Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9

[davigarma]

Noted (though how come the latest Widevine works in LegacyC in Mavericks but not in Safari/Firefox/Chrome, or even iCab?).

I'm using Parallels 11 for the VM - and for Snow Leopard and Mavericks also. If Legacy Chromium breaks in the future, I may finally upgrade to Sierra and use it for browsers / email, and run my Mavericks VM for everything else.

All digital content still works in Safari 9 by Mavericks. There are few exceptions, such as my cable provider who recently banned it. But in Nefflix it looks perfect (HD) in Safari 9, as long as it works with Microsoft (Silverlight). Safari has no dealings with Google's DRM. It also works on Amazon Prime without HD (Amazon has done as my cable provider) they have banned all old browsers, but at least it has the decency to reproduce in normal quality. Also Disney, etc.
Firefox works on everyone, and Chromium too, except on Amazon Prime which identifies it as a "bastard child" of Chrome and takes away its HD viewing rights.

 

[MacBiter]

All digital content still works in Safari 9 by Mavericks. There are few exceptions, such as my cable provider who recently banned it. But in Nefflix it looks perfect (HD) in Safari 9, as long as it works with Microsoft (Silverlight). Safari has no dealings with Google's DRM. It also works on Amazon Prime without HD (Amazon has done as my cable provider) they have banned all old browsers, but at least it has the decency to reproduce in normal quality. Also Disney, etc.
Firefox works on everyone, and Chromium too, except on Amazon Prime which identifies it as a "bastard child" of Chrome and takes away its HD viewing rights.

Wow, you're right! I abandoned Safari when BBC iPlayer (which is the streaming service I use most) stopped supporting Safari 9. I had no idea Netflix would work, but it does.

However, I do believe you're wrong about Firefox? Mavericks only goes up to FF78 and the Widevine plugin hasn't been upgraded that far back so though iPlayer still works, nothing that uses Widevine will, sadly. It stopped a few weeks ago, very recent.

 

[davigarma]

Wow, you're right! I abandoned Safari when BBC iPlayer (which is the streaming service I use most) stopped supporting Safari 9. I had no idea Netflix would work, but it does.

However, I do believe you're wrong about Firefox? Mavericks only goes up to FF78 and the Widevine plugin hasn't been upgraded that far back so though iPlayer still works, nothing that uses Widevine will, sadly. It stopped a few weeks ago, very recent.

Firefox, to this day, works fine on all the content I see on Mavericks. But it is evident that as soon as they stop supporting it, it will be progressively banned. There may be "Legacy" if parrotek is encouraged or there may be Chromium if Bluebox does not tire. If there were certainties, life would be boring ;-;

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm encouraged by the fact that Chromium Legacy appears to be relatively low-maintenance. The upstream changes get automatically merged, compiled, and posted to Github, so Bluebox only has to step in if there's a merge conflict, or if something actually breaks, which doesn't seem to happen too often.

This isn't to discount what Bluebox has done—rather, I admire that he not only backported Chromium, but also set up the project in a sustainable way!

(The whole thing also really demonstrates the power of git!)

 

[MacBiter]

Firefox, to this day, works fine on all the content I see on Mavericks.

I take it that doesn't include Netflix, ITV, or 4oD? They all use Widevine which isn't upgraded for Firefox 78, the last version available for Mavericks.

I'm encouraged by the fact that Chromium Legacy appears to be relatively low-maintenance. The upstream changes get automatically merged, compiled, and posted to Github, so Bluebox only has to step in if there's a merge conflict, or if something actually breaks, and this doesn't seem to happen too often.

I was actually confused by the Preference Pane approach, which - having got the 'not valid' diagonal line when I selected one of the options - I then ignored and downloaded the most recent Chromium 92 (Version 92.0.4515.0) available, manually from github. I assumed - rightly or wrongly - that Chromium 93 won't run on Mavericks. I don't know if that means I haven't got automatic updates?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I was actually confused by the Preference Pane approach, which - having got the 'not valid' diagonal line when I selected one of the options - I then ignored and downloaded the most recent Chromium 92 (Version 92.0.4515.0) available, manually from github. I assumed - rightly or wrongly - that Chromium 93 won't run on Mavericks. I don't know if that means I haven't got automatic updates?

