Ubuntu 18.0.4 and Xfinity TV / Stream and DRM Flash

[l33ch]

I wrote up a little guide which includes URLs I obtained information from to be able to get Ubuntu Studio 18.0.4 to successfully play Xfinity TV content.

As many of you know, flash installed under linux, for linux does not install DRM content, at least as far as distribution agreements go (Google, Adobe, Entertainment Industry, etc.). Rumor has/had it (early 2018?) , that xfinityoncampus was testing ground for HTML5 Xfinity content. If/when that happens, here is what I did to get it to work. Currently running Firefox Quantum 63.0.1, ESR, and Firefox 48 via 64-Bit on Ubuntu Studio 18.0.4 x64 and Debian 9.06 Stretch x64, and Pale Moon. All credit goes out to previous authors of this subject. This is step by step from fresh install.

One quick note, you might have to do a few commands again due to how sneaky Firefox will update itself. This is even if you do not run any updates after the install because if you forget to turn off auto updates under Firefox Settings, it will update shortly. **(EDIT:Or once you install firefox, before opening, disconnect/disable your Internet, then open firefox and set to disable/prompt for updates, close firefox, re-enable network, and reopen).

But, it works from Firefox 3x.x-to 48 and later (50x-63.x) including the newest/quantum builds. (I can't remember how early..I tried 27, but I couldn't get it to work, I think one of the high 30 versions and it worked..I think?) *The only reason I was also looking into earlier builds was to see if content played better on a semi-older computer (circa 2012-2013), and it did, but newest builds were still acceptable. I'm still comparing and fiddling to compare, etc.

For the older versions, it really was more an issue finding a user agent extension that would still work on an old browser version-- (waybackmachine.org could be your friend here, or check for past version links on addon pages). Works wonderful on Pale Moon with Eclipse Moon.

How to Get Xfinity TV / Xfinity Stream to Work on a Fresh Install of Ubuntu Studio 18.04 (May/Should Work on other flavors of 18.04 like Ubuntu Desktop, possibly Mint)

[urls]
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....2363550&page=2
https://askubuntu.com/questions/9842...firefox-ubuntu
https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chro...ux_recovery.sh
https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chro..._mp-v3.bin.zip
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...tent-on-chrome (Wyatt8740's answer)

https://ufile.io/gcb6y (for your convenience, the libpepflashplayer.so file, from ChromeOS x64 build. Flash version: 31.0.0.108)

Preq: From chromeos_10895.78.0_zako_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin ChromeOS recovery image file,or a newer or older one, have its version of Flash (DRM) ' libpepflashplayer.so ' copied somewhere where it is available (like a USB drive, desktop, some folder, whatever, etc.). From that particular zako image, it's located at:

~\chromeos_10895.78.0_zako_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip\chromeos_10895.78.0_zako_recovery_stabl e-channel_mp-v3.bin\ROOT-A.img\opt\google\chrome\pepper\

so other versions/builds (x64 at least) should all have them in the same relative location: \ROOT-A.img\opt\google\chrome\pepper\


Zako is a chromebook/box x64 architecture, which would be compatible with x64 build of the system. You may need to change the steps/files to accommodate your
particular architecture (i.e. downloading an x86 ChromeOS build). Visit https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os...ome-os-devices for a list of architectures.

Mozilla Firefox 52 ESR .tar.bz2 file downloaded from Mozilla.org and accessible.
( https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/...x-52.0.tar.bz2 )

Install ubuntustudio-18.04-dvd-amd64 (download updates and 3rd party checked, not sure if it matters)
Close Software Updater if it comes up.
Open File Manager and goto View->Show Hidden Files .
then View->View as Detailed List .


Open Terminal and Uninstall Pre-Installed Firefox

sudo apt-get remove firefox

Untar Firefox-52.0.tar.bz2 to where you want it. (I'm lazy and just put the
.tar.bz2 file in home folder's Download folder. You can also use archive manager
to drag and drop the folder to where you want it.

tar -xvf firefox-52.0.tar.bz2

Install pepperflashplugin-nonfree & browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash

sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree 
sudo apt-get install browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash

At this point confirm that /usr/lib/browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash/libfreshwrapper-flashplayer.so
exists.
Also confirm that /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/libpepflashplayer.so (and .json) file exists as well.


Start up Firefox (command line or just double-click on the Firefox executable file)

Close Window about default browser. Goto Menu-> Add-Ons and Confirm Shockwave Flash 31.0.r0 present. More Info will say libfreshwrapper-flashplayer.so 31.0.0.122

Click Get Add-Ons From Firefox/Add-ons Manager and Find more Add-Ons.

Search for User-Agent Switcher by Linder
+ Add to Firefox

Click the new little globe that appears in upper right near menu
Click Firefox (Should say Firefox on Windows. If not, click Windows and Firefox, etc until it says that), then click somewhere
and it will close and show Firefox logo where globe was.

Close Firefox and all tabs.

*Edit this command so the path points to where you have the chromeOS libpepflashplayer.so file.*
Copy the ChromeOS libpepflashplayer.so file from wherever you have it to /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/ making sure to overwrite
the non DRM libpepflashplayer.so file that's already there.

sudo cp ~/path to chromeOS libpepflashplayer.so file/libpepflashplayer.so /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/

Delete manifest.json from /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/

**sudo rm /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/manifest.json

**edit: actually I think you can keep the .json file there.

load up Firefox again

Confirm Plugins still shows Shockwave Flash 31.0.0.122 and Agent Still on Mozilla/Windows

Goto tv.xfinity.com and sign in.

