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Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9
- Thread starter Wowfunhappy
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For #2, see https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rome-for-os-x-10-7-10-9.2283612/post-33317124 and posts continuing.
And yes appears to be a serious vulnerability.
And yes appears to be a serious vulnerability.
Yes, you can use Chromium Legacy as your main browser. I do. That said, you should turn off the V8 optimizer until Chromium Legacy is next updated. Yes the vulnerability is serious, but it goes away completely if the "optimizer" is disabled.
That said, as much as I obviously adore classic OS X, if you are truly "paranoid" about security you should be using an up-to-date operating system! I don't know why you are "paranoid", but if it's because you could potentially be the subject of a targeted attack—if you have access to data or information which would make a skilled hacker want to put money and resources into attacking you specifically, over and above just some random person—please update your operating system or get a new computer (and turn on Apple's advanced protection while you're at it).
My PrefPane adds automatic updates (although there have not been many updates lately, but at one point there were and maybe there will be again), and other workarounds for various bugs or design inconsistencies. I recommend using the PrefPane if you are on OS X 10.7 – 10.9. I don't test the PrefPane on anything newer than that, so please don't use it on any OS past 10.9, except maybe 10.10 where lots of people have reported success.
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Oh i'm only paranoid because a lot of devices get hacked in my country, and my mac is pretty old, has a lot of my personal data. Nothing too serious. Btw as I specified earlier, its not my main laptop. My main is a 2015 Mbp.
Thanls for the help tho! Cheers!
Thanks
I'm using Firefox 131 in Mavericks, but this probably needs to be discussed in the other thread, as this is for Chromium.
No, I meant to post it here because others were discussing different options and going back and forth about when it ends, and I wanted to correct them since this has come up multiple times in this thread. I appreciate your input, but I’ll post where I want to, just like you can. If an admin asks me to post elsewhere, I’ll adhere to that, but you're just a regular user like me, so it's not for you to tell others where or what to post. I hope you have a good day, and stay blessed, friend.
Edit
And let’s be real here, the guy is behind quite a few commits and versions with security advisories that need to be addressed. The more time passes, the more complicated this gets. The project is open source, and most of you (including myself on several machines) are using an operating system from 10 years ago, so it’s a give-and-take situation. It's nice and appreciated for the support he’s provided. Other than that, the source code is there—you could just start learning some basics to patch it yourselves. I do that with Firefox and builds of Superium (a Windows variant of Chrome current that I ported to Mac) from the Superium project. I haven't made any posts because I’ve seen some of the comments in this thread, and honestly, I feel bad for the guy. Most of you are hoping and praying he comes back, and some are even paying him, perhaps with the underlying hope that he sees this compensation as an expectation to provide builds. But it’s an open-source project, just like the older PowerPC browsers...and why I haven’t posted because I don’t wanna get stuck providing and guaranteeing builds and timelines…I’ve been down that road with basilisk on XP and not doing that again. Some of you want to hunt him down to ask and that’s what got me out of dealing with timelines and dates…Just leave the guy alone he’ll come back if he has time and those who are close to him as I know several are don’t post anything here relating to his situation or whether he will or will not be coming back. I did and I shouldn’t have. Those posts have since been wiped.
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It looks like we are all finally out of luck. It started when I found tonight (6th September) that I couldn't watch ITVX in Chromium Legacy, that awful error message. I then tried Channel 4 and Amazon Prime and got a playback error in both. I suspect with more than 90% certainty that there's been another Widevine upgrade as BBC iPlayer streams without problem, and that doesn't use Widevine.
I also tried the Firefox 131 GitHub version with ITVX, but that was also a problem, though quite possibly there will be an update there to reflect the change as it's an active project? Sadly that won't happen in Chromium Legacy if bluebox has temporarily or permanently abandoned the project.
Ironically I was able to stream live video in both my Sierra and High Sierra VMs, both of which run Firefox 115 ESR.
@Wowfunhappy
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I also tried the Firefox 131 GitHub version with ITVX, but that was also a problem, though quite possibly there will be an update there to reflect the change as it's an active project? Sadly that won't happen in Chromium Legacy if bluebox has temporarily or permanently abandoned the project.
Ironically I was able to stream live video in both my Sierra and High Sierra VMs, both of which run Firefox 115 ESR.
@Wowfunhappy
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Widevine compatibility is a ticking time bomb no matter what. This has nothing to do with Bluebox or Chromium Legacy. Widevine is closed source, and the fact that it works/worked on Mavericks is a happy accident.
For my part I just avoid DRM'd video sources. It helps that I don't really watch TV.
