
Watch Netflix in Ubuntu today - smacktoward
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/10/10/watch-netflix-in-ubuntu-today/
======
asadotzler
Why do these "Linux gets Netflix" stories not have the same bad attitude from
folks as the "W3C caves to DRM" stories? They're the same topic, essentially.

~~~
gph
I wasn't a vehement opponent of W3C implementing DRM, but I'll put my two
cents in;

I don't mind if private companies implement DRM in their own products. I do
mind DRM being standardized, meaning every vendor has to implement it in order
to be complaint with the standard.

Ubuntu != linux, it is just a distro. Similarly Chrome is not the browser
standard, it's only an implementation.

If this story was actually "Linux adds DRM to kernel for netflix and other
media companies" I think you would see a huge reaction.

~~~
jgraham
That sounds logical at first blush, but you're actually looking at the problem
backwards.

Markets have power, standards organisations don't.

If the W3C had for some reason told browser vendors "now you have to ship DRM
to comply with the standard", with no evidence that it was something that
consumers wanted, they would have been told to go to hell. Exactly that
happened with a whole bunch of other W3C "standards" that no one was actually
interested in shipping; XHTML2, SMIL, XForms, etc.

In practice what happened with DRM is that consumers made it clear that they
were very happy to run DRM systems in exchange for access to media. For
example almost everyone is prepared to install Flash and Silverlight to get
access to video services like NetFlix. Media companies also made it clear that
they had no intention of giving up on using DRM on their products, especially
whilst consumers were showing themselves to be so ready to embrace DRM-using
services. So it's already been the case for some years — essentially for as
long as bandwidth sufficient for streaming video has been commonplace — that,
as a browser vendor, you have the choice between supporting content that uses
DRM (e.g. through your plugin system) or losing so much marketshare you become
irrelevant.

More recently browser vendors, including Microsoft, Apple, and Google, decided
to cut out the plugin middleman and start shipping their own proprietary DRM
systems baked directly into their browser. It was at this point the W3C got
involved in standardizing the interface between the browser and the DRM
system. But this was long after there was any hope of keeping DRM off the web;
everything that's happening now is a retroactive damage limitation exercise.

~~~
bad_user
There is a difference between a product with market power and a standard. A
product's lifecycle is always limited and its market share after going up can
only go down. Witness Flash, witness IExplorer and ActiveX, witness Symbian.

A standard on the other hand can potentially live forever. And all
implementations must follow it. And for example, a browser with DRM in it can
no longer be fully open-source, which should be reason enough for W3C to not
standardize DRM. Plus let's be honest, DRM is fundamentally flawed, its main
purpose for which it actually works being the lock-in of honest users, purpose
that is incompatible with the concept of a browser. If Netflix wants to serve
DRM-ed content, they apparently have no problem in implementing their own
thing, so I fail to see what the W3C is trying to solve. And yes, next we'll
talk about the Linux kernel, because DRM is only "secure" if the whole chain
is "secure".

And also if users want Netflix, that's fine, I'm actually happy that it works
on Linux now, but I don't want DRM and users may not want DRM forever, as
could be seen with MP3s and pushing for standardization is shoving it on
people's throats.

------
rwl
So _why_ does this work? Is Chrome 37 for Linux now being shipped with support
for Encrypted Media Extensions, i.e., HTML's built-in DRM, with Netflix
relying on EME? Or has something happened with Moonlight to support Netflix
DRM? Or what?

~~~
wjoe
Chrome 37+ already had the necessary DRM extentions, but it only worked with a
recent version of the NSS library. It was possible to play HTML5 video on
Netflix in Linux since then, but you needed to fake your user agent to say you
were on Windows.

The reason it works now is that Ubuntu 14.04 (the latest LTS version) has
updated to the necessary version of NSS, so Netflix will serve HTML5 video to
the standard Chrome user agent on Ubuntu. Netflix just didn't allow it before
because the LTS version didn't support it - you had to manually update the NSS
library outside of the package manager to make it work. Netflix just didn't
want to flip the switch to allow it until it would work on the standard
packages on the LTS version.

Source from a Netflix post on the Ubuntu mailing list -
[https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-
discuss/2014-...](https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-
discuss/2014-September/015048.html)

It seems to work on any Linux distro with the necessary Chrome and NSS
versions now without any user agent altering - I'm able to watch Netflix on
Arch Linux now with the standard user agent.

~~~
hrjet
Where does the decryption actually happen? Is it in the CPU chip?

~~~
wmf
It's in software.

------
smacktoward
I just tried it in Chrome 38.0.2125.101 (64-bit) and...

 _Unexpected error_

 _There was an unexpected error. Please reload the page and try again._

 _Error Code: M7063-1913_

So... yeah.

