Galeon Frequently Asked Questions

The following are items you probably shouldn't e-mail or post in the mailing lists about, as they are often repeated.

[Index]
  1. I'm trying to compile Galeon and it needs gtkmozembed.h. Where is it?
  2. How can I configure what mail program to use for "mailto:" links?
  3. Galeon crashes when I go to page X.
  4. When starting Galeon, I get immediately an assertion error. What does this mean?
  5. How can I get my scrollwheel mouse to work with Galeon?
  6. Why does Galeon depend on GNOME? There should be a GTK+ only version!
  7. I can't compile Galeon. I get ld errors such as this: (/usr/include/mozilla/nsCOMPtr.h:552: undefined reference to `nsCString type_info node'). Help!
  8. I compiled Galeon and Mozilla but I still get ld errors.
  9. Galeon is using 80MB+ of memory! What's going on?
  10. Galeon segfaults on startup. What's wrong?
  11. Galeon segfaults when opening the preferences dialog. What's wrong?
  12. Galeon claims that it crashed the last time it was run, but it's currently running! Can't I run two copies at once?
  13. Galeon hangs when I try accessing my secure banking/intranet site. Doesn't Galeon support https?
  14. F6 for Find? These keyboard shortcuts are all wrong!
  15. I {want, don't want} Galeon to be my default Web Browser { any more }.
  16. How can I fix this syntax error during configure?
  17. When I run galeon I get a message about gconf not configured properly. How can I configure gconf?
  18. After the migration to gconf i occasionally lose all/part of my prefs, they get back to defaults. Why? What can i do about it?
  19. What do I need to use Galeon as my help browser?
  20. How can I change the User Agent string that galeon uses?
  21. Galeon is running but is not showing any window/unable to load anything. What can i do?
[Q&A]

  1. I'm trying to compile Galeon and it needs gtkmozembed.h. Where is it?

    This header is part of Mozilla, and you need to either install the Mozilla source or find a Mozilla-devel package containing the appropriate headers. This also applies for nsI*.h. These steps are described in detail on the     website and in the INSTALL file.

  2. How can I configure what mail program to use for "mailto:" links?

    We don't have a configuration option for this because Galeon uses the GNOME URL handler for     mailto:. Please add/edit a mailto handler in the GNOME control center for the client of choice.

  3. Galeon crashes when I go to page X

    Unless you are really sure that it's Galeon's fault, it's likely Mozilla. Try updating to a newer version, and if that doesn't work consider reporting the problem to the     Mozilla team.

  4. When starting Galeon, I get immediately an assertion error. What does this mean?

    The assertion usually looks like:
    ** CRITICAL **: file mozilla.cpp: line 64 (gboolean mozilla_load_prefs ()):
assertion `prefService != nsnull' failed.
    If this happens, it usually means there is a problem or incompatibility with your Mozilla installation. Try manually exporting/setting your MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME environment variable and then executing 'galeon-bin'. This is known to work sometimes, but it's also known to not work for some users (Debian installations in particular).

    Another time when this has been known to happen is when the Mozilla has been updated/changed with old lingering user files that (for some reason) are causing problems. Removing Mozilla user files ("rm -rf ~/.mozilla") and/or removing galeon's mozilla profile files ("rm -rf ~/.galeon/mozilla/galeon") may fix this problem. Be sure to back up any important files in these directories (such as Mozilla bookmarks, preferences), if necessary.

  5. How can I get my scrollwheel mouse to work with Galeon?

    Galeon supports scrollwheel mice natively. If your other applications work fine with the wheel and Galeon does not, it could be because other programs (such as Imwheel) are interfering. However, even with Imwheel the wheel can still be used if the wheel is pushed down while scrolled (I'm not sure why, and this may only be true for Logitech mice).

    If your wheel doesn't work at all for any applications, you probably need to configure your X server. For XFree86, this can be done by adding the line "ZAxisMapping 4 5" to the "Pointer" (mouse) section of XF86Config.

    If you still want to use imwheel for the wheelmouse support in other applications, you can place the following two lines in your ~/.imwheelrc file to tell imwheel not to interfere with Galeon: 
    "^Galeon"
@Exclude
    Simply place that in your imwheelrc file and restart imwheel.

