Extreme Explorer 360 Chromium 78-86 General Discussion

[XPerceniol]

Hi Everyone

Been using it all morning on youtube and general browsing and it hasn't crashed once. I'm all in now with this browser build and have high hopes for your project @ArcticFoxie I do have some concerns; though.

I'm trying to restrict to TLS 1.2 and 1.3 (and disable 1.0 and 1.1)  but don't know how to do that and would like to block mixed content, as well.

Enabling this flag didn't work?

And the following flag doesn't exist as recommended when I was researching on the net.

chrome://flags
    Under “Minimum SSL/TLS version supported.”, change from “Default” to “TLS 1.1?

Some sites (including MSFN) are coming up not secure (start out in green https and changes to red) Not a clue?

My root certificates are up to date as far as I know.

As I said, this is a huge learning curve for me and I'm learning both this particular browser whilst trying to understand Chromium (seeing as I'm a FF guy)

So these are my findings today.

Good luck and your work is very much appreciated.

Edited July 6, 2021 by XPerceniol
EDITED - TLS 1.2 and 1.3 - Sorry

[NotHereToPlayGames]

For your mixed content preference (if I follow), add the below line to the very end of the Parameters line in the [FileToRun] section of your 360Loader.ini file, make sure there is a space between the new command and the previous command:

--enable-strict-mixed-content-checking

 

For your tls preference, I think you need to set a min and a max both to 1.2, add the following:

--ssl-version-min=tls1.2 --ssl-version-max=tls1.2

 

Either that or you might just need the following:

--tls1.2

 

For reference  --  https://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/

I would personally always use 360Loader.ini over "flags", but that's because I can do more with "switches" than I can with "flags".

Edited July 6, 2021 by ArcticFoxie

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I have done several cosmetic tweaks since my last update.

I'm officially done tweaking and have everything where I like it.

Only need to download and replace one file  --  https://www.dropbox.com/s/dzafuzylfgpvqzu/options.zip?dl=0

 

I don't remember the full list, but to name a few of the changes  --

Extensions text on Settings - Basic now lines up with above tabs that were shifted to allow Mouse Gestures to fit even when bold/selected

Search dropdown box in Settings - Basic now smaller and text is centered

Overall padding between sections has been reduced so most pages don't popup a scrollbar on a 1920x1080 screen

Font Size for custom font smaller and centered

Switch Tab milliseconds box smaller (I think this one was already centered)

Download location boxes larger (admittedly to fit my exact folder selection)

Advanced Tab Web Content boxes now displayed in-line with surrounding text

Lab Tab prerender box smaller (now the same size as other boxes used throughout various settings)

Power Save percentage box now displayed in-line with surrounding text (basically adds a space between the box and the start of the text that follows the box)

Security Tab green-box caret now aligns with checkbox

[NotHereToPlayGames]

To Do:

I plan on digging into "ungoogled-chromium" as far as some of the embedded extensions discussed earlier in this thread.

I plan on my rebuild going the same route as "ungoogled-chromium" as far as disabling or keeping embedded extensions.

That's likely a couple weeks out.

[UCyborg]

Tried build 2250, last time I messed with 2206, the problems from back then I noted still exist.

Doesn't look like a go-to YouTube browser on XP to me, no hardware acceleration of any kind and presentation is slow. Common Chromium thing really because why optimize software fallbacks like it's 1997. Frame drops are common here at mere 720p @ 30 FPS and it goes super laggy when going fullscreen while not changing the video resolution. Contrast that to Firefox based browsers (tried recent roytam1's forks of Pale Moon and Basilisk) that can do 1440p @ 30 FPS without frame drops. Obviously faster CPU (current one is AMD Phenom II X4 920 (over)clocked at 3 Ghz) would probably let me break 1440p line in FX while slower would make things more miserable in Chromium.

Since no HW acceleration of any kind, WebGL goes through SwiftShader, so it's practically useless for WebGL content. And to put cherry on the cake, unable to identify to a website with a certificate; after selecting one, it shows some Chinese error page with the text embedded in the image. Problems disappear when running it on Windows 7.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I strip out swiftshader and disable WebGL so unless you added them back and enabled yourself, then you weren't really comparing apples-to-apples when comparing to Firefox-based browsers.

I've never had any luck on any browser with hardware acceleration, haven't for several years - but that's quite likely just my hardware (six computers).

There really is only "so much" that can be done as far as a go-to YouTube - I've never had anywhere NEAR the issues that others reported as far as YouTube is concerned (I can't really debug what I can't witness firsthand).

