NetSurf - A graphical-browser for emergency browsing

In this post I will investigate a commandline graphical browser(run without X) which I was unaware of till two days back.I am pretty much well versed with lynx and elinks. . The new found(mentioned the source in the resource section at the bottom of the post) one called netsurf .I have tried to install it from the source available on Fedora 12 ,but failed to do so due to lack of patience.

Now I am sitting on Debian Lenny as it in the repository so it;s really make easy to install and use it.So I get it like below:


bhaskar@bhaskar-laptop_06:00:11_Fri Nov 19:~> sudo aptitude install netsurf
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
netsurf
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 411kB of archives. After unpacking 1217kB will be used.
Writing extended state information... Done
Get:1 http://http.us.debian.org stable/main netsurf 1.2-1 [411kB]
Fetched 411kB in 1min52s (3641B/s)
Selecting previously deselected package netsurf.
(Reading database ... 112830 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking netsurf (from .../netsurf_1.2-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for menu ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up netsurf (1.2-1) ...
Processing triggers for menu ...
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done


Once it is installed it just a cakewalk.I invoked it like below:

bhaskar@bhaskar-laptop_06:07:41_Fri Nov 19:~> /usr/bin/netsurf http://linux-nfs.org

(netsurf:5351): libglade-WARNING **: could not find signal handler 'on_menupopup_navigate_activate'.

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem

(netsurf:5351): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_menu_attach_to_widget(): menu already attached to GtkMenuItem



Now the gtk-thing pop up like below;

 

Now few noticeable thing about it that it doesn't support tab feature.And lot of normal plug-in might be missing.But in case of headless server it will be as useful as other cli-browser.Second it heavily depend on GTK, so you have to have it installed in the system to get it work.

Plus you need to check out the dependency when building from source from their web site to get it straight.

Resources:

1) http://soosck.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/netsurf-graphical-web-browser-command-line-css/

Hope this will help.

Cheers!
Bhaskar