Qubes as primary OS? Multimedia Experience: Spotofy / Netflix / Amazon Prime / how to make it work?

[PR]

Hello,

I tried to find out what is best practise to use spotify/netflix/amazon
prime/... etc. with Qubes, but it seems that this is not a common usecase.

The problem is, that I can't those apps ins a
"multimedia-windows-app-VM" as there is no sound-support for windows
within Qubes.

And unfortunately Netflix & Co don't work out of the box with Linux.

Question: How do you use Qubes with those or similar multimedia-services?

- P.

[Grzesiek Chodzicki]

Tidal works in Chrome which does have a Linux client so I installed chrome and use it to listen to music.

[Jean-Philippe Ouellet]

Netflix works in Chrome, and Spotify has a native Linux client.

See the following Spotify installation scripts:
- https://gist.github.com/jpouellet/65bd51a35faf139cf1eacd3d6564364f
- https://gist.github.com/marmarek/a82cee4efb4eb28e805ea08e74458e7c

I'm running it in a Debian-based StandaloneVM.

[Ted Brenner]

I've struggled with multimedia as well. I've just been trying to play a DVD but not be able to get it to work. Though I think this is not a Qubes issue so much as a Linux issue. I have an old Mac that use for this so I haven't been highly motivated to make it work. But I'm definitely interested in what others find as I'd like to have one computer that can solve all my needs.

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[Jean-Philippe Ouellet]

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Ted Brenner <griz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've struggled with multimedia as well. I've just been trying to play a DVD
> but not be able to get it to work. Though I think this is not a Qubes issue
> so much as a Linux issue. I have an old Mac that use for this so I haven't
> been highly motivated to make it work. But I'm definitely interested in what
> others find as I'd like to have one computer that can solve all my needs.
>
> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 12:45 PM, Grzesiek Chodzicki
> <grzegorz....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> W dniu poniedziałek, 8 maja 2017 19:30:16 UTC+2 użytkownik Piit napisał:
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> > I tried to find out what is best practise to use spotify/netflix/amazon
>> > prime/... etc. with Qubes, but it seems that this is not a common
>> > usecase.
>> >
>> > The problem is, that I can't those apps ins a
>> > "multimedia-windows-app-VM" as there is no sound-support for windows
>> > within Qubes.
>> >
>> > And unfortunately Netflix & Co don't work out of the box with Linux.
>> >
>> > Question: How do you use Qubes with those or similar
>> > multimedia-services?
>> >
>> > - P.
>>
>> Tidal works in Chrome which does have a Linux client so I installed chrome
>> and use it to listen to music.

DVDs should be exposed as regular block devices that you can attach to
a media-playing VM (with VLC installed or whatever) via qvm-block [1].

[1]: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/dom0-tools/qvm-block/

[Ted Brenner]

Yeah, I've just struggled with installing the libraries to play protected content. The documentation for Linux doesn't seem to be very good nor very up-to-date. But I can attach the DVD in an AppVM and I do have VLC installed. Just can't get over the next hurdle. 

[cooloutac]

you can use google chrome for netflix and amazon.

[cooloutac]

for HBO and stuff like that you need install HAL and flash and use firefox.

Another option instead of installing flash is intall pipelight and enable wildvine and flash throught that. Another option for netflix is to enable silverlight through that if you rather use ff for netflix.

[PR]

On 05/08/2017 08:22 PM, Jean-Philippe Ouellet wrote:

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Ted Brenner <griz...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've struggled with multimedia as well. I've just been trying to play a DVD
but not be able to get it to work. Though I think this is not a Qubes issue
so much as a Linux issue. I have an old Mac that use for this so I haven't
been highly motivated to make it work. But I'm definitely interested in what
others find as I'd like to have one computer that can solve all my needs.

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 12:45 PM, Grzesiek Chodzicki
<grzegorz....@gmail.com> wrote:

W dniu poniedziałek, 8 maja 2017 19:30:16 UTC+2 użytkownik Piit napisał:

(...)
I tried to find out what is best practise to use spotify/netflix/amazon
prime/... etc. with Qubes, but it seems that this is not a common
usecase.

The problem is, that I can't those apps ins a
"multimedia-windows-app-VM" as there is no sound-support for windows
within Qubes.

And unfortunately Netflix & Co don't work out of the box with Linux.

Question: How do you use Qubes with those or similar
multimedia-services?

(...)

Tidal works in Chrome which does have a Linux client so I installed chrome
and use it to listen to music.

I've started to built a multimedia App-VM, to get Spotify/Netflix etc. working.
I've choosen to the Debian Template.

I had to run the following steps, is worth to add this to a new documentation page "multimedia under Qubes OS"?:

- How to enjox Spotify
- How to enjox Netflix
- How to enjox Amzon Prime



=========================
  How to enjoy Spotify under Qubes OS
=========================
Install-Howto: https://www.spotify.com/de/download/linux/

Detailed steps:

1) sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys BBEBDCB318AD50EC6865090613B00F1FD2C19886
2) echo deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
3) sudo apt-get update
4) sudo apt-get install spotify-client

I could then start the native spotify client .. easy.


