Can I Watch Netflix?

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jonstyles

Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by jonstyles »

Can I watch Netflix on Mint 15. if so how?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
passerby

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by passerby »

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/openso ... -1210/4019
Ignore the "Unity dash" part and instead locate the application manually.
jonstyles

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by jonstyles »

didn't work. came up with errors messages in the terminal
iowabeakster

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by iowabeakster »

what command did you issue that returned errors?
what did the errors say?

You are obviously new, so I don't want to be harsh, but you really cannot expect any help when you just respond "didn't work, errors" without providing ANY actual information. Tell us exactly what you told the computer to do (the command)... and then tell us exactly what it said (errors).

Hint: hit the code button above where you type your response... copy-paste the relevant commands and errors from the terminal in between the [Code[/code boxes that appear after you click the code button.
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Have you tried the instructions that were written by the person whose work allows Netflix on linux in the first place? They seem pretty simple and worked fine for me when I still had a working computer that had graphics that Mint was preconfigured for (got two others available, but after hours became days became weeks of trying to install graphics on them, I finally gave up on it and now I can read web pages and ebooks).

Guy that makes it possible on linux goes by the handle of Compholio. Here is his website (specifically, the "Netflix Desktop" webpage). On it should be everything that you need. Assuming your computer's graphics are correctly preconfigured when you install linux - or are a first-class high sorceror, I guess, and can somehow manage the impossible and get it to work if it didn't start out that way.

Code: Select all

http://www.compholio.com/netflix-desktop/ 
Hope this helps,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
bigj231

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by bigj231 »

I think the most common way to use Netflix is just install Firefox for Windows via Wine and watch Netflix there.

Also MtnDewManiac, You are aware of the URL tags, right?
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

bigj231 wrote:MtnDewManiac, You are aware of the URL tags, right?
Yes. I occasionally use them for on-site and affiliated site links when I don't just post the link live.

For every other link, I generally use CODE tags - unless whatever software the forum I happen to be posting at allows PHP tags, in which case I'll sometimes use those in order to post a multi-colored link, lol - since with CODE tags everyone sees the actual website address and when they visit it there is no "referring site" data.

Many people might actually believe that the text displayed using URL tags has to be indicitive of the website that said text hides the live link to.

This entity collects data on its users, profiles them, and even scans its users' emails and voice/text communications:

Code: Select all

http://www.google.com
A search-engine that would never collect data on its users for its own nefarious ends.
:lol:

But we're a bit off-topic here, lol.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
iowabeakster

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by iowabeakster »

think the most common way to use Netflix is just install Firefox for Windows via Wine and watch Netflix there.
That is far easier said than done.

Last I knew, all of the many patches to Wine required to watch Netflix have not been incorporated into the main Wine builds. And there are an absurd amount of additional dependencies required too. And the app linked above is configured and tweaked solely for the purpose of streaming from Nextfilx. There won't be any confusion between the standard Linux Firefox installed and the Windows version. Plus it'll update whenever silverlight, mono, etc. need updating, and do it natively through the package manager.

Which is why the way to go (noob and expert alike) is to simply install the Netflix Desktop application and call it done. In it's simplest description, it just Wine running a windows version of Firefox... but it'll save many hours of wasted time for anyone.
sjmcc

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by sjmcc »

I use netflix from the compholio ppa and it works fine. I use cinnamon and the only issue I have had is cinnamon becomes unresponsive whenever netflix is being used. My system still works but cinnamon just seems to be frozen. Nothing on the panels will respond to any kind of mouse clicks. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Adelante

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Adelante »

Yes, the Compholio PPA runs Netflix correctly for me.

No to this question, sjmcc:
Nothing on the panels will respond to any kind of mouse clicks. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Brian67

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Brian67 »

Nearly every reason for me to use Windows is now been answered, that is now that there is Desktop Netflix.

Truly amazing!
thehotshotpilot

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by thehotshotpilot »

Brian67 wrote:Nearly every reason for me to use Windows is now been answered, that is now that there is Desktop Netflix.

