"Microsoft Edge could not be found."

[RokeJulianLockhart]

1. Environment (please complete the following information)

   OS	cpe:/o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20240125
   Extension version	https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery/publishers/ms-edgedevtools/vsextensions/vscode-edge-devtools/2.1.4/vspackage

2. Describe the bug

   Microsoft Edge could not be found. Ensure you have installed Microsoft Edge and that you have selected 'default' or the appropriate version of Microsoft Edge in the extension settings panel.

   ...yet:

   

3. Reproduction

   1. Install cpe:/o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20240125. (https://forums.opensuse.org/t/permalink-to-specific-iso/172140)

   2. flatpak install 'https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.microsoft.EdgeDev.flatpakref' <# https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/3097#issuecomment-1484796387 #> `
      && flatpak update --commit=ce6eb46d90027c94dd3aa77fccab81a9d8cd849695c0ebd6e29bbda239b23144 com.microsoft.EdgeDev # https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/552700/386242

   3. Invoke-WebRequest -URI 'https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery/publishers/ms-edgedevtools/vsextensions/vscode-edge-devtools/2.1.4/vspackage' -OutFile 'ms-edgedevtools.vscode-edge-devtools-2.1.4.vsix' <# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57912072/invoke-webrequest-without-outfile#comment137383603_57912181 #> && `
      code-insiders --install-extension 'ms-edgedevtools.vscode-edge-devtools-2.1.4.vsix' # https://stackoverflow.com/a/34339780/9731176

      The configuration of the extension is its default. (Allow duplicating multiple preferences into the clipboard as JSON. vscode#203923 (comment))
   4. Enable ms-edgedevtools.vscode-edge-devtools.
   5. Launch.

4. Expected behaviour

   Microsoft Edge should appear.

5. Additional context

   It used to, a few weeks ago.

[captainbrosset]

Thank you for the detailed bug report. I'll add this to our backlog and let our team know so they can investigate.

[captainbrosset]

Let me tag @ElormCoch who, I know, has already been looking into this.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

#1984 (comment)

Per flathub/com.microsoft.Edge#448 (comment), I expect that this must be remediated here or https://stackoverflow.com/a/78022614/9731176.

[ElormCoch]

Thanks for the feedback.

I did some digging into why the issue happens and it's because the devtools extension expects Edge to be installed in this path on linux distributions /opt/microsoft/msedge-[dev/canary/stable]/msedge

The installation via flatpak shows the executable path as /app/extra/msedge when you navigate to edge://version in the browser. But in fact, this seems to be a pseudo path, since this path doesn't exist on disk, and the actual location of the browser binary is in this path /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.microsoft.EdgeDev/x86_64/stable/..../files/extra/msedge

On the devtools extension side, we've considered providing a way to have folks specify a browser path in a setting:
However, this new setting will conflict with the current "channel" setting (dev, stable, channel) and also open up more errors such as users specifying a non-edge browser, a malicious binary..

A couple workarounds I tried:

• Changing the flatpak install location following instructions here - . This unfortunately installs the browser in a path like opt/microsoft/msedge-dev/app/com.microsoft.EdgeDevx86_64/dev/.../files/extra/msedge which isn't what is expected but maybe there's another way to do this i'm unaware of.

• Creating a symlink between the actual browser install location and the expected path - e.g. ln -s /actual/path/to/edge /opt/microsoft/msedge/msedge (for stable). This unblocks the scenario where you're unable to launch an instance of the devtools extension and the edge browser. You however would need to type in the url to your development project in the browser manually.

I hope this helps.

[ElormCoch]

Closing this issue for now since there's no further action from the extension side.