==========================
  How to enjoy Netflix under Qubes OS

==========================
The built in Firefox (from the Debian Template VM) was Firefox ESR 45.3.0
According to the "supported browser" list Mozilla Firefox >= 47.x is needed.
I've thereoff installed Firefox v53.0.2 according to this manual:
http://libre-software.net/how-to-install-firefox-on-ubuntu-linux-mint/

1) download firefox from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?scene=2
direct download link:
https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/53.0.2/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-53.0.2.tar.bz2

2) unpack the downloaded file
tar -xjf firefox-53.0.2.tar.bz2

3) move the unpacked folder:
sudo mv firefox /opt/firefox53

4) Create a symlink to the new firefox version:
if you want to use the new installed firefox as "standard firefox", rename the original link in case you want to go back to the previous version
sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox-old
Create a link to the new firefox version
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox53/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

5) Launch firefox and open Preferences, Content and enable "Play DRM content"

That's it, login into Netflix and enjoy.


================================
  How to enjoy Amazon Prime under Qubes OS
================================

If you have setup everything to watch netflix (see above), Amazon Prime should also work.
Enjoy"

Kind regards

- P

[Chris Laprise]

On 05/08/2017 02:25 PM, Ted Brenner wrote:
> Yeah, I've just struggled with installing the libraries to play
> protected content. The documentation for Linux doesn't seem to be very
> good nor very up-to-date. But I can attach the DVD in an AppVM and I do
> have VLC installed. Just can't get over the next hurdle.
>

Have you tried the Debian template? It has good codec support.

Installation:

dom0$ sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-template-debian-8

Setup:

debian$ sudo tasksel install desktop gnome-desktop
(this will pull in programs like LibreOffice, too)

debian$ sudo apt-get install vlc totem

--

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[Ted Brenner]

Yes, my multimedia template uses Debian 8 as I had read it had good support. But I hadn't installed the gnome-desktop or totem. I'll try that out. Thanks!

[cooloutac]

ya fedora is a pain, I still have to install gstreamer good on debian which brings in a single package I can't remember for what, and psyched to see gstreamer1.0-libav was already pre-installed so thats cool.

[PR]

Hello,

I've found an easy way to play DVDs adding a few packages to my Debian Template based multimedia App VM.
Scroll down for a short installation howto.

On 05/08/2017 09:06 PM, cooloutac wrote:

On Monday, May 8, 2017 at 2:25:51 PM UTC-4, Ted Brenner wrote:

Yeah, I've just struggled with installing the libraries to play protected content. The documentation for Linux doesn't seem to be very good nor very up-to-date. But I can attach the DVD in an AppVM and I do have VLC installed. Just can't get over the next hurdle. 


On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Ted Brenner <griz...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've struggled with multimedia as well. I've just been trying to play a DVD
but not be able to get it to work. Though I think this is not a Qubes issue
so much as a Linux issue. I have an old Mac that use for this so I haven't
been highly motivated to make it work. But I'm definitely interested in what
others find as I'd like to have one computer that can solve all my needs.

for HBO and stuff like that you need install HAL and flash and use firefox.

Another option instead of installing flash is intall pipelight and enable wildvine and flash throught that.   Another option for netflix is to enable silverlight through that if you rather use ff for netflix.

To play DVDs within Qubes I have used my new multimedia App VM (which can also play Spotify and Netflix, see post from yesterday).
The multimedia App-VM is based on the Debian 8 Template in Qubes 3.2

Some suggested to install the whole desktop within the Debian Image, I don't want to install everything but only the stuff, that is really needed.
As such I have looked at the Debian documentation

1. Launch Debian 8 Template VM and install the Qubes Proxy Tools, so that you can pass your (external?) DVD-Drive via sys-usb to the multimedia App-VM. Strangely the qubes-usb-proxy seems to be installed within the fedora template but not in the debian template.
   
   In Debian Template VM:
   sudo apt-get install qubes-usb-proxy
   

2. Install libdbdread4 from the default repositories:
   
   In Debian Template VM:
   apt-get install libdvdread4
   

3. Install libdvdcss for the decryption of CSS protected-DVDs.
   Because of license restrictions in various countries this can't be done from the Debian repositories but needs to be installed manually.
   (not that hard :-)).
   Download the packaged .deb from: http://www.deb-multimedia.org/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/package/libdvdcss2
   
   In Debian Template VM:
   wget http://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/main/libd/libdvdcss/libdvdcss2_1.3.0-dmo1_amd64.deb
   sudo dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.3.0-dmo1_amd64.deb
   
   
4. I like to use VLC to playback Video/DVDs - you might want to use another player, but VLC works fine.
   As this is not installed in the default Debian Template:
   
   In Debian Template VM:
   sudo apt-get install vlc
   
   This will also install some dependencies.
   
   
5. Shutdown the Debian Template VM and launch your multimedia App VM
   
   
6. Plugin your external USB DVD-Drive (if you don't have an internal drive) and pass it to the multimedia App VM
   
   In dom0:
   qvm-usb -a multimedia sys-usb:3-6
   
   
7. Launch VLC
   
   qvm-run multimedia vlc
   
   Warning: a window will open in the background which will ask for collecting metadata information.
   I haven't seen the window as it was covered by the VLC main window, so that I couldn't launch any commands in this window.
   
   
8. Open DVD within VLC:
   Media > Open Disk
   You can leave the defaults (/dev/sr0) and just hit play

Enjoy your DVD, I'll try to add this to the Qubes documentation if this is not present.

Regards

- P

[cooloutac]

nice

[Alchemist]

I made an Ubuntu VM installed Chrome and use that as my multimedia VM.

So far all the services I need are supported with very little effort.

-Netflix
-Amazon
-Spotify

[cooloutac]

sweet.