kiwibrowser / src, Hacker News

Kiwi Browser is a fully open-source web browser for Android.

Kiwi is based on Chromium. Easily switch to Kiwi without having to painstakingly learn a new interface or break your existing browsing habits.

Among other functionalities, Kiwi Browser supports:

• Night Mode (another implementation than Chromium)
• Support for Chrome Extensions
• Bottom address bar It also includes performance improvements (partial rasterization of tiles, etc)

The browser is licensed under the same license as Chromium, which means that you are allowed to create derivatives of the browser.

Timeline

(April) – First Kiwi Browser release.

(April) Kiwi Browser gets support for Chrome Extensions.

(April) – Kiwi Browser goes fully open-source.

This code is up-to-date and is matching the build on the Play Store.

The new builds are done from the open-source edition directly to the Play Store.

There are thousands of hours of work in this repository and thousands of files changed.

Contributors

Contributions are welcome and encouraged.

If you want your code to be integrated into Kiwi, open a merge request, I (and / or a member of the community) can review the code with you and push it to the Play Store.

Modifications

If you create your own browser or a mod, make sure to change the browser name and icon in chrome / android / java / res_chromium / values ​​/ channel_constants.xml and translation strings (search and replace Kiwi in all .xtb, all .grd and all .grdp files)

How to build

The reference build machine is using Ubuntu (tested also using Ubuntu . .

Minimum system requirements is 2 vCPUs, 7.5 GB Memory.

You can use a virtual machine, or a Google Cloud VM.

Getting the source-code and environment

To build Kiwi Browser you can directly clone the repository, as we have packed all dependencies already:

In ~ (your home directory) run:

git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git

and edit the file ~ / .bashrc to add at the very end

export PATH=$ HOME / depot_tools: $ PATH

Validate the changes by running:

source ~ / .bashrc

This will give you access to one utility called gclient (as in “Google client”)

Create a directory called ~ / chromium /, and in this newly created directory run:

git clone https://github.com/kiwibrowser/dependencies.git .cipd cp ~ / chromium / .cipd / .gclient ~ / chromium / cp ~ / chromium / .cipd / .gclient_entries ~ / chromium /

git clone https://github.com/kiwibrowser/src.git

sudo apt-get install python

bash install-build-deps.sh –no-chromeos-fonts build / linux / sysroot_scripts / install-sysroot.py –arch=i build / linux / sysroot_scripts / install-sysroot.py –arch=amd 83

Preparing a signing key

APKs (application packages) on Android need to be signed by developers in order to be distributed.

To generate a key:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore ~ ​​/ chromium / kiwi.keystore -alias production -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity -keypass HERE_YOUR_ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD

Configuring the build type and platform

In ~ / chromium / src /, create a folder named “android_arm” and in this folder create a file called args.gn with this content:

args.gn:

target_os=”android” target_cpu=”arm” #

Prepare the first build

To prepare initial setup run:

gclient runhooks

then generate the build files:

~ / chromium / src $ gn gen out / android_arm # (you can also use ‘gn args out / android_arm’) Writing build / secondary / third_party / android_tools / google_play_services_basement_java.info Writing build / secondary / third_party / android_tools / google_play_services_tasks_java.info Writing third_party / android_support_test_runner / rules_java.info Writing build / secondary / third_party / android_tools / google_play_services_base_java.info Writing build / secondary / third_party / android_tools / google_play_services_auth_base_java.info […] Done. Made targets from (files in) ms

Compiling Kiwi Browser

To compile, use the command:

ninja -C out / android_arm chrome_public_apk

You’ll have the output APK in ~ / chromium / src / out / android_arm / apks / ChromePublic.apk

then you can run the APK on your phone.

To investigate crashes components / crash / content / tools / generate_breakpad_symbols.py –build-dir=out / lnx – symbols- dir=/ tmp / my_symbols / –binary=out / android_arm / lib.unstripped / libchrome.so –clear –verbose

~ / chromium / src $ ./third_party/android_ndk/ndk-stack -sym out / android_x 264 / lib.unstripped -dump / home / raven / tombstone _

(remote debugging)

You can use Google Chrome to debug using the devtools console.

In case the devtools console does not work (error 404, the solution is to use chrome: // inspect (Inspect fallback) or change SHA1 in build / util / LASTCHANGE

(LASTCHANGE=) (e) (dd) (d) d5c8afb 11 – refs / branch-heads / 8920 @ {# 2019}

and confirm the change using:

rm out / android_arm / gen / components / version_info / version_info_values.h out / android_x / gen / components / version_info / version_info_values.h out / android_arm / gen / build / util / webkit_version.h out / android_x / gen / build / util / webkit_version.h out / android_arm / gen / chrome / common / chrome_version.h out / android_x / gen / chrome / common / chrome_version.h

Binary size optimization

If you want to optimize of the final APK, you can look at the size of each individual component using command:

./ tools / binary_size / supersize archive chrome.size –apk-file out / android_arm / apks / ChromePublic.apk -v ./tools/binary_size/supersize html_report chrome.size –report-dir size-report -v

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If you need any assistance with building Kiwi, feel free to ask. To do so, please open a GitHub issue so answers will benefit to everyone.

You can also reach out on Discord https://discord.gg/XyMppQq

Have fun with Kiwi!

Arnaud.

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