121 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
121 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
Frequently asked questions
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==========================
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The Compiler <mail@qutebrowser.org>
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[qanda]
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What is qutebrowser based on?::
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qutebrowser uses http://www.python.org/[Python], http://qt-project.org/[Qt]
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and http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro[PyQt].
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+
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The concept of it is largely inspired by http://portix.bitbucket.org/dwb/[dwb]
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and http://www.vimperator.org/vimperator[Vimperator]. Many actions and
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keybindings are similar to dwb.
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Why another browser?::
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It might be hard to believe, but I didn't find any browser which I was
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happy with, so I started to write my own. Also, I needed a project to get
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into writing GUI applications with Python and
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link:http://qt-project.org/[Qt]/link:http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro[PyQt].
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+
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Read the next few questions to find out why I was unhappy with existing
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software.
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What's wrong with link:http://portix.bitbucket.org/dwb/[dwb]/link:http://sourceforge.net/projects/vimprobable/[vimprobable]/link:https://mason-larobina.github.io/luakit/[luakit]/link:http://pwmt.org/projects/jumanji/[jumanji]/... (projects based on WebKitGTK)?::
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Most of them are based on the http://webkitgtk.org/[WebKitGTK+]
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http://webkitgtk.org/reference/webkitgtk/stable/index.html[WebKit1] API,
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which causes a lot of crashes. As the GTK API using WebKit1 is
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https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-gtk/2014-March/001821.html[deprecated],
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these bugs are never going to be fixed.
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+
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The newer http://webkitgtk.org/reference/webkit2gtk/stable/index.html[WebKit2
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API] seems to lack basic features like proxy support, and almost no projects
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seem to have started porting to WebKit2 (I only know of
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http://www.uzbl.org/[uzbl]).
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+
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qutebrowser uses http://qt-project.org/[Qt] and
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http://qt-project.org/wiki/QtWebKit[QtWebKit] instead, which suffers from far
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less such crashes. It might switch to
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http://qt-project.org/wiki/QtWebEngine[QtWebEngine] in the future, which is
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based on Google's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(layout_engine)[Blink]
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rendering engine.
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What's wrong with https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/[Firefox] and link:http://5digits.org/pentadactyl/[Pentadactyl]/link:http://www.vimperator.org/vimperator[Vimperator]?::
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Firefox likes to break compatibility with addons on each upgrade, gets
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slower and more bloated with every upgrade, and has some
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https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-transformation-with-users-at-the-center/[horrible
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ideas] lately.
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+
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Also, developing addons for it is a nightmare.
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What's wrong with http://www.chromium.org/Home[Chromium] and https://vimium.github.io/[Vimium]?::
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The Chrome plugin API doesn't seem to allow much freedom for plugin
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writers, which results in Vimium not really having all the features you'd
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expect from a proper minimal, vim-like browser.
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Why Python?::
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I enjoy writing Python since 2011, which made it one of the possible
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choices. I wanted to use http://qt-project.org/[Qt] because of
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http://qt-project.org/wiki/QtWebKit[QtWebKit] so I didn't have
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http://qt-project.org/wiki/Category:LanguageBindings[many other choices]. I
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don't like C++ and can't write it very well, so that wasn't an alternative.
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But isn't Python too slow for a browser?::
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/van-rossum-python-not-too-slow-188715[No.]
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I believe efficency while coding is a lot more important than efficency
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while running. Also, most of the heavy lifting of qutebrowser is done by Qt
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and WebKit in C++, with the
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https://wiki.python.org/moin/GlobalInterpreterLock[GIL] released.
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Is there an adblocker?::
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There is a host-based adblocker which takes /etc/hosts-like lists. A "real"
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adblocker has a
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http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/25j41u/adblock_pluss_effect_on_firefoxs_memory_usage/chhpomw[big
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impact] on browsing speed and
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https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/05/14/adblock-pluss-effect-on-firefoxs-memory-usage/[RAM
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usage], so implementing it properly might take some time and won't be done
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for v0.1 if at all.
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== Troubleshooting
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Configuration not saved after modifying config.::
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When editing your config file manually, qutebrowser must be exited completely.
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Either by issuing the command `:quit` or by pressing `ctrl+q`.
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Unable to view flash content.::
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If you have flash installed for on your system, it's necessary to enable plugins
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to use the flash plugin. Using the command `:set content allow-plugins true`
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in qutebrowser will enable plugins. Packages for flash should
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be provided for your platform. Read any help documentation with regards to
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installing flash from your operating systems. Flash can also be
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obtained from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/[Adobe].
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This can also be set manually in your config file located in
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`~/.config/qutebrowser/qutebrowser.conf` on *nix systems. Before editing be
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sure to exit completely. Locate the line `allow-plugins = false` and change
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to `allow-plugins = true` save the file and load your browser and enjoy flash!
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Experiencing freezing on sites like duckduckgo and youtube.::
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When visiting some pages and you experience freezing, unable to close or unable exit
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the browser. This can be solved by disabling plugins, or checking if you have
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a package installed called mozplugger on your system. On Archlinux
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and Debian/Ubuntu systems the package is called mozplugger. After removing the
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package, you may need to also delete a few files in your home plugin dir. They are so
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named `~/.mozilla/plugins/mozplugger*.so`. Be sure to exit the browser completely before
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removing any plugins manually. See https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser/issues/357[Issue #357]
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for more details.
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Experiencing segfaults (crashes) on Debian systems.::
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For Debian it's necessary to install the `gstreamer0.10-plugins-base` package.
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This is a workaround for a bug in Qt, it has been fixed upstream in Qt 5.4
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More details can be found
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https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119951[here] and
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https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119951[here].
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My issue is not listed.::
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If you experience any segfaults or crashes, you can report the issue on
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https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser/issues[qutebrowser issues].
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Be sure to read over how to create a stacktrace to report crashes of unknown cause
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by visiting https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser/blob/master/doc/stacktrace.asciidoc[reporting segfaults].
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// We link to github rather than to the file here so it also works with the
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// qutebrowser :help because that doesn't render HACKING.
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