chromium 111 and 112 have the wrong architecture in the user agent

Bug #2017463 reported by theofficialgman
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
chromium-browser (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
Bionic
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Using chromium browser on ubuntu bionic (the apt version), the wrong user agent is present in chromium 111 and 112. When testing the arm64 build, the user agent is expected to contain the string aarch64 however it contains the string x86_64. I am not aware if i386 and armhf builds are also affected by this or not. This was not an issue in chromium 110 builds, they had the correct user agent. I am assuming this is likely an issue with chromium source and not packaging in particular.

On the other hand, using x86_64 fixes a bug that youtube has on aarch64 user agent, where it thinks it's a Hisense TV and limits max resolution to 480p since chromium 110+. playback debug info from youtube to show that:

```
{
  "ns": "yt",
  "el": "detailpage",
  "cpn": "HFfQQ5-Ud1Xq31GM",
  "ver": 2,
  "cmt": "0",
  "fmt": "247",
  "fs": "0",
  "rt": "3.724",
  "euri": "",
  "lact": 3,
  "cl": "525275539",
  "mos": 0,
  "state": "49",
  "volume": 100,
  "cbrand": "hisense",
  "cbr": "Chrome",
  "cbrver": "110.0.0.0",
  "c": "WEB",
  "cver": "2.20230421.01.00",
  "cplayer": "UNIPLAYER",
  "cmodel": "65a67gevs",
  "cos": "X11",
  "cplatform": "TV",
  "hl": "en_US",
  "cr": "US",
  "len": "41920.021",
  "fexp": "23776346,23983296,23986022,24004644,24007246,24080738,24135310,24169501,24219381,24255163,24406084,24415864,24416291,24433679,24437577,24439361,24449113,24462372,24468691,24499792,24516157,24532854,24539776,24550457,24556606,39323074",
  "feature": "g-high-rec",
  "afmt": "251",
  "muted": "0",
  "docid": "HA7emw-FIjs",
  "ei": "welFZNqxGPik0_wPjtWe6A4",
  "plid": "AAX6C8oUWaU74VL5",
  "referrer": "https://www.youtube.com/",
  "sdetail": "p:/",
  "sourceid": "y",
  "of": "xjLV454MDgULLBhO4MUTig",
  "vm": "CAQQARgBOjJBTE03ZXZMUmtPVHNLMHhveDl3MHZNWDhrcW9jY0tuYVVCMnB5LUxwdzNfNW9pSUEtd2JTQVBta0tESV85bzU2Nlg2VmdHV2VRY09NOWxsZ284RUdLelRtTVdVZGxmZXJLanZOOGlWX1g0eGFiSUJOMUlGc0JjM1RwMzJGeHpGdElTdmhaVmNoAQ",
  "vct": "0.000",
  "vd": "41920.021",
  "vpl": "",
  "vbu": "0.000-7.000",
  "vpa": "0",
  "vsk": "0",
  "ven": "0",
  "vpr": "1",
  "vrs": "1",
  "vns": "2",
  "vec": "null",
  "vemsg": "",
  "vvol": "1",
  "vdom": "1",
  "vsrc": "1",
  "vw": "693",
  "vh": "390",
  "lct": "0.000",
  "lsk": false,
  "lmf": false,
  "lbw": "152435.812",
  "lhd": "1.635",
  "lst": "0.000",
  "laa": "itag_251_type_3_src_getRequestInfoForRange_segsrc_getRequestInfoForRange_seg_0_range_78167-212166_time_0.0-8.2_off_0_len_134000",
  "lva": "itag_247_type_3_src_getRequestInfoForRange_segsrc_getRequestInfoForRange_seg_0_range_130036-287966_time_0.0-7.0_off_0_len_157931_end_1",
  "lar": "itag_251_type_3_src_getRequestInfoForRange_segsrc_getRequestInfoForRange_seg_1_range_241354-432255_time_10.0-19.9_off_0_len_190902",
  "lvr": "itag_247_type_3_src_getRequestInfoForRange_segsrc_getRequestInfoForRange_seg_2_range_412688-502401_time_14.0-18.3_off_0_len_89714",
  "laq": "220089",
  "lvq": "214435",
  "lab": "0.000-8.461",
  "lvb": "0.000-7.000",
  "ismb": 13290000,
  "leader": 1,
  "relative_loudness": "-2.590",
  "optimal_format": "720p",
  "user_qual": 720,
  "release_version": "youtube.player.web_20230418_00_RC00",
  "debug_videoId": "HA7emw-FIjs",
  "0sz": "false",
  "op": "",
  "yof": "false",
  "dis": "",
  "gpu": "ANGLE_(NVIDIA_Corporation,_NVIDIA_Tegra_X1_(nvgpu)/integrated,_OpenGL_4.5.0)",
  "debug_playbackQuality": "hd720",
  "debug_date": "Sun Apr 23 2023 22:30:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)"
}
```

Revision history for this message
theofficialgman (theofficialgman) wrote :
description: updated
description: updated
description: updated
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio) wrote :

Thanks for the bug report and sorry for the delay responding to this.

Is there an unwanted behavior resulting from this mismatch? You mention that the mismatch fixes Youtube playback so it wouldn't look worth "fixing" this?

Revision history for this message
theofficialgman (theofficialgman) wrote :

Certain websites use the user agent architecture string to determine what download link to show/serve to users on their websites. Having it as x86_64 will cause these websites to give the wrong link.

When it comes to the YouTube playback issue, I think fixing this behavior is a bit of a catch-22 situation. YouTube may not acknowledge the issue if it isn't present in an official build. But fixing the user agent will mean that users suffer from poor YouTube playback resolution until YouTube fixes it.

If you (as a chromium packager at ubuntu) have any contacts at Google or YouTube that you can reach out to I would appreciate if you could do so for this YouTube issue. It has been ongoing for the past few months now and did affect the chromium 110 release right out of the box when that was the latest package from Ubuntu. My (and others) reaching out hasn't yielded any response.

Revision history for this message
Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio) wrote :

Sorry, there won't be a new release for Bionic. Since there is no reason this would not apply to the snap too, I leave the bug report for the package open.

Changed in chromium-browser (Ubuntu Bionic):
status: New → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
theofficialgman (theofficialgman) wrote :

working as intended according to google https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1500114

this can be closed I guess

Changed in chromium-browser (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
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