No, the latest builds still work on Mavericks. Sounds like the Preference Pane got an incomplete download. My fault—it's not particularly sophisticated, just a fancy Applescript.

Mind trying it again with the latest Chromium build? If it still doesn't work on a second try, I'll need to somehow figure out why the script is failing.

(Either way, there are no automatic updates, you need to open the preference pane.)

 

[MacBiter]

No, the latest builds still work on Mavericks. Sounds like the Preference Pane got an incomplete download. My fault—it's not particularly sophisticated, just a fancy Applescript.

Mind trying it again with the latest Chromium build? If it still doesn't work on a second try, I'll need to somehow figure out why the script is failing.

Ok, no problem - it has worked! The only thing is that the nice blue Chromium icon in the Dock has been replaced by the standard ugly Chrome icon (sad face).

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Ok, no problem - it has worked! The only thing is that the nice blue Chromium icon in the Dock has been replaced by the standard ugly Chrome icon (sad face).

That's something my preference pane does, I wanted a less flat icon to fit the OS. Feel free to open Library/PreferencePanes/Chromium Legacy Downloader.prefPane/Contents/Resources and delete these lines in Script.scpt:

do shell script "cp " & resourcesPath & "app.icns " & tempFolder & "Contents/Resources/"
do shell script "cp " & resourcesPath & "document.icns " & tempFolder & "Contents/Resources/"

Or, replace app.icns and document.icns in with whatever version you prefer.

(Because previous downloads are cached, you'll need to either reboot before downloading or download a version you've never downloaded before in order for the change to take effect.)

 

[MacBiter]

That's something my preference pane does, I wanted a less flat icon to fit the OS. Feel free to replace app.icns and document.icns in Library/PreferencePanes/Chromium Legacy Downloader.prefPane/Contents/Resources with whatever version you prefer. (Because previous downloads are cached, you'll need to either reboot or download a version you've never downloaded before in order for the change to take effect.)

I did it by unzipping yesterday's Chromium 92 download, doing a Get Info of the new version, and dragging the C92 icon into place.

 

[davigarma]

I take it that doesn't include Netflix, ITV, or 4oD? They all use Widevine which isn't upgraded for Firefox 78, the last version available for Mavericks.

I don't know if this UK content works. I am in Spain. And they work with Firefox 78.11.0 Mavericks on HD Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime. My cable provider (Movistar, O2 in the UK) does have Firefox banned from its digital content
On the other hand, in Chromium Legacy 93, which if it works in Mavericks, I can see all the digital content of Movistar, Netflix, etc., but I lose the HD of Amazon Prime

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I did it by unzipping yesterday's Chromium 92 download, doing a Get Info of the new version, and dragging the C92 icon into place.

You can do that too, it just might get reverted when you download a new version.

The primarily reason I created the Preference Pane was so I wouldn't have to reapply changes each time I updated. (Widevine, icons, code to fix the window resizing glitch, etc.)

 

[MacBiter]

You can do that too, it just might get reverted when you download a new version.

I'll save the icon so I can reapply it when necessary.

By the way, I hate the 3D Dock we're forced to have in Mavericks - I have used cDock for years to get a flat Dock along the bottom.

 

[MacBiter]

I don't know if this UK content works. I am in Spain. And they work with Firefox 78.11.0 Mavericks on HD Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.

The extraordinary thing is - I just logged into Netflix in Firefox and now it's playing a title! I wonder if it's anything to do with Chromium Legacy? If so, I don't know how.

 

[davigarma]

The extraordinary thing is - I just logged into Netflix in Firefox and now it's playing a title! I wonder if it's anything to do with Chromium Legacy? If so, I don't know how.

