VH insists Coapp needs to be installed - but it is

[John Jones]

Firefox 59, Linux Mint 18.3: Downloaded/Installed  Video Helper and Coapp.
Downloads went fine. Followed install instructions for Coapp. Everything went OK as far as I can tell.
Trying to download a video results in the screen saying Coapp needs to be installed.
I don't know how to confirm the Coapp package is installed/available to Video Helper.

[mig]

Can you try to run the coapp manually ? Chances are you will get an error message on either the console or the system logs about a missing library, like libbz2 or libnuma.

[John Jones]

How do I run Coapp manually? (Newbie)

[mig]

From a shell, type /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64

[John Jones]

john@john-M910t ~ $  /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64
bash: /opt/net.downloadhelper.coapp/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64: No such file or directory

[mig]

are you on a 32 bits system ? where did net.downloadhelper.coapp installed ?

[John Jones]

64 bit system

/usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64

[mig]

ok, then what happens if you type "/usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64" ?

[John Jones]

best as I can tell - NOTHING

john@john-M910t ~ $ /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64

and there is no indication anything has happened, no messages, no "john@john-M910t ~ $" - NOTHING

[John Jones]

When I tried to close the terminal session I got :

There is still a process running in this terminal. Closing the terminal will kill it.

(I chose "kill it")

[mig]

you ran the install with "sudo /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --system", right ?

[John Jones]

I did. Copied the line.

[mig]

Can you do "ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/" ?

[John Jones]

john@john-M910t ~ $ ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 345 Apr  1 09:08 net.downloadhelper.coapp.json
john@john-M910t ~ $

[mig]

ok, then "cat /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json"

[John Jones]

john@john-M910t ~ $ cat /usr/lib/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json
{
    "name": "net.downloadhelper.coapp",
    "description": "Video DownloadHelper companion app",
    "path": "/usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64",
    "type": "stdio",
    "allowed_extensions": [
        "weh-nat...@downloadhelper.net",
        "{b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d}"
    ]
}john@john-M910t ~ $

[mig]

ok and finally "ls -l /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64"

[John Jones]

john@john-M910t ~ $ ls -l /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 64105810 Feb  1 05:37 /usr/local/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.1.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64
john@john-M910t ~ $

(love the confidence - "...and finally")

[mig]

The "finally" was about making sure the coapp was successfully installed and it is.

Are you sure you are really running Firefox 59 and not something like IceDragon (which is known not to recognize Firefox native apps) ?

[John Jones]

Here's a screenshot.

Could an "older" attempt to install be interfering? 

[mig]

No, i don't think previous installs may interfer, unless maybe you had a failed attempt to install coapp as user. Can you run that command:

find ~ -type d -name net.downloadhelper.coapp.json

If there is a previous bogus user install, the previous command will return one or several files. Delete those files and try again.

If it does not return anything, can you open VDH settings (which will make an access to the coapp) then check the browser console (Firefox options menu > Web developer > Browser console) . You may find there a message that gives an error indication about native messaging.

The only possible issue i can think of right now is some sort of additional Linux security (like SELinux) that would prevent a native app (in our case vdhcoapp) to be launched.

[John Jones]

john@john-M910t ~ $ find ~ -type d -name net.downloadhelper.coapp.json
find: ‘/home/john/.local/share/Trash/expunged/4148449306/home/lost+found’: Permission denied
find: ‘/home/john/.local/share/Trash/expunged/4148449306/home/john/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied
find: ‘/home/john/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied
find: ‘/home/john/.gvfs’: Permission denied
john@john-M910t ~ $


What is all this? Will try to delete them.

[mig]

No, no ! don't delete anything !

It just says you don't have a user install of the coapp. This is ok.

Can you try checking the console as i suggested in my previous comment ?

[John Jones]

I *think* I did what you asked for...here's a couple of screenshots.

[mig]

We are definitely making progress here !

The last error message from the console tells us that Firefox is looking for the coapp at the wrong place: /home/john/Downloads/net.downloadhelper.coapp...

The must be somewhere in the system a net.downloadhelper.coapp.json file that contains a wrong link to /home/john/Downloads/net.downloadhelper.coapp...

I'm don't know particularly about Linux Mint, but can you try "locate net.downloadhelper.coapp.json"  (or any another way to locate that file), then delete that file ?

My guess is that this file is in "/usr/lib64/mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/".

[John Jones]

Explain what I must do now (remember = Newbie)

[mig]

I think "rm /home/john/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/net.downloadhelper.coapp.json" should be enough.

If it still does not work, try restarting Firefox to force it to re-read the native app manifest.

[John Jones]

The rm did it!!!

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!