My downloads in Firefox are failing.

DxHum

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When trying to download Private Internet Access for installation, the download fails with the following message...

What does this mean and how can I correct this error?

Thank you,
Dx
Screenshot from 2024-11-05 16-44-31.png
 


Try

sudo chown -R dxhum:dxhum /home/dxhum
 
Done.

Result:
Screenshot from 2024-11-05 18-27-31.png


This is the first time I've had this issue with Fire Fox.

I'm going to try a different browser. If it works, its a Fire Fox issue. If it doesn't, its a Linux issue. I'll let you know.
 
Okay... so I was able to download the file using Chromium. It would appear that it is a Fire Fox issue.

I suppose I should have tried this BEFORE posting. Sorry to have wasted your time.
 
We don't regard that as a waste of time.....not at all.
 
It looks like you aren't downloading to your home directory. Most browsers by default go to /home/username/Downloads.

In your example above, it looks like you are downloading to /run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads

That is not a standard location. But even so, you could download to it.

User 1000 is probably you, but we can double check that.

grep 1000 /etc/passwd

If it's not you, we have another problem, but if it is you...

sudo chown -R dxhum:dxhum /run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads

should fix it.
 
Maybe OP is using Firefox as a Snap and running into some sort of permission issue?
 
Make sure you have full access to the target directory. If the directory is yours try chmod 0700 directorynamehere

Then make sure you own the files there too.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
It looks like you aren't downloading to your home directory. Most browsers by default go to /home/username/Downloads.

In your example above, it looks like you are downloading to /run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads

That is not a standard location. But even so, you could download to it.

User 1000 is probably you, but we can double check that.

grep 1000 /etc/passwd

If it's not you, we have another problem, but if it is you...

sudo chown -R dxhum:dxhum /run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads

should fix it.

It was me, so I tried the chown command you suggested.

It said: chown: cannot access '/run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads': Permission denied
 
It was me, so I tried the chown command you suggested.

It said: chown: cannot access '/run/user/1000/doc/4e7dfc82/Downloads': Permission denied
/run is a system directory in memory. What does /etc/passwd say your home directory is supposed to be?

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
Last edited:
/run is a system directory in memory. What does /etc/passwd say your home directory is supposed to be?

Signed,

Matthew Campbell

I found this line in the file:

dxhum:x:1000:1000:DxHum,,,:/home/dxhum:/bin/bash

Sorry, just an old DOS guy learning Linux.

(I cut and pasted the line from the file. Not sure why the smilie showed up)
 
I don't use Snaps but you should have a look at the permissions of the Firefox snap on your installation. Have a look here.

Yes, I did find the permissions button for Firefox on the list of installed software and turned on both the personal files and system files access (their switches were off). Then I shut down the app and restarted. No effect.
 
No matter how you've installed Firefox (snap, flatpak, distro), the downloads are configured in Firefox settings. Go to settings, scroll down to the section that says Files and Applications and ensure Save Files To is set to Downloads. Then ensure you have the proper rights setup for your Downloads folder. You will unless you've done something wrong and changed that. To check open a terminal and type 'ls -al'. This will produce a list of everything in your home directory. Look for the line that has Downloads on it. Check the entire line. It should look like this 'drwxrwxr-x. 1 carl carl 88 Oct 19 17:06 Downloads' . The rights are the first set of letters drwxrwxr-x. This tells you that the user and the group have read/write/execute rights to the Downloads directory. Then in my example it shows carl carl, this tells you that the user Carl and the group Carl have those rights to the directory.
Let us know what you have there.
 
No matter how you've installed Firefox (snap, flatpak, distro), the downloads are configured in Firefox settings. Go to settings, scroll down to the section that says Files and Applications and ensure Save Files To is set to Downloads. Then ensure you have the proper rights setup for your Downloads folder. You will unless you've done something wrong and changed that. To check open a terminal and type 'ls -al'. This will produce a list of everything in your home directory. Look for the line that has Downloads on it. Check the entire line. It should look like this 'drwxrwxr-x. 1 carl carl 88 Oct 19 17:06 Downloads' . The rights are the first set of letters drwxrwxr-x. This tells you that the user and the group have read/write/execute rights to the Downloads directory. Then in my example it shows carl carl, this tells you that the user Carl and the group Carl have those rights to the directory.
Let us know what you have there.
Screenshot from 2024-11-07 10-57-48.png
 
No matter how you've installed Firefox (snap, flatpak, distro), the downloads are configured in Firefox settings. Go to settings, scroll down to the section that says Files and Applications and ensure Save Files To is set to Downloads. Then ensure you have the proper rights setup for your Downloads folder. You will unless you've done something wrong and changed that. To check open a terminal and type 'ls -al'. This will produce a list of everything in your home directory. Look for the line that has Downloads on it. Check the entire line. It should look like this 'drwxrwxr-x. 1 carl carl 88 Oct 19 17:06 Downloads' . The rights are the first set of letters drwxrwxr-x. This tells you that the user and the group have read/write/execute rights to the Downloads directory. Then in my example it shows carl carl, this tells you that the user Carl and the group Carl have those rights to the directory.
Let us know what you have there.
Your Downloads directory really doesn't require group access. Nothing in your home directory tree should have world access.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 

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