Phoronix: Kubuntu 12.04 To Drop KDE Support For Firefox

[ardvark71]

Hi ardvark71,

No I'm on 12.04_64 and to be honest have always used firefox in the same fashion. I initially had a moment thinking there was something more that kde was adding into the mix.
I have also run the nightly from time to time on this machine and it seemed 'as-complete' as v.11 to me.

Interesting. I would have to research what specifically the "dialogs/file associations/ protocol handlers" are.

EDIT: Well, the package (firefox-kde-support) fixed this problem. Also, here's the feedback (concerning this being dropped) in other forums...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1942855

http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...t-For-Firefox&

Regards...

[bra|10n]

... Well, the package (firefox-kde-support) fixed this problem.

Hi ardvark71,

I did some looking around regarding the issue in the link I re-quoted above.

It appears that this problem stems from some poor coding of the inode directory in Kubuntu itself.
Other KDE distros have implemented successful workarounds which unfortunately do not appear to work on Kubuntu.
I must admit this 'broken' option is not one I'd normally use and was unaware that it didn't work.

This is definitely one for the list though.

Regards

[bra|10n]

Workaround found for 'open containing folder' in downloads (right-click-option) on Firefox installs without firefox-kde-support here

I implemented steps 1 and 6 only for a working solution.

Also the (right-click-option) 'open,' opens the file type using the corresponding default application, e.g a png image opens in Gwenview.
I believe these associations can also be edited to your personal choice.

Regards

[ardvark71]

Workaround found for 'open containing folder' in downloads (right-click-option) on Firefox installs without firefox-kde-support here

Hi...

So you were able to achieve at least some of the functionality that "firefox-kde-support" normally provides manually? Cool!

Cheers

[SteveRiley]

I'm gonna try out this QupZilla thing right now. BRB...

[SteveRiley]

Well, I experienced an immediate post-install crash the first time I tried to open the Preferences dialog. But no crashes after that.

Some observations:

* While it's obviously a Qt program, it doesn't integrate well with KDE: customizations like sizes of menus and fonts are ignored.
* Like most tabbed browsers, new tabs open in the background. This has always mystified me, and there's no setting to change this.
* Being based on QtWebKit, it doesn't integrate with KDE spell checking.
* It mysteriously fails to log into my employer's expense reporting system (Concur Solutions), which is a good site to use for checking things like table cell alignments.
* Wait...cookie handling is weird. Initially I configured "Match domain exactly." I removed that, and not only does Concur still not work, but neither can I log into Google -- error indicates that cookie functionality is turned off (?)

Will exit and restart browser.

[SteveRiley]

Had to delete all cookies to get Google Docs and Concur to work. Interesting bug -- I wonder why relaxing the setting wasn't sufficient?

[ardvark71]

Hi Steve...

I tried to give it a go, too, however, I don't think it was designed to run on 10.04. Apt-get couldn't find the package which struck me as odd as I had installed the PPA and ran the update command....until I read that support only goes down to Maverick. I then tried to install the 64 bit .deb which worked but then it gave me this command when I tried to run it:

aaron@aaron:~$ qupzilla
qupzilla: symbol lookup error: qupzilla: undefined symbol: _ZN9QListData11detach_growEPii

I have no idea what that means (other than it's not going to work) but I have enough browsers anyway, I don't need to fuss with this one.

Regards...

[SteveRiley]

The conclusion I'd draw after Googling that symbol (" _ZN9QListData11detach_growEPii") is that the version of Qt in Lucid is too old.

Ran into another problem with QupZilla and cookies again -- I logged into Newegg, put a couple items in my cart, but couldn't get past the re-authentication. Weird. Had to bump over to Rekonq.

[ardvark71]

The conclusion I'd draw after Googling that symbol (" _ZN9QListData11detach_growEPii") is that the version of Qt in Lucid is too old.

Hmmm....one might have thought Gdeb would have caught that before it installed qupzilla.

From what you're describing, it looks like this browser needs a bit more work.

Regards...

[SteveRiley]

From what you're describing, it looks like this browser needs a bit more work.

Well, I installed qupzilla-next, so my experience could be less stable than normal.

[vw72]

I'm kind of late to this discussion, but if FF is going to be a problem integrating into Kubuntu and Chromium isn't going to be a choice, then I would really encourage people to use rekonq and report bugs instead of alternative qt browsers. Nothing against the other ones, but what Kubuntu (and KDE) really needs is one really good qt based browser that integrates well into the system. From what I've seen of the offerings, rekonq looks to be the closest to realizing that goal.

Is it perfect? No, but splitting developers time among various other qt browsers only delays the development of rekonq. Obviously, people are free to develop whatever software they want, but it seems that the biggest bang for the buck, right now, would be rekonq. Just my two cents.

[ardvark71]

Hi vw...

In your opinion, does it have the potential to reach Firefox's calibre? When I was using Kubuntu, I never used it except for a couple of times. Will it handle flash, java, adobe reader, etc.?

I did ask David Wonderly if Kubuntu or KDE could continue supporting the "firefox-kde-support" package.

Regards...

[SteveRiley]

rekonq looks to be the closest to realizing that goal.

Agreed. I'm using Rekonq as my primary browser now; the version from the KDE Goodies PPA just keeps getting better. Crashes are extremely rare now, and Flash integration (so long as you're using 11.2) works -- but see the other Firefox/KDE thread where bra|10n appears to have stumbled across a bug yet to be fixed.

[aybesea]

I tried Rekonq and I'm actually impressed... it's a reasonably nice browser. My big problem is the lack of plugins. There are some Firefox plugins that I have become completely dependent upon (e.g. Downthemall, Greasemonkey, and FoxySpider). Is there any plan to allow Firefox plugins to operate within Rekonq? Or is there any plan to re-create "essential" plugins that aren't there yet? This is the big reason I never hopped on the Chrome bandwagon (yes... Greasemonkey works there... to an extent, but not the others). All told I use about 10 Firefox plugins, and these 3 are absolutely essential.