I've recently gone through a thing trying to get Netflix playing, which I pay for. The issue affects Netlifx, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, VUDU, and many others which use widevine.

Can Slackware Arm play DRM content on any browser? Does it work??

On X86_64, firefox has the option to play drm content in the preferences. It downloads a lib (presumably) into a sandbox, plays the content, and deletes it afterwards, I am told. Palemoon OTOH raises an ethical middle finger at playing DRM content.

There's a fix on a Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) public forum to grab a 'libwidevine.so' that chromium can use, and that works. I'm unsure how legit that is, but if he takes his post down, I'll delete. It's a 32bit lib.

There's no fix for Raspberry Pi OS 64bit, because his lib is 32bit.

Marking this solved. Got to the bottom of it.

sndwvs referred me to a bug which referred me to this https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1392037

And it's the same old bottleneck about widevine not being compiled for Arm architectures. Back in the days of Debian stretch, there was a package called chromium-widevine, which put widevine on for Chromium, their default browser.

So it's a case of planting a meaningful kick on the widevine heads where the sun doesn't shine

You could play DRM content (Netflix/Amazon) through Kodi 18.x on ARM.
- my HowTo - detailed but old (should work - some makefile patches might not be needed anymore):
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...hf-4175647585/
- a newer one, a little automated (never tested it):
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...65-4175662156/

Then just build and install the required Kodi addons:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=329767
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=349255
+ search for other addons you need

I attempted it and gave up. If your time is worth anything, just buy a smart TV and be done with it.

I did more or less simultaneously rattle this cage on Slackware Arm, slarm64, Raspberry Pi OS & the Debian forum on LQ. I gathered little bits from each one, which allowed me to put a picture together.

There's actually a fix now on Raspberry Pi OS for Chromium.
https://blog.vpetkov.net/2020/03/30/ras ... ny-others/

What that downloads is a script. when you run the script, it downloads libwidevine.so from ChromeOS(32bit) and makes a few mods to Chromium locally, notably adding a Chrome (Media Edition) to the Menu. It's this you have to run, and not chromium's normal invocation, which fails. It may be possible to run other browsers with the same lib.
After reading https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/posts...-web-browsers/
which bears directly on the subject, and seeing the cavalier way the widevine guys behave I hesitate less about looking for someone to pay. I believe the libwidevine.so used came from chromeOS, which afaict is a spyware laden & compromised linux, as indeed is Android. ChromeOS64 has a 64bit kernel, but only 32 bit system. I imagine even phones with android are 32bit userland also, I presume. So the options for a 64bit libwidevine.so seem remote for the moment.

The option of buying a smart tv is not open to me, as I have a smart tv and it's that I'm running away from with the RazPi 4. The interface is so dreadful, I bought the Pi to replace it.

I started using Kodi as a Smart TV replacement/improvement for almost 3 years now on a Raspberry Pi2B, running both tvheadend (streaming locally on localhost) and the Kodi on the same system. It wouldn't load the system over ~40-50% watching FullHD (Satellite DVB streams provided by tvheadend).
Meanwhile I managed to get the player (Kodi 17) separated on a dedicated 5 EUR Pi Zero and went moving the streamer also on a dedicated second Pi Zero. All these because I wanted to separate (security wise) the fun network from the work one.
- "The Octopus (messy) Streamer" - running Slackware 14.2 ARM
https://imgur.com/a/kIGSvcU
- providing DVB-S2, DVB-C, DVB-T2, etc. with the help of these tuners:
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Astrometa_DVB-T2
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.p...ar_USB_2_HD_CI
(for Technisat I have my own patch that enables the tuner to perform perfectly, well, unless a power supply glitch happens while in use and the firmware goes crazy, for which I had to build that weird looking USB "dongle", cutting the power (resetting the port) on the USB (a MOSFET driving a relay, all commanded by the PiZero GPIO)).
The cheap (and small) Chinese USB hub I had to open and shield it with copper tinfoil - that's why it also looks "weird".

But you could easily do all this directly on your Pi4 (it's powerful enough) and I could help you with all the details if you open a new thread.

It sounds like I could. I'm not at all sure it's what I want.

