Browser Switchboard

Browser Switchboard control panel screenshot on Diablo Browser Switchboard control panel screenshot on Fremantle

Browser Switchboard (formerly browser-proxy) is a program which allows you to choose which browser to use as the default browser on Maemo devices. It supports MicroB, Tear, Fennec/Mobile Firefox, and Midori out of the box, and can also be used to launch MicroB without having browserd running.

Current Release

Version 3.0 (2009/12/23) (Diablo package, EXPERIMENTAL Fremantle package)

Getting Browser Switchboard

Source code, packages for Diablo, and EXPERIMENTAL packages for Fremantle can be found on the maemo Garage download page. Packages can also be installed from the maemo extras-devel repository (though don't blindly enable extras-devel and install/upgrade — see the linked page first!)

Quick Start

  1. Download the binary package: browser-switchboard_X.Y-Z_all.deb (where X.Y-Z is the version number, of course).
  2. Install the package using the Application Manager (on Diablo, open the Application Manager, then select Application->Install from file in the menu).

Browser Switchboard control panel UI
You can now select the default browser by using the Browser Switchboard applet in the Control Panel. Links in most applications, locally-saved web pages opened from the file manager, and (for Maemo 4.x) entries in the Web sidebar panel will open in the browser that you select as the default. If you don't configure a default browser, MicroB will continue to be used as the default browser.

No matter which browser you select as the default, MicroB can always be opened via the Web menu entry in the applications menu (for Maemo 4.x, located in the Internet menu by default), or by running "browser" from the shell. While MicroB is open, it will receive all links from other applications; closing MicroB will restore your chosen default browser.

Some users have reported that a restart may be necessary to ensure that Browser Switchboard is functioning. If you experience trouble after installing the package, try rebooting your device first.

Documentation

See the README for further instructions on how to configure and use Browser Switchboard.

Support

You can email your question to the maintainers (see below), or you can take it to the Browser Switchboard thread on the talk.maemo.org forums.

Development

The latest source is available via a Git repository; you can check it out by running

git clone https://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch

from a shell. You can also browse the repository using gitweb.

Bug reports and patches can be emailed to the maintainers, or posted on the forum thread.

Maintainers

Steven Luo <steven+maemo [at] steven676.net> is the primary maintainer of Browser Switchboard, with assistance from Jason Simpson (the original developer).