NetSurf Source

The NetSurf_Web_Browser is Open Source and licensed under the GPL. Of course, the source code is available. Get it here.

Compilation instructions

1. setup environment (install a cross compiler)
   • The easiest way is to use the OpenEmbedded toolchain. Some information about that is available at the SamyGO OpenEmbedded page. The toolchain is built with the make Toolchain command.
   • If you don't want to use OpenEmbedded, you will need to compile a cross compiler manually, instructions can be found at Setting up a cross-compilation toolchain.
2. compile (in the cross compile environment) and make install the required dependency libraries:
   • libiconv
   • zlib
   • libjpeg
   • libpng
   • libxml2
   • libidn
   • (openssl)
   • curl
   • SamyGO libSDL
3. setup environment for netsurf compilation

   #!/bin/sh

   #export PATH=/usr/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/bin:$PATH

   export PKGCONFIG=arm-linux-gnueabi-pkg-config

   export PKG_CONFIG=arm-linux-gnueabi-pkg-config

   export XML2_CONFIG=/usr/local/arm-linux-gnueabi/bin/xml2-config

   export CC=arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc

   export CXX=arm-linux-gnueabi-g++

   export LD=arm-linux-gnueabi-ld

   export STRIP=arm-linux-gnueabi-strip

   export AR=arm-linux-gnueabi-ar

   export HOST_CC=/usr/bin/gcc

   export CFLAGS="-fPIC -O2 -D_REENTRANT"

   export CXXFLAGS="-fPIC -O2 -D_REENTRANT"

   export PREFIX=/usr/local/arm-linux-gnueabi

   # turns off silencing of compiler commands in netsurf compilation

   export Q=

4. compile and make install netsurf member libraries

   (each time: make HOST=SamsungDTV; make HOST=SamsungDTV install)

   • libparserutils
   • libwapcaplet
   • libnsbmp
   • libnsgif
   • libnsfb
   • libcss
   • hubbub
5. compile netsurf

   make HOST=SamsungDTV TARGET=framebuffer

Hacking guide

The browser core is in the 'content', 'css,' 'desktop', 'render', and 'image' subdirectories of the project. I have avoided touching it (if possible) while porting the browser for SamyGO.

The GUI and frontend code is in the framebuffer subdirectory. Unfortunately, compared to the other NetSurf ports (see the 'gtk', 'amiga' or 'riscos' subdirs, for example) it's quite incomplete and missing lots of useful features. I have worked on implementing some of them, but a lot remains to be done (e.g. file downloads and bookmarks). A good starting point would be the empty functions at the bottom of fb_gui.c.

If you have anything useful, please make a patch towards the latest released source code version (see top of page) and send it to florianfischer at gmx.de.