Thinning Google Chrome

[girakul]

I tried thinning this one, but am getting an error after which the browser just hangs...  "The system cannot find the file specified"...

Anyone had success with it? I checked these notes but they don't help...

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-17501

[Lakshman]

There are some known issues in virtualizing Google Chrome that VMware is aware of and working on a fix.

[Lakshman]

I think Google chrome Portable version can be ThinApp'd. Can you give a try please.

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

[girakul]

Will do, but a little later, got a few other things I am working on right now... Thanks!

[Lakshman]

Please try with the latest 4.7.2 release to ThinApp Google Chrome. The guidelines are posted here:

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19923

[ctaylla]

Hi I am having problems can you see my post: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/390728?tstart=0

[toca1337]

Lakshman,

I tried out your guidelines using ThinApp 4.7.2. The extension bug I had previously appears to have been resolved. The App no longer crashes when using Flash.

However, the problem I am now experiencing is that the PROCESS (the app opens 2 processes, but up to 8 processes) WILL NOT close once I exit the app, forcing me to terminate the processes using task manager.

Why are there so many processes being opened?

Is there a fix to this so that the processes will close normally after the app is exited?

[Lakshman]

Good to see the guidelines fixed your issue.

Can you please check how much time it takes for the processes to shutdown after exit chrome ThinApp?

Do you see this on any specific OS?

[toca1337]

The processes (2 of them) will not shut down at all. I have tried to wait for over 10 minutes.

Tested on both Windows 7 and Vista SP2. No difference.

Aside from the extra line in package.ini, is there any modification I need to know (that I have missed perhaps)?

I can feel it to be SO CLOSE to finally fix this for our dept.

PS: Btw, I am so glad that VMware hired you to help out with the forum. For the longest time, this forum had not received much support directly by VMware. It is highly inconvenient to have to submit a support ticket each time my coworker or I have encountered a problem, since the knowledge & solution derived from those exchanges are not posted publicly. Having a common forum for me to search for solutions that others have found is a much more efficient way to do first-step troubleshooting. THANK YOU for your service! Please keep it up!

[Lakshman · Accepted solution]

I'm trying to reproduce the issue here locally.

Can you give details like the ThinApp version and Chrome version used please.

Thank you so much for the compliments, happy to hear it. Will do my best to help our customers

[toca1337]

Thanks.

ThinApp 4.7.2-771812 (I think this is the latest version). For previous versions, Chrome thin'd client would fail (even with the no sandbox option) because it will crash when Flash is used and extension can never be installed properly.

Chrome 20.0.1132.57 (July 11, 2012 build)

Captured in VM bare Windows 7 (with Network Adapater temporarily disabled to get a clean install).

Please advise.

[Lakshman]

Tom,

I could able to reproduce the issue you have reported. Guess the GoogleUpdate.exe is causing the problem.

After spending more time, i have figured out some ways to disable GoogleUpdate during packaging and tested. Seems like it works fine for me.

I would like to share the ThinApp project folders with you to check if the issue is fixed. Could you PM your personal email please.

If it works, i can update the Chrome guidelines that i posted before.

[toca1337]

PM sent.

Curious, does this fix then disable GoogleUpdate? One of the benefits of Chrome is its autoupdate feature. Can Chrome still be updated manually somehow? If so, how (since there is no manual option to force update)?

I am aware of an elaborate registry hack to disable autoupdate in Chrome. Is this your proposed solution?

[toca1337]

I have tried out the build with the files you provided.

Here are my observations:

1. Without any extension installed, Chrome now opens and closes normally. All of the processes will eventually close on their own.

2. App opens much slower (though not unbearable). I can see the disk thrashing somtimes as if the sandbox is being filled with something. Unsure what it is doing.

3. With extension installed (the one I tested is called Refresh Monkey) and running, however, Chrome no longer closes normally. This time, a single residual chrome process refuses to close and just hangs. Further, even if I force-close this process from within task manager, I still cannot manually delete the sandbox because Windows is saying something is still attached to it.

So, overall, you have definitely made some progress but there is still a bug with the extensions.

[Lakshman]

What i have tried is disable the updates so that chrome does not look for further updates. In general, if chrome finds updates, it download them into the physical machine, and upgrade the natively installed version. This may fail in the case of ThinApp, as the files are residing within the virtual bubble.

There are some known issues with Chrome (with extensions) and VMware is working on it.

[toca1337]

Thanks. Please keep me posted on this forum. For now, it appears that I will need to shelf this build again.

[girakul]

I figured out how to thin it... Here is what you do... 10 Step Process... Hope it helps!!!

1). Download the "all users" version of google chrome from https://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?system=true&standalone=1

2). Run the pre-scan of your system via VMware Thinapp

3). Install the "ChromeStandaloneSetup.exe" file that you downloaded earlier

4). Configure the browser

5). Go to  C:\Program Files (x86)\Google and delete the "Update" folder.

6). Right click the shortcut on the desktop for Google Chrome, go to properties tab, at the very end of the target line type up --no-sandbox --disable-flash-sandbox. It should look like this - "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --no-sandbox --disable-flash-sandbox

7). Run the postscan, make sure to select the Google Chrome file as the entry point and not the Google Chrome (1) file

8). Run the build with the desired features

9). Yellow flag that is being generated when the browser starts up is normal. You can close it by hitting "X" in the top right corner.

10). Enjoy Chrome!

[toca1337]

How is your build different from previous attempts that also use "no sandbox" option. Those builds do not work because the browser will not allow installation of any add-ins/plugins/extensions or that their settings will not stick.

Have you tested that out in your build? Also, once your app closes, do all processes close? Again, in previous builds, particularly when an add-in/plugin/extension is installed (even if they do not work), the processes will not close when you exit the app.

[girakul]

It's different because I also disable the sandbox that flash creates on top of the sandbox that google chrome creates (2 separate sandboxes). And yes the browser or the "thinapp" won't allow anything to be added after the "thinapp" was created. You are supposed to add all of your wanted extentions and configure the browser to your needs before you do the postscan. Once the app is finalized and sits in its virtual bubble, it's kind of untouchable. I've tested it with adblock extention, it transferred over to the thinapp after the postscan, and it works. This build was tested, all processes close properly, nothing crashes.

[toca1337]

Very interesting. Do you know why the extensions cannot be installed after the build? We have thinapp'd other browsers, such as Firefox, and extensions can be installed using the thinapp'd clients without any problem. Why is this not the case with Chrome?