Solved Will Firefox be able to play prime video? I get error 7235, missing DRM module - "Widevine Content Decryption Module"

I have recently started using FreeBSD-12.1 with a Gnome-3 desktop.
When I tried to play amazon prime video title, it showed a grey screen which complained about missing DRM module "Widevine Content Decryption Module" and error 7235. I checked amazon help and it's about a plugin that needs to be enabled, which is not available. So, is it possible to play Prime video or watch Netflix in FreeBSD as of now?

Screenshot from 2020-10-04 01-00-06.png
 
As in natively? No. Google does not care to fix it and working around this would be quite a bit of ungrateful work with lots of pitfalls.

I think you might be able to do it by running a Linux binary of a browser with Widevine support though. I haven't tried it personally but i vaguely remember reading about it.
 
Widevine

Today, with regard to TIDAL:


  • this problem can not be fixed by the end user

In 2019, with reference to a 2018 post:


Quoting Jan Beich:



Another option is to ask FreeBSD Foundation to get Google to provide source for Widevine CDM under NDA, so the Foundation can build FreeBSD binary and then distribute it to users (a la Diablo JDK). The code has only few dependencies (glib2, nss) and may not even require porting to FreeBSD.


If this is feasible in 2022, someone might like to make a proposal:

FreeBSD Foundation 2022 Call for Proposals | FreeBSD Foundation
 
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Jan Beich's idea. IMHO it's a good idea.

Note, I don't expect the proprietary code to be open sourced.

it's a good idea if Google wants to collaborate. But I don't think they will do. So,it's a bad idea. It means that it is a wasting of time. Google wants only to make solid business like nvidia. Freebsd counts a small numbers of users,so they don't care to do nice things for us.
 
It seems most likely to be a terrible idea. I didn't follow any of the above links, but did look into the subject once, mostly out of idle curiosity, and found some older threads on the subject right here in FreeBSD forums. I'm not going to revisit all that again now, and I didn't take any notes at the time, but my admittedly rather peripheral understanding is that the Widevine people want something like peer status with the FreeBSD operating system, because their priority is digital rights (i.e., copyright enforcement), whereas FreeBSD priorities really are not.

And some of the decision-makers for FreeBSD, if I'm not mistaken, had the feeling that this would be too much of a security compromise for an operating system whose primary mission is "the power to serve."

I admit to sometimes using FreeBSD as a multimedia system and as a desktop system. I first installed KDE on FreeBSD way back in the 1990s, when it was necessary for me to install FreeBSD using CDs. Maybe it was 2001 or 2002, I'm not really sure. The internet was still a bit of a baby way back then. KDE actually did work on it, believe it or not. You could go on the internet with it, and it was a lot of fun. (Netscape browser? I can't really remember for sure.) And, if I went to certain ad-heavy sites, popup windows would propagate so quickly that sometimes, unless I was quick and really on my toes, I couldn't shut the system down without using the power switch. It would start thrashing and basically lock up the whole system. I'd never install anything like that on an actual working server however.

Likewise, I'd never install Widevine on a server, even if it was possible, which apparently, it isn't, not on FreeBSD, and not unless you put Widevine in some kind of Linux jail, or use some other kind of workaround trick like that.

Sometimes I do mix desktop environments with server systems, but I only do this on development machines, and that's primarily only done so that I can use the same laptop both as a web server host and as a web browser host for testing purposes. I don't think that working live server systems really need a graphical front-end, that's just window-dressing.

In short, if I wanted to use Widevine to watch Netflix, I'd use some kind of Linux system, or a commercial system like MacOS or even (shudder) Windows. I wouldn't try to force FreeBSD to be something it's not. I know others feel differently about it, but that's my take. I don't want to see FreeBSD compromise "the power to serve" in order to accommodate desktop environments or multi-media entertainment systems. It's not worth the compromises.
 
It seems most likely to be a terrible idea. I didn't follow any of the above links, but did look into the subject once, mostly out of idle curiosity, and found some older threads on the subject right here in FreeBSD forums. I'm not going to revisit all that again now, and I didn't take any notes at the time, but my admittedly rather peripheral understanding is that the Widevine people want something like peer status with the FreeBSD operating system, because their priority is digital rights (i.e., copyright enforcement), whereas FreeBSD priorities really are not.

And some of the decision-makers for FreeBSD, if I'm not mistaken, had the feeling that this would be too much of a security compromise for an operating system whose primary mission is "the power to serve."

I admit to sometimes using FreeBSD as a multimedia system and as a desktop system. I first installed KDE on FreeBSD way back in the 1990s, when it was necessary for me to install FreeBSD using CDs. Maybe it was 2001 or 2002, I'm not really sure. The internet was still a bit of a baby way back then. KDE actually did work on it, believe it or not. You could go on the internet with it, and it was a lot of fun. (Netscape browser? I can't really remember for sure.) And, if I went to certain ad-heavy sites, popup windows would propagate so quickly that sometimes, unless I was quick and really on my toes, I couldn't shut the system down without using the power switch. It would start thrashing and basically lock up the whole system. I'd never install anything like that on an actual working server however.

