yielded similar results to you but with an Audio glitch from a file that then said "Invalid Encoding" afterwards. Shockingly, I found a Win .ini file within the download for linux... I'll look into it further.
Click to expand...
Ah... Like I said above, an M1 Apple Silicon issue. No biggie... Moving on! Cheers!
 
It's alright. I got it to work on my M1. The second post has the cmd that got it to work.
Here is my install running on my M1. I hope these help!
 

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Rocketing-warp9 said:
It's alright. I got it to work on my M1. The second post has the cmd that got it to work.
Here is my install running on my M1. I hope these help!
Click to expand...

Rocketing-warp9,​

Wow!, I must have run the wrong Curl command last night. When I ran the first one, as you suggested, everything works GREAT! Thank-You VERY much. Looking forward to test driving Zen for awhile to see how well it works for me. I'll keep FireFox around as a fall-back plan. Anyway, can you tell, I'm using Zen for this Linux.org session? Just too cool! Cheers!

BEB
 
@SilverBack :-

Zen is Chromium-based, which means it expects to be run as 'a user'. If you use the official install methods, it will undoubtedly set appropriate permissions, etc, which allow everything to run as it should.

We always get the 'trace/breakpoint trap' error in Puppy; this refers to the fact that by running-as-root - which Puppy does; it's a small, single-user 'hobbyist' distro that runs as root all the time - the Chromium tab 'sandboxing' doesn't get enabled. So we add the '--no-sandbox' option in the menu entry's 'exec' line.....which then lets the browser fire-up.

Normally, you wouldn't get this by installing from, say, a .deb or .rpm package (equivalent to a Windows .exe package). Manual installs from a 'tarball' will always throw up little issues like this. It's the kind of thing that you only 'pick up on' over time, as you become more experienced with Linux in general.

Welcome to Linux software. :D


Mike. ;)
 
MikeWalsh said:
@SilverBack :-

Zen is Chromium-based, which means it expects to be run as 'a user'. If you use the official install methods, it will undoubtedly set appropriate permissions, etc, which allow everything to run as it should.

We always get the 'trace/breakpoint trap' error in Puppy; this refers to the fact that by running-as-root - which Puppy does; it's a small, single-user 'hobbyist' distro that runs as root all the time - the Chromium tab 'sandboxing' doesn't get enabled. So we add the '--no-sandbox' option in the menu entry's 'exec' line.....which then lets the browser fire-up.

Normally, you wouldn't get this by installing from, say, a .deb or .rpm package (equivalent to a Windows .exe package). Manual installs from a 'tarball' will always throw up little issues like this. It's the kind of thing that you only 'pick up on' over time, as you become more experienced with Linux in general.

Welcome to Linux software. :D


Mike. ;)
Click to expand...
MikeWalsh,

Thanks for your reply! Have a great weekend.
BEB
 
kc1di said:
There is also a flatpak for the zen browser that should run ok out of the box. But on Ubuntu it is kind of difficult to install flatpaks. But glad you got it going, enjoy!
Click to expand...

kc1di,​

Appreciate all of your assistance. You have my permission & encouragement to take me to "Linux school" anytime. Anyway, have a great weekend! OBTW, just learned (again) that I really, REALLY need to record my passwords properly so I don't waste 30 minutes wondering why my Primary Password isn't working! All good now.

BEB
 
SilverBack said:

kc1di,​

Appreciate all of your assistance. You have my permission & encouragement to take me to "Linux school" anytime. Anyway, have a great weekend! OBTW, just learned (again) that I really, REALLY need to record my passwords properly so I don't waste 30 minutes wondering why my Primary Password isn't working! All good now.

BEB
Click to expand...
If you desire to learn more about Linux this page maybe of help.
Click to expand...
 
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