Netflix not working (fix for Bionic installs)
#1
Netflix stopped working for me in my install, complaining that it could not find the widevine plugin, I am running on Bionic and with KDE Neon on top.  Here is the simple way I fixed it, seems it is down to the latest version of Chromium not playing nice and downgrading to version 78 fixes this.

First thing is to nip to mrfixits github and grab the versions of the browser and codecs from there.  Current link below.

https://github.com/mrfixit2001/updates_r...filesystem

Remove the current install of chromium-browser and chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Install the downloaded versions, the easiest way is to chuck both files in a directory, cd to the directory and 
Code:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now there will be a problem, the system will want to update the now older files so we need to put a hold on the packages, this is done by marking them for a hold.
Code:
sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser
sudo apt-mark hold chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Best check it works by looking at policies. and you should see something like:

Code:
$ apt-cache policy chromium-browser               
chromium-browser:
 Installed: 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Candidate: 79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 Version table:
    79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe armhf Packages
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe armhf Packages
*** 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 100
       100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    65.0.3325.181-0ubuntu1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic/universe armhf Packages
$ apt-cache policy  chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra             
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra:
 Installed: 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Candidate: 79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 Version table:
    79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe armhf Packages
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe armhf Packages
*** 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 100
       100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    65.0.3325.181-0ubuntu1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic/universe armhf Packages

OK, not running the latest version, but it will work.  You will have to refresh any tabs as it will not resume open tabs, as the system agent will have changed.

Hope this helps anyone who has lost Netflix / Amazon Prime.
#2
(01-13-2020, 05:11 AM)stealthbanana Wrote: Netflix stopped working for me in my install, complaining that it could not find the widevine plugin, I am running on Bionic and with KDE Neon on top.  Here is the simple way I fixed it, seems it is down to the latest version of Chromium not playing nice and downgrading to version 78 fixes this.

First thing is to nip to mrfixits github and grab the versions of the browser and codecs from there.  Current link below.

https://github.com/mrfixit2001/updates_r...filesystem

Remove the current install of chromium-browser and chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Install the downloaded versions, the easiest way is to chuck both files in a directory, cd to the directory and 
Code:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now there will be a problem, the system will want to update the now older files so we need to put a hold on the packages, this is done by marking them for a hold.
Code:
sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser
sudo apt-mark hold chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Best check it works by looking at policies. and you should see something like:

Code:
$ apt-cache policy chromium-browser               
chromium-browser:
 Installed: 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Candidate: 79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 Version table:
    79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe armhf Packages
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe armhf Packages
*** 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 100
       100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    65.0.3325.181-0ubuntu1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic/universe armhf Packages
$ apt-cache policy  chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra             
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra:
 Installed: 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Candidate: 79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
 Version table:
    79.0.3945.79-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe armhf Packages
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe armhf Packages
*** 78.0.3904.97-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 100
       100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    65.0.3325.181-0ubuntu1 500
       500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic/universe armhf Packages

OK, not running the latest version, but it will work.  You will have to refresh any tabs as it will not resume open tabs, as the system agent will have changed.

Hope this helps anyone who has lost Netflix / Amazon Prime.


Thank you so much for this!  Since  Chromium is on hold, how will I know when an upgrade is possible?


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