  6. Why does Galeon depend on GNOME? There should be a GTK+ only version!

    First of all, from the very start Galeon has always intended to be a GNOME web browser. If you don't use GNOME, then Galeon probably isn't a very good choice for the time being.

    So why lock Galeon into the GNOME environment? There are many advantages to using the existing GNOME libraries. Contrary to what some think, depending on existing libraries to do typical tasks in modern desktop applications is NOT bloat. In fact, it's the exact opposite of bloat. The bottom line is that implementing our own toolbar, our own configuration mechanism, our own session management, our own download manager, and our own dialogs would be counter-productive.

    Galeon relies on many standard GNOME libraries (GTK+, libgnome, libglade, libxml, etc.). Given these requirements, how much would we gain by removing the GNOME dependency? This is not only illogical, but conflicts with some of Galeon's other goals of integrating nicely with the GNOME desktop.

    However, if you absolutely don't want to use GNOME, there is now a project known as     SkipStone which implements a GTK+-only web browser.

  7. I can't compile Galeon. I get ld errors such as this (/usr/include/mozilla/nsCOMPtr.h:552: undefined reference to `nsCString type_info node'). Help!

    This is due to the fact that you're trying to compile galeon and mozilla with a different compiler version. Download the right mozilla package for your distribution. (Take a look at     http://galeon.sourceforge.net/download.html)

  8. I compiled Galeon and Mozilla but I still get ld errors.

    Note that both applications must be compiled not only with the same version of compiler, but also with the same compiler flags. For example, with gcc Mozilla by default adds -fno-rtti and -fno-exceptions or -fno-handle-exceptions (depends on gcc version). Galeon now adds -fno-rtti, which should be normally be sufficient. This can be disabled with the --enable-cpp-rtti flag to ./autogen.sh.

    If you need further flag changes, you have two chances to get things in sync:
    1. Compile Mozilla with this .mozconfig script: (You must place it in your home directory) 
      # sh
# Build configuration script
#
# See http://www.mozilla.org/build/unix.html for build instructions.
#

# Options for 'configure' (same as command-line options).
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --enable-strip-libs
ac_add_options --enable-crypto
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
    2. Configure Mozilla with standard configure script and compile it. Before configuring Galeon set the proper CXXFLAGS. For example, with latest version of gcc: 
      CXXFLAGS='-fno-exceptions'
export CXXFLAGS
      For more see       configure.in in the Mozilla source. You can save some space by disabling RTTI.

  9. Galeon is using 80MB+ of memory! What's going on?

    On Linux systems, threads are essentially visible as separate processes to many user-space applications. This means that process X, using 10MB of memory with 5 threads sharing that same 10MB will appear to consume 50MB (though it is not). Only count one process, not all of them (this is true for many other applications besides Galeon).

  10. Galeon segfaults on startup. What's wrong?

    Make sure the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME environment variable points to the directory where the Mozilla executables are installed. If Mozilla is compiled from source, try mozilla_build_dir/dist/bin.

  11. Galeon segfaults when opening the preferences dialog. What's wrong?

    Run Galeon from an xterm and check if you get this message: 
    GnomeUI-ERROR **: file gnome-icon-item.c: line 304 (get_default_font):
assertion failed: (default_font != NULL)
    If so you need to properly set your language environment. Example: 
    export LANG=de_DE

  12. Galeon claims that it crashed the last time it was run, but it's currently running! Can't I run two copies at once?

    This problem has been observed with out of date versions of Oaf (including 0.6.1). Upgrade to 0.6.5 (availble from Ximian).

    This can also be caused by the GNOME_Galeon_Automation.oaf file not being installed in a place that oaf can look for it.

    If you've compiled Galeon from a source tarball, chances are it's installed it in /usr/local/share/oaf/GNOME_Galeon_Automation.oaf. However, oaf isn't searching this directory, so when you start another copy, oaf tells Galeon that it isn't running and it doesn't know to attach.

    To fix this, make a symlink called /usr/share/oaf/GNOME_Galeon_Automation.oaf which links to /usr/local/share/oaf/GNOME_Galeon_Automation.oaf. When you start Galeon twice, it should attach and open a new window/tab in the existing process.

    Another possibility is that the value of the DISPLAY environment variable differs in the two locations from which Galeon is being started. Frequently, DISPLAY will be set to :0 in the window manager, but to :0.0 in terminals. One way to work around this is to set the variable to :0.0 in your X startup script (usually ~/.xsession or ~/.xinitrc), by adding the line "export DISPLAY=:0.0" (for sh scripts) or "setenv DISPLAY :0.0" (for csh scripts).

