Doesn't work with Waterfox on Linux even though app already installed

[audio101]

vdhcoapp-bin 2.0.7-1 [AUR]

waterfox-bin G6.0.6-1 [AUR]

[Linux, Manjaro XFCE]

[paulrouget]

What's the profile directory for Waterfox ?

[audio101]

/home/user/.waterfox/user.Default User/

[paulrouget]

If you copy ~/.mozilla/native-messenging-host into ~/.waterfox, does it work?

[audio101]

[audio101]

When installed manually from home directory, it works (but must leave files there or else it doesn't work):

When installed from AUR or from Opt directory, it doesn't work:

Also note I have a non-default profile folder set in my home directory for the browser.

Hope this helps.

[paulrouget]

Do not use the Aur package, use the package we provide: https://github.com/aclap-dev/vdhcoapp/releases

Install the tar.bz2 (untar it anywhere you want) and the run <PATH>/vdhcoapp install.

Then ln -s ~/.mozilla/native-messenging-host your_profile_dir.

This is necessary for waterfox to know the existence of the coapp.

[audio101]

Abrowser works automatically after manual install:

Waterfox still not working:

[paulrouget]

Also note I have a non-default profile folder set in my home directory for the browser.

How do you set the profile directory?

[audio101]

Using the "waterfox -p" command

[paulrouget]

And is it recognized if you do not use a custom profile?

If not, is it recognized if you create a directory like this:

~/.waterfox/native-messenging-host

which recreate the .mozilla directory structure?

I'm trying to understand if it's a bug of Waterfox or a bug of our Coapp.

[audio101]

I tested using a default Waterfox profile (i.e. /home/user/.waterfox/8v5oj8e6.Default User/) and it still does not detect the app which is already installed, same error as custom profile:

"Checking companion app returned: An unexpected error occurred".

/home/user/.waterfox/native-messaging-hosts/ already exists containing the file:

"net.downloadhelper.coapp.json"

[paulrouget]

I'll look up waterfox internals.

Creating /home/user/.waterfox/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json with the same content as /home/user/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json should have worked.

Do you use a flatpak or snap version of Waterfox?

[audio101]

Using AUR version: waterfox-bin G6.0.6-1

[paulrouget]

There's a path to the binary within /home/user/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

What's the path, and when you run that binary with --info, what does it say?

[audio101]

There is only 1 file within the folder:

/home/user/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

There is no other files or binary in that folder.

The only binaries are in the install folder:

"/opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.8/"

vdhcoapp, ffmpeg, ffprobe

Any chance you can run/test it on your end, and/or in a virtual environment Manjaro XFCE?

[paulrouget]

Look inside /home/user/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

grep path ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

This will give you the path of the binary (for example "/opt/foo/vdhcoapp").

Then run that binary with the option --info: /opt/foo/vdhcoapp --info.

[audio101]

[linux@user vdhcoapp-2.0.8]$ ./vdhcoapp --info
{
"id": "net.downloadhelper.coapp",
"name": "VdhCoApp",
"version": "2.0.8",
"binary": "/opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.8/vdhcoapp",
"displayName": "VdhCoApp",
"description": "Video DownloadHelper companion app",
"target": {
"os": "linux",
"arch": "x86_64",
"node": "18"
},
"home": "/home/user",
"converterBinary": "/opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.8/ffmpeg",
"converterBase": "ffmpeg",
"converterBaseVersion": "6.0"
}

[storm49152]

This is maybe not the correct place because it's not about Waterfox, but it's a similar issue, and the solution might help others.

I'm on Fedora 39 with Firefox (RPM, not snap or whatever), running with multiple profiles. When I updated to 2.0.10 and clicked the "Recheck" button, at first I had issues finding the Companion App. It returned: An unexpected error occurred.

What I figured out, is that when doing a system-install (/opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.10/vdhcoapp install), the installer places this JSON file: /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json and Firefox does not appear to find this file.

After I symlinked net.downloadhelper.coapp.json into ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts and clicked the "Recheck" button, the Companion App was found: /opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.10/vdhcoapp.

So, to round it up, this worked for me, with multiple Firefox profiles:
ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts
(Run as user, not as root) Perhaps this helps to do something similar for Waterfox

[paulrouget]

@storm49152 Hm, I'm surprised you had to do that.

Did you run the install command as root (you should not)?

[audio101]

$ ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/home/linux/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json': File exists

[paulrouget]

If you arrive here because of Google, please look at the troubleshooting section: https://github.com/aclap-dev/vdhcoapp/blob/master/README.md#troubleshooting

[audio101]

Just had an idea (since I've had so many issues getting it to work mainly with Mozilla-based browsers, and so far it's still not working on the latest Waterfox vG6.0.7: "Checking companion app returned: An unexpected error occurred".

I was thinking (if it's possible and to code) in the settings under General > "Companion App", when it states "Companion App not installed", why not add a clickable button there that loads the system file manager which allows the user to manually "point" to the installed Companion app binary file path in their directory, and/or any other necessary files for it to work. That way it can then detect the Companion App files that have already been installed on the system, especially for the many varied Linux distros and other obscure/less common browsers, and also not having to create manual symlinks to get it to work.

So the end result would then hopefully be:

Found companion app: VdhCoApp 2.0.10
Companion app binary: /opt/vdhcoapp-2.0.10/vdhcoapp

What are your thoughts on this?

[paulrouget]

Sadly this is not how browser extension work. The extension doesn't know and can't know where the coapp is located.

since I've had so many issues getting it to work mainly with Mozilla-based browsers

I have no idea what's going on with these special version of Firefox, but I believe the bug is on their side, not on the coapp side. They should be looking for the manifest in the mozilla directory, but they're not.

[audio101]

Ok, thanks for the update & trying to resolve this issue...

If there's any other future updates or a fix for this, please post here. Cheers.

[storm49152]

@paulrouget That would be my mistake then: I checked the Bash history, and I installed as root.

[Kromilan]

Sorry to revive this. But considering I have essentially the same kind of problem, it felt more appropriate than to start a new issue.
I am on Fedora and use the flatpak version of librewolf.
I installed the coapp with curl -sSLf https://github.com/aclap-dev/vdhcoapp/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash
after that I ran ~/.local/share/vdhcoapp/vdhcoapp install and flatpak permission-set webextensions net.downloadhelper.coapp io.gitlab.librewolf-community yes, but librewolf is still unable to find the coapp.
the output of .local/share/vdhcoapp/vdhcoapp --info is

{
  "id": "net.downloadhelper.coapp",
  "name": "VdhCoApp",
  "version": "2.0.19",
  "binary": "/home/kromilan/.local/share/vdhcoapp/vdhcoapp",
  "displayName": "VdhCoApp",
  "description": "Video DownloadHelper companion app",
  "target": {
    "os": "linux",
    "arch": "x86_64",
    "node": "18"
  },
  "home": "/home/kromilan",
  "converterBinary": "/home/kromilan/.local/share/vdhcoapp/ffmpeg",
  "converterBase": "ffmpeg",
  "converterBaseVersion": "c30f360"
}