Konqueror Goes Embedded!

Our friend Simon Hausmann wrote in with some exciting news about KDE's excellent browser Konqueror: it's been ported to Qt/Embedded. He says: "I just uploaded a first version of a port of the
Konqueror webbrowser to Qt/Embedded, Konqueror/Embedded. The project aims to build a feature complete version of the webbrowsing
component of Konqueror for Qt/Embedded, including support for SSL, Cookies,
Javascript, non-blocking IO, HTML4/CSS, etc."
Way to go, Simon! Simon has only been able to test this port on a virtual framebuffer -- if you can donate a Qt/Embedded-enabled palmtop device for Simon to perfect his work, please contact him!

Simon wrote:

I just uploaded a first version of Konqueror/Embedded, a port of the
Konqueror webbrowser to Qt/Embedded, to
http://devel-home.kde.org/~hausmann/konqueror-embedded-0.1.tar.gz. The project
aims to build a feature-complete version of the webbrowsing
component of Konqueror for Qt/Embedded, including support for SSL, cookies,
JavaScript, non-blocking I/O, HTML4/CSS, etc. Well, basically almost everything
the "big brother" can do, with the main difference that it consists of only
one static, small binary (plus some small data files). The status of development is that it is almost feature complete (http
authentication caching is missing). There are a few bugs left and some
cosmetic changes in the GUI.

Here are some screenshots:

Depending on the compiler/binutils used the size of a stripped binary is somewhere between
2.1 and 2.8 megabytes.

Please note that this is not a fork of the original Konqueror. The portis realized by copying the unmodified original sources (this is in fact
the very first step in the build process) and compiling them in a new
environment, an environment without X11 and without kdelibs. This means that
Konqueror/Embedded always automatically gains from the latest bugfixes
and improvements of the KHTML rendering engine, the HTTP KIO slave and
other sources by using/compiling the original sources directly!

The software compiles and runs on Qt/Embedded as well as on Qt/X11. The
support for Qt/Embedded has only been tested in the virtual framebuffer on a
PC, because I don't have the hardware for "real life" testing. So if anyone has a Qt/Embedded capable device and is looking for a
webbrowser please drop me a mail :-). I would love to know if this
software really works :-).
(I'd be happy to help out with any compilation/run-time problems, as far
as that's possible remotely)

In general I'd be happy about any feedback, especially with regard to the GUI
(for small resolutions like 320x240).

Bye,
 Simon

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Comments

by Patrik Carlsson (not verified)

Hi,

As someone said it's not much to do about websites. Allowing users to pick unreadable tiny fonts and scale images to 50% might make some people happy. Removing all status, url and iconbars should get some screen estate - but I'm sure Konqueror allows this already.

I tried KDE 1.0 on my WinCE can using VNC. It worked wonderfully with menus and window, especially with a tiny font in the shell.
Just one thing made it unusable.

Opening a file dialog crammed a 400x400 window on the screen and it became impossible to reach the "OK" button. Are there any solution for these problems in KDE 2.0? I've heard about tiny icons - which would be great, but are there any way to resize or scroll dialogs to view all the window?
(For example linuxconf are unusable even in 640x400 because of a large unresizable window!)
I'd love to put XMMS on top on my stereo...

by Lion Nung (not verified)

Some problem on Strong ARM platform
I compiled konqueror/embedded for Assabet (Strong ARM's platform) used cross-compiler,
but have some problems.
1. First I compiled QT/embedded and set configure to static library enable, then compiled
konqueror/embedded and set configure to enable static, disable shared. When configuring
the environment I found it check X library (Xext, X11), why it do this. It found my PC (x86)
/usr/X11R6/lib/*, but I used cross-compiler for Strong ARM. When configure finish and make
completed, I copied all files to my Strong ARM platform then running, I got a error message
"Segment fault".
2. Now I rebuild QT/embedded and set configure to shared library, then compiled konqueror/
embedded and used default setting to make shared library. It always check X library, when make
completed and ready to run. I got a error message following.
BUG IN DYNAMIC LINKER ld.so: ../sysdeps/arm/dl-machine.h: 488
elf_machine_lazy_rel: Assertion ((reloc->r_info) & 0xff) == 22 failed!
Why? Is the X library error? (Link X is not make sense)
Could you help me, thank you for your help.