Likewise, I'd never install Widevine on a server, even if it was possible, which apparently, it isn't, not on FreeBSD, and not unless you put Widevine in some kind of Linux jail, or use some other kind of workaround trick like that.

Sometimes I do mix desktop environments with server systems, but I only do this on development machines, and that's primarily only done so that I can use the same laptop both as a web server host and as a web browser host for testing purposes. I don't think that working live server systems really need a graphical front-end, that's just window-dressing.

In short, if I wanted to use Widevine to watch Netflix, I'd use some kind of Linux system, or a commercial system like MacOS or even (shudder) Windows. I wouldn't try to force FreeBSD to be something it's not. I know others feel differently about it, but that's my take. I don't want to see FreeBSD compromise "the power to serve" in order to accommodate desktop environments or multi-media entertainment systems. It's not worth the compromises.

I don't want to install it natively,but it's ok to use it inside a linux jail or vm.
 
Vull, "the power to serve" is just a slogan, nothing else, of course refering to FreeBSD's popularity on Servers. FreeBSD is not a "Server OS", and never was (back in original BSD times, there was no distinction, because you had terminals instead of desktop systems).

FreeBSD is a general-purpose OS, and even the very first sentence on its project page makes that perfectly clear.

So, your line of argumentation doesn't make much sense. Although I still agree it's good to avoid one commercial entity to gain "power" over the project.
 
Vull, "the power to serve" is just a slogan, nothing else, of course refering to FreeBSD's popularity on Servers. FreeBSD is not a "Server OS", and never was (back in original BSD times, there was no distinction, because you had terminals instead of desktop systems).

FreeBSD is a general-purpose OS, and even the very first sentence on its project page makes that perfectly clear.

So, your line of argumentation doesn't make much sense. Although I still agree it's good to avoid one commercial entity to gain "power" over the project.

FreeBSD works better as a server and this is not a today's news. At today it didn't reach the same quality level of a desktop system like Linux. And Linux didn't reach the same quality level of a desktop system like Windows. So,it's pretty far away from being used as that by a sufficient number of users without high technical skills. It's not a coincidence that in the past years some developers tried to create a more desktop oriented FreeBSD derivations,but they failed. So,it works more on the server area than in the desktop area. It doesn't have so much sense to introduce an important "desktop" factor like Widevine that attracts users from other operating systems (what would they be ?) when no investments have been made over the years to turn it into a believable desktop OS ? Or if they have been and I'm wrong,tell me which Desktop areas of the OS they have improved. Maybe there have been,but they were few compared to the server area improvements that I see every day ?
 
FreeBSD works better as a server and this is not a today's news. At today it didn't reach the same quality level of a desktop system like Linux. And Linux didn't reach the same quality level of a desktop system like Windows.
Guess it makes sense to just stop reading right there. 🤷‍♂️
The same old fallacies are just boring as hell...
 
My fault. Sorry for the diatribe about desktop environments and multi-media capabilities, when the point I was trying to make was really about digital rights management in general, and corporate media company copyright enforcement in particular. For those who are willing to do the work, FreeBSD makes a very fine if not the best available platform for desktops and multi-media systems. I prefer FreeBSD for those purposes.

FreeBSD really makes a very fine, if not the best available, platform for a wide variety of systems, but the thread title is about DRM and Widevine. My bad for contributing to yet another topic derailment.
 
Haha. The thing is, I agree very much with your stance about that, just not with the reasoning of FreeBSD being a "server OS" ;)

And about DRM in general: Things like widevine serve no purpose at all, except to annoy paying customers. Proof? Google for "webrip", you'll find anything from e.g. netflix.
 
Oh, ziomario, really, you want an explanation? It starts with the fallacy of talking about "quality" without ever defining that term, and then vaguely implying something about "clueless users". That's not what FreeBSD users are looking for, no matter whether server or desktop. Sure, you'll always find someone rambling about "how it all sucks" and taking a few days until finally figuring out FreeBSD isn't for them.

Btw, my definition of quality is a simple, logical and clean design making debugging straight-forward. My definition of "sucks" is anything over-complex trying to magically automate stuff and hiding what's really going on from the user. Ever tried to "fix" a Windows machine failing to update? And, sure enough, systemd falls into (my) category "sucks".
 
… My bad for contributing to yet another topic derailment.

FWIW no bad, I didn't perceive derailment, it's a Solved topic in that:
  1. www/firefox, installed in the normal way, can not play Widevine-encrypted Amazon Prime video
  2. discussion of wishes and alternatives is natural (I assume no objection from opening poster Abraham79).
… I don't want to see FreeBSD compromise "the power to serve" in order to accommodate desktop environments …

I don't foresee a compromise (there was comparable discussion not long ago). I'll add something to the roadmap discussion.

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/technology-roadmap.82120/
Vull hopefully fair to say that we respectfully disagree with each other in some areas … if you prefer to not follow up, I'll understand.



Personally: I don't use Widevine (I assume it's Widevine) with anything other than a YouView box (attached to an old but lovely Sony TV) and, I guess, my old-ish OnePlus mobile phone running an old-ish Android. I have no urge to use it on FreeBSD.

The wish for a seamless experience is for the benefit of people who do want FreeBSD + ports to be usable with things such as Prime.
 
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