Truly amazing!
Exactly. I kept one computer in windows for Netflix and I didn't like Unity. I also am glad that I have found Linix mint that is gnome based. Unity = resource hog and it's the linux version of Windows 8. Now no reason not for mint.
Az4x4
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Az4x4 »

I installed the Netflix desktop app on my LMDE 2013 64bit OS. When I start it I get the following message:

"MS true type fonts are not properly installed, would you like to download and install them now? (requires an Internet connection and sudo permissions)"

Clicking YES brings up a dialog box asking for my password. Inputting the password immediately brings up a larger box that extends off the page at the bottom of the screen, a box that I can resize horizontally but not vertically. The message in this box reads:

"It appears that you still have not installed the MS true type fonts, you need to accept the license agreement and install these fonts for Project-Id-Version: netflix-desktop
Report-Msgid-Bugs-To:
POT-Creation-Date: 2013-02-12 12:36-0700
PO-Revision-Date: 2013-02-12 12:36-0700
Last-Translator: Automatically generated
Language-Team: none
Language: en_US
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1); to work properly.
"

Nowhere on the visible portion of this box is there a place to click and accept a license agreement. The only option I have is to close the box and try again -- which gets me nowhere.

Anyone have an idea what I may be missing or doing wrong?
Myrmidon83

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Myrmidon83 »

Az4x4 wrote:
Nowhere on the visible portion of this box is there a place to click and accept a license agreement. The only option I have is to close the box and try again -- which gets me nowhere.

Anyone have an idea what I may be missing or doing wrong?
YES! You need to press tab, then the cursor will move to ok, then press return. :)

This caught me out a few times until I figured it out.

Hope that helps.
Az4x4
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Az4x4 »

Myrmidon83 wrote:...You need to press tab, then the cursor will move to ok, then press return. :)

This caught me out a few times until I figured it out...
Screenshot.png
Unfortunately pressing Tab didn't work for me. All it did was make the text in the box flicker.

As you can see in the attached screenshot, the dialog box that has me stumped extends off the visible area of the desktop at the bottom. Apparently the "OK" I need to click is located at the lower portion of that box, and although it will let me adjust it size wise left to right, it won't adjust top to bottom. So there's no way to get to the "OK" to press it.

Crazy, I know. Frustrating too..
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Az4x4 wrote:As you can see in the attached screenshot, the dialog box that has me stumped extends off the visible area of the desktop at the bottom. Apparently the "OK" I need to click is located at the lower portion of that box, and although it will let me adjust it size wise left to right, it won't adjust top to bottom.
Place mouse cursor anywhere within the window you wish to move. Press and hold one of your Alt keys. Press and hold left mouse button. Move mouse cursor up to top of sreen. Release left mouse button. If you need to move window more, move mouse cursor to bottom of window, press and hold left mouse button, and move mouse cursor to top of screen again. If "super gigantic 250,000 pixel tall window," (lol) repeat many times.

When you see the bottom of the window (or at least the button(s) you are looking for), release mouse button and alt key.

The above is handy when you wish to move a window and the top of it is "above" the top of your visible workspace.

Hope this helps,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Az4x4
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Az4x4 »

MtnDewManiac wrote:...Place mouse cursor anywhere within the window you wish to move. Press and hold one of your Alt keys. Press and hold left mouse button. Move mouse cursor up to top of sreen. Release left mouse button. If you need to move window more, move mouse cursor to bottom of window, press and hold left mouse button, and move mouse cursor to top of screen again. If "super gigantic 250,000 pixel tall window," (lol) repeat many times.

When you see the bottom of the window (or at least the button(s) you are looking for), release mouse button and alt key.

The above is handy when you wish to move a window and the top of it is "above" the top of your visible workspace...
That worked. Found the OK I needed to press. Thanks a lot!

However all it did when I pressed OK was close the dialog box. Still don't have the necessary TrueType fonts installed so the NetFlix desktop actually runs! Arrrrggggg!!!
MtnDewManiac
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by MtnDewManiac »

Az4x4 wrote:
MtnDewManiac wrote:However all it did when I pressed OK was close the dialog box. Still don't have the necessary TrueType fonts installed so the NetFlix desktop actually runs! Arrrrggggg!!!
That sucks. The good news is, when you finally get Compholio's linux Netflix stuff installed, it generally works really well (so it's probably well worth the hassle). It's odd that you're experiencing difficulty, though. I haven't installed/set it up in the last 1½ months, but I've probably done so ~20 times on computers aged from approximately 10 years old to "they just got it an hour ago," and all of them went fine. Even on two computers that I couldn't get the graphics driver installation/configuration figured out and, therefore, had no video capability (the Netflix "app" was unable to stream video in both cases, lol, but it installed and the browsing function worked).