  13. Galeon hangs when I try accessing my secure banking/intranet site? Doesn't Galeon support https?

    Yes, Galeon does support https (as long as you have the Mozilla PSM module configured / installed). Just make sure you installed mozilla-psm properly.

  14. F6 for Find? These keyboard shortcuts are all wrong!

    F6 is the standard GNOME shortcut for Find. If you want to rebind it, Galeon supports the standard GTK+ way of changing shortcuts: simply hover over the menu option with the mouse pointer and press the keyboard shortcut you want to rebind it to.

    UPDATE: Due to popular demand/complaining, this has been changed to CTRL-F. "Screw the so-called GNOME GUI standards", said an unknown Galeon developer as he made the change.

  15. I {want, don't want} Galeon to be my default Web Browser { any more }.

    When Galeon is first used, it asks you if you want to make it the default Web Browser in GNOME. This setting is stored in the GNOME Control Center under Document Handlers / URL Handlers. To stop Galeon from being the default web browser, delete the association with HTTP, HTTPS and whichever other protocols you set it up for. The make Galeon the default Web Browser, add a binding from these protocols to:
      galeon "%s"

  16. How can I fix this syntax error during configure?

        ./configure: line 538: syntax error near unexpected token `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(galeon,'
    Make sure you have xml-i18n-tools installed and try again.

  17. When I run galeon I get a message about GConf not being configured properly. How can I configure GConf?

    Edit the "path" file in the directory $sysconfdir/gconf/1.

    A basic configuration for the default backend would look like: 
    xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory
include "$(HOME)/.gconf.path"
xml:readwrite:$(HOME)/.gconf
xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults
    You can also take a look at $sysconfdir/gconf/1/path.example and in most cases you can simply move it to $sysconfdir/gconf/1/path. Be sure that the path file can be read by all users.

    Ensure you have a $sysconfdir/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults dir set up with the right permissions. In most cases you can run: 
    chmod -R 755 $sysconfdir/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults
    WARNING: The GConf deamon makes heavy use of a cache so when changing your setup you will probably need to restart it.

    Be sure you have no applications depending on gconf running and then run:
    gconftool --shutdown
    GConf will then restart when it is required.

  18. After the migration to gconf i occasionally lose all/part of my prefs, they get back to defaults. Why? What can i do about it?

    We still dont know why. Any insight on this will be highly appreciated. We believe its a gconf glitch.

    When the galeon with apparently messed up prefs starts, and you are sure you did set all your prefs right the previous session, go to a terminal window and exectute the command
    killall gconfd-1
    then restart galeon, your prefs should be back to normal.

  19. What do I need to use Galeon as my help browser?

    Galeon uses external conversion programs to render all info and man content as html. Thus, these programs have to present if info and man pages are to be viewable. We use gnome-man2html2 and gnome-info2html2 which are part of the nautilus package. So, if you don't have nautilus installed, you don't have these programs. We know that there will be plenty of people who haven't got nautilus installed, so we're going to put together a separate package for the conversion programs, hopefully pretty soon. :-)

    The new style sgml help documents ( gnome-help: and so far only supported by nautilus itself ) require gnome-db2html2 from nautilus.

    The normal gnome help documents which are regular html files ( and accessed through the ghelp: protocol ) do not require an external converter.

    The toc: pages ( toc:, toc:man, toc:info, toc:ghelp, toc:gnome-help ) also don't require anything special.

  20. How can I change the User Agent string that galeon uses?

    This feature is already implemented. It is not in the UI because there was a mozilla bug that made galeon to crash at startup with some strings.

    You can set the user agent from the command line using GConf:

    1. To get the current user agent:

      gconftool -g /apps/galeon/Advanced/Network/user_agent

    2. To set the user agent to XXX:

      gconftool -s /apps/galeon/Advanced/Network/user_agent --type=string "XXX"

    3. To restore the default user agent:

      gconftool -s /apps/galeon/Advanced/Network/user_agent --type=string default
    21.

  21. Galeon is running but is not showing any window/unable to load anything. What can i do?

    galeon needs to run once as the user that owns the mozilla distribution directory, because mozilla wants to write somefiles there.