# run web browser in FB



## skeletonboss12 (Jun 21, 2020)

Hey, is it possible to run say, firefox (any version) in the frame buffer? without the need of X, or is there any browser that can do this that is not text based only?

I know there are libraries for allowing this, I think Quake 3 used one.. don't remember.


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 21, 2020)

There exist mir(linux),wayland,svgalib but my knowledge is incomplete. It is told firefox & falkon can work with wayland on linux.


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## aragats (Jun 21, 2020)

skeletonboss12 said:


> is it possible to run say, firefox (any version) in the frame buffer? without the need of X, or is there any browser that can do this


Any Qt-based program can run in framebuffer mode without X, since Qt natively supports different backends, including the FB:
	
	



```
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=bsdfb myqtprogram
```
Simple search brings e.g. QtWeb, you can also easily write your own Qt-based web-page rendering program using Qt's modules.


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 21, 2020)

Interesting. I must try this with qutebrowser.


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## skeletonboss12 (Jun 25, 2020)

Cool, I think this could work. Thanks


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## obsigna (Jul 9, 2020)

aragats said:


> Any Qt-based program can run in framebuffer mode without X, since Qt natively supports different backends, including the FB:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



A quick test with /usr/local/share/examples/qt5/webengine/minimal showed that graphics output seems mostly to work (some regions of the Qt example page where mirrored), but, mouse and keyboard input are being kept by the console. Is there anyway, to switch the focus of mouse and keyboard to the application running in the FB?


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## skeletonboss12 (Jul 10, 2020)

obsigna said:


> A quick test with /usr/local/share/examples/qt5/webengine/minimal showed that graphics output seems mostly to work (some regions of the Qt example page where mirrored), but, mouse and keyboard input are being kept by the console. Is there anyway, to switch the focus of mouse and keyboard to the application running in the FB?



Had not even thought about that, crap that's an entirely seperate issue
damn


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## codingcowboy (Aug 4, 2022)

I know this is an older post but I have been looking for the same abilities.  There is the NetSurf browser that can  be built to use the FB.  The only issue I have with NetSurf is it's javascript engine is not able to work with many websites such as my Banks website.  There is a port and package for NetSurf but they default to Xwindows and you would have to build it from ports with the proper switches.  For more info check out https://www.netsurf-browser.org/


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## aragats (Aug 4, 2022)

codingcowboy said:


> ...it's javascript engine is not able to work with many websites such as my Banks website.


As I mentioned above, QT works with FB directly. I built a simple browser for a commercial embedded product where JS is used very extensively. It's based on old WebKit, now QT includes WebEngine which is supposed to support all the modern JS stuff.


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## Alain De Vos (Aug 4, 2022)

What about firefox and framebuffer , will it work ?


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## aragats (Aug 4, 2022)

Alain De Vos said:


> What about firefox and framebuffer , will it work ?


Firefox is built with GTK, if GTK can work with FB directly, it should be possible.


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## Alain De Vos (Aug 4, 2022)

For me :
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=bsdfb
firefox 
returns :
Error no display environment variable specified.


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## aragats (Aug 4, 2022)

Alain De Vos said:


> export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=bsdfb


This is QT stuff, Firefox is built on GTK3, it won't honor this var. Some time ago there were attempts to create a QT port of Firefox, but I'm doubting that something like that exists.


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