Chromium?

[dkryder]

the newest build of ubuntu/debian for pine64 has a great "working very well" build of chromium although not sure of build number.

[Luke]

The build I am using is: Chromium 59.0.3071.61

[pfeerick]

the newest build of ubuntu/debian for pine64 has a great "working very well" build of chromium although not sure of build number.

If that's the image I think it is it will be a current build of chromium-browser (v59 as Luke pointed out) and is a proper ARM64 build. You should also  see in /etc/chromium-brower/default that a bunch of the CHROMIUM_FLAGS have have been set to try and tune Chromium better for the pine64. The guys 'n gals have been busy over the last week or two fiddling with the settings to get it working as best as possible on the pinebook, and the settings should also be good for the pine64.

[dkryder]

also, on the flags issue, if you use about:flags in the url box, you are presented with the current list of items/setting that can be enabled disabled for further testing.

[Luke]

Yes, the flags (disabling smooth scrolling and 'whatever-is-the-name-of-the-flag' that makes images load quicker) make a difference, but the biggest difference is that cache is moved from the relatively slow storage to RAM. This is probably more pronounce on the Pine64 boards as they use SD cards but you can also tell the difference on the Pinebooks eMMC.

[Gnx]

So I know its a longshot with the Mali driver issue. is it possible to apply the same netflix work around found here?: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...3&t=176402

Since its chromium and the same OS(debian) I was considering using the pi install to test it on the pine but im just not sure how compatible it would be considering the pi can use an opengl driver now.

I know netflix is unimportant to most of you. I would like to use my second pine I bought for something other than a headless rig. I have a board thats collecting dust for a long time.

[dkryder]

i've read that hardware acceleration is necessary for netflix. i've also read there are members of the community working on that but i have no idea where that project stands.

[Luke]

I will keep this short. For starters, getting mali to work will not help with video playback. Secondly, you can get pretty smooth 720p and 1080p playback of local and youtube movies using some tricks (in video 1080p youtube video). NB SMplayer has better performance than VLC, but its easier to playback youtube using VLC. Thirdly, drm and mali is indeed being worked on (again). 

On a different note, mali implementation would, however, permit retrogaming and some light gaming (open arena, etc.) for those interested. Granted drm will work well it will improve a couple of things some things in respect to user experience in desktop environment too. 

As for the OPs question - in it current state, I highly doubt Netflix on Linux is possible ... why not use android ?

[Gnx]

Just throwing this out there. netflix depends solely on the cpu and doesnt implement HW acceleration to work, hence why it works on the pi without opengl enabled(ive been using it for a while like this). the gpu isnt a factor in the current implementation of netflix on the pi. So with that being said. is it possible to apply the work around on the pine? I should have worded my previous post better, i apologize. If more information is needed id be happy to copy all the relevant posts ive seen and list them here for the devs to reference.

The netflix on pi "fix" is simply a modified version of chromium. Thats why im asking if it could be used on the pine. Its all in the link I posted I believe, if not i can search and find the info ive read about it.

e//
it looks to me its about enabling widevine support. http://www.widevine.com/wv_drm.html

[Luke]

Just throwing this out there. netflix depends solely on the cpu and doesnt implement HW acceleration to work, hence why it works on the pi without opengl enabled(ive been using it for a while like this). the gpu isnt a factor in the current implementation of netflix on the pi. So with that being said. is it possible to apply the work around on the pine? I should have worded my previous post better, i apologize. If more information is needed id be happy to copy all the relevant posts ive seen and list them here for the devs to reference.

The netflix on pi "fix" is simply a modified version of chromium. Thats why im asking if it could be used on the pine.  Its all in the link I posted I believe, if not i can search and find the info ive read about it.

e//
it looks to me its about enabling widevine support.

 
I will flash a new image and give it a go just to know for sure. I will edit this post with a response when I know for sure ... will try it on armbian (ubuntu) as I have intended to give their nightly a try anyways ...

edit: nope didnt work for me. Anyways, even if it would, running it on android makes for a better experience all around.