Netflix and ... Linux Mint

[Poissonchat]

Hello everybody,

I would love to watch Netflix on my computer ( Toshiba satellite running on Linux mint cinnamon 18.3 ...) but it is sound impossible

I love Linux and my version and please ... i don't want to come back on windows. I have this message from Netflix ( see picture ) and i would like to avoid touch the command line because I am a complete noob. I download Chrome ... it doesn't work - Firefox doesn't work ... I have no idea how to install sylverlight ... in linux.

Thank you for your help ...

[bertradio]

I can confirm that Netflix runs just fine in Firefox 65.0 under Mint 18.3 and 19.1. Not sure what your problem is. But Netflilx does work under Mint.

[Flemur]

firefox 65 works on netflix.

IIRC, the install process is bizarre but simple....an internet search provided the answer below in a few seconds:

https://itsfoss.com/netflix-firefox-linux/

"Step 1: Enable DRM

Open Firefox and type about:preferences#content in the address bar. Look for Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content field and check the box in front of Play DRM-controlled content. [There's is also a check-box in a GUI somewhere, but 'about;' is probably easier]

Enable DRM content playback on Firefox

This will start to install the Widevine plugin from Google. Depending on your network speed it will take a few minutes to install this add-on."

...then make sure you have the other stuff they list at that site...

[trytip]

you can try https://github.com/gort818/qtwebflix

Code: Select all

Compiling manually

 1. git clone --recursive https://github.com/gort818/qtwebflix.git
 2. cd qtwebflix
 3. qmake -config release
 4. make
 5. sudo make install

[phd21]

Hi Poissonchat,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

FYI:
Playing Netflix on Linux Mint - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=284885&hilit=netflix

[Poissonchat]

Hello

Thank you for your post ,I have just come back in the forum ...

So I try the widevine plugin ... it nearly works ! ... But it didn't at the end
I have all the plugins and stuff but still doest work.

After that I will try " the compilling manually " even though i have no idea what does it mean . I suppose it is something with the command ...

I just find out where is the button reply on the forum. What does it mean the good reply to it ?


Thank you !!

Speak soon

[Poissonchat]

I am here !
Sorry i don't understand the website QTwebflix ... i don't understand their language , they speak weird ... I think I reconise english but not sure.


For exemple :
Requirements-

qt5
qtwebegine(with proprietary codecs) *Most distros have this in their repos
widevine libs

I don't understand ...

Thank you fpr you help

[phd21]

Hi Poissonchat,

If you read the other link below, you should be able to play Netflix right now using various browsers without doing anything except turning on (enabling) DRM in the browser settings.

Playing Netflix on Linux Mint - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=284885&hilit=netflix

"QtWebFlix" is pretty nice, but you have to install some QtWebEngine packages and their development packages and then compile it to get it to work and run their script "widevine.sh". This creates a "qtwebflix" file in the folder of the same name that you can run.

I can give you my folder with the compiled version which I just compiled in Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon, but you would have to run the "widevine.sh" script and make sure qtwebengine and qml-module-web* packages are installed.

Hope this helps ...

[Poissonchat]

Thank you Phd21

i will try later other browsers ... I must admit, when I installed linux mint on my computer , netflix ( without any udate) worked fine . As soon as I updated ( Mint linux updates ) it didn't work anymore . I don't know enough Linux ... i will try in first several browsers and I will post soon.

If it doest work again well I will stop to try to watch netflix on Linux simple as that.
The last time that I try to sort out the situation I co... up the computer with the command line , i am not going to touch de command again just for netflix. It is shame but that it .

I will post soon , thank you anyway

[phd21]

Hi Poissonchat,

I do not have a Netflix account, so I cannot try it. But, many people claim they have it working in Google Chrome, Firefox, etc...

I decided to try and give you and anyone else instructions on how to download and compile QtWebFlix for Linux Mint 19.x. I think I included all the required software packages to compile QtWebFlix in these instructions. If you get any errors when running these, let me know.


How to download and compile QtWebFlix for Netflix

Open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one: Click "Select All" above command, right-click the highlighted command, select Copy (or Ctrl+Insert), click in the console terminal window, and right click paste (or Shift+Insert or Control+Shift+v), repeat for each command.

Step1: Install programs necessary for compiling applications from source code.

