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Install Searx Free Metasearch Engine on your Buster Desktop

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kedaha
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Install Searx Free Metasearch Engine on your Buster Desktop

#1 Post by kedaha »

Just a few notes, if anyone is interested, on how to install searx "the Debian way", i.e., from the official repository using apt install as opposed to downloading the latest upstream version. Ideally, it would be preferable to backport version 0.18.0 from unstable but apt-get build-dep searx results in

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builddeps:searx : Depends: debhelper-compat (= 13)
                   Depends: python3-fontforge but it is not installable
But anyway, we'll make do with the current stable version :0.15.0. I haven't tried it in Bullseye yet but will do some time. Please note, the instructions to install it on a server are a little more complicated. An excellent way to do this is to install searx in Freedombox, which is simplicity itself. But I hope to get it working with apache2 some time soon.

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# apt install searx
The following is taken from the steps found in:

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$ cat /usr/share/doc/python3-searx/README.Debian
The Debian setup varies at some points. Here is the most simple setup that
starts searx in the foreground without daemonization:

1. Copy the default configuration file

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    # mkdir /etc/searx
    # gzip --to-stdout --decompress /usr/share/doc/searx/examples/settings.yml.gz > /etc/searx/settings.yml
2. Generate a secret key

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    # sed -i -e "s/ultrasecretkey/$(openssl rand -hex 16)/g" /etc/searx/settings.yml
3. Start searx

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    $ searx-run
4. Try it out

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    $ sensible-browser 127.0.0.1:8888
Some further notes:
Or just type localhost:8888 in your browser address bar.
It's a good idea to have a tab in your browser for searx.
Rather than use the terminal to run searx, on my mate desktop menu, under System -->Preferences -->Personal-->Startup Applications Preferences, I added it to Startup Programs:
Name: Searx
Command searx-run
Comment: Start Searx
To set it as your default search engine in Chromium under Settings -->search engine
Search Engine used in the address bar: Searx
And edit the entry
Search engine: searx
Keyword: 127.0.0.1
URL with %s in place of query : http://127.0.0.1:8888/
DebianStable

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$ vrms

No non-free or contrib packages installed on debian!  rms would be proud.

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oswaldkelso
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Re: Install Searx Free Metasearch Engine on your Buster Desk

#2 Post by oswaldkelso »

+A1 Searx is ace

The non-Debian way is https://searx.space/ choose an instance and make it your home page

Another Debian way is find an old pc install freedombox on it and have all your computers on your local network have searx and matrix and all those other freedombox goodies as well.

Choice is good
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kedaha
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Re: Install Searx Free Metasearch Engine on your Buster Desk

#3 Post by kedaha »

oswaldkelso wrote:Another Debian way is find an old pc install freedombox on it and have all your computers on your local network have searx and matrix and all those other freedombox goodies as well.
Yes, I think freedombox is the ideal way make searx and other applications available on your local network and it can also be made available easily on the net. And freedombox uses official Debian packages and, as a Debian pure blend, makes applications available through a user-friendly interface, like snap but much better because it closely follows Debian policy.
So far I have tried the current stable version of Searx on the desktop, on a raspberry pi running freedombox and I have also succeeded in getting it up and running. for testing purposes, on an old computer, and I'll leave some notes on configuration in my other topic about installing searx on a Bullseye Server. This was not so easy and involved quite a bit of searching because all the guides, instead of beginning with "apt install searx" follow the upstream method of downloading the latest version described at searx.github.io. I am sure this method has many merits, but what is the point of packaging something like searx in Debian if very few, if any users, get to use it?
DebianStable

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$ vrms

No non-free or contrib packages installed on debian!  rms would be proud.

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