The MOST RECENT upload for 2206 is reported to do better on YouTube than 2250.

Over-clocking a 2.8 GHz to 3 GHz could be causing some instability in-and-of-itself.

I do seem to recall reading that most hardware acceleration pertains to Intel and not AMD, but my reading on that is a bit dated.

 

I'd be interested to hear if the MOST RECENT upload for 2206 works out better for you.

My version numbers are actually going BACKWARD.  2250 caused stability issues so I ditched it and reverted to 2206.  I plan on a 1006 version later down the road - but again, I'm going BACKWARD because OLDER versions are more stable than "newer".

[XPerceniol]

Well..

To be honest, even though Serpent is my default browser (mostly because I quite enjoy the security and 'tor like' features/prefs that I heavily configure/crippled to my liking - though I don't use Tor and won't), I have better success with New Moon 28 on YouTube - its just faster. For example, I actually have trouble posting a song on here from Serpent ... while there is no problem with New Moon picking up the youtube player.

For the record: I actually have webgl disabled, and don't use hardware acceleration because my hardware is so aged its of no use to me anyway (worse enabled actually). My main computer still struggles if I ask too much of it; though, better than my (even older) Dell from around 2005 (I think). I'm actually running with (practically all) original hardware here ... I just take VERY good care of my stuff. But much like our own @Sampei.Nihira, its just a matter of time and my computers have paid for themselves many times - I can't complain. I'd be sad, but would allow them to rest in peace. They don't owe me a thing!

Back on topic (sorry) :-)

I'm willing to be patient with this new project and see what happens going forward as I realize this is a 'work in progress' (especially for me personally re chrome) as I've been unwilling to move away from Firefox only up until recently - and I don't like change all very much Lol.

Yeah, its not really a 'go-to' just yet, but hopefully it will be something we can use if all else fails us and turn into something good and safe for XP and Vista.

TC

[NotHereToPlayGames]

8 minutes ago, XPerceniol said:

...I've been unwilling to move away from Firefox only up until recently...

My default for the longest time was Roytam's NewMoon v27 (primarily due to preferred formatting in Stylem user styles over NewMoon v28) [before that I always used GreenBrowser + Proxomitron and that combo worked for close to a DECADE].

One of my savings account web sites links to a retirement IRA account and that was the one-and-only web site that would not work in NM27 or NM28 - the savings account side would but the IRA side would not.

But the funny thing there was that I then downgraded to a MyPal v27 that was OVER TWO YEARS OLD at the time and that one-and-only web site would WORK in it.

Proving once again that "newer" is not always "better".

But it was also short-lived and before I knew it I had to use THREE DIFFERENT BROWSERS  --  FOUR if you count Google Voice from an ungoogled-chromium running in a Win7 VM.

That was the straw that broke this camels back!  Having to resort to FOUR different web browsers was a bit INSANE.

Especially when a decade ago or so, you could create your own context menus in pretty much every browser out there but browsers nowadays don't allow for that and it is viewed as a "security vulnerability" instead of a "useful feature".

I loved the days where I could be browsing along in one browser, right-click a link and open that link in another browser, then do the same from that browser, bouncing from browser to browser all from context menus or right-click drop-downs.

You probably still can, to be honest, but you have to jump through too many hoops nowadays because software developers have to "dumb it down" 'for the masses' and "protect us" from what they perceive as "vulnerabilities".

But like I say, using FOUR browsers on a daily basis was the straw that broke this camel's back, it was time to STOP THE MADNESS.

That is when I found 360Chrome.  I'm not claiming it to be "perfect", don't get me wrong.  BUT NEITHER WAS ANYTHING ELSE SINCE I HAD TO RELY ON FOUR DIFFERENT BROWSERS!

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I still remember one of the most hilarious parts of having to use FOUR different browsers.

To drop it down to THREE, I gave Chase MasterCard a call and cancelled a credit card account and when they asked "Why?" I told them that their website has forced me to change web browsers three times in two years and "three strikes, you're out".

I've never owned a Chase credit card since.

I've threatened to close other accounts, very adamant phone calls, "You will NOT tell me what web brower I can or can not use, you will NOT tell me what Operating System I can or can not use!".

 

Maybe I'm just getting old...  "Get off my lawn!"...  Or something like that...

[dmiranda]

9 hours ago, ArcticFoxie said:

I plan on my rebuild going the same route as "ungoogled-chromium" as far as disabling or keeping embedded extensions.

