Bug#978042: libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37: fails to run plugin

[Alberto Garcia]

On Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 09:11:14AM +0800, Ben Chin, KB wrote:
> Dear Alerto,
> 
> Thanks for your notification. I am sad to hear that the plugin
> support will be removed.
> 
> The plugin is our company's in house program to provide a way to
> communicate between C/C++ and JavaScript, makes it possible for the
> connected primitive hardware to play some roles in the evolving
> Internet world.
> 
> We don't use the full features of NPAPI, but just the
> calling/passing functions and information between the browser and
> the underneath lower level system/hardware resources.
> 
> If removing of the plugin is inevitable, we will need to find an
> alternative of WebKit to fulfill our goal.

Hi Ben, and sorry for the late reply.

There's going to be a new release (2.30.5) one of these days with the
plugin process installed again, but the next stable branch (2.32.x)
won't support NPAPI plugins.

All major web browsers have removed support for these plugins, perhaps
you could use a Web Extension?

   https://blogs.igalia.com/carlosgc/2013/09/10/webkit2gtk-web-process-extensions/

> Would it be possible to keep an older version of the plugin enabled
> WebKit?  Like, the new WebKit would be version 3, and let the old
> one survive as WebKit 2 and stay as it is?

You can always keep the latest version that supports plugins
installed. If what you're asking is "Can we keep that package
officially in Debian together with the newer versions?" then I'm
afraid that this is too much of a maintenance burden for this feature.

But you can do that locally, i.e., modify and rebuild the package so
it is co-installable with other versions of webkit. I can maybe help
you if you have problems with that.

Berto