You're talking DVB(=Digital Video Broadcast), which as I understand it, is television channels using open standards. I'm looking for DRM (=Digital Rights Management) which is closed source sites like Netflix, etc where you pick & choose specific programs. My tv with the lousy interface is used 95% as a screen for the RazPi 4 & 5% as a tv for local tv stations. There is an Irish thing ("Saorview" where 'Saor' is Irish(Gaelic) that translates as "Free"). The tv has that decoding built in.

I get locally distributed channels. About the only tv channels I would like but don't have are the BBC & Channel 4 (English) channels. But I would only watch 1% of them. For historical reasons, they're well protected online - try watching something on BBC iplayer.

Things I definitely DO NOT WANT are big american channels. So to my mind (I'm open to correction here) DVB ≠ DRM. What's available online over DVB?

The DRM stuff I already covered in my post #3 and here is a description on how to get Netflix running on Kodi 18:
https://www.comparitech.com/kodi/wat...ix-on-kodi-18/

You mentioned a Smart TV and considered extending my advice and cover DVB too.
Indeed DVB is the actual standard for Digital TV broadcasting and I guess it's also implemented in Ireland, unless Ireland got stuck in the past, technologically speaking, and is still using analogue broadcasting. DVB comes in a few flavors - DVB-S2 (Satellite V2 - HD), DVB-C (Cable) and DVB-T (Terrestrial).
On Satellite I'm only watching Astra - 19.2°E and there are a dozen free (FTA - Free to Air - unscrambled) very good German channels with documentaries and interesting "intellectual" content. There are even university courses broadcasted online...
https://en.kingofsat.net/pos-19.2E.php
On cable I'm only watching a very few local channels and frankly, I bought that Astrometa Tuner just because it's a SDR (Software Defined Radio) that I could use for a lot of interesting projects.

I'm in continental Europe and the nitwits at BBC are geo-filtering their content (and I didn't bother using an UK VPN), so I don't know what you could watch online. Kodi has a BBC video plugin (iPlayer) and you should check it:
https://www.comparitech.com/kodi/bbc-iplayer-kodi/

To get "a taste" about Kodi and the plethora of video/audio/radio plugins/addons it supports (can be installed automagically from their repository), you should try LibreELEC first. It's a minimalist OS (Debian), tailored for the specific HW (Raspberry in this case), containing Kodi. It's built and maintained by the official Kodi developers.
https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/
https://libreelec.wiki/installing_libreelec_on_the_rpi

If you're happy with it, then build Kodi on your Slackware system and use it. And if you need an IR receiver, I'd suggest using a Vishay TSOP34838, works extremely well, wide supply voltage range and very sensitive:
https://www.vishay.com/docs/82489/tsop322.pdf
that you can hook directly on your GPIO bank, without any resistor - 1 pin on the 3,3V , one on the ground and one on a data pin.
Then enable it in your /boot/config.txt with (note that I'm using GPIO17 for mine):
Then you'll need a lircd.conf for your specific remote - pick an existing one:
http://lirc-remotes.sourceforge.net/remotes-table.html
Or create your own (I'll do it all the time).

Finally, you need to add the remote to Kodi's Lircmap.xml
https://kodi.wiki/view/LIRC
https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Set_up_LIRC

LibreELEC comes with lircd included.

I read the your post in some detail, including the first link, as indeed I read the previous one. You seem to have a thorough knowledge of the area.

For the Netflix bit (which will also work for hulu, disney, spotify, amazon, etc.) they link to an x86_64 widevine. They pick up the file only, and I notice there's no Arm offerings.

So much as I respect them & admire your graft, I don't need Kodi, the VPN, The tuner, the remote, or anything else, if I have the widevine.

Yes, Ireland went to DVB. It was impossible not to, because of channel restrictions. I'm in Ireland (Approx 51-55 Latitude, 6-10º West in Longitude). Germany and France are a lot South, and a lot East

From my days in Analogue tv, I know we could just about pinch an analogue signal from Manchester, But Germany is out of the question. There is a significant difference in Latitude & Longitude. My best chance from Europe would be Brest in NW France. The biggest obstacles are much larger signals coming from the UK and indeed Ireland. Any signal I'd receive would have to be bounced off geostationary satellites, or relayed over IP. I could check out ant free-to-IP services they offer such as http://www.rte.ie/player. Registration may be required for that player.

