How to Install and Configure Dillo for Fast Browsing on Raspberry Pi

Dillo is a tiny, GPL‑licensed web browser written in C that uses the GTK+ toolkit (later ported to FLTK2) and is designed for very old computers or embedded systems such as Raspberry Pi. The binary is about 350 KB and the source is roughly 420 KB, but it does not support CSS, JavaScript, or many modern web standards.

Installation

Install the Dillo package from the system repository: sudo apt-get install dillo Install Chinese bitmap fonts (essential for proper Chinese rendering):

sudo apt-get install ttf-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-zenhei xfonts-wqy

Configure Dillo for Chinese Text

After installation Dillo cannot display Chinese characters and shows empty boxes. Copy the default configuration file to your home directory and edit it: cp /etc/dillo/dillorc $HOME/.dillo/ Open $HOME/.dillo/dillorc with a text editor and add or modify the following font entries at the end of the file:

font_serif="Serif"
font_sans_serif="Sans"
font_cursive="Sans"
font_fantasy="Sans"
font_monospace="Sans Mono"

Save the file and restart Dillo. The browser will now render Chinese characters correctly.

Why Dillo Works Well on Raspberry Pi

Because Dillo is extremely lightweight, it loads web pages much faster on low‑power hardware compared with mainstream browsers. It is often bundled as the default browser in minimal Linux distributions such as Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux, and various Raspberry Pi images.

After completing the steps above, Dillo should display Chinese webpages without the placeholder squares, providing a fast browsing experience on resource‑constrained devices.