apt: protocol is not working with Firefox in Kubuntu

[Rafael Belmonte]

Kubuntu is providing better Firefox integration on each release: Oxygen apparience, KDE notifications system, etc. Well then why don't make apturl-kde compatible also with Firefox and not only with Rekonq?
Actually the apturl-kde package only provides apt: protocol information to Rekonq browser, and since Firefox is also very used for KDE (Kubuntu) users and Kubuntu comes with a Firefox installer by default, it also should provide this protocol handler to Firefox.

Cases to reproduce this:

FIRST ONE:
1) Deploy KDE menu and go to Applications->Internet->Firefox Installer to install Mozilla Firefox.
2) Now run Firefox and type 'apt:wine' in the adress bar. You receive a message from firefox about the (apt) protocol is not associated with any application.
3) Now open Rekonq browser, type 'apt:wine' in the adress bar and the installation of 'wine' package begins.

SECOND CASE:
1) Deploy KDE menu and go to Applications->Internet->Firefox Installer to install Mozilla Firefox.
2) Now run Firefox and start to browse a web page which needs flash-plugin to show its contents, the Flash Player assistant will appear, and you are redirected to the Adobe's site to download Adobe Flash Plugin.
3) Select download Adobe for Linux (32-bit) + Flash Player 11 for Ubuntu (apt). This will try to install adobe-flashplayer via apt: protocol but it will fail because Firefox hasn't the handler for this protocol.
4) You have to open Rekonq browser to have a friendly way to install the flash-plugin.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: apturl-kde 0.5.1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-7.13-generic-pae 3.2.0-rc7
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-7-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.90-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.296
Date: Sat Dec 31 15:18:15 2011
LiveMediaBuild: Kubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20111230)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: apturl
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

If you're using Firefox 10, then the KDE integration has been completely disabled anyway

[Rafael Belmonte (eaglescreen)]

I hope this to be fixed before final 12.04 release.
With the very fast development cycle Firefox is following now, I supose it is hard to maintain kde patches.

[Alejandro Moreno Calvo (almorca)]

It goes well for me.

Writing apt:wine shows me AptURL.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

If it works in Ubuntu it works in Kubuntu (that is either apturl is broken or firefox is not associating the protocol properly). At any rate no problem in kubuntu-meta

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Robert Kresse (robertkresse)]

Running on Kubuntu 12.04.1 LTS

apturl isn't working here but I found following workaround

Open the pseudo URL about:config in Firefox
Create a new string (right click -> new -> string) and name it network.protocol-handler.app.apt
Value /usr/bin/apturl
Restart Firefox

[drpjkurian (drpjkurian-gmail)]

Hi
I followed the instruction mentioned by robert kresse. To confirm the rectification i clicked the apt download link for Adobe flash plugin. It opened a window askin "to choose a programme to open the link" I do not know what to do next.

[drpjkurian (drpjkurian-gmail)]

Hi
I solved it by myself, When I get the window of "choose a programme to open the apturl link", I navigate to /usr/bin/apturl-kde. I think this bug can be solved with the above mentione two steps namely
1.configuring the firefox
2. select /usr/bin/apturl-kde to open the link

[drpjkurian (drpjkurian-gmail)]

I think the two steps mentioned in the post remedies the problem. Therefore I feel that the bug is fixed

[Kebap (leckerkebap)]

I followed the update to "about:config" as mentioned above. When I now try opening apt://something I will not be asked for a program to use, just read an error message: "Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (apt) isn't associated with any program." Therefore this is still not fixed for me. :(

[drpjkurian (drpjkurian-gmail)]

Please navigate to Edir->Preference->App and select /usr/bin/apturl-kde to open the link

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

The applications listed by Firefox under Edit/Preferences/Applications do not include "apt", and there does not seem to be a way to add application types to the list of those provided.

[JohnFlux (johnflux)]

This has become broken again in Ubuntu 16.10:

$ apturl
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/apturl-kde", line 34, in <module>
    from AptUrl.kde.KdeUI import KdeUI
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/AptUrl/kde/KdeUI.py", line 5, in <module>
    from PyQt4.QtWebKit import QWebView
ImportError: No module named 'PyQt4.QtWebKit'

$ sudo apt install python3-pyqt4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
python3-pyqt4 is already the newest version (4.11.4+dfsg-2).