gemini://scrollprotocol.us.to/software/profectus/
gemini://auragem.letz.dev/devlog/20240505.gmi
A new fully-featured smallnet browser is being developed called Profectus.
The beta just came out, but I can't get the precompiled binary to work.
The Profectus page helpfully suggests installing some dependencies. I tracked down this command:
$ sudo apt install libsdl2-dev
47 MB later, and Profectus still doesn't run:
./profectus: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2_image-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Anyone having better luck?
2 months ago · 👍 edanosborne
gemini://scrollprotocol.us.to/software/profectus/
gemini://auragem.letz.dev/devlog/20240505.gmi
I have just released Beta 1.1 that removes all webp support and reduces the minimum required golang version down to 1.21.9. I have also modified the docs to make it clearer what dependencies need to be installed and how to install them for Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora.
@breakfast_champion I haven't fixed that DPI issue yet, but I will look into it for version 1.2. I'd be surprised if you don't still get the Window showing. When Profectus fails to get the DPI, it should then just default to a GUI scale of 1.0. Does the window not show up for you? · 1 month ago
Ah, sorry, apparently you already were able to run it.
I'm not sure why you are getting that error about the DPI @breakfast_champion, but I will look into it. What distro are you on? And are you using wayland? Also, are you using a 2K or 4K (or above) monitor? · 2 months ago
Sorry if it wasn't clear, libsdl2_dev is not required to run the precompiled binaries. It looks like you need to install sdl2-image instead. The precompiled binaries require sdl2-image, sdl2, and sdl2-ttf. Fedora uses underscores for the package names in the place of the hyphens.
I am going to try to get an AppImage in the near future, it will just take some time and research.
I didn't know people hated webp, but I could try to provide a different variant of the browser without it for those who don't like it. · 2 months ago
@breakfast_champion Yes, I agree with the premise entirely — I have even said so in my first reply. And it's actually one of the reasons why I don't like WebP — there is only one implementation that everyone uses, the one from Google — libwebp.
And yet having alternative just for the sake of having an alternative doesn't sit right with me. Lagrange already works well on most platforms that SDL supports. Using Go might make the code more maintainable, but it would limit the choice of architectures, e.g. Go doesn't support PowerPC32 — so to me it seems like a downgrade.
I believe Amfora is no longer being developed, but still maintained. · 2 months ago
It's always good when a developer can take the trouble to provide precompiled binaries to ordinary people. Many other possibly good gemini clients are rotting in semi-oblivion. · 2 months ago
Thanks @fluke and @skyjake. I got libsdl2-image-dev and libsdl-gfx-dev to install, but my apt didn't have libsdl2-ttf-2.0.0. Turns out it's not '2.0.0' it's '2.0-0'! The dependency installation looks like this (for anyone who wants to know):
$ sudo apt install lubsdl2-image-dev libsdl-gfx-dev libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0
I ran profectus, and recieved this reply:
SDL Version: 2.26.5
Failed to get Window's Display DPI.
· 2 months ago
Managed to run it after installing libsdl2-image-dev, libsdl2-ttf -2.0.0 and libsdl-gfx-dev on 'Buntu 24.04
It looks identical to Lagrange atm; there is no menu or settings that I can see, but on the face of it it's very similar in style to Lagrange · 2 months ago
Note that libSDL2_image-2.0.so comes from the "libsdl2-image-2.0-0" package (also, "libsdl2-image-dev").
SDL2_image is not part of SDL2 but a separate utility library for image codecs. · 2 months ago
@m0xee Nothing is perfect and I'd rather support a new project than otherwise. I'm _guessing _90% of Geminispace operates off Lagrange, and it's not good for us to have all our eggs in one basket, even if it is a cosy basket. A lot has been said about "writing a Gemini browser in a weekend" but the truth is more complicated. As far as I can tell, most of the terminal browsers are not feature complete. Amphora has been abandoned. So Profectus has a place, if it can be completed, and if anyone can compile and run it. · 2 months ago
As much as I'd like to have an alternative to Lagrange, I'm not sure I want to have one in Go.
It has newer version of Go in its go.mod than I have installed on this machine and to build the project it starts downloading it — I didn't even know there is such an option now, but I don't like it. Rust has rustup to manage different toolchain versions — but it's what it is, a separate tool.
In addition to it, it has libwebp as a hard dependency — I don't like it and I don't use it, I'm not sure I want to spend time removing it from software I'm not even familiar with.
Yes, I like Google very much 😂 · 2 months ago