gnome-browser-connector (chrome-gnome-shell) needs updating on Universe repository

[Paddy Landau]

Accessing the extensions via the official extensions website [1] mostly works:

[1] https://extensions.gnome.org/local/

But the global shell settings (Disable all extensions, Disable version validation) don't.

The clue is given by the somewhat confusing error message on the web page:

"Your native host connector do not support following APIs: v6. You should probably upgrade native host connector or install plugins for missing APIs. Refer to the documentation for instructions."

(Screenshot attached)

(The wording is due to be changed to make it clearer.)

The reason why this happens is discussed in a Gnome Extensions report [2].

[2] https://gitlab.gnome.org/Infrastructure/extensions-web/-/issues/196

It is caused by the gnome-browser-connector, which is named chrome-gnome-shell in the Universe repository, being badly out of date. It is currently version 10.1 (Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 22.10), but should be version 42.0. [3]

[3] https://repology.org/project/gnome-browser-connector/versions

I have tested this with the Chrome browser on Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04.

According to the previous link [2], the solution is to update chrome-gnome-shell on the Universe repository.

Thank you

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Gre0 (gre0)]

Installed Ubuntu 22.10 with Firefox as a Snap (107.0-2).

The website https://extensions.gnome.org shows the confusing error message, but besides this everything works as expected after installing the package 'chrome-gnome-shell'.

Got the hint from:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-testing-native-messaging-support-in-the-firefox-snap/29759/109

[Tomislav (hefest)]

I'm not too keen on switching to a snap version of the browser, seems like quite an overkill. Can only confirm the originally reported issue. Looking forward to it being solved so that I can get my system monitor in the top bar and no longer be blind to what's happening to the machine while it's working.

[Cliff (klfjoat)]

To clarify, the application is not badly out of date. They're just bumping the version to match that of the rest of GNOME.

On the GNOME Shell browser integration Installation Guide (https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/GnomeShellIntegration/Installation) it states...

   Please note that chrome-gnome-shell package is now renamed to gnome-browser-connector.

   The latest version of chrome-gnome-shell is 10 and the first version of gnome-browser-connector is 42.0

It seems that the GNOME package maintainer somewhere dropped the ball on this. With 22.04 using GNOME 42 and 22.10 using GNOME 43, the absence of this package makes no sense.

Also, I can confirm this happens even with the manually installed version of Firefox, so it's not a Snap problem.

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

Desktop extensions are completely broken for me now in Ubuntu 22, using either Chrome or Firefox. When I go to https://extensions.gnome.org in either browser, I get the v6 warning. All of my extensions except "Desktop Icons NG (DING)" are disabled. When I try to enable any of them, the slider moves to show that the extension is enabled, but in fact it is not enabled. Reloading the page shows the extensions disabled again.

I have installed/updated all of the packages mentioned, to no effect.

Is there any work-around? Edit: the work-around is to install https://github.com/mjakeman/extension-manager

[superg28 (gharington)]

Having the same issue at the moment on Pop OS with Chrome from the pop!_Shop
Tried installing gnome-browser-connector but still no luck in getting it to work

[Ognyan Lazarov (cyberslot)]

Give a try to this one:
https://github.com/8Ten10/Fix-Gnome-Extensions-Your-native-host-connector-do-not-support-following-APIs-v6-

It fixed the issue with "APIs: v6" (at least in my case) on Ubuntu 22.04