URL extensions.gnome.org for managing GNOME Extensions not working in any browser

Question

I upgraded my Dell Optiplex 9010 to Ubuntu 18.04 from Ubuntu 16.04. None of my GNOME web-browser-extensions (used for managing and installing extensions) work, neither the ones I have installed on Chromium, Chrome, or Firefox.

This has only been the case since my upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04.

This is what I see in every browser I open the URL on:

Although GNOME Shell integration extension is running, native host connector is not detected.

How can I fix this?

Solution 1

You need to install chrome-gnome-shell package so that your browser can detect your running GNOME Shell version. To install it run

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Note: Installing GNOME Shell extensions doesn't work with the snap versions of the browser applications. Also since the 19.10 release, Ubuntu offers only the snap version of Chromium, the apt version of Chromium is not available in the standard repos. In Ubuntu 21.10, Ubuntu offers the snap version of Firefox by default, although you can uninstall it and install the APT version of Firefox.

Solution 2

I also followed all the instructions and tips and still couldn't get it to work with Chromium in Ubuntu 20.04 as Chromium is offered only as a snap package since Ubuntu 19.10.

But I did get it working with Brave browser, with the same Chrome extension. So one solution would be switch to Brave (it is also based Chromium, so not a big difference).

Solution 3

Unfortunately it is no longer possible to install Chromium from apt on Ubuntu 20.04 because

chromium-browser - Transitional package - chromium-browser -> chromium snap

One solution is to use Chrome that seems to still have permissions for doing the job.

Comments

[Robert Sederholm]

I find, from reading the terminal in the Ubuntu installer as fast as one can, that Ubuntu "cleans up" a lot of useful, user-installed files when upgrading.

[Ceisc]

Yeah, done this and it's still saying the native host connector is not found. Any ideas what I should do from this point?

[pomsky]

@Ceisc You can manually install extensions following this answer: askubuntu.com/a/1029180/480481 and manage them using GNOME Tweaks.

[Ceisc]

OK, so it turns out the chrome-gnome-shell doesn't work if you install the version of Chromium that comes from the "Ubuntu Software" manager package, but does work if you install Chromium via apt.

[pomsky]

@Ceisc Yes, it doesn't work with the snap versions of the browser applications.

[Robert Sederholm]

Do you mean for 20.04?? Or 19.10 or 18.04..... What version of Ubuntu were you using when this issue occured... same as in post (18.04)??

[Mantas Lukosevicius]

@RobertSederholm It's 20.04

[agold]

Also works on 19.10.

[pomsky]

How did you install the apt version of Chromium on 20.04? It's not actually possible to install it on 20.04 (even on 19.10). As another answer pointed out, it just redirects you to install the snap version instead. Please correct your answer.

[pomsky]

Chrome is not the "only solution" though, you can use Firefox (apt version) or other Chromium based browsers that can be installed with apt.

[Rudy Vissers]

Works fine on Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS.