Web browser

[KissLick]

Hi guys,

I would like to ask you, is there any web browser (with flash player) like firefox, chromium or midori for Xbian (with easy installation on my Raspberry Pi)? I (and I think it's not just me) would really appreciate it.

P.S.: I am really sorry for my bad english :-(

[CurlyMo]

No there isn't, you would need to install X-Windows (a desktop environment) for that and this doesn't match well with XBMC. So it is either XBMC or X-Windows.

XBMC = XBian
X-Windows = Raspbian

[Pihkal]

It can be done but it's quitte difficult to accomplish.
If you're feeling adventurous you can check this thread: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=23051

Greetz

[namtih]

Perhaps give this a try:
http://forum.xbian.org/thread-129.html

It doesn't need any X environment, is very small and shouldn't brake anything on your existing XBMC configuration.

[IriDium]

I've been playing around with netsurf-fb, albeit without success running it from Advanced launcher. However, if you exit xbmc to a terminal screen, you can run the command netsurf-fb -b 16 and it "works". Not ideal, as you need a keyboard and mouse to navigate but it does work - albeit not as slick as you may be used to on Windoze or Ubuntu.

The "current" Advanced Launcher does not work with Xbian RC4 (2013 build) (Error source.py) you will need to get the latest from Advanced Launcher (1.10.15 at last look) and install as a zip file.

If you get an error about permissions to /dev/fb0 or similar, it probably becuase /dev/fb0 is not allowed for user xbian. Either run the command as root, or add "video" group to the user xbian,

Code:

sudo usermod -a -G video xbian

and it will work after a reboot.

Ideally, I would like to see a browser within xbmc as I'd like my music to continue whilst I browse the web. It may not be possible, with the pi, but it does work on my Ubuntu xbmc.

[namtih]

Yep, the parallel usage of XBMC and a web browser was also my plan. I think the problem is that XBMC is already using the DISPLAY variable. It's possible to open netsurf-fb in another DISPLAY session like:

Terminal

DISPLAY=:3 netsurf-fb -w 1920 -h 1080 http://www.google.de

So netsurf-fb should be startet in session 3, but we don't see it yet. The missing command/solution is now to get this session 3 on the screen and switch between the XBMC and netsurf-fb session.

[IriDium]

Just for a laugh, and to see if it made any difference, I installed xbmc on Wheezy. It runs like a dog and has higher than normal cpu usage.

However, I did get netsurf running (sort of) and it was visible when you “shrunk” xbmc with the # key (and via "top"). You could see the front screen plain as day. However, it was useless as the keys and mouse were still bound to the xbmc display and would not move off it.

In "ps" you can see that xbmc and netsurf are both using tty1

However, I could not replicate the result in xbian.

So to get a browser, the simplest method would be to get xbmc to recognise the <cntl> <alt> <function key> (or whatever) to switch to another display. If you could switch into another display you should be able to run netsurf-fb without any problems (Assuming the KB and mouse work!)

What I also don’t understand, is why it works perfectly in Ubuntu XBMC. You run Advanced launcher for netsurf-fb and up it pops on top of xbmc.

Is this maybe a problem with Advanced launcher and not xbmc?

[mk01]

@IriDium

normally that's by "design" disabled with XBMC.
firstly, XBMC takes over keyboard so system keys will never get it into the system.
secondly, XBMC wants to run as "standalone" process taking full control over the screen and FB console is initialised as LOCKED.

of course we can patch the sources ... I didn't try on RPI as it slow but had this running on Cubox-i - XBMC on tty3 and XWindows on tty4.

[ziirish]

Hi,

I know this post is quite old now, but I had a similar need and could not find any suitable solution.
I then came up with the solution linked bellow.

Here is how it works:

- A script is launched at startup and will run in the background
- when the script detects kodi has quit, it will start a X session and launch firefox in it
- when you quit firefox, the script launches kodi back
- and so on...

While in "firefox mode", you can press Ctrl + Alt + F1 to access a console if you like.

I hope this can be useful to someone

Everything is available here

[Nachteule]

(15th Sep, 2017 07:21 PM)ziirish Wrote:  I know this post is quite old now, but I had a similar need and could not find any suitable solution.

It's never too late posting such a tricky solution

Thanks for posting

[euokola]

Hmm.... ye you might me right ;d

[Don Pedro]

(15th Sep, 2017 10:12 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  It's never too late posting such a tricky solution

Thanks for posting

Yes, but this solution is indeed "tricky", working around inabilities and limitations of the current system. It would indeed be nice to have a real embedded browsing solution as just another addon that enables me to browse websites (maybe even while the music keeps on playing) somewhere in xbian's normal menu structure.

I think the main problem will be that every standard browser expects to find an X-server while Kodi by design does not run an X-server. So there probably won't be an easy solution to this dilema, you'll always either end in a trickery like above (which of course is not seamless) or the task to do a major rewrite of FF (which will likely lead to excessive effort compared to the benefits).

Cheerz

Don

[hiugssa]

It does not require an X environment, is very small, and should not interfere with your current XBMC configuration. drift boss