Browser doesn't open links properly

[LovecraftianGodsKiller]

What happened?

Whenever I click on a link it either gets downloaded as s file and then views it or it just open the browser and does absolutely nothing.

I don't mind manually copying and pasting links, but there are some links that I can't copy.

Is this a bug or is it intentional?

Reproducible?

• I have checked that this issue cannot be reproduced on Mozilla Firefox.

Version

1.0.0-a.12

Severity impact

Critical

What platform are you seeing the problem on?

Linux

Relevant log output

No response

[mauro-balades]

What links where you opening? Where they downloadable files?

[zabulonian]

I can echo this bug, and add some more details:
When Zen browser is set as default browser, clicking on a URL in an external application (in this case, tested with Flatpak versions of Telegram and Vesktop), will launch a new, fresh instance of Zen browser (even if one is already running), on the default start page.
This new instance also will not load the clicked URL, it just acts as though you opened the browser and did nothing else.
This does not happen when Firefox is the default browser - in that case it functions as expected: the URL is loaded in an existing instance of the browser, OR, if the browser is not running, firefox is launched and the URL is loaded.

[mauro-balades]

It's probably an issue with the desktop file

https://github.com/zen-browser/flatpak/blob/main/io.github.zen_browser.zen.desktop#L10

[LovecraftianGodsKiller]

What links where you opening? Where they downloadable files?

They were just normal links, like links to a github page, a spotify artist's page, etc.

[mauro-balades]

It should be fixed with flathub/io.github.zen_browser.zen#3

note that it takes some hours for flathub to update the packages as they do it in batches

[LovecraftianGodsKiller]

I just tested the latest test build linked in the flatpak repo above (ran this command flatpak install --user https://dl.flathub.org/build-repo/121305/io.github.zen_browser.zen.flatpakref) and the same think keeps happening.

[mauro-balades]

That's a test build, could you please try with the official one?

[IAmJafeth]

This happened to me until I updated the desktop file to:
https://github.com/zen-browser/flatpak/blob/main/io.github.zen_browser.zen.desktop#L10

as Mauro said.

in mi distro this is located at ~/.local/share/applications/zen.desktop

[mauro-balades]

did you turn it to true?

[reinchek]

[solved] Hi, i had same issue on Fedora 40, and yes: it's a .desktop issue.
This is the flatpak generated desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zen Browser
Comment=Zen Browser. Your browser, your way.
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
Icon=io.github.zen_browser.zen
Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=launch-script.sh io.github.zen_browser.zen
Terminal=false
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
X-Flatpak=io.github.zen_browser.zen

I just resolved putting the "%u" at the end of Exec line. like this:

Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=launch-script.sh io.github.zen_browser.zen %u

Thanks, i really like Zen Browser (i'm coming from floorp, and I noticed less ram consumption, good job)

[zabulonian]

I'd like to confirm what reinchek reported also fixed the issue for me

[SVTA-OP]

[solved] Hi, i had same issue on Fedora 40, and yes: it's a .desktop issue. This is the flatpak generated desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Zen Browser
Comment=Zen Browser. Your browser, your way.
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
Icon=io.github.zen_browser.zen
Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=launch-script.sh io.github.zen_browser.zen
Terminal=false
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
X-Flatpak=io.github.zen_browser.zen

I just resolved putting the "%u" at the end of Exec line. like this:

Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=launch-script.sh io.github.zen_browser.zen %u

Thanks, i really like Zen Browser (i'm coming from floorp, and I noticed less ram consumption, good job)

I'm not able to even start the browser after modifying the .desktop file, the app refuses to start. It only starts if i use the flatpak run command.

[zabulonian]

There was an update today, after which I also can no longer get it to run. Having said that, I think it is unrelated to the .desktop file, as the update reset the change I had made.

[reinchek]

[solved] Hi, same for me. After the update to Mozilla Zen 1.0.0-a.13 the browser stopped working.
Now, the problem was that there isn't the launch-script.sh file. I modified the .dekstop file, in "Exec=" line, as follow:

Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 io.github.zen_browser.zen %u

I'm on Fedora 40.

[SVTA-OP]

[solved] Hi, same for me. After the update to Mozilla Zen 1.0.0-a.13 the browser stopped working. Now, the problem was that there isn't the launch-script.sh file. I modified the .dekstop file, in "Exec=" line, as follow:

Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 io.github.zen_browser.zen %u

I'm on Fedora 40.

I found the .desktop file in /var/lib/flatpak/app/io.github.zen_browser.zen/current/active/files/share/applications but changing the Exec line did no difference. I then made a copy of the .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications and tried to launch it, didn't work.

I'm also on Fedora 40.

[mauro-balades]

Can we close this now?

[a-johanes]

I am on Ubuntu 22.04. I fixed my issue by upgrading the Flatpak to version >= 1.14.3.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flatpak/stable && sudo apt update && sudo apt install flatpak

this update my Flatpak to 1.14.10.

My Ubuntu is running on Wayland and I install Zen browser using Flatpak. The application I used is setting the GDK_BACKEND=x11 env var. This breaks the gio open (not sure why) and fail to open the link in the Zen browser.

if you are curious to debug yourself, You can try to run strace.

strace -f -e execve -s 500 -v -o trace.log your_program

read the trace.log and try to run the open link part using the same env vars as logged. Hope this helps.

[mbaltrusitis]

@a-johanes' fix of updating flatpak worked for my system 22.04 system.