Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

adimgar · 2014-10-02 21:45:30

Hello.

I''ve installed manually Citrix Receiver (both 13.0and 13.1) as described in the wiki.

It works as expected with firefox and chromium and i've been using it with no problems since version 10, but i'm not able to make it work with Epiphany, i can't find a way to include Citrix's plugin, tell Epiphany to launch wfica when opening a citrix app/desktop link or save the .ica file to launch it manually, it simply does nothing.

I asked in Epiphany's irc channel and i was told to contact with Citrix, I did and they couldn't find a sollution, because it's a technical issue and it has to be reported by a customer with some kind of id or account which i don't have.

Is there a way to make Citrix Receiver work with Epiphany?

Thanks in advance.

Michael Catanzaro · 2014-10-04 19:55:46

FWIW it looks like a NPAPI plugin, so the same steps to make it work in Firefox OUGHT to work for Epiphany as well (obviously not). You can check your active plugins by typing "about:plugins" in the address bar.

adimgar · 2014-10-06 16:18:31

Hi Michael, thanks for your answer.

I've already tried symlinking /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/npica.so to /usr/lib/epiphany/3.12/web-extensions/ (I couldn't find a "plugins" directory for Epiphany, if there is one I'll appreciate if you could point me where it is) but it doesn't seems to load/recognize it, it isn't listed in about:plugins page, with or without the symlink.

In addition, when the plugin is not active or present, the bworser is supposed to offer to download/open a .ica file, which can be used to launch wfica manually (at least that's what firefox/chromium does), but for Epiphany simply nothing happens when clicking a link.

Thanks again.

Last edited by adimgar (2014-10-06 16:22:32)

Michael Catanzaro · 2014-10-06 17:15:09

So, sorry I can't help find the problem, but I can at least help put you on the right track:

/usr/lib/epiphany/3.12/web-extensions is a red herring: WebKitGTK+, the rendering engine used by Epiphany, allows browsers to write "web extensions" to run code in the web process. You can think of the (singular) Epiphany web extension as the small bit of code that Epiphany runs in the web process, as opposed to the rest of its code, which lives in the UI process. This isn't the same as the browser allowing users to write custom extensions like Firefox or Chrome. Epiphany doesn't support custom extensions anymore, nor would a Firefox extension work if it still did, but what you have here is a NPAPI plugin that's supported by several browsers including Epiphany (basically anything except Chrome). The secret terminology difference here is that a NPAPI "plugin" gets installed for all browsers, versus an "extension" which is written for a specific browser: and both of those are completely different from the WebKit "web extension." (Confused yet?)

You want to place your plugin in either /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins or ~/.mozilla/plugins (the standard location used by all web browsers that support NPAPI plugins), but if it already works in Firefox, then you surely have already done so.

I'm confused as to how this could possibly work with Chromium. I thought they had removed support for NPAPI plugins.

I also notice from the wiki that it's only available as a 32-bit plugin, which is silly and unfortunate as those can't be loaded into a 64-bit process. nspluginwrapper ought to be sufficient to make that work, though.

adimgar · 2014-10-06 18:24:47

Hello again Michael.

I see, not confusing at all, it's clarifying, thanks for your explanation.

Like you said, the plugin it's already in mozilla's directories, so nope, definitely Epiphany simply doesn't loads the plugin, but what i really don't get is why it can't download the .ica file.

About chrome/chromium, I'm sorrry if I was confusing, what i meant wasn't it works with the plugin (it doesn't), but that it can download the .ica file so I was able to create a rule to make it launch wfica automatically.

Michael Catanzaro · 2014-10-06 19:29:51

adimgar wrote:

About chrome/chromium, I'm sorrry if I was confusing, what i meant wasn't it works with the plugin (it doesn't), but that it can download the .ica file so I was able to create a rule to make it launch wfica automatically.

Epiphany has a preference to automatically open downloaded files, and the desktop file at [1] ought to be sufficient to trigger that. However, you can't customize this behavior for different file types, and I find it annoying for files to open automatically, so I leave that preference off and instead open the files manually from Epiphany's download bar. But there is a bug: sometimes files don't open properly, and as a workaround I select show in folder instead and then open the file from nautilus. I've never taken the time to debug this and I'm not sure how to reproduce it, but it might be the same as the issue you're experiencing. (That would be good, since that means it's not related to Citrix, and that makes it much more likely to be solved.)

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ci … e_Chromium

adimgar · 2014-10-07 00:54:26

Hello again.

That file is precisely the one that makes chormium work, I don't use the auto open downloaded files option in Epiphany either, but it simply doesn't downloads the file, even without the /usr/share/applications/wfica.desktop file. Maybe an uncompatible protocol or something?

The url from which Epiphany can't download the .ica file is as follows:

https://blahblah.com/Citrix/XenApp/site/launcher.aspx?CTX_Application=Citrix.MPS.Desktop.blahblahblah.Desktop&LaunchId=1412642079759

But like I said, with or without Citrix installed, with or without the wfica.desktop file, Epiphany doesn't downloads the .ica file.

I've no problem working with firefox, I've been doing it that way from months, it's just i find Epiphany much more lightweight and less "crashy" than ff., not to mention the inegration with GNOME and it's clean interface.

I've not been able to find any relevant configuration in dconf for Epiphany to try with, so i'm still completely blind about this.

How could I run Epiphany in debug/verbose mode to see what it tries to do when opening that link?.

Thanks again.

Last edited by adimgar (2014-10-07 00:57:16)

Michael Catanzaro · 2014-10-07 13:57:04

I'm guessing blahblah.com is not the right URL?

Anyway, type about:plugins in your address bar to see what plugins you have installed: now it sounds like Epiphany HAS recognized and is using the plugin (it would actually make no sense if Firefox did and Epiphany did not), so the plugin is responsible for handling ica files, but the plugin is broken. That's not good for you. I don't think Epiphany has any way to disable individual plugins, so try temporarily removing the plugin from ~/.mozilla/ or /usr/lib/mozilla or wherever it is and try downloading again -- that might fix this.

adimgar · 2014-10-21 14:08:12

Hello again.

The plugin isn't listed in about:plugins, it has never been there even from the first Citrix install, and like you said, it's weird that firefox handles everything correctly. I've uninstalled and installed Citrix several times across it's newer versions with no success.

I've upgraded to GNOME 3.14 and it's still the same behaviour.

Is there a way i can run Epiphany in debug/verbose mode? i'd like to see what does it tries to do when opening that link.

Thanks again.

Michael Catanzaro · 2014-10-21 14:29:49

Yes, but only if you're willing to recompile Epiphany to enable it: https://git.gnome.org/browse/epiphany/t … ugging.txt

However that's really unlikely to help you....

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-02 21:45:30

Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#2 2014-10-04 19:55:46

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#3 2014-10-06 16:18:31

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#4 2014-10-06 17:15:09

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#5 2014-10-06 18:24:47

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#6 2014-10-06 19:29:51

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#7 2014-10-07 00:54:26

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#8 2014-10-07 13:57:04

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#9 2014-10-21 14:08:12

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

#10 2014-10-21 14:29:49

Re: Citrix ICA Client with Epiphany not launches wfica nor saves .ica file

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