Looking for a decent web browser on ARM (RockPro64)

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koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

I am setting up my new RockPro64 for everyday use. For various practical[1] reasons I am using Devuan with just 'main' enabled. The biggest problem I currently have is installing a decent web browser. Perhaps you could suggest something?

What the perfect browser would be:
* 100% free software
* No telemetry, calling home, etc.
* Ability to block js on per-site basis (can be through an add-on)
* It would be good if it supported Jitsi Meet but this is not a must

What I considered/tried so far:
* Debian's/Devuan's Firefox is not an option because of its home-calling antifeatures.
* Qupzilla/Falkon didn's seem to have any add-on like NoScript.
* From GNU Guix (which I tried using alongside the main package manager):
- ungoogled-chromium build ran for very long and crashed (I suspect lack of RAM).
- icecat build also ran for very long and seemed to have stopped advancing.
- nomad build crashed when building WebKitGtk (I suspect lack of RAM).
* LibreWolf doesn't provide packages for Debian.
* IceCat doesn't provide aarch64 build.

I have the 4GB RAM version of RockPro. So far I tried without swap. I might make more build attempts with swap on later.

What I am considering now:
* Building some Firefox-derived browser manually. That way I could adjust number of threads used when building to avoid running out of RAM. I could also more easily troubleshoot build problems in a manual build.
* Manually unpacking LibreWolf's Arch package into the filesystem, installing any missing dependencies.
* Looking for some more little-known WebKit-based browsers in Devuan repo.

None of my current options is very good - so help is welcome :)

[1] From ethical distros - Parabola doesn't support aarch64 (only armhf7) and GNU Guix would be pain to use as building packages from source takes ages + I'm more familiar with FHS-compliant systems.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

P.S. I know I could install LibreWolf via flatpak or AppImage. I am just considering it a last resort - these tools are considered harmful

Avron

I am a translator!

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Joined: 08/18/2020

On Parabola armv7, luakit seems to be the only up-to-date working graphical web browser (but my CPU is frequently overloaded).

According to the doc, the noscript module seems not to be per site but when looking at /usr/share/luakit/lib/noscript.lua, I have the impression it can use a database of sites. I'll study that a bit more when I have time.

I am not sure about telemetry.

It does not have any Debian package but there is a doc how to make one.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

Tanks, I'll try both options

> It does not have any Debian package but there is
> a doc how to make one.

Perhaps it didn't have in 2019. Right now I see it in both Debian and Devuan :)
https://packages.debian.org/buster/luakit