After trying to make Opera work on every distro I've tried, I had just about given up. Until 9.5 Beta 1 came out. I can almost get it to work again, but it still takes way too long to load just about every web page (minimum 30 seconds) and that's with images turned off and other tweaks (disable IpV6, fast history nav, etc). Opera was blazing fast on my machine with Windows, not so much since changing to Linux. I know Opera is not FOSS, but I also think that lots of Linux users use it - at least it seems so from reading forums in a search for how to make Opera work for me. So, is there a secret hack to force it to work or am I just SOL?

Right now, I've got it sorta working (but slow) on Debian Etch KDE (no sermons please ). Same hacks don't work so well on my MEPIS partition.

Is there anyone out there who has had similar struggles with Opera? And if so, can you point me in the right direction?

$ apt-cache policy opera
opera:
Installed: 9.50-20071024.6
Candidate: 9.50-20071024.6
Version table:
*** 9.50-20071024.6 0

I dont particularly like Opera, never have but I tend to have it installed, just incase some needs help with something in it.

It has always work for me.

Try using apt/aptitude to install it.

# The Opera Web Browser Official packages.
# Etch/Sid packages are available: http://www.opera.com/
### Example apt source configuration (uncomment the version you want)
# Opera Browser - Production release
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ testing non-free
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ unstable non-free
# Opera Browser - Beta release
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ stable non-free
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ testing non-free
#deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ unstable non-free

I did dload from Opera website and installed that way. So, I'll try installing via aptitude instead. Should I purge Opera first, I guess? Also, I've read something about QT - will apt make it more likely that I get the right QT package (could that be my problem?).

Thanks for the advice.

Definite improvement after installing via Synaptic using first deb.opera beta repo. (Apt wanted a public key and I couldn't find it That's why Ihad to use Synaptic). Down to about 15 seconds loading now - some sites even faster. Any idea about the key and I'll try it that way to see if it gets any better - don't know why it would but I'll try.

Thank you craigevil!

The Opera .deb Repository

Thanks again craigevil. Sorry I didn't run across that myself - I've only been searching for a couple of days this time around. Definitely an improvement but still no where near the old Opera. I can live with it though. Just hope the Opera devs are really working on Linux compatibility as I've heard/read - if that's even the issue. Hard to tell.

Thanks for your help.

I have to say that Opera is just as fast on my system as firefox. I never install the versions from their repository because there isn't any 64 bit version (good argument, no?) and the 32 bit one depends on certain Qt but the integration isn't always perfect. So what I do instead is install the static version of Opera. Just go to their site and look for it - I believe it is filed under Linux - other.

Thx Jay73 but for me that actually made things worse - weird fonts, incorrect alignment - but that did give me some ideas about trying every other version that might work. So I'll keep trying - thx again.

I am running version 9.21 on Etch and 9.22 on Lenny without many problems. I have one version 9.50-AMD64 running.

What I do see now and then is that Opera takes 99% processor resources, but it does so only at certain web pages. Although the machine does not slow down that much, Opera itself becomes very slow. Have you checked resource usage?

jlinkels

Yes jlinkels I have checked resource usage. I have read on the Opera forum about other folks having that issue (and others vigorously denying it exists). But, I haven't noticed any spikes on my machine, but the behavior you describe is dead on - only amplified in my case, ie., it is slow 80% of the time and even worse on some web pages. Who knows?

Thx anyway.

I now have 9.50 beta 1 running on Etch and 9.21 running on Lenny. Best way to install IMHO is dpkg -i (dpkg -i opera_<version name number>.deb). Downloaded debian specific versions from Opera website seems to work best so far. Still doesn't fly like it used to six seven months ago but at least it works for me now. Anyway, for future reference.....

Latest build 1709 is awesome! Much faster