[SOLVED] The comedy of errors that is Amazon Video in 2018
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I thought it would be relatively easy to watch a film last night, so I bought one off Amazon Video. This was always an easy thing to do in Debian - you launch Firefox, it installs the DRM content [boo, hiss] and off you go.
Not so last night in Slackware. I tried it in Chromium but no, nothing, also Firefox ESR did not install the DRM content: Amazon Video kept saying FF was out of date.
Left with little choice I decided to get the latest Firefox, which I just downloaded and unzipped into its own folder in /home/lysander and ran from that folder with
Code:
~/firefox/firefox
It launches fine, and it even appeared to install the DRM. But videos still won't play. Amazon just says "there's a problem" with the video.
I've looked around and I've seen that I'm not alone. I've got both flashplayer-plugin and pepperflash-plugin installed, as well as hal-flash, but I've still got nothing. Also apparently pipelight used to help but it's deprecated.
Does anyone have videos working in Amazon and what did you do to get them working properly?
Last edited by Lysander666; 08-12-2018 at 07:24 AM.
Thanks, I tried ruario's build, still the same issue, and DRM is enabled in preferences.
It's kind of annoying that it updates the symlink to Firefox [ESR] with a new one. It would be good to have FF and FF-ESR in the applications menu. Nevertheless, what a change the new FF is with Amazon being shoved in your face as soon as you open the browser. Things have changed over at Mozilla, and not for the better.
EDIT: both installed and working from applications menu.
EDIT2: I'm getting these error message from the terminal
Code:
[Parent 7524, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (132): Connection reset by peer: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 353
[Parent 7524, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (50): Connection reset by peer: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 353
[Parent 7524, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (140): Connection reset by peer: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 353
And am getting further errors on logout, attached.
Last edited by Lysander666; 08-12-2018 at 10:05 AM.
60.1.0esr 64bit videos just play without me having to do anything. I have a full install and stay right up to date with slackware64 current, the firefox is the one that comes with slackware, I haven't updated it or installed any other version.
I know none of that helps much particularly but it may point to the problem being more specific to your personal setup maybe?
Yes, Firefox ESR is version 52 and yes, I imagine the issue is with my setup. slackpkg doesn't like me having two versions of FF though:
Code:
root@psychopig-xxxiv:~# slackpkg upgrade-all
Checking local integrity... DONE
You have a broken /var/log/packages - with two versions of the same package.
The list of packages duplicated in your machine are shown below, but don't
worry about this list - when you select your action, slackpkg will show a
better list:
mozilla-firefox-52.9.0esr-x86_64-1_slack14.2
mozilla-firefox-61.0.2-x86_64-1ro
May have to remove the latest since I don't want to get rid of a standard Slackware package.
Distribution: Slackware/Salix while testing others
Posts: 1,718
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lysander666
Yes, Firefox ESR is version 52 and yes, I imagine the issue is with my setup. slackpkg doesn't like me having two versions of FF though:
Code:
root@psychopig-xxxiv:~# slackpkg upgrade-all
Checking local integrity... DONE
You have a broken /var/log/packages - with two versions of the same package.
The list of packages duplicated in your machine are shown below, but don't
worry about this list - when you select your action, slackpkg will show a
better list:
mozilla-firefox-52.9.0esr-x86_64-1_slack14.2
mozilla-firefox-61.0.2-x86_64-1ro
May have to remove the latest since I don't want to get rid of a standard Slackware package.
I'm confused, if FF binary from Mozilla is in /home then slackpkg should not care nor even know about it. Did you symlink it somewhere so it shows up in the menu?
I'm confused, if FF binary from Mozilla is in /home then slackpkg should not care nor even know about it. Did you symlink it somewhere so it shows up in the menu?
Ah, yes I did. I should have been more specific, I removed the one in /home and installed the version from ruario. So now there are two .desktop files in /usr/share/applications that relate to FF - one for FF [latest] and one for FF-ESR.
Distribution: Slackware/Salix while testing others
Posts: 1,718
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lysander666
Ah, yes I did. I should have been more specific, I removed the one in /home and installed the version from ruario. So now there are two .desktop files in /usr/share/applications that relate to FF - one for FF [latest] and one for FF-ESR.
Ah, I am not sure if they can coexist in that manner. Only time I did this was to delete ESR then blacklist it and just use ruario's script for current FF, or keep ESR as official package and run FF current in /home. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Is it possible to alter the name of the /var/log/packages perhaps changing current to just firefox and keep ESR as mozilla-firefox?
It might be necessary to install additional codecs, or maybe install/recompile ffmpeg (recompile if you are on -current) with more options enabled. I gave up on getting sites like amazon, cbs.com, hulu, and netflix working long ago. I have an old copy of windows 7 I run in a virtual machine instead.
I've always used ruario's script to upgrade Firefox since I prefer to not stick with the ESRs. His script just repacks the binary download from Mozilla and is designed to replace Slackware's stock Firefox package.
As for your issue, I'd be really surprised if Amazon Prime requires flash. Like others have suggested, you probably need to install ffmpeg. Alien Bob's restricted ffmpeg is probably the easiest way to get it, but you're certainly able to build your own from SBo (but there's a lot of deps).
Ah, I am not sure if they can coexist in that manner. Only time I did this was to delete ESR then blacklist it and just use ruario's script for current FF, or keep ESR as official package and run FF current in /home. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Is it possible to alter the name of the /var/log/packages perhaps changing current to just firefox and keep ESR as mozilla-firefox?
I think I might go the route of uninstalling current and putting it in /home. I really don't like the way FF is going now. Much more comfortable with ESR.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bassmadrigal
As for your issue, I'd be really surprised if Amazon Prime requires flash. Like others have suggested, you probably need to install ffmpeg. Alien Bob's restricted ffmpeg is probably the easiest way to get it, but you're certainly able to build your own from SBo (but there's a lot of deps).
I've installed Eric's ffmeg and still nothing. Tried on FF, FF-ESR, Chrome and Qupzilla. Very strange. I'm completely flummoxed now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mralk3
I gave up on getting sites like amazon, cbs.com, hulu, and netflix working long ago.
They certainly have certain types of media locked down. I wouldn't mind that much if I couldn't use Amazon Video, but it is pretty convenient. Maybe since I've come from Debian I'm used to the occasional proprietary package not working - or having to sacrifice it entirely for the greater good. It's cyber-Buddhism.
Well, in what is a kind of surreal workaround I have been looking at Amazon Video alternatives and have discovered Curzon Home Cinema [UK & Ireland only, so Gerard Lally will be OK ], which only requires Firefox 47+, so it even works on ESR. I'll keep trying off and on with Amazon but I have a great backup if I can't get it to work in the near future. Why Amazon makes it so complex [for some of us, anyway] I don't know.
Last edited by Lysander666; 08-12-2018 at 05:59 PM.
I'm wondering if installing VLC with all its codecs will help. Rather than go the binary route, I think the best thing would be to build it from source re: https://wiki.videolan.org/Slackware#...LC_from_source. I'm hoping there's something in there that will assist. If not, at least I'll have VLC too.
Last edited by Lysander666; 08-13-2018 at 03:49 AM.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.