[Snap] Install the widevine binary upon request in Chromium

[Michel-Ekimia]

Use case :

- Start a video on netflix.com ( with chrome/ubuntu user agent )
- Get a mysterious Netflix Error saying your browser is not supported
- Start Firefox and watch your video

Solution :

- Detects when browsing a website that may need widevine ( see how firefox team did )

- ask user if he wants this non-free binary plugin

- Run some script like https://gist.github.com/ruario/3c873d43eb20553d5014bd4d29fe37f1 that would copy the widevine plugin in snap user directory

Notes :

To test if Widevine Works : https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm

- Widevine versions and binary url from mozilla https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/file/default/toolkit/content/gmp-sources/widevinecdm.json

[Michel-Ekimia (michel.ekimia)]

Brave have implented their own Widevine module downloader :

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/pull/3300/files

[Michel-Ekimia (michel.ekimia)]

For some reason , chromium 81 installed automatically the widevine component now , and only a restart of chromium is need to have Widevine working.

THis could be because in snap mode it can write on its own lib directory.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I can confirm chromium now automatically installs a local copy of Widevine (in ~/.config/chromium/WidevineCdm), and this appears to work both in the deb packages and in the snap. Only a restart is required to enable the CDM. The version of Widevine can be checked by browsing to chrome://components.

In my tests this works on amd64, but not on i386.

The UX isn't great because it's not discoverable, there's no user feedback and a manual restart is required, as opposed to the way Firefox handles it, but it's nevertheless a big step forward.

I wonder whether this might be a consequence of https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/b5e9a646f5ac2eee57fb0c8cc545f18aa50bd994 ?
Although Michel you said it started happening with chromium 81 ?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I'm tentatively closing this bug, because despite the less-than-ideal UX, the functionality is essentially already implemented upstream now.