Getting started with Inox Browser

[rogue.hackz]

Inox Browser is a privacy spinoff of Chromium, it has been rebuilt from Chromium source with custom patches in order to make it more privacy friendly. As we know even browsers like Chromium leaks data to Google's server in one way or another, therefore Inox browser project was created to address that problem.

Features (quoted directly from Inox's thread on Arch Linux forums):

Disabled Google's Instant Extended API, this has the effect that the old "New Tab" is in place. (See disable-instant-extended-api.patch)
DuckDuckGo as default search engine.            (See add-duckduckgo-seaarch-engine.patch)
Disabled AutoFill data transmission                  (See disable-autofill-download-manager.patch)
All Browser Extensions are now visible             (See modify-default-prefs.patch)
Enabled user-modification for ALL extensions  (See disable-default-extensions.patch)
Removed following default extensions:             (See disable-default-extensions.patch)
        -> Hotword (incl. Shared Module)
        -> Google Now
        -> Google Feedback
        -> Cloud Print
        -> Google Webstore
        -> Network Speech synthesis
        -> Google Hangout
Disabled URLTracker data transmission. I know this class has a bad naming, but nevertheless it connects to Google. (See disable-google-url-tracker.patch)
Disabled promo-notification fetching                     (See disable-notification-promo-fetch.patch)
Disabled ipv6 probes to google servers                (See disable-google-ipv6-probes.patch)
Disabled Google Cloud Messaging status check  (See disable-gcm-status-check.patch)
Modified default settings:                                       (See modify-default-prefs.patch)
        -> DefaultCookiesSetting: CONTENT_SETTING_SESSION_ONLY
        -> EnableHyperLinkAuditing: false
        -> CloudPrintSubmitEnabled: false
        -> NetworkPredictionEnabled: false
        -> BackgroundModeEnabled: false
        -> BlockThirdPartyCookies: true
        -> AlternateErrorPagesEnabled: false
        -> SearchSuggestEnabled: false
        -> AutofillEnabled: false
        -> "Send feedback" checkbox if user triggers settings-reset: false
        -> BuiltInDnsClientEnabled: false
        -> SignInPromoUserSkipped: true
        -> SignInPromoShowOnFirstRunAllowed: false
        -> ShowAppsShortcutInBookmarkBar: false
        -> ShowBookmarkBar: true
        -> PromptForDownload: true
        -> SafeBrowsingEnabled: false
        -> EnableTranslate: false
based on build flags:
Disabled google now:                enable_google_now=0
Disabled WebRTC:                    enable_webrtc=0
Disabled Remote service:          emable_remoting=0
Disabled safe browsing:             safe_browsing_mode=0
Disabled RLZ Identifier:              enable_rlz=0
Disabled google hangouts:         enable_hangout_services_extension=0
Disabled wifi bootstrapping:        enable_wifi_bootstrapping=0
Disabled speech input:               enable_speech_input=0
Disabled pre backups on sync:   enable_pre_sync_backup=0
Disabled print preview:                enable_print_preview=0
Disabled Chrome build:               google_chrome_build=0

Few months ago I put a lot of effort in getting it to work and for some reason I always ran into build errors, probably because it was not maintainted for a while. Now the developer behind it has updated the repository with a new build that works out of the box without any additional tinkering according to the binary build that I've tested. Building from source should work fine, but I haven't tested that.

Installing is easy if you're on Arch Linux, just grab it quick from the AUR (Arch User Repository):

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yaourt -S inox-bin
Or if you're on a different distro and prefer to compile from source you can checkout the source on Github:

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https://github.com/gcarq/inox-patchset
Now that we have the installation part out of the way let's get down to getting your extensions to work.

First of all, since Inox browser is completely detached from all Google cloud related features usually present in Chrome browsers you will notice that you will not be able to directly install extensions from Google's Webstore.

But, there is a work around for that and it's quite simple but a bit repetitive.

1) For every extension that you want to install, search for it in the Webstore, click on it and note the unique ID associated with it which you can see in the url.

For example, if you searched for Adblock Plus and clicked on that extension your url would change to this:

Code: [Select]

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb?hl=en
The ID for the above extension is cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb.


2) Now copy the unique id for your extension and add it to the url below where it says [EXTENSION_ID]:

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https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&prodversion=47.0&x=id%3D[EXTENSION_ID]%26installsource%3Dondemand%26uc
In our case if we wanted to install the Adblock Plus extension it would be:

Code: [Select]

https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&prodversion=47.0&x=id%3Dcfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb%26installsource%3Dondemand%26uc
Paste that link in your browser and it'll automatically download that particular extension.


3) Now navigate to chrome://extensions tab in your browser and just drag the extension to install it.

That's it! Now do that for every extension you want to install. I know it's repetitive, perhaps I will code a simple script to automate the process but for now work with this.

So far I'm enjoying Inox browser, personally I loved Chromium and only grudge I had against it was the tracking features of Google built into it. Now, with Inox Browser I can enjoy the flexibility of a modern browser like Chrome without haviing to worry about my personal privacy.

Feel free to ask any questions and if you have build related issues, kindly direct them to the Inox Browser thread on Arch Linux forum: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=198763

Enjoy!


[Update]
I was interested in figuring out what data was transmitted through Inox Browser and I used Wireshark to analyze the packets. So far, other than some of the installed extensions like LastPass, Xmarks I didn't see any extension  that tried to automatically connect to their respective site/server when the browser first started. Giving me more reasons to move away from these plugins asap.

Also I noticed there was a get request to this ip "23.51.43.27" every time I loaded my browser both in Chromium and Inox. Later I figured out it was a symantec server and my browser was probably synchronizing with the Certificate Revocation List. It's probably something that is required to blacklist invalid certificates.

Other than that I didn't notice any unsual connections, not even to Google servers which is a good thing thanks to Inox.