What did you use for the interface silinium or something else? If you have github account I could see if I can help. I would also like to help make sure it works on things like BTSpeak and other things like raspberry PI 400.
-----Original Message----- From: BRLTTY <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Nicolas Pitre Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 11:57 AM To: Informal discussion between users and developers of BRLTTY. <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BRLTTY] Is there a feature-compatible text-based browser On Tue, 16 Sep 2025, [email protected] wrote: > Instead of trying to maintain a stand-alone text browser like Lynx, > wouldn't it be easier to build a command-line browser that uses a > modern engine like Chrome or Firefox as the backend? You'd only need > some X libraries installed, but not an actual running desktop. > Interaction could be handled through text, while the backend stays > updated automatically as Chrome or Firefox updates. Well well... I wanted to have something more functional and stable before I post it here ... but here's the README as a teaser for the project I'm working on when time permits. There are still many issues and bugs, but I was able to log into my Facebook account, even with MFA active, for the first time using a text-based interface. I didn't publish the code yet but I'm willing to share with people with development skills eager to contribute (this is not ready for casual user yet). ===== # Firelynx: Where Firefox Meets lynx ⚠️ **EXPERIMENTAL ALPHA SOFTWARE** - Firelynx is in early development. While functional for many websites, expect bugs, limitations, and breaking changes. Use at your own risk and keep backups of important work. The web has moved on, but accessible browsing hasn't kept up. Firelynx changes that by creating a bridge between the excellent accessibility of lynx and the modern web compatibility of Firefox. ## The Problem: When the Web Left Accessibility Behind If you're a blind user, you know the frustration. Traditional text browsers like lynx work beautifully with braille displays and screen readers - they're fast, efficient, and give you exactly the semantic information you need. But try to use Google Search, Facebook, or most modern websites, and you're out of luck. These sites require JavaScript to function, leaving lynx users stuck with broken layouts, completely blank pages, or worse - some sites simply refuse to serve you if your browser isn't one of the big ones. On the other hand, Firefox is a powerhouse that handles any modern website perfectly. But running Firefox in a GUI environment when you're using a braille display is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. You're forced to navigate through complex visual interfaces, deal with mouse-centric designs, and lose the clean, efficient text-based interaction that makes computing accessible in the first place. ### What About term.everything? You might have heard of [term.everything](https://github.com/mmulet/term.everything) - a project that promises to render GUI applications in the terminal as ASCII art. Sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't solve our problem at all. When term.everything displays Firefox, you get something like this: ``` 🬽 ▀▀▀▀▀▀🬼 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ˛🬠▂▂▂ ▌ ┃ 🬼 ▎ ``` This is just visual noise to a braille display. There's no semantic structure, no way to understand what's a heading versus a link versus body text. It's graphics made of text characters - completely inaccessible to the tools that blind users rely on. ## The Solution: Firelynx The breakthrough came from realizing we didn't need to choose between lynx and Firefox. What if we could use Firefox as a backend engine to process modern websites, then serve the results through lynx's familiar, accessible interface? That's exactly what Firelynx does. It creates an HTTP proxy server that sits between lynx and the web. When you browse with lynx, the proxy intercepts your requests, processes them through a headless Firefox instance (complete with JavaScript execution), extracts the meaningful content, and serves it back to lynx as clean, semantic HTML. The result? You get to keep lynx's excellent accessibility - all your customizations, keyboard shortcuts, and the clean interface that works perfectly with your braille display in a text-based terminal with [BRLTTY](http://brltty.app/) - while gaining access to any modern website that Firefox can handle. ## Features That Make It Work **Modern Web Compatibility**: Google Search, Facebook, complex JavaScript sites - they all work because Firefox handles the heavy lifting. **Seamless lynx Experience**: Every lynx feature works exactly as before. Your muscle memory, customizations, and workflow remain unchanged. **Smart Content Extraction**: The system intelligently finds and prioritizes main content while filtering out navigation clutter and ads. **Runtime Content Filtering**: Choose your preferred balance between showing everything (bridge mode) and clean reading (filtered mode) with instant switching between filter levels. ## Installation ### Fedora Linux ```bash # Install the packages sudo dnf install python3-selenium selenium-manager firefox lynx # Get and install Firelynx git clone [your-repo-url] firelynx cd firelynx/ ./install.sh # Now you can use 'firelynx' from anywhere firelynx https://example.com ``` ### Debian/Ubuntu ```bash # Install the packages sudo apt update sudo apt install python3-selenium firefox lynx # Note: No additional geckodriver installation needed! # Modern Selenium (4.x+) automatically downloads geckodriver on first use # Get and install Firelynx git clone [your-repo-url] firelynx cd firelynx/ ./install.sh # Now you can use 'firelynx' from anywhere firelynx https://example.com ``` ## How to Use **Start browsing any website:** ```bash firelynx https://facebook.com firelynx google.com firelynx ``` This launches lynx connected to the Firefox proxy. Navigate exactly as you normally would in lynx - press 'g' to go to URLs, follow links normally, fill out forms as usual. You now have a much greater chance for JavaScript-heavy sites to work to some extent. **For quick text output without interactive lynx:** ```bash firelynx --dump --search "python tutorial" firelynx --dump https://example.com firelynx --dump --search "weather forecast" --engine bing ``` ## Current Limitations **JavaScript Modal Dialogs**: Some modal dialogs (like Facebook's device trust prompts) don't convert properly yet. The detection system is there but needs refinement. **Google Search CAPTCHAs**: Google still detects the automation and shows robot verification. Use DuckDuckGo instead - it works perfectly and doesn't have this issue. **MFA Timing**: On sites like Facebook, if you press the "continue" button too quickly during multi-factor authentication, you might not get the expected retry prompts. **Some False Positives**: Occasionally sites like Amazon trigger MFA warnings when no authentication is actually required. Despite these quirks, the browser handles many websites well, including complex authentication flows, form submissions, and JavaScript-heavy content that traditional text browsers simply can't access. _______________________________________________ This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list. To post a message, send an e-mail to: [email protected] For general information, go to: http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty
