Brennan's Gemini Blog

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Getting Into Geminispace on BunsenLabs

A guide for browsing the Gemini protocol on Debian-based systems, written for my Lenovo ThinkPad X200T (though it applies to any BunsenLabs/Debian machine).

What Is Gemini?

Gemini is "a lightweight internet protocol that lives somewhere between Gopher and the web". Pages are written in a simple plain-text format called Gemtext. There are no ads, no tracking scripts, no JavaScript, and no images inline. It is fast, quiet, and works beautifully on older hardware.

The Gemini Protocol homepage
Gemini Protocol (web mirror)

Choosing a Client

You have two main options on BunsenLabs: a terminal client or a graphical one. Both work. The X200T is capable of running either.

Amfora — Terminal Client (Recommended)

Amfora is a full-featured, keyboard-driven Gemini browser that runs in the terminal. It supports tabs, bookmarks, themes, subscriptions, and client certificates.

Amfora on GitHub

Lagrange — Graphical Client

Lagrange is a polished GUI client with smooth scrolling, multiple tabs, themes, and inline image support for pages that include them. It is written in C and uses SDL, so it is lightweight despite being graphical.

Lagrange homepage

Castor — Lightweight GTK Client

Castor is a simple GTK-based client written in Rust. It fits BunsenLabs since the desktop uses GTK theming.

Castor on sourcehut

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Installing Amfora

This is the fastest path to browsing Gemini on BunsenLabs. Amfora ships as a single static binary.

Option 1: Download the prebuilt binary

wget https://github.com/makew0rld/amfora/releases/latest/download/amfora-linux-amd64
chmod +x amfora-linux-amd64
sudo mv amfora-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/amfora

Then run:

amfora

Option 2: Build from source with Go

If you prefer to build from source, install Go first:

sudo apt install golang

Then install Amfora directly:

go install github.com/makew0rld/amfora@latest

The binary will be placed in ~/go/bin/amfora. Add ~/go/bin to your PATH if it is not already there.

Optional: Add a desktop entry

If you want Amfora to show up in application launchers:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/makeworld-the-better-one/amfora/master/amfora.desktop \
  -o ~/.local/share/applications/amfora.desktop
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications

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Using Amfora

Once launched, Amfora drops you into a start page.

Keybindings

Navigation

g or :      Open the URL bar to type a gemini:// address
Arrow keys  Scroll the page
Tab / Enter Follow highlighted links
[  ]        Go back / forward in history

Tabs

Ctrl+T      New tab
Ctrl+W      Close tab
Ctrl+Tab    Switch between tabs

Other

b           Open bookmarks
a           Bookmark current page
Shift+Q     Quit
?           Open the help / keybindings reference

Amfora uses TOFU (Trust On First Use) for TLS certificates, the same model as SSH. When you visit a new capsule, you will be prompted to accept its certificate.

Configuration

Amfora stores its config at:

~/.config/amfora/config.toml

On first run it creates a default config. You can set your preferred theme, home page, download directory, and more. Community themes are available in the Amfora repository under contrib/themes.

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Installing Lagrange (Graphical)

Option 1: Flatpak (easiest)

sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub fi.skyjake.Lagrange

Run it with:

flatpak run fi.skyjake.Lagrange

Option 2: Build from source

Install dependencies first:

sudo apt install cmake zip build-essential pkg-config \
  libsdl2-dev libssl-dev libpcre3-dev zlib1g-dev \
  libunistring-dev libfribidi-dev

Then clone and build:

git clone --recursive --branch release https://git.skyjake.fi/gemini/lagrange
cd lagrange
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .
sudo cmake --install .

Note: Lagrange on the X200T will use software rendering under X11. You can also pass the --sw flag at launch to force it explicitly if you see any rendering oddities.

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Installing Castor

You will need the Rust toolchain and some GTK development libraries:

sudo apt install cargo libgtk-3-dev libssl-dev pkg-config
cargo install castor

The binary will be placed in ~/.cargo/bin/castor.

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Where to Start Browsing

Once you have a client running, here are some good entry points into Geminispace.

Gemini Protocol home
Circumlunar Space (one of the original Gemini hosts)
Skyjake's Gemlog (Lagrange developer)
Kennedy — a Gemini search engine
CAPCOM — aggregated Gemini feed

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A Note on the X200T

Old laptops like the ThinkPad X200T are well-suited to Geminispace. The protocol is text-first and the pages are tiny by design, you will load capsules instantly even over a slow connection. The display's 1280x800 resolution is comfortable for both Amfora in a terminal and Lagrange in graphical mode.

BunsenLabs runs light enough that even with Lagrange open you will have plenty of headroom on the X200T's 2–4 GB of RAM.

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Gemini is not trying to replace the web. It is a different place entirely. Quieter, slower, and written by people who want to share ideas rather than capture attention.

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