The real issue here is that the framebuffer is unique to the hardware and so needs unique coding to make it work. So its not really possible to make a universal web browser to work with the framebuffer.
this is what the x-server or wayland brings to the table - an abstraction layer which isolates the web browser from the hardware layer.
Shoog
If you’re not aiming for any acceleration or compositing, though, isn’t the framebuffer just an array of pixels?
Ask the team of CE how easy it is to talk directly to the framebuffer. There is no inbuilt management to that address space so you can have multiple subprocesses “possessing” it at any given moment. Then there is the whole issue of creating a unique windowing system to make the web browser work.
The reason that its not done is because its difficult and a functionality that has no real place in a media-center. If this functionality is important then forgo the optimization offered by CE and run Kodi under Android. No one is going to re-invent the wheel for a handful of users.
Shoog
I’ve been reading this with interest because having played with LE on my laptop recently, I noted that it did have a chrome browser add-on. I too was hoping that something similar was available for CE but now I’ve read this thread (and a couple of others), I know this is not possible and I mostly understand the reasons why not.
I wasn’t looking to browse the web as such, I was intending to use the browser as a workaround for another issue: I want to use UKTV-Play (https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/) which is supposed to be supported by the “Catchup-tv-and-more” add-on from the official Kodi repo but the add-on has been broken for several months now and despite quite a few people reporting the issue, both in Github and the Kodi forum, the dev hasn’t responded for months. It seems that he has abandoned the add-on which is a shame because it’s not that badly broken - you can browse the VOD content no problem but when you try to play anything it fails with the error “Unbound Local Error: local variable ‘data_account’ referenced before assignment.” which I’m guessing is just a bug defining a variable from the settings page. If I knew enough about python I’d fork it myself and have a bash at fixing it but I haven’t done any coding for over 20 years and things have moved on a long way from the stuff I’m used to (turbo pascal & basic from the DOS era lol).
I can’t think of any other workaround for this now, so if this is the correct place for a “feature request” could I request that someone fork this add-on and fix it please? You would be helping quite a lot of frustrated users who have all been experiencing the same issue for months 
My experience was that none of these web browsers for LE ever actually worked, they just locked up the system on launch. I suppose its a very complex thing to achieve since there is no x-system and so if someone cludged it one week an upgrade broke it the next. There weren’t enough people with the skill or enthusiasm to maintain such a volatile project so it went stale almost immediately. I suspect the original motivation for developing these browsers was to be able to run YouTube but another better way was found and the need vanished.
Shoog
As far as I know there are only web browser addons for Kodi on processors that use X11 graphics systems. CoreELEC doesn’t use this and LibreELEC only uses it on Intel/AMD x86_64 processors. I use as a server a x86_64 mini PC with LibreELEC but I have not installed the Chrome addon because the handling is difficult and the font size is too small. On this device I have installed a virtual complete Alpine Linux remote desktop service that allows me to use a PC from a remote android tablet including a desktop Firefox with audio and video, and finally I am converting my very old S912 devices by abandoning CoreELEC 9.2.8 and using the excellent android pie firmware from https://slimboxtv.ru and remaking my personal DTBs for android 9 (kernel 4.9.113) from different firmwares, from android there is no problem to use web browsers anymore.
I tried the Chrome addon for LE on my laptop a few hours ago and it worked fine, including with the UKTV site that I’m trying everything possible to get on my TV!
So now I’m having more crazy ideas for workarounds…
Is it possible to proxy the output from one Kodi system (in this case, my laptop) across a network to another Kodi system (My CoreELEC box / TV)?
I guess my other option would be to ditch CoreELEC and re-flash my box with LibreELEC but I’m very reluctant to do that considering that the LE devs have so little confidence in their Amlogic build that they’ve pulled it from their download pages!
Despite what I said earlier, I did have a go at fixing the broken addon yesterday but I only got so far before my lack of python knowledge resulted in a lot of confusion and a 3-hour migrane! I did a bit of reading-up about the error and from what I can piece together, the likelihood is that the function is treating the variable as an undefined local variable and therefore ignoring the already-defined global variable. It’s part of a function to generate a session request and get a json from Brightcove.com but I don’t think that’s relevant,- the problem is the local / global thing and it’s probably something silly like a comma in the wrong place or something!
Anyway, I got that far and then my head exploded, but at least I did try to work it out - I’m not one of those people that expects all the answers handed to them in a forum without making any effort themselves! 
Hi, looking for help to install firefox in docker. Never deal with dockers before, so hard to figure our what’s wrong.
Firefox is present on linuxserver.io but it’s missing in list in coreelec. Is it possible to use it in CE?
I never saw web browser in CoreELEC.
Does docket include a full x-server because coreelec doesn’t. You will need your container to include a full windowing system before it can run Firefox and ce uses direct draw to the framebuffer.
In short there are no docker containers or web browsers which run their own windowing system.
If this feature is important to you then you will have to run Kodi on top of android or Ubuntu and forgo almost all of hardware acceleration and decoders which CE offers.
well the reason why I need browser is just to get full and reliable way to watch youtube. Not interesting in browser itself actually. But as far I know, youtube app is not avaliable in docker. Is there another way to get youtube not using kodi’s youtube addon?
All I can say is my YouTube add-on works and has done for months. It’s not running in docker but why are you running CE in a docker container anyway.
didn’t hear about it yet. Checked on x86 LE - half videos open just as sound and also no 4k avaliable. In CE 20 - not working (kodi crashes). In CE19 - seem to work ok, but max resolution is 1080p, despite of settings in inputstream adaptive
I’m just looking for a way to get full youtube leanback (with tv interface) in CE, probably in a container if possible, I’m not familiar with this, sorry if my question sounds strange. As for regular youtube addon, works fine with tubecast, api keys is not necessary, this way of use is very nice. But I still wondering how to get full youtube tv, either in browser with changed user agent to tv or container etc
Why are you still trying with web browser idea? Because no one in all this years did that so I’m sure it’s not possible.
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