Installing Lynx
Tired of all those images? Try a text-only browser (FreeBSD 5.2)
Posted 26.01.2006 | Updated 15.02.2007 | Contributed by Andy Mallett


LYNX is a web browser apparently, although I don't think Internet Explorer has too much to worry about yet.

I suppose lynx is to browsers what vi is to word processors.

Everything is broken down into its most basic form: text. This is Unix, after all.

There are absolutely no pictures. Maybe some ASCII art on a good day.

The same people who get excited about lynx seem to be the same type of people who get excited about vi too. But we won't go there today..

The best feature about lynx is that it's just about the easiest thing you will ever install. Google and download lynx2.8.5.tar.gz [2.84M] or its updated equivalent and chuck it as usual into the /src directory (or /usr/local/src if you like typing).

From there, run the usual commands to get it happening.. 

cd  /src
tar  -zxvf  lynx2.8.5.tar.gz
cd lynx2.8.5
./configure
make
make install


And that's it. Type lynx to get it running.

Configuring the start page..

The config file lives in /usr/local/lib and you might like to edit this for enhanced web browsing fun. For instance after I'd got over the initial thrill of browsing the web with lynx (0.2 seconds) I edited the STARTFILE line in lynx.cfg to change the home page thus..

vi  /usr/local/lib/lynx.cfg

(search for STARTFILE..) 

.h2 STARTFILE
# STARTFILE is the default starting URL if none is specified
# on the command line or via a WWW_HOME environment variable;
# Lynx will refuse to start without a starting URL of some kind.
# STARTFILE can be remote, e.g. http://www.w3.org/default.html ,
#             or local, e.g. file://localhost/PATH_TO/FILENAME ,
#   where PATH_TO is replaced with the complete path to FILENAME
#       using Unix shell syntax and including the device on VMS.
#
# Normally we expect you will connect to a remote site,
# e.g., the Lynx...
# site:
STARTFILE:http://google.com.au
#


Configuring a Web Proxy..

Some networks force a web proxy onto users, meaning you ain't getting internet until you tell your web browser to go through the proxy server. Again edit the config file and add the hostname of the web proxy and the port number..

vi  /usr/local/lib/lynx.cfg

(search for http_proxy..) 

# They will not override external settings.  The no_proxy variable
# can be used to inhibit proxying to selected regions of the Web
# (see below). Note that on VMS these proxy variables are set as
# process logicals rather than symbols, to preserve lowercasing,
# and will outlive the Lynx image.
#
.ex 15
#http_proxy:http://some.server.dom:port/
http_proxy:http://terra.it.net:8080/
#https_proxy:http://some.server.dom:port/
#ftp_proxy:http://some.server.dom:port/
#gopher_proxy:http://some.server.dom:port/


Save and exit from the text editor. Finally make sure you can ping the host name of the proxy server..for example

ping  terra.it.net

If you cannot ping the proxy server by name, make sure you can ping the proxy server's IP Address and then add the proxy host name to the /etc/hosts file.


So there you go. If you're the type of totally spun-out person who finds the sheer spectacle of web page images pant-wettingly awesome, then maybe the more low-key textiness of Lynx is for you. Happy browsing!

Lynx Web Browser

If you have enjoyed this production, you can see more totally-shit browsers at The Browser Museum..