netsurf unable to load most websites

[Adel Ahmed]

I have installed netsurf with the following use flags:

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[ebuild   R    ] net-misc/curl-8.0.1::gentoo  USE="hsts http2 openssl ssl -adns -alt-svc -brotli -ftp -gnutls -gopher -idn -imap -kerberos -ldap -mbedtls (-nghttp3) -nss -pop3 -progress-meter -rtmp (-rustls) -samba -smtp -ssh -sslv3 -static-libs -telnet -test -tftp -verify-sig -websockets -zstd" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)" CURL_SSL="openssl -gnutls -mbedtls -nss (-rustls)" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R   ~] www-client/netsurf-3.10-r6::gentoo  USE="gtk javascript jpeg png truetype webp -bmp -fbcon -gif -gtk2 -mng -psl -rosprite -svg -svgtiny" 0 KiB

alot of websites do not load:
web.whatsapp.com loads a blank page
www.youtube.com loads some black squares, no text
https://www.google.com loads just fine which leads me to believe it is not an ssl/tls problem

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https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/is-javascript-enabled

says javascript is not enabled on my browser which is probablt the reason behind all of this, I have compiled netsurf with javascript support and checked the Enable javascript checkbox in the preferences.

any idea what I can do about this ?

thanks

[stefan11111]

Same thing happens to me.

[Adel Ahmed]

why don't you post the use flags you have and we can see what we have in common? that might lead us somehwere

[pjp]

Does Javascript work at all, anywhere? When posting here, can you use the various feature buttons (bold, color, ...) or emojis?

Those require Javascript, and I'm guessing they are simple enough that they might work. If they do, then the issue may be with more complicated pages that have different expectations of what should be available from a browser with Javascript. I have netsurf installed, but without Javascript support (interestingly, I can still select the option from within the browser to enable it).

[Adel Ahmed]

I do not believe it works at all.
I cannot use the bold or any of the buttons when I post from netsurf

[pjp]

I just tested with Firefox... if I enable js on this page, I can use those features. So it seems like something about netsurf is very broken. Have you checked for bugs? I'm guessing you've tried rebuilding it.

[Zucca]

Netsurf is very limited web browser. It uses its own engine for rendering. It also uses its own engine for javascript.
Given the fact that almost all browsers are WebKit (originally KHTML) derivatives, few are forks of Firefox (Gecko/Servo), the rest that aren't lack features and compliance to new web standards. Why? Developing a working web browser is a huge undertaking (you must know how long compiling any webkit library, Chromium or Firefox takes?). That's why most are forks of the two that work. Yes. I hate how web is nowdays.

However Netsurf is looking promising. It just needs more developers, I think, to become more usable in most sites.

[Adel Ahmed]

I agree, I have tried netsurf on alpine linux and I'm pretty much getting the same results.
I will keep looking for a solution on either platform however

[pjp]

lack features and compliance to new web standards. Why? Developing a working web browser is a huge undertaking

That may be true, but being that they have Javascript support in some manner, I'm still surprised that it doesn't handle the emoji and font features of posting here. That's pretty basic stuff from ~20 years ago. If that doesn't work, then I wonder what their engine can do.

However Netsurf is looking promising. It just needs more developers, I think, to become more usable in most sites.

One step could be to use a Javascript engine, such as V8 (it's the only one I know by name). It's stable release was 42 days ago and is BSD licensed. Even if that's not what they want long term, it would probably help get more devs. Netsurf was released in 2007 and its current stable release is from 2020.

I read something recently about funding for a new browser (or engine, I forget). It sounded like it was an individual, but I can't find anything. That Apple and Microsoft both gave up is interesting, especially since the web in general seems to a primary means of getting one person to hand over money to another.

[pa4wdh]

Netsurf looks interesting to me, i'll give it a try soon.

It's javascript is based on the duktape project (https://duktape.org/) so i guess it's limited by the features of that. I also found a statement on the netsurf website:

At present, NetSurf has only primitive and incomplete support for JavaScript, which we disable by default. Without JavaScript, NetSurf is able to provide access to most of sites on the World Wide Web. Some sites, however, will not display correctly or be unworkable due to heavy reliance on this standard.

From: https://www.netsurf-browser.org/documen ... JavaScript

Dit you enable javascript in it's configuration?

[stefan11111]

why don't you post the use flags you have and we can see what we have in common? that might lead us somehwere

Here:

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[ebuild   R    ] www-client/netsurf-3.10-r6::libressl  USE="gtk javascript -bmp -fbcon -gif -gtk2 -jpeg -mng -png -psl -rosprite -svg -svgtiny -truetype -webp" 0 KiB

[Adel Ahmed]

yeah I have enabled java script, but it doesn't work on gentoo nor on alpine linux(java script websites)