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Thread: Is it possible to watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    166

    Is it possible to watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine?

    Hi,

    I am trying to view Netflix "watch instantly" movies using the XP version of Firefox under Wine.

    I got the XP version of Firefox to install and it runs just fine.

    I need to install the "silverlight" plug-in in order to use the "watch instantly" feature from the Netflix website. When I try to install it with the Wine Windows Program Loader, it needs to extract some files. I get a message saying:

    Extraction faild: unable to find a volume for file extraction. Please verifiy that you have proper permissions.

    I think that this means that I need root permissions to install "silverlight" with the "Wine Windows Program Loader".

    Does this mean that I need to type in something in a terminal like:

    $sudo <Wine Windows Program Loader> silverlight

    ?

    And can someone show me the proper commands and syntax?

    Please help me,
    Bob

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    7,744

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    Hi Bob, Netflix has chosen not to support Linux, unfortunately. You'll need Windows or Mac to watch instantly.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    1,795

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    The only way to watch Netflix on Linux is with a virtual machine loaded with Windows XP, Vista and maybe Windows 7

  4. #4
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    Jan 2008
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    7,744

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    Unfortunately Flash performance is worse in a Windows virtual machine running under Linux than in Windows. I recommend dual booting if you watch a lot of Netflix.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    128
    Distro
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Lightbulb Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    There definitely is no linux support in Netflix, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't hack it to think it is in windows.

    Could try sudo if you're willing to fix things if they get gnarly. I do not know where the loader wants to put those files. If you can apply some verbose flags on the loader within the terminal it might give some clue. As usual, be careful with sudo (though I recklessly use it myself).

    I would hope that a program would try to install itself nicely and compactly, but it's very possible that Silverlight wants to install things at the windows\system level.

    EDIT: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...estingId=33333

    ... info on Silverlight. If you feel adventureous perhaps you can try to make it work better than it says?
    Last edited by Defrector; September 14th, 2009 at 03:13 AM. Reason: afterthought

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    166

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    Thanks a lot you guys. And thanks for that website. I'm just a newbie so I'll hold off on trying to make it work. If it weren't for your help, I probably would have wasted a lot of time trying to get it to work.

    Cheers,
    Bob

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    31
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    Oh man!

    Netflix used to work on Firefox under Linux. I haven't watched a movie in some time though, so it has stopped again. This stinks

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
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    11

    Smile Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    I have been working on the Netflix/Ubuntu 9.04 problem for quite some time.
    I offer the following obervations with no implied warranty.
    I started with looking at the directions here
    http://fatbuttlarry.blogspot.com/200...ix-ubuntu.html
    but since this user had the most success with 8.04 I had to keep looking. Which lead me to this forum amongst many other places.
    At any rate here's what I did after trying the moonlight 1.99.5, Coral IETab, and User Agent Switcher combinations and only getting as far as the Active X is not enabled screen. I tried ies4linux as well.

    -- At this point I can get a instant movie to load to the point that I get the black backdrop with the swirling blue loading icon on Netflix in Firefox 3.5 run using Wine 1.1.3 with Silverlight 3 and some Windows Fonts installed as explained below.

    -- I added http://wine.buggetdedicated.com/apt edgy
    to the Third-Party Software tab under System -- Administration -- Software Sources and added an authentication certificate for winehq.
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=338400
    this explains getting the winehq gpg key. If you don't have it you should just get a warning when installing. Adding it should make the warning go away forever. This allows you to install the most recent versions of Wine which may not be the stable releases.

    -- I then went to System -- Administration -- Synaptic -- and installed Wine 1.1.3, wine-dev 1.1.3, and wine-gecko 1.0.0. Note: In theory after you add the source and refresh the package list, when prompted, the Update Manager should tell you that there is an update for Wine, or if you use Add/Remove to add Wine and then use the Update Manager (System -- Administration -- Update Manager) it should tell you. Anyway, I just used Synaptic so whatever floats your boat.

    -- I downloaded the Windows version of Firefox 3.5 from www.Mozilla.com/Firefox3.5, went to Application -- Wine -- Browse C: drive and dropped the *.exe in there. I then double clicked on it and installed it.

    -- Launch Firefox 3.5 using Wine, go to Netflix and log in, then choose something to watch instantly. You will then be told to download Silverlight 3. Save the *.exe file for it and move it into your Wine C: drive as explained in the last step.

    -- Close Firefox and install Silverlight. If you go to Netflix again at this point you will get a font error stating that you must be a Crapple user if you're getting a font error. Of course you're not, but Netflix believes that people only use ******* and OSXcrament so that's what you get. If they didn't believe this they would have just used something that already works on everyone's systems instead of painting themselves into a corner with Silverlight... I still like Netflix, but the whole Silverlight thing gets on my nerves...

    -- Anyway, to solve this font problem you need to move some Windows fonts into your Wine virtual C: drive\windows\fonts folder. I copied them from my legal copy of Windows in it's C:\Windows\Fonts folder. I have a dual boot setup so this was easy. I'm sure some linux font guru probably has a welcome substitution to this step that doesn't involve having to use Crapple or Microshaft fonts but that's what I did.

    -- Once you do this, at least for me, when I go to Netflix using Firefox 3.5 and Silverlight 3 run through Wine I get the movie to start to load, then my browser freezes and goes grey. Anyway, it's at least promising.

    -- I should mention that I'm using a Toshiba laptop that is using the generic Ubuntu video driver. I was never able to get fglrx to work totally so I went back to the generic. I sometimes get white lines on the right hand side of the screen when I scroll and 2ndary monitor support is not existent so perhaps I have larger problems and someone else, with a Dell for example, may have more luck with my steps. Perhaps the video driver has nothing to do with it at all. Anyway, I hope this helps someone out.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    1

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    I would love to do this on linux, hear me ubuntu gurus as netflix has not been hearing what their audience wants, if only there was another company that offered movies on linux....

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Morrisville, NY
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    2,153

    Re: Watch Netflix "watch instantly" under XP's Firefox under Wine

    Quote Originally Posted by plinus View Post
    I would love to do this on linux, hear me ubuntu gurus as netflix has not been hearing what their audience wants, if only there was another company that offered movies on linux....
    Remember, it's not that Netflix doesn't want to support Linux, it's that Linux users typically wish not to support DRM which is essential for Netflix to operate properly.

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