WebM and Webkit and Youtube

WebKitGTK+ and WebM

Gustavo Noronha

So you probably heard about WebM, right? It’s the awesome new media format being pushed by Google and a large number of partners, including Collabora, following the release of the VP8 video codec free of royalties and patents, along with a Free Software implementation.

It turns out that if you are a user or developer of applications that use the GStreamer framework, you can start taking advantage of all that freedom right away! Collabora Multimedia has developed, along with Entropy Wave GStreamer support for the new format, and the code has already landed in the public repositories, and is already being packaged for some distributions.

I just couldn’t wait the few days it will take for the support to be properly landed in Debian unstable, so I went ahead and downloaded all of the current packages from the pkg-gstreamer svn repository, built everything after having the libvpx-dev package installed, and went straight to a rather unknown, small video site called Youtube with my GStreamer-powered WebKitGTK+-based browser, Epiphany!:


Youtube showing a webm video in Epiphany

If you’re running Debian unstable, or any of the other distributions which will be lucky to get the new codecs, and support packages soon, you should be able to get this working out of the box real soon now. Check the tips on WebM’s web site on how to find WebM videos on youtube.

Webkit and Midori Browser on Debian

Midori is a very nice browser 8)
I am finding it snappy and fresh compared to FF. Although you do notice that it
isn’t quite finished,especially when posting on forums.

More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(browser)

[quote][b]Features[/b]

* Full integration with GTK+ 2.
* Fast rendering with WebKit.
* Tabs, windows and session management.
* Flexibly configurable Web Search.
* User scripts and user styles support.
* Straightforward bookmark management.
* Customizable and extensible interface.
* Extensions written in C.
* Custom context menu actions.

Extension modules can be written in C, bindings to Lua and/or Python are planned
for the future. Midori passes the Acid2 test, and utilizing a recent WebKit build it
passes the Acid3 test as well.[/quote]

I compiled Webkit then installed Midori nightly build.

Get the last webkit

1. Go to http://webkit.org/
2. Download the last nightly archive for Linux ( I got r40102)
3. Unzip the archive
4. Open a Terminal and go in the new folder

[b]Installation of packages needed[/b]

For a webkit build you need to install :

sudo apt-get install autoconf automake libtool bison flex gperf libicu-dev
libxslt-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libjpeg62-dev libpng12-dev
libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk2.0-dev build-essential

Webkit compilation
Compilation preparation :

./autogen.sh

[b]And :[/b]

./configure –enable-svg-experimental

Now go and make a coffee, or have a beer, or whatever you think may give
you pleasure for around 10 minutes, while it’s compiling. My proc was at 100%
all the way through. (Yes, I did sit there and watch it. How Geeky is that? :-\ )

[b]Launch compilation with :[/b]

make

[b]Installation with :[/b]

sudo make install

Now lets get the Midori browser

[b]We need git to download Midori sources :[/b]

sudo apt-get install git-core curl

[b]We need some packages :[/b]

sudo apt-get install libsoup2.4-1 cdbs debhelper fdupes gettext html2text
intltool intltool-debian libsexy-dev po-debconf

[b]Download of Midori sources :[/b]

git clone http://software.twotoasts.de/media/midori.git

[b]Go in the directory :[/b]

cd midori

Now install using a different way that you are used to,
Some guides say the usual ./configure or autogen.sh, but no. It’s easier using the waf file.

./waf configure
./waf build
sudo ./waf install

You’ll probably get an error message at the end about the gtk-icon-cache, so did I,
but Midori still works. I did a few searches to try and find out what exactly you need to
be able to run this command:

gtk-update-icon-cache

All it lead me to was:
http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk/stable/gtk-update-icon-cache.html

Maybe somebody else could shed some light on it.

Anyway, I have it all installed and running nicely on my Debian Lenny Xfce4 desktop,
just in case any of you want a taste of the latest greatest browser that uses Webkit.

Of course, screenie:

Digg It! HERE
Discuss It HERE
If you don’t want to sign up to the forum, there is a guest board for comments as well.

Midori Browser and Webkit on Debian

Midori is a very nice browser  
I am finding it snappy and fresh compared to FF. Although you do notice that it
isn’t quite finished,especially when posting on forums. 

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(browser)
Features

  * Full integration with GTK+ 2.
  * Fast rendering with WebKit.
  * Tabs, windows and session management.
  * Flexibly configurable Web Search.
  * User scripts and user styles support.
  * Straightforward bookmark management.
  * Customizable and extensible interface.
  * Extensions written in C.
  * Custom context menu actions.

Extension modules can be written in C, bindings to Lua and/or Python are planned 
for the future. Midori passes the Acid2 test, and utilizing a recent WebKit build it 
passes the Acid3 test as well.

I compiled Webkit then installed Midori nightly build.

Get the latest webkit

  1. Go to http://webkit.org/
  2. Download the last nightly archive for Linux ( I got r40102)
  3. Unzip the archive
  4. Open a Terminal and go in the new folder

Installation of packages needed

For a webkit build you need to install :
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake libtool bison flex gperf libicu-dev 
libxslt-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libjpeg62-dev libpng12-dev 
libglibmm-2.4-dev libgtk2.0-dev build-essential


Webkit compilation
Compilation preparation :
./autogen.sh
And :
./configure –enable-svg-experimental

Now go and make a coffee, or have a beer, or whatever you think may give 
you pleasure for around 10 minutes, while it’s compiling. My proc was at 100% 
all the way through. (Yes, I did sit there and watch it. How Geeky is that? :-\ )

Launch compilation with :
make

Installation with :
sudo make install

Now lets get the Midori browser

We need git to download Midori sources :
sudo apt-get install git-core curl

We need some packages :
sudo apt-get install libsoup2.4-1 cdbs debhelper fdupes gettext html2text 
intltool intltool-debian libsexy-dev po-debconf

  • Download of Midori sources :
    git clone http://software.twotoasts.de/media/midori.git

    Go in the directory :
    cd midori

    Now install using a different way that you are used to, 
    Some guides say the usual ./configure or autogen.sh, but no. It’s easier using the waf file.
    ./waf configure
    ./waf build
    sudo ./waf install

    You’ll probably get an error message at the end about the gtk-icon-cache, so did I, 
    but Midori still works. I did a few searches to try and find out what exactly you need to
     be able to run this command:

    gtk-update-icon-cache

  • All it lead me to was:
    http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk/stable/gtk-update-icon-cache.html

    Maybe somebody else could shed some light on it.

    Anyway, I have it all installed and running nicely on my Debian Lenny Xfce4 desktop,
     just in case any of you want a taste of the latest greatest browser that uses Webkit.

    Of course, screenie: