Companion app

[ectoplasm ect]

Ubuntu 18.04.06
Firefox 96.0
VDH 7.6
Companion app 1.6.3

Hi, on a new PC the companion app doesn't work - won't aggregate. I tried an older version, but this d/ls either video or audio and says 'download complete'.

I reinstalled VDH and now there's no menubar icon. Tried uninstalling, closing then reopening FF, reinstalling - no good. The icon isn't in the menu opened by the three bars icon.

I can save the .tmp files before they vanish then join them with a video editor but this is slow and cumbersome, and the video is missing a few seconds at the end.

Any ideas?

[jcv...@gmail.com]

hi,

do you have the "Video Downloadhelper" entry in the contextual menu ? (right click)

Did you try "Customize Toolbar..." to see if the icon is available ? (right click on the user bar)

jerome

[ectoplasm ect]

Okay - I'm getting somewhere. First, I managed to obtain the icon by making some changes in Firefox Privacy and Security settings.

Second, I downloaded a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO-UOjoa-ZY

and got the usual failure: "Failed aggregating "YouTube"". Then I looked at the error log, which means diddly to me since I'm not an IT person. Each line of code mentions "GLIBC 2.28 [or.29] not found (required . . .)", so I searched GLIBC 2.29 online. It seems to be an issue with Ubuntu 18.04 - doesn't have GLIBC 2.28 or 9.

I found a forum post showing how to install GLIBC from scratch, but it looks pretty scary for a non-computer person.

I might try it, or I will try to work up the stamina for a fresh install of a later Ubuntu, or it's bye-bye VDH.

Part of the log file:


/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/ffmpeg: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/libavdevice.so.58)
/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/ffmpeg: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/libavfilter.so.7)
/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/ffmpeg: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/libavformat.so.58)
/opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/converter/build/linux/64/ffmpeg: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /opt/


Ecto.

[Wild Willy]

I am entirely unfamiliar with Linux so I don't have a lot of confidence in what I'm
offering here. Take a look over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s

Look for the reference to finding the various pieces of VDH & click through to that.
That shows how to find the CoApp installation page for all releases of the CoApp. I'm
not sure if you've already looked there so I'm just offering this in case you haven't.
Once you get to the all releases CoApp install page, read the note at the top of the
page. I believe the cure to your problem is simply to install a different CoApp package.
You may have to uninstall the CoApp you already have. I'm sure if I knew Linux, I would
know whether that is necessary. You can try without that step but if things don't work,
you might try uninstalling before reinstalling. That is, uninstalling just the CoApp,
not the VDH extension, not the browser, just the CoApp.

[Maximillium]

to Ecto - Check this:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/vaBqvnlej-0/m/lpxlRULiBQAJ

[ectoplasm ect]

Wild Willy, thanks very much - your link shows lots of useful information, not limited to info relating to this particular issue. I'll look through it when time allows. TBH I'm the kind of lazy user who'd rather not be here in the first place - but I do understand the inevitable 'arms race' between people who want to download and people who don't want anyone downloading, as well as the endless 'compatibility' hurdles. I did try an earlier version of coapp but this was one that would either d/l the audio OR the video.

Maximillium, thanks for your link - that's right on the button. I must say one would have to have eyesight a lot better than mine to read the gray-on-gray glibc version, and anyway if I could have read it at that size, I'd have rejected it as meaningless. It still is meaningless, come to that!

Looks like I have to find a pre-GLIBC 2.28 version of coapp and see if it works for video and audio and aggregation. The instructions for line-by-line installation of newer GLIBC come with warnings - basically, you can trash your OS with a single typo.

[Maximillium]

Ecto:

Read those entries again - carefully - there's a link to the version you want there.

Look for the entry dated Jul 25, 2021, 10:53:43 AM.

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[Wild Willy]

Max, you have to be careful about posting time stamps on posts. Google is "smart" about
how it displays those time stamps. They are adjusted for the time zone in which YOU are
located. People around the world see the time stamp adjusted for their time zone. So
when you say 10:53:43 AM, somebody else might see 5:53:43 AM or 7:53:43 PM. The hour
will vary by time zone, as will AM vs PM. The rest of the time stamp as somebody else
sees it will likely match what you see. For example, the post you say was posted Jul 25,
2021, 10:53:43 AM shows up for me as Jul 25, 2021, 1:53:43 PM. Obviously, you're in the
Pacific time zone of North America & I'm in the Eastern time zone. Can't say where Ecto
is but guessing from the time stamps on his/her posts, I'd say it's Europe somewhere. So
the post will have yet some other time stamp on it there.

[Maximillium]

Oops - hadn't thought about the time zones.

To Ecto -go here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/vaBqvnlej-0/m/lpxlRULiBQAJ

and go to the next-to-last item on that page, "Mig: Wanted to update you on this install of the coapp".

No doubt -- collecting the elements to make DLH work could be marketed as a game,

but I'd need a better pair of glasses to play it.

Thanks, Willy, for catching this....

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[ectoplasm ect]

Thanks Maximillium. GLIBC 2.27. Unfortunately I haven't managed to negotiate the "additional step required". When I copy/paste the line "sudo tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_i386.tar.gz -C /usr/local" into the terminal I get "no such file or directory tar".

I noticed that the filename in the line is different from the actual filename   ("sudo tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_i386-glibc-2.27.tar.gz"), so tried the exact filename in Konsole but with the same 'no such blah blah'. I also wonder about mention of "i386" and "linux-32" on a 64-bit system - but what do I know.

I wish I could treat this as a game or a challenge or whatever, but since I know my future is not in computer coding, this is just misspent time for me.

Ecto.

[ectoplasm ect]

[quote]I wish I could treat this as a game or a challenge or whatever, but since I know my future is not in computer coding, this is just misspent time for me.[/quote]

P.S.  I suppose that sounds a bit mean-spirited. I know that this is in essence freeware, and I know that there's a permanent technical conflict between people who want to download movies and such, and people who don't want them to do so. Also I know of the constant 'compatibility' hurdles that have to be jumped.

Ecto.

[Wild Willy]

I don't know if I'm helping or just muddying the water here, but here goes. The 4
attached images show what I see on the CoApp installation page when I click the "Other
system installers" button.

After clicking the button I point out in the last attached image, these are the 2 strings
I got from the extra step display:

targz user-wide install

# tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_amd64.tar.gz -C ~
# ~/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --user

targz system-wide install

# sudo tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local
# sudo /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --system

I sure hope this helps.

As for the fight between downloaders & sites that want to prevent downloads, that's a
separate issue. You just want to get the CoApp installed. No web site that doesn't want
you to download from it can stop you from installing the CoApp. Whether the CoApp works
on any given site is a question to ask at a later stage.

[Maximillium]

Short course on "tar":
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=tar+linux&ia=web

Even though linux is basically linux, various distributions can vary in the way they accomplish the objective - this being the reason different distributions will require their very own way of decompressing and installing a program (application, or "App").  Even the Mac OS is, under the hood, a version of linux.

Linux OSs used to run almost anything, program-wise, on almost any hardware, but recently, since most hardware has "aged out", not many folks are using 32-bit systems anymore - most of the major distributions have stopped supporting 32-bit hardware - it's mostly all 64-bit now.  OSs and programs must be tailored to 32-bit or 64-bit hardware.  A few Linux versions still work on 32-bit architecture.

Linux distributions are in "families"; whenever a user of a particular major distribution, meaning one that has been popular enough to survive the Darwin process, decides to do things his own way, a "fork" will be created, usually based on whatever the programmer was already using - hence voila' - another new distribution -- but "the market" - the users - ultimately decides its long-term survival.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=linux+versions&ia=web

Hence the multiple installers for different distributions and hardware architectures - (originally for Windows, MAC, Linux Debian, Red Hat, any of effectively hundreds of variations of distributions, 32-bit, 64-bit, etc).

And it's done by variations of the switches on the installer string behind the "Extra step required to complete install" link on the versions that need to install on linux distributions that are not ones Mig uses to develop on.

So you need to choose a version of the CoApp that:
1) is compatible with your OS - 32 or 64 bits, Debian/Ubuntu, or others (in the available choices)
2) The version of glibc MUST be the same as or lower than the one used by YOUR installed OS.

When you get to the "Extra step required to complete install" page, and are looking at the black bars containing the installer strings, you are looking at code strings to be entered into the linux konsole ("Command Prompt" in Winders?  I forget).

If there is a scrollable bar there, play with the Ctrl-+ and Ctrl-- keys to expand or shrink the font sizes.  I made a mistake when I expanded the fonts in the strings so I could actually see them, but when I copied them, I only copied what I could see, which seems weird to me.  Ctrl-C on my machine only copied what was visible and cut off the part that said "install --system".

When I shrank the visible string in the installer to where the whole string was visible, even though too small for my eyeballs, the whole string copied and when I pasted it into the Konsole, the install worked as designed.

Willy: regarding installing as "user" or "system-wide" -- I didn't know what to do there either.  Since I'm the only user on my machine and had no problems dealing with other "users", I elected to install "system-wide".  I imagine installing as "user" might tangle things up with permissions, etc.

Like you, I am just another "user" of VDH ... not a programmer, I know just enough to appreciate what the programmers do - I speak a little "geek" and sometimes help others not quite so fluent in "geek".  I wish I had started when I was 12 yrs old like most programmers I know.

[Wild Willy]

Good thing we have some geeks in here. I was a programmer (retired now). But that was
on IBM mainframes. I never wrote any code for these toy computers that sit on the floor
under your desk or rest comfortably on your lap or fit easily in the palm of your
hand . . . all of which are many times more powerful than the big computers I first
worked on that occupied a city block & needed their own electric power substation just
for the air conditioning.

Odd thing you say about adjusting the font size to make the entirety of the extra step
areas visible. I didn't bother with that. I clicked once in the areas at the beginning
to set the cursor in there, then held down shift while typing RightArrow, DownArrow, &
End until the entire area was highlighted. This automatically scrolled the string that
was in a scrollable area to the end. Once I had the whole thing highlighted, I did
Ctrl+Insert to copy it to the clipboard. Ctrl+c also works on Windows . . . excuse
me . . . Winders. Swiping with the mouse while holding down MB1 would do the same
things, although less accurately. Keyboard operations are always faster, more accurate,
less clumsy. Wouldn't these techniques work on Linux? I wish VDH weren't so
mouse-intensive. You basically can't do anything with it via the keyboard other than
open & close the main VDH menu.

Great background information about the proliferation of Linux distributions. Thanks for
that. I'm not a Linux user . . . today. In the future? Never say never. I'm going to
add a reference to this thread to the Table of Contents.

[Maximillium]

Right on!  All the keystrokes & mouse moves absolutely correct & the same in a linux gui.  I don't really know how my copy didn't work that particular time.

The modern linux distribution gui (graphic user interface) or "gooey" - is downright beautiful, almost infinitely customizable, and there are thousands of available programs which include most of the stuff you would use.  Small,  or "light" versions are available for hardware with not much capacity.  Whole offices have been converted to linux without the office staff noticing there had been a change.  It's that customizable - and they were able to drop the use of the most error-prone and security-challenged OS on the market.  I also have an incredible set of keystroke combinations, all customizable.

There are even ways to run some Winders programs in linux, but still not well developed except for games.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=linux+distributions&ia=web

I heartily recommend doing a test ride or two ... or three, etc.  There is definitely a learning curve, but plenty of help everywhere on the 'net.  My suggestion - pick a distro that's compatible with your hardware, download a "live" installer ISO
https://www.howtogeek.com/356714/what-is-an-iso-file-and-how-do-i-open-one/
and burn an image for a "live DVD".  You can then boot to that DVD and see what that distro looks like, even use it, although being on a DVD things would run really really slow -- but you could see how that distro looks and works.