Best Regards,
Lion Nung

by Alfred Nutile (not verified)

Thank you for the time you spent on your article.
The reason I am reponding is because I am looking for information and an opinion on an idea.
This small type of linux is something I would like to do on a older 486 laptop or pc(Almost like the $200 web terminals you see at Compusa). I would not be doing it for profit, I donate time for orignizations that use 486 systems. With this type of small os the user gets email and browse the web(all in GUI). A very simple terminal. This embedded technology seems like a good way for a simple low footprint, easy to install, easy on the resouces OS? That even 486 could run fine?
Anyway that is the idea, an opinion would be appreciate if you think it makes sense. The other thing is some help with my research so far www.trolltech.com and their QT for X11 in something I am keeping in mind and this KDE browser.
Thanks again for your time,
Alfred Nutile

by HeeGoo Han (not verified)

I have compiled Konqueror to a Tynux-Box which is a Qt/Embedded capable device. I think Konqueror has some dependency of X11, so I have modified some configurations and hand-compiled some parts. But it works.
Tynux-Box has a Intel StrongARM SA1110 and 320x240 8bpp LCD and I have compiled with Tynux's Cross Compiler.
Have a fun with a attached real snapshot.

by Rich Dulabahn (not verified)

If you could post what you did to get such an excellent result, I would be very grateful.

My unit is also a StrongARM SA1100, but with 640x480 8bpp LCD. All of the QT/Embedded sample applications work perfectly.

If I load kde.org, the right scroll bar shows up, then goes away as the page continues to load. The blue box below the linuxworld logo doesn't show up, and the "KDE is a powerful open source desktop..." page doesn't show up.

I've tried QT Embedded 2.2.3 and 2.2.4, and konq-embedded-0.1 and a current snapshot from 2/14.

A picture is worth 1000 words, so I've included a picture. Any help would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Rich Dulabahn
[email protected]

by Rich Dulabahn (not verified)

If you could post what you did to get such an excellent result, I would be very grateful.

My unit is also a StrongARM SA1100, but with 640x480 8bpp LCD. All of the QT/Embedded sample applications work perfectly.

If I load kde.org, the right scroll bar shows up, then goes away as the page continues to load. The blue box below the linuxworld logo doesn't show up, and the "KDE is a powerful open source desktop..." page doesn't show up.

I've tried QT Embedded 2.2.3 and 2.2.4, and konq-embedded-0.1 and a current snapshot from 2/14.

A picture is worth 1000 words, so I've included a picture. Any help would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Rich Dulabahn
[email protected]

by Osok Song (not verified)

I installed konqueror on the IPAQ. At first, I got the same problem with you.. Scrollbars disappeared.
I found that the problem was executing 'konq' directly instead of 'konqueror' script file.
When I executed 'konqueror', the program died with seg fault, but scrollbars were still there.
My solution was copying the whole directory from flash rom to ramfs.
My guess is there are some routine which requires to write a file, and it crashes when it fails to write on a cramfs file system.
I'm going to inspect the source code and find the directory which should be moved to ramfs.

Regards.
Osok

by Rich Dulabahn (not verified)

Thanks for the tip. The platform I'm using is pretty close to an ipaq, but has an IDE hard drive attached, so I have no flash or rom type file systems. I tried what you suggested and get an identical segfault. Looks like this when you load a page:

Segmentation fault
debug: SlaveBase: read() error! exiting!

