Ubuntu – How to use IDM on Mozilla Firefox Quantum

firefoxfirefox-extensionswine

I want to use Internet Download Manager for downloading on Firefox. According to this answer it can be done with the extension called Flashgot. But Flashgot does not work on new Firefox Quantum. However, I found this extension that can be used to interrupt browser's downloading jobs by redirecting these jobs to an external download manager like Internet Download Manager (IDM). But I don't know how to integrate IDM with this new extension. I wrote IDM's location (/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Internet Download Manager/IDMan.exe) in the box that says "Path to the executable" but when I try to download something, an error is appearing.

The preference page of the extension

the extension's settings page

The error that is appearing while trying to download files

the error

How can I make it work? Thanks beforehand!

Best Answer

Considering the extension mentioned (http://add0n.com/dowlnoad-with.html?from=idm) saying that it works in Windows, in order to avoid further comments I will post here.

The extension you mentioned is available at that address through these buttons/links:

enter image description here

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But, as this is about Firefox, the link for the Firefox version is NOT available: see here; neither is the one for Chrome (here), while the one for Opera can be installed, but I suspect it is made to work with a Windows installation. It might be directed to Wine/Playonlinux, and in Opera I can see what you are asking. You should post a question on Opera.

Or, as you have IDM installed already, if you do have that extension in place, and all you need is to try a path to IDM, I have looked around on that and it should look like wine ~/.wine/drive_c.../etc/etc/IDMan.exe. If you have spaces in path (like Program Files (x86)/Internet Download Manager), use quotes around that. About that, here.

Testing in Opera, I have added this path: wine "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Internet Download Manager/IDMan.exe". Selecting IDM for a download link from right-click context menu like in the image below

enter image description here

I was redirected to a page within the extension (not a url that I could post here) saying that (just like for uGet - see the second part of this answer) we need a separate client. This is the page:

enter image description here

See if you can access it here (although that might only work in Opera): chrome-extension://kajaikkhnmegmfnlifeklklaienhdekb/data/guide/index.html#

The links in that page are:

The idea is to unpack the archive for Linux and execute the .install.sh file. But even after that I get an error:

enter image description here

That is:

Download with Internet Download Manager (IDM)
Error: spawn /usr/share/playonlinux/playonlinux --run IDM %F /d ENOENT
at exports._errnoException (util.js:1020:11)
at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:197:32)
at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:376:16)
at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:104:9)

The same happened when installing IDM in Playonlinux.

So, it seems I have not been able to go further than you did (and only in Opera), but I will try again and post here.


As a workaround, you could manually add the download link to IDM. That is easy for simple download links, but for downloading videos you need a video/flash downloader (an alternative to Flashgot) that would provide an option to copy the link. In Opera I use FVD Video Downloader, in Firefox (as you already have that addon that is not available for me anymore) there is for example Video Downloader Prime.


As a complement to the answer mentioning uGet:

uGet is indeed the IDM alternative in Linux and it can be integrated in Firefox, but the other answer lacks instructions on installation.

The uGet versions from repos is not updated, better use the PPA available on the official pagge here.

Stable:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install uget 

Or even the development version:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-devel
sudo apt update
sudo apt install uget

Integration can be done automatically if uGet is open, it will capture the download link when copied (in Firefox, "Copy link location"); or, for a thorough integration of all downloads (until Flashgot is refurbished to work with Quantum) with this addon, which instead needs the installation of uget-integrator (uget-chrome-wrapper is deprecated).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:uget-team/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install uget-integrator

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