UPDATE: Looks like the problem was I had an old version of NSS installed (see
[http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/09/ubuntu-rolls-updated-
nss-...](http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/09/ubuntu-rolls-updated-nss-library-
native-linux-netflix-support)). Upgraded that with

    
    
        sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade libnss3
    

...and now Netflix works fine in Chrome.

~~~
sejje
I get that error, but libnss3 was already up-to-date.

So I'm still out of luck.

Edit: D'oh! Chrome vs chromium. And different error code.

------
minimaxir
> _Thanks to recent efforts at Netflix and Canonical, Ubuntu now supports
> watching Netflix with Chrome version 37._

Funnily, Chrome 38 is now out
([http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2014/10/stable-
chan...](http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2014/10/stable-channel-
update.html)) after an emergency release, which shows how long these press
releases take to plan.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It makes it sound like Canonical made some sort of concerted effort, didn't
they just package Chrome (or do the Chrome people do that)?

Packaging and uploading to the repos is work of course but I imagine most of
that is automated, the feeling here is that Canonical strived in some way to
get this result. I'd be interested to know what Canonical did out of the
ordinary to get to this result?

~~~
shock
They published updated versions of needed libraries for Ubuntu 14.04 (SRUs),
which is not normally done outside of security issues.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Interesting. Is it just the NSS update. Presumably that was a case of
packaging the latest version or is NSS a Canonical supported project?

 _[https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-
discuss/2014-...](https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-
discuss/2014-September/015054.html) seems to be a relevant source._

------
pbhjpbhj
Has the DRM for Chrome been cracked yet? It seems that having the complete
data flow from the server sent packets through to the displayed data would
make it relatively easy to work back and crack it sufficiently to make saving
drm-ed streams to a local compressed video format possible.

Obviously you could use a modified video driver or grab the data from the
actual display - the problem with that would be speed and data size.

Presumably the data stream of the compressed video is in memory at some point
in the process and could be sniffed?

IF it's been cracked doesn't it show the futility of applying DRM in the first
place?

~~~
wmf
Nobody cares about cracking Widevine to extract 4 Mbps Netflix streams when
Blu-ray rips are already available on the Pirate Bay. But if someone does
crack it, Google will release a Chrome "security update" that makes it just
different enough to make the crack not work, they'll tell Hollywood everything
is fine, and the process will repeat until one side gets bored (see iTunes).

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I thought Netflix was creating content now that isn't available through other
streams; perhaps I'm mistaken I don't use it.

~~~
riffraff
they are creating it, and it's being shared on torrent sites. DRM is
effectively useless.

------
chimeracoder
This is another great example of the difference between Chromium (free and
open source browser) and Chrome (proprietary, branded fork of Chromium).

Amusingly, the previous workaround for running Netflix on Linux used Firefox
(running under a patched version of Wine)[0], though it looks like Netflix is
unlikely to come to Linux for Firefox in the near future[1]

[0] [http://www.compholio.com/netflix-
desktop/](http://www.compholio.com/netflix-desktop/)

[1] At least until Netflix switches over to DRM-ed HTML5 video, and Firefox
implements HTML5 DRM.

~~~
chippy
Chromium PPA builds are around 47 weeks old. (v. 31)

[https://launchpad.net/~chromium-
daily/+archive/ubuntu/stable](https://launchpad.net/~chromium-
daily/+archive/ubuntu/stable)

Chromium packages on Ubuntu have basically been abandoned.

~~~
jolan
It's being updated in the main distribution. Usually a week or so behind when
a new version of chrome is released.

[https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/trusty-
changes/2014-Septem...](https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/trusty-
changes/2014-September/016780.html)

------
acadien
Been doing this for about a year now through pipelight[0] and another more
esoteric hack before then. I hope this fix is not so hard on the cpu although
I'm guessing it is the same wine hack in a different form.

[0] [https://launchpad.net/pipelight](https://launchpad.net/pipelight)

~~~
tokenizerrr
It doesn't seem to be related to wine. I think it's more likely google ported
the drm that got used on chromebooks for netflix to chrome for linux.

~~~
acadien
That is excellent, should use way less resources then... looking forward to
trying this when I get home.

------
LaSombra
It should be noted that it works on Fedora as well with Chrome 37 and 38.

On Chrome 37 you need a specific user-agent, at least that's how I got it
working.

    
    
        Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3, Win64, x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2114.2 Safari/537.36

------
ForHackernews
Does this work on Chromium (the FLOSS base for Chrome) or only the Google-
branded Chrome browser?

~~~
wldcordeiro
It doesn't work on Chromium because of its lack of support for DRM.

~~~
ForHackernews
Is it possible to install the proprietary DRM module on Chromium? Similar to
how you can extract the Chrome flash player and use it with Chromium?[0]

[0][http://askubuntu.com/questions/158388/how-do-i-make-
chromium...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/158388/how-do-i-make-chromium-use-
flash-from-google-chrome)

~~~
wldcordeiro
I'm not certain but I don't think so since Chromium is supposed to be the
fully open source version it doesn't support the codecs or Media Source
Extensions[0] that make it possible to enable the DRM modules Netflix uses.

You can test for support on Youtube[1] as well (I don't have Chromium so I'm
not sure what the results are.)

[0][https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-media/raw-file/tip/media-
source/...](https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-media/raw-file/tip/media-source/media-
source.html) [1][https://www.youtube.com/html5](https://www.youtube.com/html5)

~~~
gizmo686
Running Chromium 37.0.2062.120 on Ubuntu 14.04, Youtube reports that I am
compatible with all 6 formats, including Media Source Extensions.