Firefox has nothing to do with Chromium. Google's Chrome ended its compatibility with Mavericks. Chromium is an independent development from Google, which is made by enthusiasts. But Chromium still has a lot of Google, and for what they do not like that, Chromium Legacy is made without Google

 

[MacBiter]

Firefox has nothing to do with Chromium. Google's Chrome ended its compatibility with Mavericks.

Yes I know - but if Chromium Legacy added / updated something in the System Library, it may have had an effect in Firefox too. Either that, or Mozilla have found a way to upgrade Widevine for FF78 belatedly?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Chromium is an independent development from Google, which is made by enthusiasts. But Chromium still has a lot of Google, and for what they do not like that, Chromium Legacy is made without Google

Nitpick, Chromium is very much a Google project! Google started it, Google contributes the vast majority of the code directly to the open source repo! Chromium Legacy is an independent project; assuming anyone at Google actually knows about it, I doubt they have an opinion beyond "oh, that's cool."

As for Widevine, there was some sort of major encryption switchover on May 30, so that may be related.

 

[MacBiter]

As for Widevine, there was some sort of major encryption switchover on May 30, so that may be related.

I'm not sure what that involved, but I just tried ITV as well as Netflix, and both now play in Firefox 78.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Chromium Legacy added / updated something in the System Library, it may have had an effect in Firefox too.

...actually, come to think of it, that's a perfectly reasonable theory. Chromium Widevine needs those dummy libraries in order to work, and it may well be the case that Firefox uses the exact same library.

 

[MacBiter]

...actually, come to think of it, that's a perfectly reasonable theory. Chromium Widevine needs those dummy libraries in order to work, and it may well be the case that Firefox uses the exact same library.

I had a quick look in both System Library and root level Library, and couldn't see anything obvious. However, in my user Firefox profile, in Crash Reports, there are a number of InstallTimeYYYYMMDDHHMM files, and the latest is dated 20210531xxxxxx, and created / added yesterday. Common agreement seems to suggest these are update events. Firefox ESR says the latest update is 1st June 2021, so it looks like they fixed the Widevine problem.

 

[MacBiter]

That's something my preference pane does, I wanted a less flat icon to fit the OS. Feel free to open Library/PreferencePanes/Chromium Legacy Downloader.prefPane/Contents/Resources and delete these lines in Script.scpt:

do shell script "cp " & resourcesPath & "app.icns " & tempFolder & "Contents/Resources/"
do shell script "cp " & resourcesPath & "document.icns " & tempFolder & "Contents/Resources/"

Or, replace app.icns and document.icns in with whatever version you prefer.

(Because previous downloads are cached, you'll need to either reboot before downloading or download a version you've never downloaded before in order for the change to take effect.)

This is going to be complicated.

1. I amended the original blue icon in Photoshop, saved it as a tiff, then dragged the document to the top left (icon) of the Get Info window.

2. It looked rather small in the Dock, so I've cropped it in Photoshop and saved. However, dragging it to Get Info all the blue became black. Saving it as a PNG the result was just the same.

3. So I decided to take your advice and replace app.icns and document.icns in Library/PreferencePanes (etc) with the PNG file. Then I used the Preference Pane to download the latest version. Unfortunately, the app now has the generic Apple application icon (pencil, brush, ruler) with a No Entry diagonal overlaid. "Uh oh..."

4. However, the app in the Dock still launched ok, and my last session is still there. Now the icon in the Dock is not the generic one, it's larger blue but without the transparency, i.e. with a white background.

Any advice for me?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

3. So I decided to take your advice and replace app.icns and document.icns in Library/PreferencePanes (etc) with the PNG file. Then I used the Preference Pane to download the latest version. Unfortunately, the app now has the generic Apple application icon (pencil, brush, ruler) with a No Entry diagonal overlaid. "Uh oh..."

I'm not sure what's going on in terms of the Finder route, but for the Prefpane it has to be an icns file. Preview can save an image as an icns if you hold down option while expanding the file type dropdown.

 

[MacBiter]

I'm not sure what's going on in terms of the Finder route, but for the Prefpane it has to be an icns file. Preview can save an image as an icns if you hold down option while expanding the file type dropdown.

