Fixing coapp on edge chromium linux when already present for chromium

[Rex Murphy]

Posting this because I think I've found a solution that might help someone.

I'm running Linux, Mint 19.

VDH runs fine on Firefox and Chromium.

Installed Edge (Chromium).

Installed VDH from Edge add-in store.

VDH cannot find coapp

Tried to install coapp. It says it's already present.

Discover I can ask VDH to recheck by selecting VDH settings / General / Companion app not installed / Recheck

Message is:
Checking companion app returned: Access to the specified native messaging host is forbidden.

Edited

/etc/opt/chrome/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

This is a protected file, so you'll need to use sudo.

Added the edge extension id to the allowed_origins of this file

Original:

{
    "name": "net.downloadhelper.coapp",
    "description": "Video DownloadHelper companion app",
    "path": "/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64",
    "type": "stdio",
    "allowed_origins": [
        "chrome-extension://lmjnegcaeklhafolokijcfjliaokphfk/"
    ]
}

Edited:

{
    "name": "net.downloadhelper.coapp",
    "description": "Video DownloadHelper companion app",
    "path": "/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64",
    "type": "stdio",
    "allowed_origins": [
        "chrome-extension://lmjnegcaeklhafolokijcfjliaokphfk/",
        "chrome-extension://jmkaglaafmhbcpleggkmaliipiilhldn/"
    ]
}

Note that the original chrome-extension line is (presumably) the id of the VDH extension in chromium.

The additional one is the VDH extension id in Edge.  You can copy this out of the URL of the settings page.

After this edit, I hit recheck:

Found companion app: VdhCoApp 1.6.3

Companion app binary: /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64

Note there are a bunch of ways to get this wrong, and what you'll get is

Checking companion app returned: Specified native messaging host not found.

Just some ways that I found that were wrong and ended up with edge giving native messaging host not found:

• /opt/etc/chrome/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json to /opt/etc/edge   (because somewhere microsoft suggested that)
• Have the correct id occur twice in the file, trying different options such as chrome-extension, edge-extension, extension
• Adding an extra comma in the array
  
• Facing south west on a rainy day.  (or maybe that's an exaggeration).

Any rate

if your file is perfectly formatted, and simply added chrome-extension correctly into the allowed_origins array, with replicated slashes, the correct extension id, that one comma so the array is cool... then VDH says it can find the coapp.

Thanks.

[jcv...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the feedback !

jerome

[donc]

This worked for me as well. 

Thanks for the information!