------
adamcanady
This is awesome, but I see a lot of complaints from people who can't get it to
work. In the past, I've used netflix-desktop[0] to watch from my Ubuntu
partition. I've found that it works exceptionally well.

[0] Google netflix-desktop, or here's a decent install guide I found on the
fly: [http://askubuntu.com/questions/419255/just-installed-
ubuntu-...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/419255/just-installed-
ubuntu-13-10-cant-get-netflix-desktop-to-work)

------
radmuzom
Firefox is the default browser for Ubuntu. A lot of users wouldn't probably be
bothered to install Chrome earlier - now they will. This is bad news.

~~~
mh-
why is this "bad news"?

~~~
bachmeier
Just a guess, but maybe because Chrome is not considered to be fully open, as
opposed to Chromium.

------
TallGuyShort
Works for me in Fedora 20! Chrome 37.0.2062.120 and NSS 3.17.0-1.fc20.

edit: Did try Firefox and it does not work due to required DRM extensions.
This is a great step forward, hopefully more is to come.

------
rthomas6
I'm willing to bet it will work in any Linux distro that has the newest Chrome
installed, so Mint and Arch Linux will probably also work. Haven't confirmed
yet though.

~~~
helper
You also need NSS >= 3.16.2.

------
_ZeD_
I'ts only me who keeps earing "Blob!" [0] in my mind?

..[0]
[http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#39](http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#39)

------
Istof
Doesn't appear to work in Ubuntu/Chromium v37.0.2062.120 (64 bit)

Error Code: M7357-1003

I guess that is because WidevineCDM is missing (proprietary "Content
Decryption Module").

~~~
jgillich
The EME (DRM) support is only in Chrome, not in the open source Chromium.

------
pacofvf
how does Netflix(or Chrome) knows that is running on Ubuntu, and not on other
distro?

~~~
jiggy2011
I assume it works on other distros also.

~~~
pacofvf
yes it does!!! Netflix removed the user-agent restriction on Chrome:
[http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/19/netflix-
linux/](http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/19/netflix-linux/)

------
facorreia
Finally. Working with Chrome 38.0.2125.101 (64-bit) on Linux Mint 17.

------
jcslzr
my problem is that as soon i install chrome, ubuntu becomes unstable...not
with chromium, if someone has any advice on how to fix it, i would appreciate
it.

------
rmc
Does it work in Ubuntu? Or only Ubuntu in the USA?

~~~
mladenkovacevic
Worked for me in Canada.

------
china
Anybody tried this on a raspberry pi?

~~~
bduerst
Wouldn't work. You need Chrome (not Chromium) to run it.

------
Thaxll
Thanks DRM are now working on Linux.

~~~
TallGuyShort
I share your distaste for DRM, but wanted to throw in a comment of support for
Netflix. A couple of years ago I was quite disgusted by how a Netflix employee
was heckled on stage at the Linux Collaboration Summit. It seems hypocritical
of our community to tout user freedom and then fail to treat a public speaker
with decency. The right to redistribute other people's stuff unconditionally
is not such a basic human right that it justifies such poor social behaviour.

I don't like DRM, and the impression I get from most Netflix employees is that
they don't like it either. They haven't chosen to take the approach of
Stallman and avoid all-things-DRM entirely, but theirs is an understandable
choice and one I respect, even if I do not agree with it. They have
contributed some awesome stuff to the free software community and are making
media available in more readily accessible ways, even if it's not as readily
accessible as some of us may like. It's the people producing the media who
insist on such controls being in place in order to license their content to
Netlix.

So - thanks, Netflix engineers!

~~~
schoen
I think one could take a position in between between treating invited speakers
disrespectfully and endorsing their work. (It seems like that's maybe actually
the position you're taking.) It would be great to find a way to articulate and
strengthen anti-DRM norms in more parts of the technical community, so that
people don't keep thinking of DRM as natural or inevitable (and so other
people can see that there's actually resistance to it in the tech world!).

~~~
TallGuyShort
>> It seems like that's maybe actually the position you're taking

That's definitely part of it. I'm all for free-as-in-libre software, but the
fact is very few people are willing to bet their entire business on free-as-
in-gratis software, and that's understandable. When we attack companies who
contribute heavily to free software because they do not contribute exclusively
to free software, we're harming the free software movement as much as they
are.

As a side note, I agree we need to come up with better ways to stop consumers
from thinking of DRM as inevitable. Like most people on HN, I'm sure, I'm
often asked for help with technical things - I find it has a big impact on
people (albeit one at a time) when I explain how the vendor of the product
makes it difficult for me to help them or for them to help themselves, and how
they should consider vendors who place freedom above profit.

------
jgalt212
When did Netflix not work under Ubuntu? I have never had an issue using
Firefox.

~~~
mackal
Always. This is native Netflix without running any unofficial patches to WINE
to get it working. Sadly only supports the closed Chrome since that's the only
Linux browser that supports the neccesisary DRM. You've been able to get
Netflix working by faking your user-agent to Windows with a new enpoug Chrome
and NSS, but this is without the faking your user agent part.