I look forward to it. Your current 2206 is stable enough to use daily. Main issue is that it won't mostly allow two youtube tabs. A drawback if you are running a party or editing s*** for your own use.

5 hours ago, UCyborg said:

Problems disappear when running it on Windows 7.

Laf. Soon you will be able to say the same running windows10. Envy consumes me.

Edited July 7, 2021 by dmiranda

[Dixel]

On 7/6/2021 at 10:29 AM, ArcticFoxie said:

It's honestly not that simple.

I am from the Ronald Reagan Era - Trust, but verify.

Which was not coined by Reagan, just popularized by Reagan.

The Russian Proverb is actually a bit cooler because it rhymes - Doveryai, no proveryai.

I never trust any claims on performance without witnessing a quantitative and repeatable measurement that others can use on their system as well - which is why I tested the performance claim using PassMark AppTimer.

Without some form of quantitative and repeatable measurement, all we really have is some form of Placebo Effect or some form of "gut feeling".  

I think I already told you we are from the same generation . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X . I still have plenty of things from the glorious 80's ! But hey , is there a place left where no russians mentioned ? I mean , something like a russian free zone ? I recently returned from my vacation and it was d*mn hard to find a place without "russo turisto" ! lol.  But you've just reminded me about this again : I still don't have ANY problems with the language you had mentioned earlier , even with your 2206 ! 

I only see English everywhere , I deleted your user data and started from zero. Again , English everywhere , including websites , my system locale is en-UK , these srings are from my profile data. And even if I change my locale to US , no problems at all too. Of course the strings are en-US after reboot.

"system_web_app_last_attempted_language": "en-UK",

      "system_web_app_last_attempted_update": "13.0.2206.0",

      "system_web_app_last_installed_language": "en-UK",

      "system_web_app_last_update": "13.0.2206.0"

"system_web_app_last_attempted_language": "en-US",

      "system_web_app_last_attempted_update": "13.0.2206.0",

      "system_web_app_last_installed_language": "en-US",

      "system_web_app_last_update": "13.0.2206.0"

I would like to ask @XPerceniol if he has any language-related problems .

[Dixel]

15 hours ago, UCyborg said:

Since no HW acceleration of any kind, WebGL goes through SwiftShader, so it's practically useless for WebGL content. And to put cherry on the cake, unable to identify to a website with a certificate; after selecting one, it shows some Chinese error page with the text embedded in the image. Problems disappear when running it on Windows 7.

Problems do not appear when running it on Vista too. I was under the impression that video hardware acceleration is just not possible due to XP lacking DXVA 2.0, perhaps this is why there were reports about all those yotube crashes on XP . I'm on Vista and I have none , with or without acceleration. WEb-Gl is a security hole , we are kinda trying to make a privacy oriented browser here...

[Dixel]

12 hours ago, ArcticFoxie said:

...  "Get off my lawn!"...  Or something like that...

Just like me ! Bravo and Upvote ! 

[NotHereToPlayGames]

research into ungoogled-chromium (version 88.0.4324.190) follow-up:

contains Cloud Print (file 152 in resources.pak)  --  but two URLs were modified from containing the word google to now containing the word 9oo91e (the g's were changed to 9's and the l was changed to a 1) [note: .qjz9zk/]

same two URLs were modified in same fashion for embedded Web Store extension (file 155)

PDF Viewer remains intact (file 156)  --  ungoogled adds 'wasm-eval' to content_security_policy where 360Chrome does not [note: possibly due to v86 versus v88, not sure]

Feedback remains intact (file 160)  --  100% identical  !!!

CryptoToken remains intact (file 162)  --  100% identical  !!!

Identity API Scope (file 10643) modifies one URL in same fashion as Cloud Print and Web Store

 

So based on this, "ungoogled" KEEPS the Feedback and CryptoToken embedded extensions 100% fully intact, only modifies security policy for the PDF Viewer, and "breaks" Cloud Print, Web Store, and Identity API by doing nothing but changing URLs.

Since my rebuild uses the --js-flags=--noexpose_wasm command line switch, we are not affected by the security policy for the PDF Viewer.

So from this, I'm content with "breaking" Cloud Print, Web Store, and Identity API  --  ungoogled-chromium has a LARGE following and they kept Feedback and CryptoToken 100% fully intact so I see no reason to not follow their lead.

Edited July 7, 2021 by ArcticFoxie

[NotHereToPlayGames]

For reference  --  https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium/blob/master/patches/series