Is this the error you are seeing as well?
Rich

by Rich Dulabahn (not verified)

Almost as soon as I posted my last message, I found the problem and fixed it. Here's what worked. I grabbed the konqueror cramfs for the iPAQ to study, and went into the /konqe directory. It held the konq binary, the konqueror script, and a directory called share. I tarred the share folder, and copied it to my source tree, in konqueror-embedded-snapshot/konq-embed/src. Then, I ran konqueror with this command: ./konqueror -qws and everything worked fine. I've included the tarfile to save time. Hope this helps.

by Carbon (not verified)

Hmmm, what about that neat shaded mouse cursor? Wouldn't that be nice to have on desktop QT? I have actually seen people use that in arguemnts of WinME vs KDE.

by Carbon (not verified)

Hmmm, what about that neat shaded mouse cursor? Wouldn't that be nice to have on desktop QT? I have actually seen people use that in arguemnts of WinME vs KDE.

by Cristian Prevedello (not verified)

damn, instead of replying i posted a new article. oh well but now i should be right.

I have a problem with konquer over framebuffer for i386. I downloaed the latest cvs snapshot (but tried the v 0.1 too) and compiled it. I could run the browser, but all pages containing tables are screwed up. I read around konquer works almost perfectly over the framebuffer, so i think i'm missing something.

Anyone had same problems? Any clue about a solution?

(i've used qt/e 2.2.4 to compiled the browser)

thank you for your help.

by Rich Dulabahn (not verified)

Yup I had the same problem. See my post above about the "share" directory. That should fix it.

Rich

by Yang Zhiwen (not verified)

Hi,
where can i get some documents about konqueror about qt/embedded?
May I directly cut off kdelibs.

by Erwin (not verified)

When i tried downloading the tar file i am getting an error message as given below

The requested URL /~hausmann/konqueror-embedded-0.1.tar.gz was not found on this server

Can anyone give the link from where i can download the file.

Thanks

by Anonymous (not verified)

Be creative and search http://devel-home.kde.org/~hausmann/ ! Ancient 0.1 is in Attic/ and newer versions are in snapshots/

by sathish (not verified)

Hi all,

I have built konqueror on Qt/embedded but when i run
the konqueror executable i am getting the error like

$./konqueror -qws

the error is

can't open frame buffer device /dev/fb0..

Does any body had this problem earlier and if you have resolved it please
let me know the solution.

Regards
Satish

by gunna vishnu (not verified)

Dear sathish,

I am developing user interface for a ultrasound scanner.I am using qt/embedded-2.3.10 version.I had cross compiled it for my target system and the application is working fine on the target.

Right now i am looking to cross compile konqurer/embedded for my target system which has a arm processor,could u plz guide me how to do it.

I am enclosing the error msg plz go through it.

Regards,
gunna vishnu

by tharmarajan (not verified)

Hi,
The issue is that you are missing to tell the path of the libz.so library.
This should be given by '--with-extra-libs=/' wne running the configure script.
Example:

$./configure --target=arm-linux --with-extra-libs=/home/project/zlib-1.1.4

by saravanan (not verified)

Hi.....

i am using Blackfin DSP processor(BF537 ezkit) connected with SHARP LCD LQ34 series.i need to port knoqueror embedded into it. i had compiled qt/Embedded and konqueror3 embedded web browser. my doubt is whether should i compile Qtopia desktop environment also for viewing the konqueror web browser output in the LCD or compiling Qt/embedded and konqueror alone is enough...?can anyone give me suggestion or solutions for this...?

by Senthil kumar Raju (not verified)

HI hausmann,
I am looking for a latest Konqueror embedded browser for my
Embedded system which is running debain embedded Linux kernel 2.6.11 which is a non X11 system.
Latest KDE available in market is version 4.1 so I want a Konqueror browser
Based on KDE4 libraries and Qt embedded 4.4.0.is it possible to integrate
KDELIBS and KDEBASE components to develop a Konqueror 4 embedded browser.
From ROAD edition, I able to get konqueror/kdenox based no Qt3 not for latest Qt4 version.
Please help me on this.

Regards
Senthil kumar R