Code: Select all

sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake  cmake-extras extra-cmake-modules git curl wget  checkinstall autogen ccache

Step2:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install -y kde-runtime libxss-dev qt5-default qttools5-dev-tools qttools5-dev

Step3: Install various QT related packages.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install -y libqt5webengine5 libqt5webkit5 libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5webview5 libqt5webview5-dev libqt5webview5-dev-tools qtwebengine5-dev qml-module-qtwebengine qml-module-qtwebkit qml-module-qtwebview qtwebengine5-private-dev libqtwebkit4 libqtwebkit-qmlwebkitplugin libqtwebkit-dev libqt5webenginewidgets5 libqt5webchannel5 libqt5webchannel5-dev python-pyqt5.qtwebengine python-pyqt5.qtwebkit python3-pyqt5.qtwebengine python3-pyqt5.qtwebkit python-pyside.qtwebkit python3-pyside.qtwebkit

Step4: remove any existing qtwebflix source code folder

Code: Select all

sudo rm -r ~/qtwebflix

Step5:get QtWebFlix source code

Code: Select all

git clone --recursive https://github.com/gort818/qtwebflix.git

Step6: get into the qtwebflix folder

Code: Select all

cd qtwebflix

Step7: configure qtwebflix

Code: Select all

qmake WEBENGINE_CONFIG+=use_proprietary_codecs

Step8: compile qtwebflix

Code: Select all

make

Step 9:give yourself permission to run their widevine script and run it.

Code: Select all

chmod +x widevine.sh

Step10: run their widevine script

Code: Select all

sudo ./widevine.sh

Step11: give yourself permission to run the qtwebflix application

Code: Select all

chmod +x qtwebflix

At this point, you can type in "./qtwebflix" to see if it compiled correctly and runs
or just Exit the console terminal window.

Code: Select all

./qtwebflix

"qtwebflix" program will be in the "/qtwebflix" folder in your home folder, just double-click it to run it, or you can create a desktop launcher shortcut or menu item to this file.

Their icon (qtwebflix.svg) is located in their folder "~/qtwebflix/resources"

Hope this helps ...
.

Linux Mint Cinnamon 19 QtWebFlix for Netflix and other services

[lsemmens]

All of the above is well and good but a lot of work for one simple program. I, too, have not had any issues on my various machines running Netflix. Might I suggest the extreme step of booting from a live cd/usb and testing if it works from there. If so re-installing Linux from scratch sounds extreme but it might resolve some unintended issues create by trying to get it all to work. All the usual caveats et al re backups and the like,

[Poissonchat]

Hello Hello !!

Thank you so much Phd21 for your help ! it works !! I follow the first advice download an other Browser : Chrome , yes it sound stupid but I had google chromium not chrome .... sorry i am dyslexic

It works fine on google chrome. I download it on the command line .

[Poissonchat]

Thank you very much everybody xxx


Where I put the button resolve ?

[phd21]

Hi Poissonchat,

You are welcome from all of us that replied...

[apgano]

For what its worth I didn't have any luck getting Netflix movies to play in Firefox or Chromium. I got the usual error messages. I'm using a new Think Penguin laptop running Linux Mint 19. Somewhere, someone suggested trying the VIVALDI browser (a browser I've never heard of) and that worked without any hacks necessary.

Amazingly the Vivaldi browser came preloaded with my Think Penguin Linux Mint 19 system. I launched Vivaldi, logged on to my Netflix account and the movies played flawlessly. Even for us computer illiterates Linux almost always has a solution to every problem.

[deanr72]

Install Google Chrome? That's what I use for Netflix.

[bloodnok]

As said in other responses it should be enough to enable DRM in the firefox preferences.

BUT...

If you ever get the Netflix pop-up that says that DRM needs to be installed and you press the button (labelled Enable I think but I may be misremembering), it seems that your user profile will become permanently broken.

My guess is that pressing the button causes an incompatible DRM plugin to be installed, but it's only a guess.

The fix is to reset your profile (google "reset firefox profile") and then in your new profile enable DRM (Preferences->General->Play DRM-controlled content (near the bottom of the page). Give it a few minuets and you should be able to use Netflix. If the Netflix DRM pop-up appears, just dismiss it.

NEVER, EVER, EVER PRESS THE BUTTON IN THE "ENABLE DRM" POP-UP.

Once the breakage has occurred, simply upgrading firefox may not fix things. As far as I can tell, it is just your user profile that is broken and that will not be changed by upgrading.

I have given this feedback to Netflix. I do not have high hopes that they will do anything with it.
__
Marc