Error connecting to JabRef, snap installation

[cgadal]

I am trying to use the Jabref Web Browser extension, but running it lead to the following tab:

The web console displays:

I did follow the instructions for the snap installation , and ran in the terminal:
snap connect jabref:hostfs-mozilla-native-messaging-jabref

Notes:

• JabRef is installed via snap
• I think mozilla was installed by adding their ppa repository, but I'm not sure how to check it [EDIT: wrong, it was installed from snap, see below]

Further informations:

• Ubuntu 22.04
• JabRef 5.9--2023-01-08--76253f1a7
• Linux 5.15.0-60-generic amd64
• Java 19.0.1
• JavaFX 19+11
• JabRef Browser Extension version 2.5

[LyzardKing]

Newer versions of ubuntu install the firefox snap.
At the moment that isn't supported.
To check you can run snap list and see if firefox is in the list.

There is ongoing work on native-messaging extensions in snap browsers, but I haven't looked at it in a while

[tobiasdiez]

@LyzardKing thanks for looking at this. Should we add a short comment in the docs that the snap version of Firefox/Chrome? is not supported, and how to detect and fix this?

[LyzardKing]

Yes, although things have changed, and now native-messaging is supported in the firefox snap, although I haven't looked at how it should work.

@cgadal could you try running this code snippet?
flatpak permission-set webextensions org.jabref.jabref snap.firefox yes

I might have a go at it in the next few days

[cgadal]

• I checked and my firefox indeed comes from snap
• flatpak permission-set webextensions org.jabref.jabref snap.firefox yes solves the problem !

[LyzardKing]

@cgadal Thanks for the quick test!
Great to hear it works directly!

@tobiasdiez I'll write this up in the documentation. I might not have time today, but I'll do it this week

[da-ekchajzer]

Hello, thanks for your work !

I followed the instruction with snap (https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension#snap) and add the same issue

Error

Exception { name: "NS_ERROR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED", message: "Component returned failure code: 0x80004001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED) [nsIAppStartup.secondsSinceLastOSRestart]", result: 2147500033, filename: "resource:///modules/BrowserGlue.sys.mjs", lineNumber: 1596, columnNumber: 0, data: null, stack: "_collectStartupConditionsTelemetry@resource:///modules/BrowserGlue.sys.mjs:1596:9\nBG__onFirstWindowLoaded@resource:///modules/BrowserGlue.sys.mjs:1702:10\nBG_observe@resource:///modules/BrowserGlue.sys.mjs:949:14\n_delayedStartup@chrome://browser/content/browser.js:2177:18\n", location: XPCWrappedNative_NoHelper }
BrowserGlue.sys.mjs:1605:15
TopSitesFeed: Failed to fetch data from Contile server: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. TopSitesFeed.jsm:208
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
Structured Ingestion ping failure with error: error 2 PingCentre.jsm:129:15
TopSitesFeed: Failed to fetch data from Contile server: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. 5 TopSitesFeed.jsm:208
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
Structured Ingestion ping failure with error: error 2 PingCentre.jsm:129:15
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
Structured Ingestion ping failure with error: error 5 PingCentre.jsm:129:15
TopSitesFeed: Failed to fetch data from Contile server: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. TopSitesFeed.jsm:208
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
Structured Ingestion ping failure with error: error 2 PingCentre.jsm:129:15
TopSitesFeed: Failed to fetch data from Contile server: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. TopSitesFeed.jsm:208
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
TypeError: NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. ASRouter.jsm:126:13
Structured Ingestion ping failure with error: error 5 PingCentre.jsm:129:15
<empty string> 22
AbortError: Actor 'ExtensionContent' destroyed before query 'DetectLanguage' was resolved ExtensionCommon.jsm:726
<empty string> 2
TypeError: (destructured parameter) is undefined 2 Grammarly-bg.js:2:1615207
wgc is null ExtensionContent.jsm:1167
<empty string> 2
AbortError: Native application start canceled by user NativeMessaging.jsm:185
OperationError: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Object does not exist at path “/org/freedesktop/portal/desktop/session/1_63/firefox_org_jabref_jabref_1986204212”
TypeError: (destructured parameter) is undefined Grammarly-bg.js:2:1615207

Context

Firefox 110.0 (64-bit)—snap
Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS

JabRef 5.9--2023-01-08--76253f1a7
Linux 5.19.0-35-generic amd64
Java 19.0.1
JavaFX 19+11

Solution

flatpak permission-set webextensions org.jabref.jabref snap.firefox yes fixed the issue !

If I am not wrong, the documentation update has not been deployed yet ?

[tobiasdiez]

Yes, the changes are currently only in a private branch: JabRef/user-documentation@main...LyzardKing:user-documentation:patch-9 @LyzardKing did you forgot to open a PR or did you wanted to test this further?

By the way, without the flatpak permission-set do you get the "An unexpected error occurred" message (as in the first post) or something displaying an actual error? The log you showed has "AbortError: Native application start canceled by user NativeMessaging.jsm:185" in it, but I'm not sure if the extension is getting the same level of details (good from a security viewpoint, bad from an user experience viewpoint).

At the very least, I should add a point in the error dialog pointing to the flatpak permission issue. Refs #405

[da-ekchajzer]

Yes, I got the same error page than the first post !

Note that I also had the same error with a Debian package installation. I removed my debian installation to install with snap to apply the flatpak permission-set fix.

I would indeed have appreciated a little mention of the fix in the console ;). Anyway, thanks a lot for your work! Don't hesitate if you want me to do some more tests.

[LyzardKing]

@tobiasdiez Sorry, I completely forgot.
I'm still testing it for a better solution, but I intended to open the PR.

[tobiasdiez]

No worries @LyzardKing. Thanks for your continued support in this direction! This is very helpful.

@da-ekchajzer Thanks for the offer. If you have the time, can you have a look at #405 and try to break your installation, and then see if a helpful error message is displayed or not. I don't have a linux system to try this out myself, so I have to rely on the community.

[LyzardKing]

In theory my idea was to have the error message tell exactly what to do directly, depending on the package format.
I haven't had time to address the issue sufficiently, and I'm not sure it's doable easily.
The main issue is that without applying the flatpak permission-set or the flatpak override the browser has no way of knowing what package format jabref is installed as.