Icecat seems very outdated, what browser *should* one be using?
I've installed Trisquel Mini and I love it. I love Trisquel mini. It's so much faster than Trisquel on my Libreboot X60.
The browser it comes with is Midori, a browser I fell in love with when it came around but the project died like 4 years ago and AFAIK it still uses a build of webkit that has a bunch of secuirty issues, which will never be fixed since the project is dead.
I did [ sudo apt-get install icecat] to use the browser that normally comes with Trisquel and I've found that it and some of it's addons are outdated. As of yesterday installing Icecat means you can't visit *any* websites using HTTPS, you will always get a 'content encoding error' which can only be fixed by disableing all addons. I'm not sure which one is doing it, I can only tell that it's not spyblock or httpseverywhere.
I tried to use the links icecat provides to install AdblockEdge and got a 404.
I tried to install Ublock Origin from the mozilla website. I can't install it, it gives me this: This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (at least version 55.0). You are using Firefox 52.0.
I tried to use github and my schools website for homework, github renders a little weird, my school website is entirely broken. Both give errors saying my browser is outdated.
So, what *should* I be using? What are you all using with Trisquel?
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Abrowser is "the browser that normally comes with Trisquel". It is another Firefox derivative and is updated little after a new version of Firefox is released. Currently, it is at version 64.
Oh jeeze, I got that mixed up.
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Midori released new releases in the last 6 months - versions 6.0 and 7.0 use a newer WebKit. You can install it via Snap:
github.com/midori-browser/core
There's also a newer version of Icecat (60.3) which you can install manually by unpacking the tar.bz2 file:
ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuzilla/60.3.0/
OH. Midori moved to github.
Hunnh. Alright. That's weird. So is there a special reason why the regular Icecat can't be in he repos? I could run it from a tarball but I'm not savvy enough to install it from one.
Similar to Debian stable, general policy is to freeze package versions on the release of a given Trisquel version and then apply only security patches/bug fixes. But the version number remains frozen. I personally like this policy.
> "general policy is to freeze package versions on the release of a given Trisquel version and then apply only security patches/bug fixes. But the version number remains frozen."
I'm confused by this. The version number of ABrowser seems to be regularly incremented. But not IceCat? Does the policy on this depend on whether it's part of the default application set or not? Or is ABrowser just the exception to the rule?
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I could run it from a tarball but I'm not savvy enough to install it from one.
You just need to unpack the tarball and run the icecat file from the folder.
$ cd icecat-directory
$ ./icecat
> I could run it from a tarball but
> I'm not savvy enough to install it from one.
If you're running it from the tarball, here's what I suggest doing so
that you can launch it from a terminal or from menus as if it were
installed.
If you have Icecat 52 installed from the Trisquel repos, remove it.
$ sudo apt remove icecat
Download and extract the tarball to your home folder
$ cd ~
$ wget https://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/gnu.org/gnu/gnuzilla/60.3.0/icecat-60.3.0.en-US.gnulinux-x86_64.tar.bz2
$ tar xf icecat-60.3.0.en-US.gnulinux-x86_64.tar.bz2
$ rm icecat-60.3.0.en-US.gnulinux-x86_64.tar.bz2
Create a script with which to launch Icecat from a terminal.
$ mkdir ~/.local/bin
$ echo "/home/$USER/icecat/icecat > ~/.local/bin/icecat
$ chmod +x ~/.local/bin/icecat
After this you can run "icecat" in a terminal to launch Icecat.
Create a desktop file with which to launch Icecat from menus. Use your
preferred text editor to create "~/.local/share/applications/icecat.desktop"
containing the following (replace both instances of "chaosmonk" with
your username):
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Icecat
Exec=/home/chaosmonk/icecat/icecat
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/chaosmonk/icecat/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
After this Icecat should appear in menus and launchers.
This is excellent!
I have some questions for you.
Q 1.
Do the $ mkdir ~/.local/bin-command make a folder/directory called "bin" inside the .local folder/dir inside the "home" folder/dir? And if that's what it does; any specific reason(s) for why u suggest to do this as the first step?
Q 2.
What exactly is it the $ echo "/home/$USER/icecat/icecat > ~/.local/bin/icecat-command does?
