Firefox 50 - libavcodec older than 54.35.1 [SOLVED]

Drygar_2016 · Post by **Drygar_2016** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 4:28 pm

SOLUTION: Just used the Update manager to download/install all available updates, specifically the libav update

===================
Hello,

Is Firefox 50 safe to install considering the fact I use LM 17.2 (based on Ubuntu 14.04) - kernel 3.19 .

Based on info from Synaptic, I use version libavcodec 54.35.0
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavcodec.so.54.35.0

Based on Firefox release webpage, FF50 blocks "Blocked versions of libavcodec older than 54.35.1"
Info > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5 ... easenotes/
Info 2 > http://osdir.com/ml/ubuntu-bugs/2016-11/msg10541.html

Are we LM 17 users affected ? Is it safe to install FF50 ?

Post by **karlchen** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 4:46 pm

Hello, Drygar_2016,

of course Firefox 50.0 is safe and safe to install. Firefox 50.0 is safer than Firefox 49.0.2, as the Firefox 50.0 release notes will explain. And Firefox 50.0 will turn out to be less safe than Firefox 51.0, as the Firefox 51.0 release notes will explain, once Firefox 51.0 has been released.
Firefox 50.0 is safe, too, exactly because it makes clear to us that Ubuntu / Linux Mint ship with outdated libavcodec 54.35.0 and older. Cf. Bug 1061025 - (gstreamer) crash in libavcodec.so.54.35.0@0x70801
Vulnerable multimedia libraries are dangerous on Linux systems as well. Cf. Linux Mint gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad & a Fedora Exploit

Best regards,
Karl

DrM · Post by **DrM** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 4:55 pm

karlchen wrote:Firefox 50.0 is safe, too, exactly because it makes clear to us that Ubuntu / Linux Mint ship with outdated libavcodec 54.35.0 and older. Vulnerable multimedia libraries are dangerous on Linux systems as well.

When will Linux Mint apply a patch for the outdated LibavCodec?

Post by **karlchen** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 5:11 pm

DrM wrote:When will Linux Mint apply a patch for the outdated LibavCodec?

Presumably the same day when Ubuntu makes such an updated libavcodec library available in its software repositories for its LTS releases 16.04, 14.04 and maybe 12.04, too.
We get libavcodec from the Ubuntu repositories.

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 5:54 pm

@karlchen
Sooo, they pushed out Firefox 50 fully knowing that it would break libavcodec . . . did the Mint developers also know this as they compiled the Mint edition of Firefox 50 ?

Cosmo. · Post by **Cosmo.** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:15 pm

At least this has been published in the changelog.

Post by **karlchen** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:01 pm

richyrich wrote:Sooo, they pushed out Firefox 50 fully knowing that it would break libavcodec

Not quite right. Firefox does not break it. It does not like it and does not want to use it.
Plus there is a way of instructing Firefox 50 to stop warning about libavcodec older than 54.35.1.

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:11 pm

I am unable to use online Internet Radio anymore because of this fiasco . . worked this morning before I updated.

http://www.cbc.ca/listen/live/radio1/regina

Post by **karlchen** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:29 pm

richyrich wrote:this fiasco

No need to get pathetic about it. - Here is your "life saver".

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:36 pm

Haha Karl . . you should know me better than that . . it's just my favorite morning radio program.

And I can surely live without it.

Am going to try your suggestion promptly, thx.

Edit: your about:config change worked for me ! My radio is back. Thx again.

Post by **karlchen** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:44 pm

Hi, richyrich.

After changing the setting I had to restart Firefox in order to listen to your favourite radio station. - Switched it back to false by now. How else would I reproduce problem reports related to libavcodec in future?

Cheers,
Karl

tinker123 · Post by **tinker123** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 9:42 am

Mint 17 Quiana

Cinnamon

Firefox 50.0

I started getting this error message in Firefox recently:

libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported, and should be updated to play video

I checked synaptic package manager and I have libavcodec54 installed.

Any ideas on how I can resolve this issue?

Thanks

tinker123 · Post by **tinker123** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:08 am

The answer courtesy of comp.os.linux.misc :

In firefox about: config will reveal two relevant configuration entries.

media.libavcodec.allow-obsolete;true

will allow you to actually play video using the old codecs, but still
generates a warning.

media.decoder-doctor.notifications-allowed;MediaWMFNeeded,MediaWidevineNoWMFNoSilverlight

is a modified entry with the avcodec bit removed from its tail to stop
moaning about obsolete libavcodecs.

Be aw3are of the security implications of using the old codecs, of course.

linmintus · Post by **linmintus** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:21 am

Hi!

Iḿ new here and my English perhaps not so good but I try my best.

Having problem with the "new" Mozilla Firefox 50.0
cant see any "moving pics" (MP4, mpeg or whatever kind it is) on news sights and social media...

The problem started after downloading the latest Firefox
Get this message under "bookmarksfield" (or whatever the name is in English) in Firefox ->

000 086.jpg

Please, could someone help me?

Post by **JeremyB** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:33 am

See if viewtopic.php?f=48&t=234288 helps

Boca · Post by **Boca** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 3:47 pm

excuse my ignorance..

where do I make this change in Firefox, I have looked in :-
the dropdown About in Firefox,
Preferences in Firefox

If there is a config file, where is it please?

Thanks in advance,

Tony

Boca · Post by **Boca** » Thu Nov 24, 2016 4:11 pm

Hi,
as a newbie, I found it difficult to follow the instructions refererred to by Jeremy B.

I found this helped me

http://askubuntu.com/questions/851190/h ... untu-14-04

Tony

br1anstorm · Post by **br1anstorm** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:59 am

I am using Linux Mint 17.3, with Firefox v50 as my browser - both fully up to date.

In the last couple of days, when browsing some sites, I have been getting a popup message (evidently linked to videos/webcasts on the page) which says "libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported and should be updated to play video". And some inserted clips don't play.

The Mint update manager doesn't show any updates pending - for this or anything else.

Synaptic shows that I have libavcodec54 version 6:9.18-0ubuntu0.14.04 installed. A search on Synaptic lists libavcodec-extra and libavdec-extra-54 - neither of these installed on my system.

What should I do? Install one or both of these extra packages even though Mint Update Manager doesn't suggest them? Or do something else?

Andrew33 · Post by **Andrew33** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:33 am

br1anstorm wrote:I am using Linux Mint 17.3, with Firefox v50 as my browser - both fully up to date.

In the last couple of days, when browsing some sites, I have been getting a popup message (evidently linked to videos/webcasts on the page) which says "libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported and should be updated to play video". And some inserted clips don't play.

The Mint update manager doesn't show any updates pending - for this or anything else.

Synaptic shows that I have libavcodec54 version 6:9.18-0ubuntu0.14.04 installed. A search on Synaptic lists libavcodec-extra and libavdec-extra-54 - neither of these installed on my system.

What should I do? Install one or both of these extra packages even though Mint Update Manager doesn't suggest them? Or do something else?

I have same issue, although I did go with the libavcodec-extra and libavdec-extra-54 on my system, I still have that nagging grey bar across the top of pages as well. I came here to also find answers to this issue, I'm hoping someone out there has one, or at least, some sort of suggestion as to how to alleviate the problem.....dependencies are libc6<2.14, but 2.19 is already installed.

So, with that being said, I too would like some answers and will further investigate as well...

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:56 am

Until they come out with an update for libavcodec, this workaround worked for me:
Find the following line in about:config :
media.libavcodec.allow-obsolete=false (double click this line to change it from false to true)
Restart Firefox.

Linux Mint Forums