Surf web browser opens an empty window

suwa · 2026-07-08 14:27:34

title, i cloned surf from the suckless repo and built it without changing anything in the config.h. whenever i try to use it, it opens to an empty window. i think im missing some library or something but i cant for the life of me figure out whats really going on. below is the output from the compilation and then me trying to use it

[surf] suwa: sudo make install
surf build options:
CC            = c99
CFLAGS        = -fPIC  -I/usr/include/gcr-3 -I/usr/include/gck-1 -I/usr/include/p11-kit-1 -I/usr/include/webkitgtk-4.1 -I/usr/include/gtk-3.0 -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/cloudproviders -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -I/usr/include/glycin-2 -I/usr/include/at-spi2-atk/2.0 -I/usr/include/at-spi-2.0 -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/dbus-1.0 -I/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include -I/usr/include/fribidi -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/harfbuzz -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng16 -I/usr/include/gio-unix-2.0 -I/usr/include/libsoup-3.0 -I/usr/include/libmount -I/usr/include/blkid -DWITH_GZFILEOP -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/sysprof-6 -pthread -DVERSION="2.1" -DGCR_API_SUBJECT_TO_CHANGE  -DLIBPREFIX="/usr/local/lib" -DWEBEXTDIR="/usr/local/lib/surf"  -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -O1
WEBEXTCFLAGS  = -fPIC -I/usr/include/webkitgtk-4.1 -I/usr/include/gtk-3.0 -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/cloudproviders -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -I/usr/include/glycin-2 -I/usr/include/at-spi2-atk/2.0 -I/usr/include/at-spi-2.0 -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/dbus-1.0 -I/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include -I/usr/include/fribidi -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/harfbuzz -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng16 -I/usr/include/gio-unix-2.0 -I/usr/include/libsoup-3.0 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -DWITH_GZFILEOP -I/usr/include/libmount -I/usr/include/blkid -I/usr/include/sysprof-6 -pthread -O1
LDFLAGS       =
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
cp -f surf /usr/local/bin
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/surf
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/surf
cp -f webext-surf.so /usr/local/lib/surf
for wlib in webext-surf.so; do \
    chmod 644 /usr/local/lib/surf/$wlib; \
done
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/man1
sed "s/VERSION/2.1/g" < surf.1 > /usr/local/share/man/man1/surf.1
chmod 644 /usr/local/share/man/man1/surf.1
[surf] suwa: surf https://suckless.org
Gtk-Message: 10:21:55.482: Failed to load module "colorreload-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 10:21:55.482: Failed to load module "window-decorations-gtk-module"
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument

seth · 2026-07-08 18:57:02

Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument

Does it work on Xorg or via xwayland?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wayland#GTK

suwa · 2026-07-09 03:21:05

seth wrote:

Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1918x1060: Invalid argument
Does it work on Xorg or via xwayland?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wayland#GTK

im not exactly sure what you mean by this, i was doing this on xorg already

seth · 2026-07-09 06:51:59

nvidia 470xx?
Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and the output of "printenv"

Apparently webkit2gtk has this, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=305026

Edit:
export WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 # possibly superfluous
export WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1

Last edited by seth (2026-07-09 06:54:07)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-08 14:27:34

Surf web browser opens an empty window

#2 2026-07-08 18:57:02

Re: Surf web browser opens an empty window

#3 2026-07-09 03:21:05

Re: Surf web browser opens an empty window

#4 2026-07-09 06:51:59

Re: Surf web browser opens an empty window

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