Epiphany browser on Linux has long given me trouble in refusing to launch or produce useful error messages for why it would not launch. Today, I finally got it working. The trick is to use WEBKIT_DISABLE_SANDBOX_THIS_IS_DANGEROUS=1 WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 epiphany to launch it. Edit /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Epiphany.desktop so that the three lines with an exec command include the environment variables.
Exec=env WEBKIT_DISABLE_SANDBOX_THIS_IS_DANGEROUS=1 WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 epiphany %UExec=env WEBKIT_DISABLE_SANDBOX_THIS_IS_DANGEROUS=1 WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 epiphany --new-window %UExec=env WEBKIT_DISABLE_SANDBOX_THIS_IS_DANGEROUS=1 WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 epiphany --incognito-mode %U
The env command in the execute line passes those environmental variables. If the word env is not included there, the launch icon will not appear in the menu for the desktop environment. One can also create an alias for the shell. This alias works for BASH: alias epiphany="env WEBKIT_DISABLE_SANDBOX_THIS_IS_DANGEROUS=1 WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 epiphany"
This works on Devuan 6, Excalibur, with Cinnamon and the X11 session. The purpose here is not related to security. The purpose is to get the piece of software working so that I can use it for things like logging into my WordPress installation while having another browser not logged in. This is not the secure solution for general web browsing. The ability to turn off the sandbox was debated in 2022 (https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220117) and the environmental variable was added in 2023 (https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/pull/5944). Running this way allows me to use Epiphany for development with neither SystemD nor Wayland.
I am very happy to solve this problem. Epiphany is the perfect desktop browser for quick things like previewing pages. The Linux universe’s shift toward using driver dependent hardware acceleration in everything really threw a lot of great desktop environmental motifs into flux.