It's also a big pain in the posterior using Slackware as a media box, purely because it's a 17.3" laptop which is no longer portable for me since I've had a stroke. So I bought the RazPi to rescue me from that awful TV interface I'm stuck with. It's a much more appropriate size and not a source of visual 'tech pollution.' I have a Flirc case on order so it won't be a source of audible pollution either.

I don't know what you're referring to when describing the "Netflix bit", Kodi (LibreELEC) and the Netflix Addon (which also depends on some other Addons) are definitely available for ARM (Raspberry).
LibreELEC - bottom of page - you have Raspberry specific images:
https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/
And the only limitation you get with the Netflix Addon on ARM is:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=329767
"Linux / LibreELEC / CoreELEC - Kodi Leia -->> AMLogic devices, and RPi I believe are limited to SW decoding 720p Netflix max."

I don't know of any serious FOSS alternative for a Smart TV / Media Center other than Kodi and you should try it. Installing LibreELEC on your Raspberry is really easy and you can control it with a keyboard/mouse, that's if you don't have an IR sensor + remote.
You could even build and use Kodi on your x86 laptop:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/multimedia/kodi/
There is also a Kodi 18.x SlackBuild for x86 written by LQ user pchristy :
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5994920
- and the required Addons - note that the pvr.hts add-on is not required, unless you need to be able to play tvheadend DVB streams
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5995641

The footprint of the SES Astra 19.2 E satellites constellation is covering the whole Ireland and a small dish will suffice for the reception:
https://en.satexpat.com/coverage/east/19.2/
However, it's not interesting for you if you don't speak German/French (although there are also many English channels available).

Well, it was a PITA to get Kodi compiled on Slackware ARM with full HW acceleration for the Raspberries. But the knowledge is here, made public in my HowTo's (LQ threads & posts) and I'm available to help if requested.

This doesn't add to the conversation, but I wanted to say that it's neat to see all the things people are doing with SBCs these days. When RPi came out, I bought a few and then never did anything with them. You're making me want to revisit that idea.

Thanks agba. The title of this thread was "DRM on 32bit browsers?", and not related to DVB, satellite TV, or anything of that ilk. What I wanted was a libwidevine*.so which is covered in the section "linking to the widevine drm file." I wanted it for Arm, if it was out there, because firefox gets it for X86_64. Apparently, it isn't. I have the necessary Netflix subscription.

libwidevine for arm was my query. If I have a libwidevine, everything works under Raspberry Pi OS. I don't need Kodi, LibreElec, a satellite dish, any tv tuner, any remote control, complex recompilations or setup of different DVB frontends/backends or anything X86 related. I don't even need any DVB, since the one thing I can have from my much-maligned (& deservedly so) 'smart' tv is the local channels which come in on buttons with my own remote and through a successor to the 'rabbit's ears' type aerial of the analogue days. I can pay a few €/month for a vpn to get ITV & BBC channels, but it doesn't matter much. I don't have fluent French/German. And IME, tv gets you the University lectures, but not the tutorials or exams. I only watch local news, weather, and the odd quiz show or detective thing anyhow.

Both BBC & ITV use the Geo-ip filtering, and it may have to do with Ireland declining to pay for their channels but pinching them anyhow via advanced analogue techniques for decades. There were protests here at Government level.They first implemented a complex flash thing which could be (and was) hacked by windows users, so they came up with this Geo-ip lark which also rules out Tor.

EDIT: The RazPi 4 offers 2x4k hdmi outputs and refreshes around 43 FPS, which imho is good. I'm not sure how stressful the picture was, as I didn't test it. People use it for Minecraft, although if you're into that stuff, I'd recommend the 8G version which is only a few €€ more.

I finally got widevine to work. Turns out it is quite easy. There are numerous clickbaity-looking blog posts making it out to be a complex undertaking but it is not.

I download Spotify songs to MP3 and then import the DRM-free songs into Raspberry Pi. Don't know if this kind of DRM removal tool is available for Linux. I use it on Mac to get DRM-free Spotify music.

In an approved browser, you could download them as mp3 and they would probably get passed through a widevine DRM lib if needed. If you tried a 'wget or curl |mp3 splitter' type of command line, it would puke, I imagine. The exception is youtube-dl, which has no DRM. I don't know about spotify, if they have DRM enabled, or rely on access limitations.