Surfing without KDE etc.
 

I wanna setup a bare bones linux box that JUST lets you surf the net.
Not inside some OS GUI like KDE or something, just bare bones surfing.
A Kernel, a root image, and a graphical surfing interface.

Can anyone help?

Does a linux web browser like this exist?

Thanks.

Theroretically, you could set up a box that launches X with Mozilla as the window manager,... but I have no idea how to accomplish something like that.

You could set it up to auto-boot to the user that the X-server runs in, and it would just autolaunch Mozilla. I don't know how you would prevent a user from closing the Mozilla session and preventing them from trying to gain access to the machine through switching virtual terminals. Perhaps a script which sould auto-launch Mozilla and cause it to re-spawn once down.

Alternatively, you could have Nautilus run in a Gnome session where there are no icons but nautilus on the desktop and the menu bar didn't run...

Mmmmm...

You telling me there's no such thing as a Linux web browser that doesn't need a GUI like KDE or similar.

I find that hard to believe, but anyway...
If i'm forced to use a GUI, what's the smallest GUI out there.
Just enough to get the browser running.

No what he said is that you at least need X to run a webbrowser. KDE or gnome are a complete desktop environment that come with their own window manager. A window manager is what creates the border around a window and makes the extra minimize and close buttons. You won't need that since you just want to run one application. So instead of starting up a window manager just let it start up your webbrowser. Shouldn't be to hard to run through your startup scripts and modify them to only start the application instead of a window manager.

ok, what you do is get "zen" which is a frame buffer based web browser, so you get pictures and such but without running X. of course if you just want to get rid of kde just use a different window manager...

also gnome2 introduces gtk-fb which means that a number of gnome applications can be run inside a framebuffer again, and not with X

Somebody correct me if i am wrong but you sound like a customer for lynx.

I understand this.

I found something here... http://www.chuvakin.org/kiodoc/
It's on the right track of what i'm looking for, but it's waaaaaay too big. And, it still needs an X.

I'm busy downloading ZEN... it looks like what I'm looking for.

yes, go with lynx. It's (if not very beautiful) ultimately fast and stable.

Otherwise go with BlackBox/Mozilla combo.

So you do not want to run X server and just browse the web. You can use "links" ( not lynx) this is very small (smaller than lynx) and lightweight text browser. I can display frames and tables ( just like graphic browsers do).

I use KDE and I still use links often, because it's very fast and renders the html pages pretty well.

Thanks everyone.

I have some last questions...

What's the smallest (approximately) I can get an X with a web browser? With kernel and all.
I saw a site that says 200Mb is good. I just wanna know how much smaller I can go.

If I want Java support, would that be a big difference in size?
Do the text browsers support Java? Does Zen?

Apparently you have hardware issues either with RAM or disk space. So how small do you need to be? Or is this just an exercise in "how small can I make it"?

Just curious :) .

Mmmmm... Size does matter?

I don't really have any hardware issues. I am going to setup a box like this, so I guess I wanna know what's in the bank before I spend it. Then I'll know if I've done a good job or not.

What I needed to know to start off, I kinda know now.

If you want to surf the web from in raw linux (no X) then you're gonna have to be happy doing so in text mode...
OR, you could use ZEN, and have limited graphics support.

As soon as you want more, like JAVA scripting, then it's best you use one of the browsers that run in X.

I want as much as possible in as little as possible space.
I'll figure out how to make it all work, strictly as a browser, but I really want to see how small I can make it.

I know that its not really on topic, but to give you
an idea how small it could get, i surfed the internet
only booting from a single floppy.
It contains a Gui and a browser and more, but...
its not linux though :(
Its a demo from QNX an embedded unixlike
system. They even got opera ported for it.
Maybe there is an embedded linux out there
that can do the same ?