These instructions pertain to Windows and Unix-like operating systems other than Mac OS X. For Mac OS X instructions, read InstallationOSX.
Install XULRunner
Conkeror depends on a recent XULRunner 1.9 (version 1.8 will not work). You can obtain compiled binaries from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/xulrunner/nightly/latest-trunk/. Although these are nightly snapshots, they are fairly stable, especially as XULRunner is nearing a release.
Download an archive appropriate for your operating system. Conkeror does not require the SDK package, and these instructions describe the steps appropriate for the non-SDK package.
Unpack the archive somewhere, and then enter the new directory in a shell and,
If you are in Windows, type the command:
xulrunner --register-user
Otherwise (i.e. for unix-like operating systems), type the command:
./xulrunner --register-user
Note: the commands above register XULRunner in your user account. If you want to register this copy of XULRunner for all users, use --register-global instead of --register-user while logged into the administrative account.
Install Conkeror
You can obtain Conkeror either with git or by downloading a snapshot archive.
git
To use Conkeror from the git repository, first clone the repository, using the command:
git clone git://repo.or.cz/conkeror.git
Later on, when you want to update:
git fetch git log HEAD..origin #optional, shows you the changes git merge origin
Building `spawn-process-helper` (needed to launch external programs from Conkeror)
As a part of a workaround for limitations in the process spawning facilities in Mozilla, in order to launch external processes from Conkeror, a final step is needed. (Currently, this step only works on unix-like systems, and most spawning of external processes does not work on MS Windows.) While in the Conkeror directory, simply type:
make
You'll need make and a C compiler for this step. This simply compiles the small file spawn-process-helper.c into the program spawn-process-helper, which will be located in the Conkeror root directory, which is where Conkeror expects to find it.
Last step
Now you can simply copy xulrunner-stub (or xulrunner-stub.exe) from your xulrunner installation directory into the Conkeror directory, optionally rename it to something informative like conkeror or conkeror.exe, and you are good to go. (Note that due to the way XULRunner works, it will not work to simply make a symbolic link to xulrunner-stub, although a hard link will work.) To run Conkeror just run that executable. For additional convenience, you can make a symbolic link to the program, and/or create an icon to launch it.