Still getting "Specified native messaging host not found", triple-checked everything.

[tomatic]

General information

• Operating system + version: Kubuntu 19.10
• Browser + version: Chromium Version 84.0.4108.0 (Developer Build) (64-bit)
• Information about the host app:
  • How did you install it? Pre-built binary, manual install
  • If installed an official release, put a version ($ browserpass --version): 3.0.6
• Information about the browser extension:
  • How did you install it? Chrome Web Store
  • Browserpass extension version as reported by your browser: 3.4.1

---

If you are getting an error immediately after opening popup, have you followed the Configure browsers documentation section?

Yes

---

I've gone through the installation and browser config instructions multiple times, yet I still get the error "Specified native messaging host not found" when clicking the extension icon in Chromium's toolbar.

I have the native messaging host app installed at /usr/bin/browserpass-linux64, running it with --version reports version 3.0.6. as mentioned above. The file /home/thomas/.config/chromium/NativeMessagingHosts/com.github.browserpass.native.json points to /usr/lib/browserpass/hosts/chromium/com.github.browserpass.native.json, which contains this code:

{
    "name": "com.github.browserpass.native",
    "description": "Browserpass native component for the Chromium extension",
    "path": "/usr/bin/browserpass-linux64",
    "type": "stdio",
    "allowed_origins": [
        "chrome-extension://naepdomgkenhinolocfifgehidddafch/",
        "chrome-extension://pjmbgaakjkbhpopmakjoedenlfdmcdgm/",
        "chrome-extension://klfoddkbhleoaabpmiigbmpbjfljimgb/"
    ]
}

This should work then, shouldn't it? I believe I followed the installation instructions to the letter, but maybe I'm overlooking something?

[maximbaz]

hey! just a quick first idea, is your browser installed as a snap package? I'm wondering if you are hitting #82

[tomatic]

Nope, I installed Chromium via https://github.com/scheib/chromium-latest-linux. My Chromium install also doesn't seem to have an issue with reading/writing from/to $HOME/.config/chromium, b/c if I delete the folder it gets recreated upon launching Chromium and a subfolder Crash Reports also gets created.

[maximbaz]

everything seems to be correct... I'll try to think what else we could try, in the meantime could you try to use system-wide location for the json file, /etc/chromium/native-messaging-hosts/?

[tomatic]

Well that did the trick! Any idea why it doesn't work with the file in the home folder? Seems it should work as per https://developer.chrome.com/apps/nativeMessaging.

[maximbaz]

It is strange indeed, in my experience people usually have problems using system-wide location 🤔 At least we know that the problem is definitely not with the binary nor with the contents of the json file, since in both /etc/chromium and home dir you create symlinks that point to the same file.

I wonder if this could be specific to the script you are using to install and run chromium, for example this override of "--user-data-dir": https://github.com/scheib/chromium-latest-linux/blob/4f4e9b85ea02a109e071452de936389cc2fd7376/run.sh#L5

To be honest I dont know what else to try... 🙂

[tomatic]

Bingo! I never really checked out the run.sh script, but it seems it does indeed set a non-standard user dir. I created the symlink for the json file in that folder and now it works.

Thank you!

[maximbaz]

Great!

it would have been so nice if chromium had shown the folders it's using on some sort of chrome:// page, which would simplify such debugging by a lot...

[maximbaz]

Closing as it's solved and is specific to a chromium wrapper in use 🙂