General Hints

Default Browser: You can change the default browser using System Settings > Applications > Default Applications and then selecting a value for the Web browser, and then click [ Apply ] at the bottom right. Usually this works without issue, but if not, see the advice in Troubleshooting.

Browser Scaling: Sometimes, GTK apps like Google Chrome or Firefox will not scale like the rest of the UI. If this affects your system, see the workaround found in the External Displays Guided Solution.

Printing: See Printing which discusses interfaces for browsers.

Google Chrome

Intel Graphics Corruption: Some people have seen Google Chrome present corrupt graphics, especially around text on certain web pages. However, most pages are unaffected. This is an Intel Graphics (i915 iGPU) issue, 11th-gen CPUs and later. See GPU Select for complete resolution.

Jitter Bug: Chrome version 121 introduced a bug where certain dialogs causes the windows to jitter. We have reported this to Google, and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

The Jitter Bug occurs when installing a new extension (as shown above), or in Chrome-only dialogs like when it asks you to select advertising preferences. Some form of scaling must also be in use, such as forcing the font DPI or setting the global scale factor. You can see more at this Reddit post. The easiest work around is to disable scaling before adding extensions:

• Close all Chrome windows
• Visit System Settings > Appearance > Fonts and disable Force font DPI
• Visit System Settings > Display and Monitor > Display Configuration and ensure Global Scale is set to 100%.
• Restart Chrome and add extensions.
• Restore scaling as desired (contrary to what Plasma advice, we find Font DPI to be more reliable for 5.27).

One can inspect the apt archives and install a previous Chrome version if available. Remember to remove the hold when you want to try the latest version again.

In the worst circumstances, the bug will eventually run at least one CPU to 100%; the Chrome UI is unresponsive, and may crash X11. There are ways to recover without needing to reboot however:

Intel Graphics Stalled Start: When Nvidia drivers are installed yet your system is running with an Intel iGPU, the browser can stall at startup. In other words, the initial window will be blank or transparent. After 5-20 seconds, content appears and then the browser works normally. If you do not need the Nvidia drivers you can remove them to resolve this issue: sudo apt purge nvidia* libnvidia*. However, if you have an Nvidia GPU, you should NOT remove the drivers. Instead, we suggest you accept this condition when running Intel because it only happens once per session and will likely be fixed soon. In addition, there is no stall when using the Nvidia GPU.

Appearance Settings: The following are set by default, but may be changed by a synced profile. Select Menu > Appearance to confirm these settings:

• Near the top, select Theme > Use GTK.
• Enable Settings > Appearance > Use system title bar and borders so your windows work as expected.

As of Q1 2024, we do not recommend the Use QT theme. It does not appear finished, with some mismatched colors and context menus that are unreadable. In comparison, the GTK theme looks excellent. We do expect, however, that these bugs will be resolved in the next few revisions of Chrome.

KeePassXC: See Passwords for details on using this tool with your browser.

Kubuntu Focus app links do not auto open: We configured Chrome to auto-open app links as found on the Curated Apps Guided Solution. However, this can get removed or replaced if you use a different profile. While we haven't found a good way to restore this with a GUI, here is a solution that works:

• Close ALL instances of Chrome.
• BACKUP the file $HOME/.config/google-chrome/Profile 1/Preferences.
• Notice that you may have more than one profile like Profile 2. You will need to update the profile you are using.
• Edit the profile file and search for the "download" section.
• Add or adjust the "download": section like so: {"download":{"extensions_to_open":"kfocus-001"}, ...
• Restart Chrome and test to ensure the app links work.

Firefox

Firefox as a Snap: Ubuntu started distributing Firefox a snap package starting in 22.04. This usually works fine, however, there are some situations where one may need to use the normal Debian package. If this is the case, we suggest using the official Mozilla repository as provided by Mozilla. The recommended steps are below. These are modified to use /usr/share/keyrings and mozilla-firefox paths in keeping with prior convention.

Another option is to use the Firefox PPA as described here. This was recommended previously. However, the Mozilla official repo became available in 2024 and the steps above are now preferred as more reliable.

KeePassXC: See Passwords for details on using this tool with your browser. To integrate to Firefox, you will either will need to use a snap workaround, or install the Debian package as described above.

System title bars: We prefer standard title bars on Firefox. To set this, click on the menu button at top-right, then More Tools > Cutomize Toolbar. This will open a page in the main browser menu. Now look for “Title Bar” checkbox option present at the bottom-left corner of the window and enable it.

VIM Text Editing in the Browser

If you love all things VIM, click here to learn about Wasavi. We found it can provide a huge productivity boost. This is easy to install as a single web extension which can be synced to wherever you login to your browser. The following example exrc content can provide some nice defaults. Set this using Menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions > Wasavi Details > Extension Options:

Wasavi has a few limitations. First, it is only available for Chrome-based browsers and was last updated in 2019. Second, it does not use your own VIM settings and syntax highlighting, but instead only provides a limited (but useful) subset. Finally, you must remember to type :wq to save any edits to the text field.

If you tried Wasavi and want to go use all your VIM-foo, then you could click here to try Firenvim. This tool brings your entire NeoVIM capability into your browser using the same settings, macros, and syntax highlighting as in the terminal. It is also actively maintained and possibly more secure.

Be aware, however, that setting up Firenvim takes more patience, skill, and time. In addition, your configuration is tied to a specific machine. Also, if you use it with Firefox, you will need to install a non-snap version. We have confirmed it works well with Chrome.

See Newsletter 2023-07-03 for more detail.

Revisions

This is a partial revision history. See the git repository for all entries.

• 2024-04-08 9e6be9cf Update Firefox to official Mozilla packages
• 2024-03-18 fb9b592d Add syntax highlighting for codeblocks
• 2024-02-21 1b246b72 Add advice to select default browser
• 2024-01-25 114779aa Update Chrome settings guidance to recent version
• 2024-01-14 4899f85a Add guidance on auto-open kfocus apps to Chrome
• 2023-11-18 e770b1c6 Add search and help bar
• 2023-09-11 d27f8bfb 5a195210 Split content by browser type, added detail
• 2023-07-30 060ddbea 5a195210 First publication