In every case, to install, I did the following:
(In a terminal window)

Code: Select all

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
(pasted into Firefox's address bar or clicked on the link at Compholio's website)

Code: Select all

apt:netflix-desktop,wine-compholio?refresh=yep
I may have had to do that last bit twice in some instances, I cannot remember. And I also don't remember how I responded to any questions (other than positively), whether I hit Enter, y and Enter, or Y and Enter.

The only ongoing issue that has been observed here is that the fullscreen window isn't exactly fullscreen, it appears to be shifted slightly - but pressing F11 twice (leave fullscreen mode and then return to it) at any point before viewing a video fixes this. A few times I was called by someone stating that a bug popped up, but in each case I recommended watching their Update Manager for the next week or so for an update (generally appeared in less than a week, but I didn't want anyone to worry unnecessarily) and at one point the Microsoft OS version of Firefox that it uses updated to a newer one and some (all?) people had to delete a certain configuration file if they didn't want to wait on a fix for something or other.

Can you uninstall what did get installed and start over from the beginning? Verify that his PPA is correctly listed in your sources list. And a suggestion: Install all the TrueType fonts that you can before you attempt to (re)install Netflix, it might help. Here are the ones (that I can find) which are installed on my system and the version numbers for same, current as of time of posting:

[url=http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-07242013-023340am.php][img]http://www.zimagez.com/miniature/screenshot-07242013-023340am.php[/img][/url]

[url=http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-07242013-030222am.php][img]http://www.zimagez.com/miniature/screenshot-07242013-030222am.php[/img][/url]

You probably don't need all of those; I think some were installed by default when I set up Mint.

[url=http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-07242013-030926am.php][img]http://www.zimagez.com/miniature/screenshot-07242013-030926am.php[/img][/url]

Regards,
MDM
Az4x4
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Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by Az4x4 »

MtnDewManiac wrote:
Az4x4 wrote:
MtnDewManiac wrote:...However all it did when I pressed OK was close the dialog box. Still don't have the necessary TrueType fonts installed so the NetFlix desktop actually runs! Arrrrggggg!!!
That sucks. The good news is, when you finally get Compholio's linux Netflix stuff installed, it generally works really well (so it's probably well worth the hassle). It's odd that you're experiencing difficulty, though. I haven't installed/set it up in the last 1½ months, but I've probably done so ~20 times on computers aged from approximately 10 years old to "they just got it an hour ago," and all of them went fine. Even on two computers that I couldn't get the graphics driver installation/configuration figured out and, therefore, had no video capability (the Netflix "app" was unable to stream video in both cases, lol, but it installed and the browsing function worked)...
Funny thing is, Compholio's Netflix solution works great on my main machine, an ASUS N73sv laptop running Linux Mint 14 and driving a 60" plasma as its monitor. It also works great on my old Lenovo X61s sub notebook running Mint 14. The only one it gives me a problem with is my ASUS Zenbook Ultra book running Linux Mint Debian Edition 2013. Gotta be something about that setup it doesn't play well with, but danged if I know what it is. Wanted LMDE on that machine so I don't have to run a fresh upgrade every so often just to keep up with things. Now I'm not so sure I'll leave it in place..
rca123

Re: Can I Watch Netflix?

Post by rca123 »

This fixed the issue for me. On about line 130 in /usr/bin/wine-browser you should see something like this:
# Make sure that the MS core true type fonts are installed
COREFONTS=`debconf-show ttf-mscorefonts-installer 2>/dev/null | grep "msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula: true"`;

Add this afterwards:
COREFONTS="why is this check here"

It will then look something like this:

# Make sure that the MS core true type fonts are installed
COREFONTS=`debconf-show ttf-mscorefonts-installer 2>/dev/null | grep "msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula: true"`;
COREFONTS="why is this check here"
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