Using qutebrowser (or alternative) on an R-01

DevTerm
1

The recommended browser seems to be qutebrowser but on my R-01 when I launch it I get an error dialog:

Failed to start with the QtWebEngine backend!

[…] cannot import name ‘QtWebEngineWidgets’ from ‘PyQt5’ (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/PyQt5/init.pyp

with an option to “Force QtWebKit backend” which is discouraged for security, etc. reasons. I went ahead anyway figuring I would try it at least on some half-trustworthy sites, but it usually just crashes halfway through loading most pages anyway.

I found an older thread Qutebrowser --backend webkit works, do we have anything better for DevTerm R01? - #2 by genbuckturgidson that had a bit of discussion but no clear resolution.

Am I likely to have success troubleshooting this initial setback with qutebrowser these days? Was that browser preferred in the clockworkpi image mainly for aesthetic reasons or is it the only one that was even close to building under RISC-V and/or working with the small display size?

(fwiw my ideal browser preference would be “anything I can install uBlock Origin” in…)

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After running sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade I no longer get the QtWebEngine error on launch. It’s possible one of the kids just silenced it somehow but I suspect it must have a working version of the “real” rendering now.

Still crashes all the time, so maybe it’s just a plain OOM thing on this 1GB SoC and will troubleshoot against that theory next.

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