Oh yes! (I didn't know that). I'll try again - open the transparent PNG file and save it twice as an ICNS file, open Package Contents of the Preference Pane, and try again. I'll have to download the -1 version so that I get a version of Chromium I haven't already got.

 

[MacBiter]

I'm not sure what's going on in terms of the Finder route, but for the Prefpane it has to be an icns file. Preview can save an image as an icns if you hold down option while expanding the file type dropdown.

Unfortunately Preview said "Document could not be saved as .icns" - I tried with both PNG & TIF.

 

[B S Magnet]

I know we already have a thread for Early Intel Mac web browsers, but frankly I think this one deserves its own thread. It's just so great.

I haven't used Google Chrome for years. I don't like Google's dominance over the web, and besides, there are two other excellent, mainstream browser engines. Back when I used modern versions of macOS, I used Safari, and when I decided to downgrade all of the computers in my life to OS X 10.9 a year ago, I switched to Firefox.

Unfortunately, the web is increasingly a Chromium-only domain. I am very much trying to make Mavericks work for every computing task in my life, and that means answering work calls in Slack and Microsoft Teams. And for better or worse, this can only be done in Google Chrome and its derivatives.

Up until now, I've been using VMWare for Slack and Teams calls, but waiting for VMs to start up is annoying, and the whole thing is a tad too error-prone in a professional setting. Complicating matters, I strongly dislike keeping more than one web browser installed at a time, because I'll sometimes forget which browser I'm in, and it gets confusing.

Enter Chromium Legacy, by the fantastic Blueboxd. I have it working in Mavericks now via some code injection, and I've officially switched to it as the one browser installed on my computer. And I have to admit, Chromium really is just a damn good browser. Pages do seem to load more quickly than in Firefox, and Chromium does a (relatively) better job of playing with native Mac features, like Applescripts and custom keyboard shortcuts.

Official builds of Chromium Legacy can be downloaded from here.

Alternately, because Chromium lacks an auto-update mechanism, I've created a Preference Pane which makes it easier to download new releases. It will also replace the icon with Chrome's classic 3D version, set a flag to not use any system proxies (for compatibility with Squid), and change some default settings which I just find aggressively obnoxious, like hiding URLs in the address bar. Download from https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/chromium-legacy-downloader.zip.

I feel like this should be easy to figure out on my own, but when Chrome 50 came out and terminated support for basically 32-bit systems, Snow Leopard was left out of that future. Looking back on this, I’m trying to figure out why.

Chrome for OS X from the outset was written in Cocoa. When it came out in 2008, it ran on Leopard (and possibly Tiger, but I lacked an Intel Mac at the time). I understand those early versions of Chrome was written in 32-bit (so that Core Solo and Core Duo Macs could run it).

I know Snow Leopard, when running on the 64-bit kernel and on 64-bit kexts/frameworks/drivers, can deliver an all-64-bit environment on those systems which have a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit EFI bootloader. (I like to keep the following Ars Technica old graphic handy when dealing with Snow Leopard for PowerPC.)

Which brings me back to Chrome.

For those of you who have a good grasp on the mechanics underneath, what was the breaking point which kept Chrome (or Chromium Legacy), post-49, from running on an all-64-bit system running 10.6.8, but able to run on 10.7, 10.8 and even 10.9? Was it in a set of frameworks introduced with Lion?

Again, there may already be a really good write-up on this elsewhere and I haven’t yet found it.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I feel like this should be easy to figure out on my own, but when Chrome 50 came out and terminated support for basically 32-bit systems, Snow Leopard was left out of that future. Looking back on this, I’m trying to figure out why.

You're assuming there's some sort of big underlying reason; I don't know if that's the case. Chrome dropped support for 10.6–10.8 all at once in 2016, so Snow Leopard was never singled out specifically. (By contrast, they dropped support for Leopard much earlier, in 2012.)

Bluebox appears to run Lion personally, so that's probably why he chose Lion as a minimum OS for Chromium Legacy.