Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore

A Former User

@zhochaka That's why it is useful to understand the root of the problem. If you read the old @jimunderscorep's post, you will see that the problem is that the new version of the codecs is not yet in the Ubuntu repo. Since the repo is not maintained by Opera developers, there is no reason to blame them. In my opinion, Opera shouldn't release a new version to the stable channel until necessary codecs arrive, but this is an operational problem and has nothing to do with the quality of the product itself.

Similarly, although obtaining a new version of libffmpeg and copying it manually might work, it is not a good solution. However, if we take into account that Opera 54 was released to the channel too early (relative to codecs), the logical solution is to roll back Opera itself and put it on hold until the Ubuntu team pushes new libffmpeg to their repo, and this was exactly what I did 2 weeks ago and described in this post:

https://forums.opera.com/post/149314

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

@zhochaka As explained, it's a legal issue that leads to a technical one.

A Former User @leocg

@leocg And it's not a new problem. It has happened before. It's a pattern of repeated failure. Is there no web page on this site that you can link to, rather than just saying problem solved?

If it's a legal problem, I hope somebody has checked with a competent lawyer, because this wouldn't be the first time some competent professional has just been wrong about the law.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Guest

@zhochaka If people followed the rules, they probably would find the several topics on this subject and get a solution.

I could create a FAQ topic on the Opera for Linux forum and include the information but my experience says that many people will not read it.

gloewa

gloewa @leocg

@leocg Opera is the only browser whose users are forced to use certain "rules ... to find ... a solution" to make this browser fully functional!
Users of vivaldi, firefox, slimjet and many other browsers simply have to use it ...

Opera User since Version 3.x

bombacha

bombacha @bombacha

@bombacha said in Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore:

@mklinuxuser said in Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore:

@burnout426 said in Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore:

Try 54.0.2952.46. There's a video fix in the changelog.

After getting it all working I updated to that version - videos on Facebook broken again. Now there is an other release
(54.0.2952.51) available so will try that. If it is still broken I will try copying the same ffmpeg file again! What a palaver!

Yes, the libffmpeg get replaced in every update, here is what you can do.

Download the last libffmpeg from here and extract some place.

Do sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/chromium-browser

Copy the libffmpeg.so to that directory with sudo cp libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/chromium-browser

Just to make sure run sudo chmod 555 /usr/lib/chromium-browser/libffmpeg.so followed by sudo ldconfig

That will keep you safe for a while unless there is some huge change in the libffmpeg.

Opera look in to this places for libffmpeg by default:
cat /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/resources/ffmpeg_preload_config.json
[
  "lib_extra/libffmpeg.so",
  "/usr/lib/chromium-browser/libffmpeg.so",
  "/usr/lib/chromium-browser/libs/libffmpeg.so",
]
Why use nwjs-ffmpeg instead of chromium-codecs package?
Because nwjs-ffmpeg comes complete (11 MB) and works with linux distribution, chromium-codecs is about 3 MB and even if you installed over Debian (my case) it doesn't work for some reason.

Well,
Opera was updated to 54.0.2952.54, after the procedure above, there was no need to copy or download anything.
Everything is working as expected.

skunkarific

skunkarific

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but I have ~10,000 customers out there who we have told to use and support Opera, Now I'm getting deluged with messages regarding facebook/twitter etc not playing videos. I've found no easy fix that a customer can do, and I'm not signing up for modding that many browsers. We are going to have to switch customers to Google Chrome, and that breaks my heart. I wish you had taken into consideration the priorities of the customer (websites working) over possible vulns that might be rare.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer

Would be nice to have a script that detects the version of Chromium that Opera is using and fetches the latest compatible libfmpeg.so and installs it (in Opera's lib_extra folder so it doesn't interfere with any other programs and the version they need etc.).

bombacha

bombacha @burnout426

@burnout426 said in Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore:

Would be nice to have a script that detects the version of Chromium that Opera is using and fetches the latest compatible libfmpeg.so and installs it (in Opera's lib_extra folder so it doesn't interfere with any other programs and the version they need etc.).

For thouse outside the Ubuntu gang like Debian, Slackware, etc. Is possible to do this with cron once a month or whatever download the script would check the version, user system (32 or 64 bit), download, extract and install. No need for user interaction.

From my experience on Debian, you don't have to update that file to often.

Too bad I don't know how to code, but it shouldn't be a hard script to create.

bombacha

bombacha

Updating...
Opera version 54.0.2952.60 is working just fine!

lotharmat

lotharmat @bombacha

@bombacha +1 here!

I don't have Chromium installed and Opera is seems to be playing html5 just fine!

gloewa

gloewa @bombacha

@bombacha agree! works fine from scratch

Opera User since Version 3.x

goolash

goolash

On 54.0.2952.64 H.264 does not work.
that's it. I'm tired of searching solution every few months.

bombacha

bombacha

Just to make sure!
Opera version 54.0.2952.64 is working just fine!
Still using the same libffmpeg.so.

A Former User

Solution for Manjaro/Arch Linux.

In my case it doesn't work to play videos on facebook. Thank you to the user of the @appdevsw, he led me to the right track. I tested my solution at Manjaro. Probably it will also work on Arch.

Install the missing codecs: opera-ffmpeg-codecs.
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/opera-ffmpeg-codecs/
After installation, restart the opera.

goolash

goolash @bombacha

@bombacha in mine case the plugins are cousing Opera to crash I got similair screen to that https://forums.opera.com/topic/25021/opera-51-0-settings-page-crashed
I use Opera 64 bit version 56.0.3051.104. on Debian Stretch. I'v tried 4 different revisions of libffmpeg.so. I eaven tried the 32 bit, the Problem is always there.

A Former User

What versions of libffmpeg did you try and where did you get them from? 32bit libs do not work on 64 bit apps in general btw, not only on opera.

Also, the crash of the built in preferences page has nothing to do with libffmpeg.

goolash

goolash

I'v tried 0.33.(1,2,3,4) and 0.34.0 libffmpg that I'v got from here: https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/
(the screen was for reference only). Youtube crashes whenever I copy libffmpeg to Opera directory. If the ffmpeg is deleted videos are not working but the site does not crush.

A Former User

How can you tell that those libffmpeg... libs for nodejs are built from the same chromium source opera is built on?
You can't know. And that is exactly what I say on the bottom of my post on my signature

Expert's advice on the above
From time to time, someone will post a "solution" to the libffmpeg problem. This will either be "install this ubuntu's chromium ffmpeg codecs package by hand to get the... precious html5 support" or "get that tar,gz from herecura's repo, untar it and move libffmpeg to the right place to make it work".
Both are wrong because they refer to packages built for a different distro (ubuntu in the first case, arch in the second), and definitely built with a different set of libraries and compilers. Do not do that unless you want to break your system or browser.

The only difference is that you get the libffmpeg built for nodejs, which is also completely irrelevant to the ones mentioned above.

bombacha

bombacha @goolash

@goolash said in Opera 54.0.2952.41: Streaming videos don't work anymore:

I'v tried 0.33.(1,2,3,4) and 0.34.0 libffmpg that I'v got from here: https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/
(the screen was for reference only). Youtube crashes whenever I copy libffmpeg to Opera directory. If the ffmpeg is deleted videos are not working but the site does not crush.

Looks like there is a problem with his lib after version 0.32, download and install 0.31.5 and stay with it, you don't need to update it unless something stop working or there are some security related issues.