I'm on openSUSE 15.2 X86_64 - and NO WAY would I ever go back to the security swiss cheese of the internet (full of holes).

Mig  develops on Ubuntu - not my choice but it's only a matter of personal taste.  My only problem with that was his version of glibc.  Mig thought anything not Ubuntu was old or outdated linux.  The whole point of many versions is SOME version of linux will run on almost ANY hardware.  I went to a linux beginner's class once upon a time and the instructor had installed linux on an ipod.
I don't know which distro he had installed, but one well-known "light" version is called "Damn Small Linux" - yes, that's the actual name.

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[Maximillium]

Ecto:
I just looked at the images in this thread again - am I correct that you're running
Ubuntu 18.04.06 ... you shouldn't need to use any of these installer strings.
Those are for non-ubuntu distros or related (ubuntu is a fork from debian so similar).

Since I'm not running debian or ubuntu, I don't really know how those installers work.  
Maybe mig or Jerome will chime in here....

These downloader pages are not the most user-friendly ever seen, and drove me nuts
when I first accessed them.  Would be nice if they were in a simple directory &

sub-directory format, with colors & font sizes that  make sense. 

Mig also seems to think if it's 32-bit it must be i386 architecture and if 64-bit it must be amd.

I don't think it works that way....

[Wild Willy]

I don't think i386 & amd really refer to those particular types of CPU. These seem to be
common slang terms for 32-bit & 64-bit. Michel didn't choose them on his own initiative.
They are in widespread use. You shouldn't associate them in your mind with Intel or
Advanced Micro Devices CPU model identifiers.

[Maximillium]

Willy - read his installer strings!

Example:

Linux - 32 bits - targz
Other linux distributions

Extra step required to complete install

Glibc: 2.31

targz system-wide install
# sudo tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_i386.tar.gz -C /usr/local
# sudo /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-32 install --system

Linux - 64 bits - targz
Other linux distributions

Extra step required to complete install

Glibc: 2.31

targz system-wide install
# sudo tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local
# sudo /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --system

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[Wild Willy]

I know. But i386 does not refer to an Intel CPU model & amd64 does not refer to an
Advanced Micro Devices CPU model. They're just character strings in names. It's just
slang, shorthand for 32-bit & 64-bit. And like I say, these are character strings that
you will see all over the place to refer to 32-bit & 64-bit pieces of software. My
Windows partition is full of files with names that include those strings. They're just
indicators that something is 32-bit or 64-bit. They do not really refer to CPU types
from those 2 manufacturers. Michel didn't invent this naming convention. It's in common
use all over the place. It doesn't mean what you are trying to say it means.

[Maximillium]

Hum - I didn't know that had become a convention.

Larn sump'm ever day!

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[ectoplasm ect]

"Ecto:
I just looked at the images in this thread again - am I correct that you're running
Ubuntu 18.04.06 ... you shouldn't need to use any of these installer strings.

Those are for non-ubuntu distros or related (ubuntu is a fork from debian so similar)."

Well, I think it's required for the older coapp I tried to install - it seemed to imply such. I did use the full strings.

I've run out of time for this so  hope there will be a new release which addresses the problem. Meantime thanks Jerome, Wild Willy and Maximillium, you've been most helpful.

Ecto.

[Gi Mendonça]

Hi! My computer has Endless OS and I don't know how to use it properly. When installing gadjet in Google Chrome from VideoDownloader, a link appears (https://www.downloadhelper.net/install-coapp?browser=chrome) for me to install something and I can't install it because I don't know which version to choose because only Linux option appears and besides, I don't know how to install anything through that operating system. 

Can anyone guide me please?

[mjs]

Your OS is Debian based so you would need the Debian version of the Companion app with glibc version 2.31 or lower.

But here is the problem for your system, it says it uses Flatpak for package management. Which means the browser might be running

in a sandbox and it won't be able to connect to the companion app.

You could try installing companion but might experience a problem. Mig the developer of VDH might know more on this than anyone else.