Click Allow and Remember When Flash attempts to run.


Chances are that firefox will update automatically to 63.0.1 and in the process will break libpepflashplayer. Uninstall pepperflashplugin-nonfree
and browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash (apt-get remove) and reinstall them again (apt-get install) and recopy the ChromeOS libpepflashplayer.so back over and everything should work again--that's what I had to do. Maybe go into Firefox settings and not have it set to automatically update Firefox since you will need to do this after every Firefox update.


Hope that helps anyone else.


* Of special note is the warning that Flash is inherently insecure. This is why the majority of entertainment providers (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc) have moved to HTML5 which offers DRM but better
security for the consumer. Why Comcast hasn't done so is for another thread/debate, I just wanted to help paying customers with getting what they are entitled to. Now, that being said, and after you do all this and are watching (in my case) CNN (I watch alot of news, lol), you should really look into securing this Firefox/Flash install. As suggested by a friend, research how to chroot / jail / sandbox Firefox as a security measure so it cannot get elevated privileges to the system. I'm just looking into that now, as I don't really know hardly anything about chroot; maybe someone can write up a guide for that. My friend sent me this link https://igurublog.wordpress.com/down...cript-sandfox/ and this might be a viable and easier way of jailing Firefox (automated scripts to create the environment for you) vs typing it all out manually. Do what works for you. I'll be looking into it because Flash cannot be 100% trusted.


* Bonus: If you have an integrated INTEL video (ex. i915), and notice screen tearing doing this should help:

`````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` ```````````````````````````````
**THIS IS ONLY FOR INTEL GRAPHICS DO NOT FOLLOW IF YOU HAVE ATI/AMD/NVIDIA VIDEO**
Visit https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics and https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/intel.4 for more info.

edit or create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel-graphics.conf file (if folder/file doesn't exist, create them manually)

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
  Driver      "intel"
  Option      "TearFree" "true" 
EndSection

This one is my 20-intel-graphics.conf:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "TearFree" "true"
Option "TripleBuffer" "true"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "Tiling" "true"
Option "Pageflip" "true"
Option "ExaNoComposite" "false"
Option "Tiling" "true"
Option "Pageflip" "true"
EndSection

[pvanryn]

Thanks so much for posting this. I tried two or three times using similar methods, but this is the first one that worked.

And the performance is awesome - no lag at all - as good as native Windows streaming. Much better than Wine. Hopefully Comcast won't break it.

[praywwjd2004]

I am new to Ubuntu and I am having trouble with these instructions. Is there someone that can help walk me thru or troubleshoot what I am doing wrong? If so I can post the error messages I am getting.

[pvanryn]

What version Firefox and what error?

[praywwjd2004]

What version Firefox and what error?

I uninstalled the original Firefox as per the instructions but I had trouble with the next step. Here is my output:

donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$ sudo apt-get remove firefox
[sudo] password for donavan: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  firefox
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 35 not upgraded.
After this operation, 178 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 165600 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing firefox (63.0+build2-0ubuntu0.18.10.2) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-3ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.4-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$ Tar -xvf firefox-52.0.tar.bz2


Command 'Tar' not found, did you mean:


  command 'jar' from deb openjdk-11-jdk-headless
  command 'jar' from deb default-jdk
  command 'jar' from deb fastjar
  command 'jar' from deb openjdk-8-jdk-headless
  command 'car' from deb ucommon-utils
  command 'tar' from deb tar
  command 'dar' from deb dar
  command 'ar' from deb binutils
  command 'ear' from deb ecere-dev
  command 'par' from deb par
  command 'sar' from deb sysstat
  command 'bar' from deb bar
  command 'kar' from deb sra-toolkit
  command 'rar' from deb rar


Try: sudo apt install <deb name>


donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$

Please help me troubleshoot from here.

[deadflowr]

I uninstalled the original Firefox as per the instructions but I had trouble with the next step.

See if tar is installed,

sudo apt install tar

if installed see if running it with all lowercase works.
(ie, instead of Tar with a capital T, try it like tar and a lower case t)

[pvanryn]

I uninstalled the original Firefox as per the instructions but I had trouble with the next step. Here is my output:

donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$ Tar -xvf firefox-52.0.tar.bz2

Command 'Tar' not found

donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$

It is "tar" with a small t - not "Tar".

Unlike Windows, capitalization makes a big difference on Linux.

[praywwjd2004]

tar is already installed.

donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$ sudo apt install tar
[sudo] password for donavan: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
tar is already the newest version (1.30+dfsg-2).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded.

Using the the lowercase tar gave me the following output:

donavan@donavan-SX2840:~$ tar -xvf firefox-52.0.tar.bz2
tar: firefox-52.0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

[deadflowr]

You need to be in the directory where the tarball is.
If downloaded normally, then cd into the Downloads folders.
(Typically that's where downloads are by default.)
Then run the tar command.

[praywwjd2004]

You need to be in the directory where the tarball is.
If downloaded normally, then cd into the Downloads folders.
(Typically that's where downloads are by default.)
Then run the tar command.

Thank you I used "cd ~/Downloads" and was able to get past that step.
I have confirmed that /usr/lib/browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash/libfreshwrapper-flashplayer.so exists.
I also confirmed that /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/libpepflashplayer.so (and .json) file exists as well.
However I don't have an icon for Firefox. How do I launch Firefox from the terminal?