There is at least one other project under active development to port a fully modern web browser to Mavericks, so I'm not too worried about being stuck. (But I would really prefer that this thread focused on Chromium Legacy specifically, thank you!)
For my part I just avoid DRM'd video sources. It helps that I don't really watch TV.
Look, it's a web browser. At the moment it's still able to browse the web capably, with basically zero website compatibility issues. Enjoy it, or don't. But I would encourage everyone to stop worrying about what may or may not happen in the future. There's just no point.
There is at least one other project under active development to port a fully modern web browser to Mavericks, so I'm not too worried about being stuck. (But I would really prefer that this thread focused on Chromium Legacy specifically, thank you!)
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You see, this is the whole problem for me. There are several reasons why I still use Mavericks, one of which is that I can stream live TV using legacy browsers. Being disabled, it’s more comfortable to watch on my computer than anywhere else. That was the whole reason I discovered and started using Chromium Legacy.
As for DRM encryption, I am baffled why ITVX & Channel 4 use Widevine as they are both free-to-air public service broadcasters so encryption shouldn’t be even a thing.
I will watch the Firefox project (I have the browser now) and hope they soon fix the Widevine issue.
By the way, "Widevine working in Mavericks" is not correct: Wv is not an OS feature, it's a BROWSER feature - i.e. whenever Wv is updated, each browser (whether Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, whatever) gets their own component of it. If I invoke Chromium/settings/components and scroll down, it tells me that Wv is "up to date" when in fact it's not. Unfortunately I can't run the latest version of any browser that's not a GitHub project, so I don't know what the up to date version number is, not that it would make much difference if I did know as there's nothing I can do about it.
It is a browser feature, but it isn't a part of the browser. Widevine is a separate binary—a separate program, a so-called "binary blob"—provided by Google. The widevine binary is closed-source and resistant to tampering. If it is no longer compatible with a given OS, there is a limited amount anyone can do. (It is still possible that some small hack will get it working again, but I wouldn't count on it.)
If
chrome://components/ says Widevine is up-to-date, it probably is, but that doesn't mean the most-recent Widevine binary actually works on Mavericks. Firefox uses the same Widevine binary blob that Chromium does. I understand that it's a problem for you and I sympathize, I just don't know that it can be fixed! As we all agree, this is why DRM totally sucks.
The one thing I could potentially suggest is using a Virtual Machine to watch Netflix. VMWare Fusion and Parallels have desktop integration features that will make using a web browser inside a VM relatively seamless with your Mac. If you need a Mavericks-compatible copy of VMWare Fusion, please send me a PM.
Actually, I do use VMs! The highest I can go in Mavericks is a High Sierra (Parallels) VM which I've just upgraded to from Sierra. Unfortunately, even High Sierra is now way out of date, and won't run the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. However, it DOES run Firefox 115 ESR which does stream DRM video, so for now, I'm good.
By the way, I've given up Netflix but have kept Amazon Prime.
I suppose if I upgraded my iMac to High Sierra I could run a VM much further, say Catalina, while also being able to run Mavericks in a separate VM though I might need to increase RAM from 16GB to 32GB to be able to run 3 OS's at once.
You will have soooo much more success virtualizing Windows than virtualizing macOS! VMWare and Parallels and invested much more time into making Windows guests work smoothly, and the difference is night and day.
Realize that you want to keep this discussion limited to Chromium Legacy. Forgive me, but can't resist asking about firefox-dynasty:
Do you think it's ready for prime time (the developer's somewhat off-putting hip hop style comments not withstanding)? And do you know if it will run in High Sierra?
Never mind buggy - it doesn't have the latest Widevine (I've reported that on GitHub) so won't stream TV or DRM video. Yet Firefox 115 ESR has been converted so for now that's what I'm having to use.
Unfortunately, there's no version of Windows that can compare with Mavericks!
I'm suggesting you use Mavericks as the host and Windows as the guest. It's basically the only option I know of to get Widevine working.
That means I'd have to buy Windows!
Couple of points:
1. I can currently stream using Firefox 115 ESR in my High Sierra guest VM. (What about Pale Moon - do you think they will also get it working?)
2. The Firefox Widevine seems to be located in 3 gmp folders in my Profile. If I copied those folders from FF 115 ESR to the profile in FF-dynasty, do you think WV might then work there, or is it a risky move that could mess everything up?.
You can always use it deactivated, and you can always activate using MAS
Isos for older oses, like xp, vista, 7 and 8.1 are also available on their website
massgrave.dev
I've had a quick look at that website - I may come back and ask you for more details if (when) Widevine fails in Firefox 115 ESR.
Again, Widevine is not a part of the browser, it's a separate binary. And unfortunately, it's not open source.