Warning for Webcat browser! How to recover default system behaviour?
asked 2019-08-18 07:45:29 +0200
The Webcat browser in the Jolla store breaks the breaks the system, because it changes silently the default browser. After removing Webcat, opening URLs in a browser doesn't work any more. Jolla should remove this app from the Jolla harbour store, because a regular user is not asked and wouldn't be able to recover the default behaviour.
Has someone a solution? The Mimer app and instructions, I found in this forum, doesn't help. the files open-url.desktop and sailfish-browser.desktop seem to be ok.
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Browser
NoDisplay=true
X-MeeGo-Logical-Id=sailfish-browser-ap-name
X-MeeGo-Translation-Catalog=sailfish-browser
MimeType=text/html;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
X-Maemo-Service=org.sailfishos.browser.ui
X-Maemo-Object-Path=/ui
X-Maemo-Method=org.sailfishos.browser.ui.openUrl
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Web Browser
X-MeeGo-Logical-Id=sailfish-browser-ap-name
X-MeeGo-Translation-Catalog=sailfish-browser
Icon=icon-launcher-browser
Exec=invoker -s --type=browser -G /usr/bin/sailfish-browser %U
Comment=Sailfish UI application
I had a look at the Ghttps://github.com/llelectronics/webcat/blob/master/org.harbour.webcat.service of Webcat. I think this hack is the reason for the damage of the system behaviour:
[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.harbour.webcat
Exec=/usr/bin/invoker -s --type=silica-qt5 /usr/bin/harbour-webcat --no-homepage
If I restart the device and tap on a Twitter item in the event view for instance, a dialog is shown, that asks me, wether I want to unse the default browser of Webcat, but I have deinstalled the last one. If I update the MIME cache with a terminal command, links just don't work without any dialog prompt or error message. I'm afraid, that I have to recover my device. It's inacceptable, that an app from the store damages the system.
Has someone an idea to remove the Webcat malware?
Update: Also the default browser is not working porperly after the installation of Webcat. Some websites can't be loaded. It seem , that Webcat replaces some core libraries, that have an impact on the default browser. Because of this mess I'll recover my device now.
I had a similar issue. Removing mime.cache and open-url.desktop seemed to solve it: https://together.jolla.com/question/210108/bug-opening-link-dialog-shows-webcat-even-though-it-has-been-removed/
tmy ( 2019-08-18 11:40:03 +0200 )editWebcat is not malware. It perhaps does abuse handler registration/mime types to some extent, but for me it felt more like the OS handling of these things changed, and Webcat didn't keep up. I.e. I have used it before with no adverse effects, but semi-recently got the same issue as you. I was able to fix it, but don't recall what i did.
You don't have any proof of this, and it would be very unlikely. Provide proof or stop making things up.
attah ( 2019-08-18 11:46:41 +0200 )edit@tmy Thanks for the tip - worked for me what the guys there were suggesting!
@attah WebCat does install own versions of certain libs which brings problems with system apps after an OS upgrade.
Kopekenscheich ( 2019-08-18 12:04:26 +0200 )edit@Kopekenscheich The store version too? For OpenRepos that's apparently a thing... Also, not impacting sailfish-browser, or?
attah ( 2019-08-18 12:08:58 +0200 )editwebcat doesn't change core libraries, not even the openrepos version. There is an up-to-date Qtwebkit on openrepos but it's optional.
@jsommer: also look in /home/nemo/.local/share/applications and remove the harbour-webcat-open-url.desktop file.
g7 ( 2019-08-18 13:00:05 +0200 )edit