Arch Linux User Repository

Please make sure to run the registering scripts register_widevine_firefox and/or register_widevine_chromium for every user that needs to be able to use widevine. This script only needs to be run once; no need to repeat it after upgrade.

@fagould4525: If that webpage is showing that widevine is properly loaded, then your remaining issues cannot be due to widevine anymore. Sorry, I cannot help you further because I don't have netflix.

You could try and have a look at the netflix references in this link if you haven't found this before. Those comments are pretty recent...

@mogwai Thanks for your response. Yes, I am trying to play Netflix on Firefox. I have also found many solutions for other platforms or older browser versions. None has worked so far on Arch Linux ARM. As you suggested, I tried the [https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm] page and it showed that Firefox widevine was detected and operational. But now a page appears saying HTML5 and Silverlight are failing. Firefox today does not match what I've found on web searches or help. I also tried the user agent plugin with configuration parameters recommended on a search result. If anything changes for Netflix support, I will certainly try any recommendations. Preferably Chromium but Firefox will work. Thanks.

@fagould4525: Is this by any chance netflix that you're trying to use? I don't have netflix myself, but I've found multiple references to the fact that they do additional user agent checking. Apparently, you need a user agent switcher to get it running on an armv7h linux machine. The straightforward way to check whether widevine is detected by the browser is by going to : [https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm]. Do you see "widevine detected" there?

@mogwai Thanks for the quick response. I followed your instructions for Firefox only and the results were "Pardon the interruption, This title is not available to watch instantly. Please try another title." I tried another title and got the same message.

@fagould4525: Ok, the steps are pretty simple: 1. install this package (with the makepkg command you mentioned); 2. run the script register_widevine_firefox; 3. start firefox. That's it. At that point firefox should have widevine support if all goes well. You need to run this command only once; it shouldn't be needed after a package upgrade.

NB: As mentioned before, the default chromium package from the archlinuxarm repo cannot load widevine. Only after recompiling with a source code patch you can get widevine to load. Firefox, however, should just work.

@fagould4525 : Did you run the register_widevine_firefox script after installing widevine-armv7h? It will indeed not work by only installing the package, you need to run the script for each user that needs widevine access, such that the necessary things can be copied to the browser profile. As already mentioned, chromium will not work with either package right now, since a source code patch is required. (With a patched chromium version it will work with the widevine-armv7h package after running a script.)

I tried just the chromium-widevine-armv7h and widevine-armv7h clone install using makepkg -Asri but neither worked with chromium or firefox. I also tried them separately alone with no success. I get the same results for both browser.

Note: I also posted this in the chromium-widevine-armv7h comments. Then I found this new comment to register_widevine_chromium. Is it possible to get instructions how to install this from a list of steps? I'm not sure what needs to be install at what point and then registered.

I tried just the chromium-widevine-armv7h and clone widevine-armv7h install using makepkg -Asri but neither worked with chromium or firefox. I also tried them separately alone with no success. I get the same results for both browser.

Widevine will not load with chromium 78+ without source code patches. However, widevine is supported by the standard firefox package. Therefore, I've created a new AUR package widevine-armv7h which will cover both browsers. Please migrate to this package. I'll request for this package to be merged into widevine-armv7h in the near future.

@fagould4525: As mentioned in another comment below, chromium 78+ needs a source code patch in order for widevine to work on armv7h. I'm trying to get this patch to be accepted in the archlinuxarm build for armv7h. But there is no guarantee that it will be accepted. However, libwidevinecdm does work with the firefox from the archlinuxarm repository. For that purpose I made a new package widevine-armv7h which will support both firefox and chromium (if patched).