5

I use Axel with FlashGot in Firefox. Could I use it as easily in Chromium or Google Chrome?

Some Chrome extensions were supposed to be similar to FlashGot but they had a short life or, if they are still available on the extension site, have stopped working, some are just for windows etc.

1 Answer 1

3

There is one (Download Assistant) that is no longer in the chrome web store developed by google, but there is still a copy of it on softpedia. Not sure if the latest chromium behaves the same as google-chrome, but for the benefit of google-chrome users, google prevents installing extensions by simply downloading the crx file (as a security measure).

So to install, after you have downloaded the crx file, drop it on your extensions page:

Dropping the crx file into chrome://extensions page

Confirm the installation by clicking Add on the popup.

There is an options page, where you can set the default download directory, and which download manager to use, but in my experience this isn't obeyed. Although, if your download manager isn't detected, you can add a command (or you may wish add custom arguments to installed downloaders).

Then to download a file, right click on the link, go to the Download Assitant context menu, and select which you want to use:

Select download tool to use

In the case of files that have a dynamic filename (such as: start-download?distro=desktop&bits=32&release=lts for ubuntu), you may need to actually give it an appropriate file name (such as: ubuntu.iso) otherwise it won't download properly (from my test).

After you save on the download path dialog, an xterm window should pop up where you can monitor the progress:

xterm downloading with axel

This was in google-chrome, but I imagine it would still work in chromium.

In case the softpedia link would stop working, an alternate location: here

1
  • indeed, the extension does not change the default downloader as its options settings seem to propose, but the context menu works. and mentioning renaming "dynamic filename" is very useful. and i was not interested only in chromium. it works in all the family i think. great!
    – user47206
    Aug 6, 2012 at 11:25

You must log in to answer this question.