Re: Availability of `xwidget-webkit-load-html' on macOS

Jason Martens <[email protected]> writes:

> On Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 12:46 PM Arash Esbati <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I'm not familiar with xwidget code, but is there a reason why
>> `xwidget-webkit-load-html' is missing on macOS?
>
> The xwidget extension has been broken for a while now, mainly due to
> changes to WebKitGTK.  There's a mention of it in the PROBLEMS file,
> but I don't blame you missing it.  You can re-enable it in 31+ by
> turning off hardware acceleration, but that makes it pretty useless
> for web browsing.
>
> The PROBLEMS file section on the issue is below.  Hope this helps.
>
> - J
>
> "** Emacs built with xwidgets aborts when displaying WebKit xwidgets
>
> This happens, for example, when 'M-x xwidget-webkit-browse-url'
> prompts for a URL and you type the URL at the prompt.
>
> The error message might look like this:
>
>   X protocol error: GLXBadWindow on protocol request 151
>   Serial no: 4286
>   Failing resource ID (if any): 0x3c001c5
>   Minor code: 32
>
> This happens because starting from version 2.42.1, the WebKitGTK
> developers discontinued support for off-screen windows, by presuming
> that every window holding a WebView widget is an X server window
> eligible for an OpenGL context.  Emacs requires placing these widgets
> within offscreen windows managed by GTK, for each xwidget might be
> displayed in multiple distinct windows, and its contents must be
> captured and reproduced within all of them if that be the case.
>
> To put this another way, WebKitGTK doesn't support displaying a single
> widget more than once anymore.
>
> A possible workaround is to make sure xwidgets are not shown in more
> than one window."

Thanks for your response.  I admit I didn't check the PROBLEMS file, but
I fail to see how the above is related to my question.  I don't use
`xwidget-webkit-browse-url' on a regular basis, but I can't remember it
crashed Emacs for me.

Best, Arash