:)
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A1. It is indeed what the command does. I believe chaosmonk suggested that directory because he has ~/local/bin listed in his PATH variable. At least, that is what I get from "After this you can run "icecat" in a terminal to launch Icecat". But I actually believe he added that path. 'echo $PATH' does not include ~/local/bin on my system.
A2. It creates/overwrites the file ~/.local/bin/icecat with the line "/home/$USER/icecat/icecat". In this way executing that file will execute /home/$USER/icecat/icecat (the shell will first substitute $USER with your login).
> But I actually believe he added that path. 'echo $PATH' does not include ~/local/bin on my system.
~/.profile does contain these lines
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories
PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
but I am pretty sure that I did not add them. I just booted into a live Trisquel ISO and ~/.profile contains the same lines, and the output of "echo $PATH" includes /home/trisquel/bin and /home/trisquel/.local/bin
Did you perhaps upgrade to Trisquel 8 from Trisquel 7? Maybe the default ~/.profile only contains these lines in Trisquel 8.
In any case, it seems I should not assume that everyone has these directories in their path.
> In any case, it seems I should not assume that everyone has these directories in their path.
And I've updated the script I linked to accordingly.
What does it mean to "have it listed in ones PATH variable"?
>> In this way executing that file
Couldn't u just execute
"$ /home/$USER/icecat/icecat"
without doing the
"$ home/$USER/icecat/icecat > ~/.local/bin/icecat"
first, and still get the same result?
Thank u
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The section "Path Search" of 'man sh' explains what the PATH variable is for:
When locating a command, the shell first looks to see if it has a shell function by that name. Then it looks for a builtin command by that name. If a builtin command is not found, one of two things happen:
1. Command names containing a slash are simply executed without performing any searches.
2. The shell searches each entry in PATH in turn for the command. The value of the PATH variable should be a series of entries separated by colons. Each entry consists of a directory name. The current directory may be indicated implicitly by an empty directory name, or explicitly by a single period.
Executing '/home/$USER/icecat/icecat' (or simply '~/icecat/icecat') works too: it is the first "thing" in the excerpt I quoted above. But it is faster to only type 'icecat', what requires an file named "icecat" in a directory listed in $PATH.
Looks like Magic Banana has answered your questions already.
Since writing the post you replied to, I've written some scripts to do what I suggested automatically and in a cleaner way.
> Midori released new releases in the last 6 months - versions 6.0 and 7.0
> use a newer WebKit. You can install it via Snap:
> github.com/midori-browser/core
Snap was removed from Trisquel due to freedom issues.[1] I have
submitted a merge request to backport Midori 7,[2] but I'm not sure
if/when it will be merged. In the meantime I have just uploaded the
source to a PPA,[3] which the OP or whoever can install with
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chaosmonk/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install midori
[1] https://trisquel.info/en/issues/23918
[2] https://devel.trisquel.info/trisquel/package-helpers/merge_requests/215
This worked! It's great! Thank you!
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Does Trisquel contain a new enough version of WebKit to meet Midori's requirement (Hyperbola doesn't)? I assume Snap installs WebKit as well.
Also, you forgot to provide a link to your PPA:
launchpad.net/~chaosmonk/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
> Does Trisquel contain a new enough version of WebKit to meet Midori's
> requirement (Hyperbola doesn't)?
I had no problems building Midori 7 in Trisquel 8. I haven't tried with
Hyperbola, but I'm surprised it doesn't work, since Hyperbola stable is
based on a 2017 snapshot and Trisquel 8 is based on a 2016 snapshot.
Maybe it has to do with some difference between Debian and Arch
packaging?
I've been looking into text browsers lately. I also came across one called 'Links2'. It is a text browser which will also display images (or not - based on preference).
I have found it useful to help combat procrastination. I find that so many websites now are more interested in grabbing attention and generating clicks. It's very distracting, and I also find it a very inefficient way of accessing information.
surf 2 from suckless.org hast minimal code and good configuration
example: $: surf -sg duck.com
-sg for no script and no geolocation
surf 2 from suckless.org hast minimal code and good configuration
example: $: surf -sg duck.com
-sg for no script and no geolocation